Retro Futura Tour Feat. Howard Jones, The English Beat, Modern English

After an extraordinarily successful 2012 which included tours of Japan, UK, USA, Singapore and Australia, Howard Jones continued touring in 2013 which marked 30 years since the release of his first single 'New Song' in 1983. A tour of the USA with Erasure's Andy Bell in August and three very successful special UK concerts in November marked this special milestone.

The August 2013 US Tour included a long overdue return to the legendary Greek Theatre in Los Angeles and a spectacular sold out concert at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga (San Francisco). This was the first time Howard had played The Greek since the eighties. The tour culminated at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico in Mexico City playing to an astonishing 13,000 people. This was the first time Howard had ever played a concert in Mexico.

At the November 2013 30 year celebration UK concerts Howard debuted a brand new suite of songs under the name 'Engage' which were presented with bespoke video and multi-projection. The response to this new material was extraordinary with many claiming it was the best music Howard has ever written and performed.

Howard appeared as special guest to Michael Sheen on January 4 2014 at BBC Radio Two in London. Howard performed 'Hide and Seek' live and Michael played the world premiere of 'Human Touch' from the Engage set.

Howard Jones is playing multiple festival dates in the UK in the summer of 2014 including the Rewind Henley festival on 17 August 2014. He then embarks on a huge US, Canada and South America tour co-headlining with The Thompson Twins' Tom Bailey.

It was in 1983 that Howard Jones first burst upon the contemporary music scene with his very English song-writing and pioneering synthesizers. Anyone who was around in the mid to late eighties will remember those high energy gigs and his first two albums Human's Lib and Dream into Action. They lived in the higher reaches of the album charts in the UK, USA, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia and many other countries in the 1984-86 period, and the hits kept coming??????..New Song, What is Love?, Pearl in the Shell, Hide and Seek,(which he performed at Live Aid in 1985), Like to Get to Know You Well, Look Mama, Things Can only Get Better, Everlasting Love and the quintessential No One is To Blame, which reached No.1 in the US.

Howard Jones re-mastered those first two classic albums 'Human's Lib' and 'Dream into Action' and played them both live in their entirety for the first time at the IndigO2 in London's O2 Arena Complex. The re-mastered albums are available from HYPERLINK "http://www.howardjones.com" www.howardjones.com. A special re-mastered box set of the 12" mixes was also released together with a DVD of the IndigO2 concert. A third box set in the trilogy was then released which featured re-mastered versions of the next three albums 'One to One', 'Cross that Line' and 'In The Running'.

A classically trained pianist, Jones applied his technique to the early synths particularly the Roland Juno 60, the Jupiter 8 and the Moog Prodigy. He also pioneered the classic Roland TR808 drum machine and the Sequential Pro-One. In the early days he was triggering sequencers live on stage whilst playing and singing, something that no one had done before.

These days he still operates on the cutting edge of technology and has been one of the leading exponents of the Roland Fantom G8 and the Roland V-piano. Many contemporary giants of the dance world have shown interest in working with Howard which has resulted in tracks such as 'And do you Feel Scared?' with Eric Prydz, 'Into the Dark' with Ferry Corsten, a 2012 collaboration with Grum and the 2013 version of 'Things Can Only Get Better' with Cedric Gervais.

My Space used this version to launch their new service at the Miami Winter Music Conference in March 2013 by advertising the track on 300 taxis, 50 trucks and even a plane with a banner which flew up and down Miami Beach. The track was released worldwide in July 2013 and reached the top 10 in the US Dance Chart. Howard Jones incorporated this version into his 2013 live performances.

Jones appears on stage with Robbie Bronnimann on live sequencing/sampling and effects using Ableton Live and various controllers, and usually Jonathan Atkinson on electronic drums.

Always one to take chances, Jones continues to write great songs inspired by his Buddhist beliefs as is evident on his last studio album 'Ordinary Heroes' which featured a string quartet on every track and one of the best Welsh male voice choirs in the world The Morriston on the song 'Soon You'll Go'.

In June 2012 Howard made a Kaleidoscope documentary in 'The Song that Changed my Life' BYUTV series. The documentary premiered on 8th October 2012 in USA and has subsequently received great reviews. It can be streamed at http://www.thesongthatchangedmylife.com/.

Throughout 2012 school choirs from all over the world recorded Howard's song 'Building Our Own Future'. The project called 'Voices Around the World' started in Namibia and went viral with over 300 schools taking part. A compilation of some of the performances can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqNY1j7nmwc&feature=share

A second Voices Around the World video 'Unshakeable' was launched in February 2014 and features 3500 voices from 42 countries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPFT5IhHHQk

But 2014 will mark the continued touring of one of the true eighties icons and godfathers of modern electronic dance music in full electric mode. If you were too young the first time around it'll be a chance to find out where all those beats and sounds came from, and if you were around it'll bring all those memories flooding back.


The English Beat is a band with an energetic mix of musical styles and a sound like no other. The band's unique sound has allowed it to endure for nearly three decades and appeal to fans, young and old, all over the world.

