John Verity (born 3 July 1949) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

guitarist and singer. Best known for as a member of

Argent In heraldry, argent () is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it. In engravings and line drawings, regions to b ...

, a band formed by

Zombies A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in wh ...

keyboardist

Rod Argent Rodney Terence Argent (born 14 June 1945) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and record producer. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Argent came to prominence in the mid 1960s as the keyboardist, founder and leader of the ...

. He joined the band alongside John Grimaldi, replacing

Russ Ballard Russell Glyn Ballard (born 31 October 1945) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. Originally coming to prominence as the lead singer and guitarist for the band Argent, Ballard became a songwriter and producer by the late 1970s. His co ...

Early life, family and education

Verity was born in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Career

Verity was a member of the band

from 1974 to 1976. When the band dissolved, he formed a new band, Phoenix, with

Bob Henrit Robert John "Bob" Henrit (born 2 May 1944, in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England)Eder, Bruce " Robert Henrit Biography, Allmusic, retrieved 2010-02-13 is an English drummer who has been a member of several musical groups, including Buster Meikle ...

and

Jim Rodford James Walter Rodford (7 July 1941 – 20 January 2018) was an English musician, who played bass for several British rock bands. He was a founding member of Argent, which was led by his cousin Rod Argent, and performed with them from their formati ...

. The band recorded three albums with

CBS Records CBS Records may refer to: * CBS Records or CBS/Sony, former name of Sony Music, a global record company * CBS Records International, label for Columbia Records recordings released outside North America from 1962 to 1990 * CBS Records (2006), founde ...

and toured Europe before disbanding. Rodford joined the

Kinks The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhythm ...

, Verity and Henrit joined Charlie, to record an album with

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

. Verity produced the Phoenix albums and Charlie album as well as the first

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

album. During the early 1980s Verity worked with

Brian Connolly Brian Francis Connolly (5 October 1945 – 9 February 1997) was a Scottish singer-songwriter, musician and actor, best known as the lead singer of glam rock band The Sweet between 1968 and 1979 and renowned for his charismatic stage presence ...

(former vocalist with

Sweet Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones ...

) in an attempt to launch him as a solo artist. A single, "Hypnotised" was released on

Carrere Records Carrere Records (french: Disques Carrère, link=no, ) was a French record label which specialized in Euro disco and rock music. The record company was sold to Warner Music Group in the early 1990s. Early days Claude Carrere started working with ...

in 1982 produced by Verity, and written by

Joe Lynn Turner Joe Lynn Turner (born Joseph Arthur Mark Linquito, August 2, 1951) is an American singer known for his work in the hard rock bands Rainbow, Yngwie J. Malmsteen and Deep Purple. During his career, Turner fronted and played guitar with pop ro ...

. Verity was part of Connolly's backing band Encore when they supported

Pat Benatar Patricia Mae Giraldo (''née'' Andrzejewski, formerly Benatar; born January 10, 1953), known professionally as Pat Benatar, is an American rock singer and songwriter. In the United States, she has had two multi-platinum albums, five platinum alb ...

at the beginning of 1983. The line up of this band was formed from members of Verity's own band, which went on to release several albums including ''Interrupted Journey''. Verity continues to perform throughout the UK and overseas with the John Verity Band. He occasionally has solo outings where he will work with experienced musicians in the destination country. He additionally performs acoustic gigs as a duo with either Max Milligan or Mark Griffiths, as well as with the band. The usual line-up features Liam James Gray on drums with either Bob Skeat or Roger Iniss on bass. In February 2020, John Verity released his 21st studio album, ''Passion''.

Signature Guitars

In 2013 Verity worked with Trev Wilkinson of UK guitar company Fret King to design the Stratocaster-inspired Corona JV. The relationship went further, and in 2019 the Vintage V6JVhttps://www.namm.org/sites/www.namm.org/files_public/xnews/attachment/WN19/Verity%20V6JV%20PDF-compressed.pdf was released, which featured a hum-cancelling "Power Coil" pickup.

Discography

Albums

*John Verity Band - ''John Verity Band'' (

Dunhill Records Dunhill Records was started in 1964 by Lou Adler, Jay Lasker, Pierre Cossette and Bobby Roberts as Dunhill Productions to release the music of Johnny Rivers on Imperial Records. It became a record label the following year and was distributed b ...

) (1974) *Argent - ''

Circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

'' (

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...

) (1975) *Argent - '' Counterpoints'' (

) (1975) *Phoenix - "Phoenix" (CBS Records) (1976) *Phoenix - ''In Full View'' (

Charisma Records Charisma Records (also known as The Famous Charisma Label) was a British record label founded in 1969 by former journalist Tony Stratton-Smith. He had previously acted as manager for rock bands such as The Nice, the Bonzo Dog Band and Van der ...

) (1979) *Charlie - ''Good Morning America'' (RCA Records) (1981) *John Verity - ''Interrupted Journey'' (

PRT Records Pye Records was a British record label. Its best known artists were Lonnie Donegan (1956–1969), Petula Clark (1957–1971), the Searchers (1963–1967), the Kinks (1964–1971), Sandie Shaw (1964–1971), Status Quo (1968–1971) and Brotherhoo ...

) (1983) *John Verity - ''Truth of the Matter'' (PRT Records)(1985) *John Verity - ''Rock Solid'' (1989) *John Verity Band - ''Hold Your Head Up'' (1995) *John Verity Band - ''Whole Lotta Love'' (1995) *John Verity - ''From the Heart'' (2001) *John Verity Band - ''Routes'' (Vavoom Records) (2004) *John Verity and Max Milligan - ''Unplugged and Unhinged'' (Vavoom Records) (2005) *John Verity Band - ''Live'' (Vavoom Records) (2006) *John Verity Band - ''Say Why?'' (Vavoom Records) (2007) *Phoenix - "Still Burning" (VaVoom Records) (2009) *Verity - "Rise Like The Phoenix" (VaVoom Records) (2010) *John Verity - "Unplugged and Unhinged Again" (Vavoom Records) (2010) *John Verity - "Leo Had It Right" (VaVoom Records) (2011) *John Verity - "Its a Mean Old Scene" (VaVoom Records) (2012) *John Verity - "Tone Hound on the last train to Corona" (VaVoom Records) (2014) *JohnVerity Band - "Live at Bosky" (VaVoom Records) (2015) *John Verity Band - "Back Door Santa" - (VaVoom Records) - (2015) *John Verity - "My Religion" - (VaVoom Records) - (2016) *John Verity - "My Religion -

Vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

Double

Album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

- (VaVoom Records) - (2016) *John Verity - "Blue to my Soul" - (VaVoom Records) - (2017) *John Verity - "Passion" - (VaVoom Records) - (2020)

Singles

*Phoenix - "Easy" (1976) *Phoenix - "Time Of The Season" (1977) *Phoenix - "Juliet" (1980) *Charlie - "Perfect Lover" (1981) *Brian Connolly - "Hypnotized" (1982) produced and featuring Verity *Verity - "Stay With Me" (1983) *Verity - "Rescue Me" (1984) *John Verity - "What About Me" (1984) *John Verity - "Honesty and Emotion" (1985) *Verity - "Two Hearts Burning" (1987) *John Verity - "Want You" (1987)

References

External links

John Verity official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verity, John 1949 births Living people Dunhill Records artists Epic Records artists Charisma Records artists RCA Records artists Musicians from Bradford English rock guitarists Argent (band) members