John Geza Ashton (born 30 November 1957) is an English musician, songwriter, composer, and record producer, with a career spanning more than 40 years. He is best known as the guitarist of

the Psychedelic Furs The Psychedelic Furs are a post-punk band founded in London in February 1977. Led by lead vocalist Richard Butler and his brother Tim Butler on bass guitar, the Psychedelic Furs are one of the many acts spawned from the British post-punk sc ...

Early life

John Geza Ashton was born on 30 November 1957 in Whips Cross Hospital, Forest Gate, London, and lived in North Kilworth in south Leicestershire.

Career

Ashton came to prominence in the early 1980s as the guitarist of

. The band is an English

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...

group formed in 1977 by

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stro ...

and

Tim Butler Timothy George Butler (born 7 December 1958) is an English musician and songwriter. He is the bass player, and co-founder of the Psychedelic Furs. He is also the youngest of three brothers. Richard, the eldest, is the lead singer of the Psych ...

, Duncan Kilburn and Roger Morris. Their debut studio album was a hit in the UK and Europe, and they had added John Ashton on guitar and Vince Ely on drums. Their second studio album ''

Talk Talk Talk ''Talk Talk Talk'' is the second studio album by the English rock band the Psychedelic Furs. It was released 15 May 1981 by Columbia Records. It was reissued with bonus tracks in 2002 by Columbia/Legacy and on vinyl in the UK in 2011 without ...

'' (1981) placed them on the US charts. Before the release of '' Forever Now'' in late 1982, Morris and Kilburn left the band, and Ashton and the Butler brothers went on to release ''

Mirror Moves ''Mirror Moves'' is the fourth studio album by English rock band the Psychedelic Furs, released in May 1984 by Columbia Records, two years after their previous studio album, '' Forever Now'' (1982). The album includes the dance hit "Heartbeat" ...

'' (1984) and other subsequent albums. The Psychedelic Furs went on hiatus after their 1992 tour, but reformed in 2001. Since then, Ashton has joined the band on occasion for tours. After the Psychedelic Furs went on hiatus, Ashton became a record producer and worked on a number of projects including

Marianne Faithfull Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single " As Tears Go By" and became one of the lead female artists during the British I ...

the Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is an English rock band, formed in 1980 in Leeds. After achieving early underground fame there, the band had their commercial breakthrough in the mid-1980s and sustained it until the early 1990s, when they stopped releasi ...

, Red Betty, and Seven Color Sky. Ashton mixed and co-produced the Secret Post's studio album ''From Train to Station'', released in 2015, and oversaw recordings with Los Angeles' Silence. Ashton has also pursued a solo career and released his debut studio album, ''Satellite Paradiso'', in 2014.

Personal life

Ashton moved to the United States around 1989 and is married to Catherine Dewson, a

Virginia Beach Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...

native. The couple have two children, and currently resides in

Woodstock, New York Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, NY. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 in 20 ...

. In the summer of 2021, Ashton was diagnosed with prostate cancer; there was a

GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the be ...

page set up by friend and fellow musician,

Gail Ann Dorsey Gail Ann Dorsey (born November 20, 1962) is an American musician. With a long career as a session musician mainly on bass guitar, she is perhaps best known for her lengthy residency in David Bowie's band, from 1995 to Bowie's death in 2016. Asid ...

, to help the family with the costs.

References

External links

* * *
John Ashton interview by Brian D. Holland

Satellite Paradiso
1957 births English male guitarists English new wave musicians English record producers English songwriters Living people Musicians from London People from Forest Gate The Psychedelic Furs members English expatriates in the United States People from Woodstock, New York {{UK-guitarist-stub