Paul Jones (singer)

Paul Jones (born Paul Adrian Pond, 24 February 1942) is an English singer, actor, harmonicist, radio personality and television presenter.

Jones began singing in the early 1960 as "P.P. Jones", where he performed duets with Elmo Lewis who was later better known as future founder member of the Rolling Stones, Brian Jones at the Ealing Club, home of Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, whose singers included Long John Baldry and Mick Jagger.

He was asked by Keith Richards and Brian Jones to be the lead singer of a group they were forming, but he turned them down.

He went on to be the vocalist and harmonica player of the successful 1960s group Manfred Mann.

His subsequent single releases in Britain in the late 1960s were on Columbia.

He first came to prominence as the original lead singer and harmonicist of the rock band Manfred Mann (1962–66) with whom he had several hit records including "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" (UK #1, US #1) and "Pretty Flamingo" (UK #1).

Paul Jones had several Top Ten hits with Manfred Mann, including the international number one single "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" (1964), before going solo in July 1966.

He remained with His Master's Voice.

He was less successful without the band than they were with his replacement, Mike D'Abo, but did have a few hits, notably with "High Time" (1966) (UK no. 4), "I've Been a Bad, Bad Boy" (1967) (UK no. 5) and "Thinkin' Ain't for Me" (1967) (UK no. 32), before branching into acting.

While his solo career in the UK was mildly successful, he sold few records in the United States.

He had enough hits in Sweden to have a greatest hits album released there on EMI.

After leaving the band, Jones established a solo career and notably starred as a deified pop star in the film Privilege (1967).

In 1967, Jones starred opposite model Jean Shrimpton in the 1967 film Privilege directed by Peter Watkins.

The following year, he was the central figure in another cult classic, the 1968 experimental British satire, The Committee, directed by Peter Sykes, but this time the musical duties were handled by Pink Floyd and Arthur Brown.

In January 1968, Jones was part of the "Big Show" package tour of Australia and New Zealand with The Who and Small Faces.

Jones was backed by a different local band in each country.

The tour is notorious for the conflicts with conservative mainstream Australian media reporters.

In addition, an in-flight incident on their last day in Australia resulted in the tour members being detained by airport security and police before being ushered onto a flight to New Zealand.

He was cast as a pop singer in the film, and sang the songs "I've Been a Bad, Bad Boy" and "Free me", which Patti Smith covered in the 1970s.

In 1971 Jones participated in Carla Bley's album Escalator Over the Hill.

On the same year he recorded Crucifix in a Horseshoe with White Cloud, a New York-based session group featuring Teddy Wender on keyboards and Kenny Kosek on fiddle.

He acted in the 1972 horror film Demons of the Mind.

In 1973 Jones guest appeared in ITC The Protectors, in an episode called "Goodbye George", playing a character called Caspar Parton.

In 1975 he guest-starred in a TV episode of The Sweeney ("Chalk and Cheese") as Tommy Garret, a boxer-turned-highwayman.

Jones had previously worked with Covington in the 1975 Christmas production Great Big Groovy Horse, a rock opera based on the story of the Trojan Horse shown on BBC2.

In 1976 he performed the role of Juan Peron on the original concept album of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita alongside Julie Covington as Eva, Colm Wilkinson as Che and Barbara Dickson as the Mistress.

It was later repeated on BBC1 in 1977.

In October 1977, he starred as Sir Francis Drake in the musical premiere of Drake's Dream at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing featuring music and lyrics by Lynne and Richard Riley and book by Simon Brett.

The production was directed by Nicolas Young and transferred to London's Shaftesbury Theatre for a limited season opening on 7 December 1977.

The Drake's Dream Original London Cast Album was recorded by President Records in 1977 and released on CD in 2017 by Stage Door Records.

In 1978, he released a single on the RSO label, consisting of orchestrated versions of the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" and the Ramones' "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker", both produced by Rice.

Four years later he appeared as one of the guest vocalists on the British Electric Foundation's Music of Quality and Distinction, on a new version of "There's a Ghost in My House".

In 1979, he formed The Blues Band, and toured with them until their breakup in 2022.

In 1979, he founded The Blues Band with former Manfred Tom McGuinness.

He also presented the BBC1 children's quiz Beat the Teacher in the mid-1980s.

His gold albums include one for Evita.

He presented The Blues Show on BBC Radio 2 for thirty-two years, from 1986 to 2018, and continues to perform alongside former Manfred Mann bandmates in The Manfreds.

Paul Jones was born Paul Adrian Pond in Portsmouth, Hampshire, son of Norman Henry Pond and Amelia Josephine, née Hadfield, later of Worthing, West Sussex.

Jones attended The Portsmouth Grammar School, moving to the Edinburgh Academy for his last two years of school before winning an Open Exhibition in English to Jesus College, Oxford, although he did not graduate.

He also appeared in ITC-RAI Space: 1999, in the episode "Black Sun", playing a character called Michael Ryan.