Johnnie Fingers (born John Peter Moylett, 10 September 1956) is an Irish keyboardist and co-founding member of the new wave band

The Boomtown Rats The Boomtown Rats are an Irish rock band originally formed in Dublin in 1975. Between 1977 and 1985, they had a series of Irish and UK hits including "Like Clockwork", "Rat Trap", "I Don't Like Mondays" and "Banana Republic". The original line ...

. He was notable for his attire of striped pyjamas on stage and his melodic

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

style.

Background

Fingers came from a large family of actors, artists and musicians. His cousin is his fellow Boomtown Rat

Pete Briquette Patrick Martin Cusack (born 2 July 1954), known by the stage name Pete Briquette, is an Irish bassist, record producer and composer. He is a member of the Boomtown Rats and has also played in Bob Geldof's band. Boomtown Rats He was born in Bal ...

, as their mothers, Margaret "Peggy" (Bowles) Cusack and Cecilia "Sheila" (Bowles) Moylett, were sisters. They are nephews of Irish conductor and composer

Michael Bowles Michael Andrew Bowles n Gaelic: Micheál Ó Baoighill(30 November 1909 – 6 April 1998) was an Irish conductor and composer, who was also active in New Zealand, the US, and England. Life Bowles was born in Riverstown, County Sligo, and grew u ...

. He learned the piano from a young age from "Miss Grist" who he claims "stole his youth". After the demise of the Boomtown Rats in 1986, he founded Gung~Ho with his fellow Boomtown Rats member

Simon Crowe Simon Crowe (born 14 April 1955, Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish musician, best known as the drummer and backing vocalist of the Irish new wave band The Boomtown Rats. The original name of the Boomtown Rats was the "Nightlife Thugs". The name Boo ...

and Yoko Kurokawa in 1987. Fingers is now married with two children. Fingers decided to not return to the Boomtown Rats when the band was reunited in 2013, as he lives in Tokyo.

Career

He currently lives in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan, where he continues to work in the music industry. Apart from producing and

writing Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically Epigraphy, inscribed, Printing press, mechanically transferred, or Word processor, digitally represented Symbols (semiot ...

music for Japanese stars such as UA, and theme songs such as for the hit anime

B't X and stylized as B'T X, is a manga series, written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada. It was serialized in '' Shōnen Ace'' from 1994 to 2000. The series is set in a fictional universe where science has progressed to the creation of mech ...

, Fingers is the "point man"Metropolis.co.jp
/ref> with the concert music production company Smash Japan, producers of

Fuji Rock Festival is an annual rock festival held in Naeba Ski Resort, in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. The three-day event, organized by Smash Japan, features more than 200 Japanese and international musicians, making it the largest outdoor music event in Japan. ...

, the largest music festival in Japan.

Discography

With The Boomtown Rats

With Gung~ho

* "Play To Win" (

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

, 1987) * 10 (1988)

With Greengate

*"Daydreaming" - Vinyl 7" *''Metaphysical Vibration'' - CD

With Ruffy Tuffy

* ''Ruffy Tuffy'' (1999) album * ''Respect!'' (2000) omnibus Live album * ''Natsu no Jujika'' (2000) album * ''Aki no Jujika'' (2000) album * ''Mizu no Awa'' (2001) EP

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fingers, Johnny Living people 1956 births Irish pianists Irish rock musicians Irish songwriters Irish record producers Irish expatriates in Japan Irish DJs Irish new wave musicians The Boomtown Rats members Electronic dance music DJs 21st-century pianists