When The English Beat (known simply as The Beat in their native England) rushed on to the music scene in 1979, it was a time of massive social and political unrest and economic and musical upheaval. This set the stage for a period of unbridled musical creativity, and thanks in large part to the Punk movement and it's DIY approach to making music, artists like The Beat were able to speak out and speak their mind on the news of the day, as in "Stand Down Margaret", things that mattered to them and the youth culture, as in "Get A Job", and universal matters of the heart and soul, as in their classic hits "I Confess" and "Save It For Later".

The original band consisted of singer-songwriter Dave Wakeling on vocals and guitar, Andy Cox on guitar, David Steele on bass, and Everett Morton on drums ??? later additions Ranking Roger (toasting) and foundational First Wave Ska legend Saxa (saxophone) completed the outfit. The band crossed over fluidly between soul, reggae, pop and punk, and from these disparate pieces they created an infectious dance rhythm.

The Beat first came to prominence as founding members of the British Two Tone Ska movement, with their classic first album "Just Can't Stop It" fitting squarely in that genre. Along with their contemporaries The Specials, The Selecter, and Madness, the band became an overnight sensation and one of the most popular and influential bands of that movement.

However, band leader Dave Wakeling never felt constrained by the movement. Dave has always viewed ska as a springboard, not a straight jacket. Indeed, the band's sound continued to evolve over their first three studio albums, through the General Public era (a band formed by Dave with Ranking Roger, the toaster from The Beat), and has continued it's evolution with the forthcoming English Beat album "Here We Go Love", a PledgeMusic crowd-funded album set for release in 2016, the band's first new album since 1982's "Special Beat Service".

Consummate showman that he is, Dave Wakeling has continued to keep The Beat alive and strong. Dave continues to tour the world as The English Beat with an amazing all-star ska backing band playing all the hits of The Beat, General Public, and songs from his new album "Here We Go Love".

You just can't stop The English Beat!

Louis "sirlou" Kahn ??2015
The English Beat
[email protected]


Modern English are an English rock band best remembered for their songs "I Melt with You," "Hands Across the Sea," and "Ink and Paper". The group disbanded for a period in 1991, but later recorded in 1995 with some new members. The original members reformed in 2009 and are currently touring with plans for a new release in 2016!

Formed in Colchester, Essex, England, in 1979 by Robbie Grey (vocals), Gary McDowell (guitar, vocals), and Michael Conroy (bass, vocals), Modern English were originally known as The Lepers. The group expanded to "Modern English" when Richard Brown (drums) and Stephen Walker (keyboards) were subsequently added to the line-up of the band.

After a single on their own 'Limp' label in 1979, the band signed to 4AD the following year, with two further singles released, and a session for John Peel recorded before the band's debut album, Mesh & Lace, in 1981, the band in the early days showing a strong Joy Division influence. A second Peel session was recorded in October 1981. The follow-up, After The Snow (April 1982), was more keyboard-oriented and was compared to Simple Minds and Duran Duran. It was also released in the United States by Sire Records the following year, where it reached number 70 on the Billboard chart, and sold over 500,000 copies. Grey said of the album, "We used to think 'God, we'll never make a pop record. We're artists!', but things don't always turn out as you planned and when you actually create a pop record, it's so much more of a thrill than anything else". The second single from the album was also a hit in the US, the jangly "I Melt With You" reaching number 78. When he reviewed the album, Johnny Waller of Sounds described the track as "A dreamy, creamy celebration of love and lust, which deserves to be showcased on as 12" single all by itself, with no b-side", while his colleague Tony Mitchell described it as "susburban amateurism at its most unrewarding". The band relocated to New York City and worked on a third album, Ricochet Days, which again made the top 100 in the US, after which the band left 4AD and were solely signed to Sire. The single "Stop Start" (1986) was the last record Modern English record released by Sire, the band splitting up.

Grey and Conroy along with Modern English worked with This Mortal Coil before re-forming Modern English with Mick Conroy and Aaron Davidson for a new album in 1990, Pillow Lips, now on the American TVT label. The album featured a re-recorded "I Melt With You", which was released as a single, and saw the band again in the Billboard top 100. The band split up for a second time in 1991, after contractual problems with TVT, with Grey forming Engine. In 1995, with the legal issues with TVT sorted out, Engine evolved into the next incarnation of Modern English and signed to the Imago label, with Grey and Matthew Shipley (keyboards). This line-up recorded the 1996 album Everything Is Mad.

Robbie Grey toured the US with a new Modern English lineup coast to coast across the US and recorded a new album with Hugh Jones (producer of Melt With You). The songs written with guitarist Steven Walker and other memebers came together on the road and back home in London between tours , after a few years on the shelf this collection of songs was released in May 2010 called "Soundtrack", along side the reissued and remastered "Stop Start" album also released at the same time. The original members reunited & reformed in 2009 and are currently touring; planning for a new release in 2016!