Albert Simmonds (born 9 February 1938), better known by the stage name Jimmy Jones, is a British

stand-up Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, ...

comedian, with a reputation for being "outspoken".

Life

Jones was born as Albert Simmonds, on 9 February 1938 in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, England. He grew up in Rainham,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, attending a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

school, and initially wanting to train as a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

. Jones's autobiography, ''Now This is a Very True Story'' (), written with the aid of

Garry Bushell Garry Bushell (born 13 May 1955) is an English newspaper columnist, rock music journalist, television presenter, author, musician and political activist. Bushell also sings in the Cockney Oi! bands GBX and the Gonads. He managed the New York C ...

, was published in 2010.

Career

Jones first appeared on stage in 1962 at the Dagenham

Working Men's Club Working men's clubs are British private social clubs first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the North of England, Midlands, Scotland and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class ...

, on the same bill as

Max Bygraves Walter William Bygraves (16 October 1922 – 31 August 2012), best known by the stage name Max Bygraves (adopted in honour of Max Miller), was an English comedian, singer, actor and variety performer. He appeared on his own television shows, s ...

. Granada Television discovered Jones in a Walthamstow pub in 1970, recruiting him for their popular Saturday night show, '' The Comedians''. Jones' catchphrase 'Kin' ell' was a play on words, derived from footballer

George Kinnell George Kinnell (22 December 1937 – 16 October 2021) was a Scottish footballer who played in the Football League for Middlesbrough, Oldham Athletic, Sunderland and Stoke City. Career Born in Cowdenbeath, Kinnell started his career in Scotl ...

. In 1983, Jones was presented with what is reported to have been the first

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

for a comedy album, after his ''Live from the Talk of East Anglia'' (1981) achieved 100,000 sales. He was the first stand-up comedian to release a

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...

of his live shows, and in the early 1980s had three videos in the UK top ten. In 1994, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' reported that Jones was then "alleged to be the highest-paid stand-up comedian in Britain". Celebrating fifty-six years in

show business Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz or showbiz (since 1945), is a vernacular term for all aspects of the entertainment industry.''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd Ed. (1989) From the business side (including managers, agents, produce ...

in 2018, Jones announced new tour dates.

External links

* *
Discography
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

Jimmy Jones
at ''The Comedy Club'' website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Jimmy English stand-up comedians People from Rainham, London 1938 births Living people Comedians from Hampshire Comedians from Essex