Howard Jones An Everlasting Love

"There was a time there was nothing at all,nothing at all just a distant hum
There was a being and he lived on his own he had no one to talk to and nothing to do
He drew up the plans,learnt to work w/ his hands a million years passed by and his work was done and his words were these
Hope you find it in everything,everything that you see,hope you find it in everything that you see
Hope you find it,hope you find it,hope you find me in you"

Hide And Seek-Howard Jones.

Much like Mondays show w/ Duran Duran where I wasn't blown away w/ their debut single in 1981 ''Planet Earth" but then fell in love w/ them afterwards fast forward some eighteen months to September of 1983 Howard Jones's debut single "New Song" was released,it was ok and w/out it we wouldn't have discovered Ho Jo but it was his second single,"What Is Love?" that really captured my imagination and thus began my love affair w/ Ho Jo and his unique brand of synth pop.
To my chagrin I never saw Howard live in his prime,his debut album "Human's Lib" was released in 1984 but sadly his London date on the Human's Lib tour at(where else Hammersmith Odean) clashed w/ The Alarm around the corner at Hammersmith Palais) I'd discovered The Alarm earlier that year and their Dec 23rd Hammersmith Palais was my 4th Alarm gig that year,meanwhile "Our Kid" went to see Howie w/ his girlfriend at the Odean,over the following 27 years we've often joked about that nite,he was gung ho to see The Alarm w/ me till he found out Lisa had tickets for Ho Jo,sure I busted his chops(that's what big brothers do!)but I sometimes wish I'd seen Howie.......

Somewhere in a shoe box in the basement is a 120 cassette of Howard Jones live in concert,back in the day Radio One used to broadcast either two half hour concert segments or one hour long concert on Saturday evenings in their "In Concert" series,that was as close as I ever got to seeing him though I was the proud owner of "Human's Lib" "The 12'' Album" and "Dream Into Action" and I'm sure several of his 12'' singles.

In either the summer of 97 or 98 I finally got to see him....barely! on the "Rewind Tour" that summer it was Howard Jones,The Human League and Culture Club finally a chance to see Ho Jo and Boy George and Culture club who I'd never seen and my first Human League gig since the first time time I saw them in 81.
I only caught half of Howie thanks to "cloth ears" my then and now ex girlfriend and her inability to listen to me"don't take 76 to The Mann Music Center the off ramp will be backed up to the hilt".....did she see listen.....NO! we sat in traffic forever,had to park miles away when we finally got there and subsequently missed half of Ho Jo,pissed was an understatement on my behalf while her defence was "I don't really like Howard Jones I didn't see the need to rush to get there".......and that dear ex is why you are an ex and Howard Jones is still a part of my life!!!!

Fast forwarding to the present when I learnt Howard was bringing his "Human's Lib/Dream Into Action" tour to America it was a no brainer,the chance to see him live after all this time and the opportunity to hear both albums in their entirety live was too good to pass up,I even found a way past my dislike for The Keswick in Glenside,I wouldn't say it's my least favourite concert venue but prior to Thursday I'd only been there once in 24 years,but Keswick or not I was going.
The whole album/albums tour is a good one,artists have been doing it for a few years now,last September Gary Numan performed 'The Pleasure Principle'' Stiff Little Fingers did "Inflammable Material" a few years back,earlier this year Echo & The Bunnymen performed their first two albums"Crocodiles" and "Heaven Up Here" a show I sadly missed but did catch The Church perform three albums "Untitled #23" "Priest=Aura" and "Starfish".

Each band has there own way of doing the whole album Stiff Little Fingers performed the whole album over the course of the show,Gary Numan did the whole album start to finish in the order it runs on album/cd but Ho Jo decided to mix up the running order of both albums
Opening w/ "Pearl In The Shell" instead of "Conditioning" Ho Jo would remark that performing the album in it's correct sequence would mean"getting all the hits up front" and then added w/ a smile"well they're all hits but you know what I mean!!!"
Ably backed up w/ a second keyboard player and drummer and using a video screen Howard faithfully performed his 84 debut to a grateful audience,I won't lie I haven't listened to "Human's Lib" or "Dream Into Action" in eons but did recently upgrade from vinyl to cd and will be downloading them onto my Ipod as soon as I workout why the pc won't recognise a new Ipod and allow me to sync the bugger,I may have to go "old school" and listen to them on my discman till then!!!

Taking a short intermission Ho Jo returned to perform "Dream Into Action" he dedicated "Look Mama" to his mother who used to run his fan club for him along w/ his father.
Hearing "Hunger For The Flesh" again after TOO long of an absence was worth the price of admission much like hearing "Don't Always Look At The Rain" and "Conditioning" off of "Human's Lib" gems I hadn't forgotten,just hadn't heard in way too long.
B4 calling it a nite Howie shed light on the fact that "not all 80's keyboard players idolized Kraftwerk" and how the Musician Union wanted to ban him back in the day for playing all the instruments on his keyboard" and the old chestnut that all he had to do was program his keyboard and not show up for his own gigs which was a frequent put down in the mid 80's.
B4 closing w/ "Things Can Only Better" Howard mentioned not really caring about winning awards or readers polls but how a 4th grade teacher had once emailed him and asked if she could use "Things Can only Get Better" as her class theme tune,that was an accolade he could live w/ the 80's might have been the era of Yuppies,the Me Generation and Gordon Gekko's "greed is good" but there was something wholesome about a 4th grade teacher using "Things Can Only Get Better" for he class theme tune.......and that's one of the reason's I still and always will love the 80's.