The Three Johns were an English

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of 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 sensibilities and non-roc ...

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band formed in 1981 in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

, England, originally consisting of guitarist

Jon Langford Jonathan Denis Langford (born 11 October 1957) is a Welsh musician and artist based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Langford is a founder member of the punk band The Mekons, the post-punk group The Three Johns, and the alternative country ...

(co-founder of

the Mekons The Mekons are a British band formed in the late 1970s as an art collective. They are one of the longest-running and most prolific of the first-wave British punk rock bands. The band's style has evolved over time to incorporate aspects of ...

), vocalist John Hyatt and bassist Phillip "John" Brennan, augmented by a drum machine.Larkin, Colin (1992) "The Guinness Who's Who of Indie & New Wave Music", Guinness Publishing, , p. 288/9

History

The band initially formed just before the 1981 wedding of

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

and

Diana Spencer Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

, and their first gig was to be part of a "Funk the Wedding" event, but they were refused permission to play because they were drunk. They signed to CNT Records in 1982, which Langford jointly founded, releasing two singles and an EP for the label. A reworking of the Mekons' "English White Boy Engineer", which attacked hypocritical attitudes towards

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

, led to the band being labelled as

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

rockers. The band explained: "We're not a socialist band. We're a group of socialists who are in a band. It's a fine distinction but an important one". Their left-wing leanings were further evidenced by the sleeve of their 1984 ''Atom Drum Bop'' album, which carried the words "Rock 'n' Roll Versus Thaatchiism", a reference to then Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

and her marketing by

Saatchi & Saatchi Saatchi & Saatchi is a British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in 1970 and is currently headquartered in London. The parent company of the agency gr ...

. On 7 July 1985, The Three Johns played at the GLC's Jobs for a Change festival in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Battersea Park Battersea Park is a 200-acre (83-hectare) green space at Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth in London. It is situated on the south bank of the River Thames opposite Chelsea and was opened in 1858. The park occupies marshland reclai ...

. The band regularly appeared in the

UK Indie Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the rele ...

during the mid-1980s, with singles such as "A.W.O.L.", "Death of the European" (an ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' "Single of the Week"), and "Brainbox (He's a Brainbox)". During the band's career, the members maintained their day jobs: Langford as a graphic designer and Hyatt a teacher of fine art at

Leeds Polytechnic Leeds Beckett University (LBU), formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) and before that as Leeds Polytechnic, is a public university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has campuses in the city centre and Headingley. The unive ...

. The band recorded six sessions for

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

show, and reached No. 14 in the 1985

Festive Fifty The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's 50 (though the exact figure varied above and below this number) best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show. It was usually do ...

with "Death of the European". The band split up in late 1988 after a disastrous US tour, but reformed in 1990, releasing ''Eat Your Sons'', a concept album about

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...

, before splitting again.Strong, Martin C. (1999) "The Great Alternative & Indie Discography", Canongate, Langford continued with the Mekons, later releasing a solo album, while Hyatt concentrated on his academic career. They reformed again in 2012, playing five shows, and continued to perform intermittently through 2017 in the UK, mostly in the Manchester and Leeds-Bradford areas.

Discography

Chart placings shown are from the

.Lazell, Barry (1997) "Indie Hits 1980-1989", Cherry Red Books,

Studio albums

* ''Atom Drum Bop'' (1984, Abstract) No. 2 * ''The World by Storm'' (1986, Abstract) No. 4 * ''The Death of Everything'' (1988, T.I.M/

Caroline Records Caroline Records is a record label originally founded in 1973. Initially founded in the United Kingdom to showcase British progressive rock groups, the label ceased releasing titles in 1976, and then re-emerged in the United States in 1986. ...

) No. 19 * ''Deathrocker Scrapbook'' (1988,

ROIR ROIR (pronounced "roar"), or Reachout International Records, is a New York City-based independent record label founded in 1979 by Neil Cooper. Background ROIR was founded the same year that the Sony Walkman launched, and initially, the label ex ...

) * ''Eat Your Sons'' (1990, Low Noise/Tupelo Recording Company)

Singles and EPs

* "English White Boy Engineer" (1982, CNT) * "Pink Headed Bug" (1983, CNT) No. 44 * ''Men Like Monkeys'' EP (1983, CNT) * ''A.W.O.L.'' EP (1983, Abstract) No. 14 * ''Some History'' EP (1983, Abstract) No. 17 * "Do the Square Thing" (1984, Abstract) No. 6 * "Death of the European" (1985, Abstract) No. 3 * "Brainbox (He's a Brainbox)" (1985, Abstract) No. 3 * "Sold Down the River" (1986, Abstract) No. 10 * "Never and Always" (1987, Abstract) No. 5 * "Torches of Liberty" (1988, Abstract)

Live albums

* ''Live in Chicago'' (1987, Last Time Round Records)

Compilation albums

* '' (Crime Pays...Rock and Roll in the) Demonocracy - The Singles 1982-1986'' (1986, Abstract) * ''The Best of The Three Johns'' (1996,

Dojo A is a hall or place for immersive learning or meditation. This is traditionally in the field of martial arts, but has been seen increasingly in other fields, such as meditation and software development. The term literally means "place of the ...

) * ''Volume'' (2015, Buried Treasure)

References

External links

The Three Johns - unofficial website
*

Allmusic profile AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Three Johns, The Musical groups established in 1981 ROIR artists Post-punk groups from Leeds Indie rock groups from Leeds