George Jones (born 1941, Bloomfield, East Belfast) is a musician and former radio and TV personality from

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. Born and brought up in the east of Belfast, Jones started entertaining in the

showband The Irish showband was a dance band format popular in Ireland from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s. The showband was based on the internationally popular six- or seven-piece dance band. The band's basic repertoire included standard dance numbers and ...

s era in

. Jones is a founder member of the long-running showband Clubsound.

Music career

As a teenager, Jones was a member of the band the Monarchs which included his boyhood friend,

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

. The Monarchs toured

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

for three months as the International Monarchs before returning to Belfast and disbanding.Rogan 2006, pp55-70 Jones moved to comedy cabaret by forming the well-known band Clubsound.Rogan 2006, p335

Radio career

Jones' first break into radio came with a Sunday slot on

Downtown Radio Downtown Radio is a Hot Adult Contemporary music radio station based in Newtownards, County Down, that serves all of Northern Ireland using a network of AM, FM and DAB transmitters. As of December 2022, the station has a weekly audience of ...

. He went on to work for

BBC Northern Ireland BBC Northern Ireland ( ga, BBC Thuaisceart Éireann; Ulster-Scots: ''BBC Norlin Airlan'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Northern Ireland. It is widely available across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ire ...

, and had his own show, ''Just Jones'', for

Radio Ulster BBC Radio Ulster ( ga, BBC Raidió Uladh) is a Northern Irish radio station owned and operated by BBC Northern Ireland, a division of the BBC. It was established on New Year's Day 1975, replacing what had been an opt-out of BBC Radio 4. It is ...

, which won him a

Sony Radio Academy Award The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

for best local radio presenter. In June 2006, after twenty-one years of presenting ''Just Jones'', he was dropped from the line-up on BBC Radio Ulster. He presented his last afternoon show on 30 June 2006. After the BBC radio show ended, Jones started to present on Sunday mornings on

U105 U105 is a Belfast-based radio station, providing a mix of music and speech as well as hourly news bulletins. It is owned by Wireless Group and was launched at 6am on 14 November 2005. U105 broadcasts on 105.8 FM in Belfast and surrounding are ...

and as of January 2007 he presented his own daily afternoon show on the same station. He then presented the Sunday night show on U105, ''Sunday Sizzler'', until early 2012. He returned to Downtown Radio with his ''Drivetime'' show before hosting a mid afternoon daily show on the station. He presented his last show on Downtown on 25 March 2014. In August 2016 Jones returned to present a radio show on an internet radio station in Northern Ireland called "Fever40".

Television career

Jones has also appeared on television shows such as '' Town Challenge'' and '' Children in Need''.

Other projects

In April 2010 Jones took a place on the Irish Comedy Tour ''Give My Head Peace''. Jones has also starred in the Irish musical, On Eagles Wing (later On Irish Wings) along with

Peter Corry Peter Corry is a Northern Irish singer, director, producer and actor. As a performer Corry has been cast in productions of ''Così fan tutte'', ''The Marriage of Figaro,'' '' Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'', ''On Eagle's Wing' ...

Personal life

Jones and his wife, Hilary live in

Greyabbey Greyabbey or Grey Abbey is a small village, townland (of 208 acres) and civil parish located on the eastern shores of Strangford Lough, on the Ards Peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies south of Newtownards. Both townland and c ...

and have a son, Jason (Jay) Jones and a daughter, Natalie.

References