BIOGRAPHY

Pete Jones was born in September 1957 in the gloomy front bedroom of a small council house on a sprawling, hastily built estate on the outskirts of Watford to working class parents, who had moved to this post-war London overspill suburb in the fifties. His mother had been a chorus girl, a good dancer in the back row of many a production. She had given all this up to marry his father; an ex-merchant seaman from Liverpool who had a liking for boxing, the ukulele and all things George Formby. Pete’s earliest influences were from his father who would sing and play the uke and who eventually taught Pete his first stuttering notes on the guitar. Pete fought his way past the council estate thugs to be a bright kid who did well at school. Physically much smaller than his older brother, who was good at any sport you could think of, Pete retreated into a world of music, playing guitar and listening endlessly to 7” records on his parents’ old dancette record player. Quality records were hard to come by and he had to make do with his fathers collection of Frank Eifield, Beatles and Lonnie Donnegan discs. Hardly a good grounding for a future with the likes of PiL, but hey...he wasn't to know and rock n roll had only just been invented!

  During his early years at senior school, Pete teamed up with a bunch of aspiring rock stars to form his first band. They named themselves “Cosmosis” for some reason. At that time they had no instruments whatsoever, and it was Pete’s friend Tony who told Pete that he was going to be playing bass. Even though Pete secretly wanted to be a guitar hero or at least a drummer, he couldn’t persuade Tony otherwise. Money was scraped together over the coming months to gather together some cheap instruments, and Pete got his first bass guitar. Shortly after, Pete wrote his first tune for this fledgling band and titled it “Shit Man”. Tony promptly beat Pete up in a jealous rage. Tony aspired to be a rock god for many years but never made the grade. The closest he got to stardom was by going out with the guitarist from Girls’ School. Cosmosis had bags of enthusiasm and little else so it was little wonder that the band was destined for nothingness and after a year or so disbanded without anyone noticing.

  Pete continued to practise and in his later school years teamed up with his guitarist classmate Geoff Smythe, who 10 years later came to join Brian Brain. They spent time in the sixth form common room, jamming and bashing out Bad Company and Wishbone Ash tunes. They never formed a complete band though. In his last school year, Pete met up with an old friend from his junior school and was asked to join a band called Blonde, in the days before Blondie were on the scene. The guitarist in this band was technically very accomplished and helped Pete learn the finer points of playing bass. It was with this band that Pete played his first gig in 1976 at Carey Place, a local club in Watford, a set of original prog rock material influenced by bands such as Genesis, Greenslade and the like, with off beat time signatures, mellotrons and overly long and complex songs. Local gigs only for this band of wannabees. Pete played with this band for several years through different incarnations, finally ending up as “The Hots”. The drummer left this band to join a metal band called Lone Star, and it was Martin Atkins who filled the vacant slot. This line-up played extensively on the London pub circuit until eventually in 1980, Atkins left to get the PiL gig he had craved for so long.

  Pete played for another band for a short while. An outfit run by a couple of crooks who managed “The Bob Lewis Band” This bunch also featured Aerial bender from Mott the Hoople and when they were as high as kites, thought they were great. Despite promises of a tour with Eric Clapton no less, they were short lived and disbanded after fewer than half dozen gigs. This was actually Petes' first Pro gig...he was to be paid £30 per week as a retainer, but was slightly suspicious when his first weeks pay was a bag of drugs.

  Despite the setbacks of band members leaving and line-ups changing Pete never gave up hope of doing something. “The Hots” disbanded completely, and Pete was close to throwing his bass in the river and turning to something new when he got offered a spot with Cowboys International. A mutual friend gave him the nod when CI were looking for a bass player to do an upcoming European tour to promote recently released album “Original Sin”. Pete jumped in at short notice, learnt the material and two weeks later flew out for a TV slot in Belgium followed by a short European tour, proper money and his first meeting with Ken Lockie who he would see again later  in the PiL camp.

  It was while Pete played for CI that Atkins was playing the 1980 USA PiL tour and shortly after started to get Brian Brain off the ground on the back of his association with PiL. When Pete returned from the CI tour, Atkins asked Pete to join him in the studio to record the first Brian Brain single “They’ve Got Me in The Bottle” This germ of an idea sparked a frenzy of activity from Atkins/Jones and a live set of Brian Brain material soon materialised with Pete writing most of the backing and Martin the lyrics. The PiL connection that Martin had founded held the band in good stead and they were able to tour extensively off the back of it. Including four trips to the USA to play the round of small clubs. After the last Brian Brain tour, Martin hooked up with Lydon and Levene again and stayed in the states to renew the partnership. Meanwhile Pete was back in the UK kicking his heels, living back at his mums' house. PiL struggled to get a bass player in 1982, and following Atkins’ suggestion, Levene called Pete and asked him to fill the spot. A handful of PiL albums were purchased, the songs learnt in an afternoon or two and once the work permit was sorted Pete was on the plane to New York, flying in to record Commercial Zone and play a series of dates round the USA and Canada. Pete was literally off the plane and pulled into the studio, PiL were waiting for him to land to record some bass parts, Lydon, Levene, Atkins, Lockie, Miller plus entourage were all there...quite an audience...but Pete pulled it off, forever the pro. resisting offers of various substances to help fight off the jet lag. The tour was largely a success, but the lethargic nature of the PiL set-up meant that there were long periods of inactivity, with serious drug habits being formed. This couldn’t last, the in-fighting reached a head several months later in 1983 following a disagreement about who was going to be travelling with the band to Japan, and Pete finally snapped, heading for the airport and back to the UK. John's departing words were "Bollocks...." Typical.

  Pete took a well-earned rest and eventually recorded some material to tout round the record companies. Despite lots of promises, nothing came of the industry bullshit.  An offer to do a Kim Wilde European tour was rejected by Jones and Pete decided to retire from the business, depressed and musically drained.

  The next few years Pete spent working in building renovation, luckily making a killing on the spiralling housing market in the UK. He married and started a family, eventually having three children. Slowly, the creative juices began to return, and with the advent of the Internet and the availability of cheap technology, he equipped himself with a home studio and started to write and release tracks again.   “Twisted” was released in 2001 as a limited edition album that was well received by critics, totally self produced from beginning to end. “Neurotechnic” released in 2005 followed a similar vein.

  Today, Pete works primarily for a large multi-national Photographic company, as well as running Jabberjab Art and Media UK and is married to his second wife Jane. They live in the Watford area with their daughter. Pete continues to write and produce music in his own Pro Tools equipped studio, releasing through his website to those who are interested and when he can be arsed writes bit parts for film and TV as well as the odd collaboration…………

Its been a very long journey and I'm still on this fucking train..............

Bio by Damien Kane