The Honest Johns have a fascinating story to tell! Since they first took to the stage at Tiffany's (Newcastle Upon Tyne, 1986) there have been some triumphant highs, coupled with destructive lows. Amazingly, twenty years later, they're still here and with the release of a new album and a recently signed management contract, 2007 is already shaping up to be another highlight in this amazing story!

Mark, Jon, Aidan, Richy and Paul all went to school together. Jon and Paul (Kennedy) are brothers. Lead singer, Mark, is married to Paul and Jon's sister, Susan. The band all drink together, go to the match together and (even) holiday together, so it's no surprise music offers yet another common bond. 

They all attended St Cuthbert's, in the west-end of Newcastle the very same school that churned out the likes of Sting and Neil Tenant. "Discipline was very much top of the agenda," explains Mark. "Some of the priests and teachers were pretty vindictive, they'd be locked up nowadays! They only seemed interested if you wanted to go to University or join the Priesthood. We formed a band."

The Honest Johns enjoyed much early success although this led to it's own problems, as Jon explains. "It all seemed way easy back then, our first gigs went down a storm. We got a record and management deal and a regular slot at the brilliant Riverside within months, we never doubted that we were on a meteoric rise to stardom. Whilst we got great reviews for live performances and our recordings, and no end of help from a great many people, we just continually threw it back in their faces! Gigs became more about entertaining ourselves rather than the audience. Our riders would consist of four crates of Brown Ale and large amounts of pizza, most of which would be consumed before even going on stage. Despite the drinking and the lack of practice, people still believed in us, but the more people tried the more problems we would cause. It came to a head when we did a 'showcase' gig in Newcastle in late 1987. The audience was littered with record company execs that had come on the strength of recent demos and press reviews. We drank ourselves stupid before going on, Mark could hardly speak let alone sing! He and Aidan (lead guitarist at the time) kept deliberately crashing their guitars and detuning them between songs. It was disastrous, and when we began abusing the audience someone pulled the plug." 

This proved to be an epiphany for the band! "We realised that there was some hard work to be done if we wanted success," explains Mark. Following the calamitous showcase gig, the band switched to controversial management company, NPS, who dominated the Newcastle club scene in the late 1980's. They also brought in Peter Straughan on bass and keys player, Mick Halewood.  The band began to work hard, there followed a successful tour with The Primitives and then a headline tour that included playing at the Marquee, in London. The band were recording with the Kane Gang's, Dave Brewis, and the 'buzz' in London and the North East was starting to grow again. "Our last gig of 1990 was the best at the time," explains Mark. "It was at the famous Hope and Anchor, in London and was everything the Newcastle showcase wasn't. The recordings we'd done with Dave had created quite a stir. The place was packed. We played brilliantly." 

Unfortunately, that was that. It was to be the last gig for over ten years! The band went into self-destruct mode once again, as Jon explains. "Mick stayed in London after the gig and never came back! We stopped practicing. Mark married my sister and we all stopped talking about the band. Our management company kept calling with follow-ups from the London gig, but we just ignored it all. It was weird! It was as if the last five years had knocked the stuffing out of us and we couldn't take the next step. We all went our seperate ways!"

But...that is not the end of the story! In 1999, Firestation Records got in touch and asked if they could put 'Judas In Me Singing' on their Leamington Spa compilation CD. It was such a success that Firestation then asked if we could pull together all of the singles and demos from our original recordings and so, in 2005, The Honest Johns' debut album Meteor 1986/90 was released...some 10 years later than originally planned, of course!

Now that Jon, Mark and Aidan have been joined by Paul and Richy, The Honest Johns are back together again and have spent the last two years playing to packed venues in the North East and, with an album of brand new material scheduled for release in 2007, could the potential of the last twenty years finally be about to be realised..?