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Jon's earliest musical memories are as a baby when his father Derek sang him to sleep with Slim Whitman and Inkspot songs, Jon also remembers his mother June playing Patsy Cline records, others likeThe Coal Miners Daughter but mainly Jim Reeves songs.
Jon went to Summerbee school and was a member of the choir for a short time before being thrown out because they said he couldn't sing in tune. The family then moved to Ringwood in Hampshire where together with some school friends Jon formed his first band. There was a problem in that no one could play any instruments and Jon ended up as the drummer. At this time Jon had no real ambitions to become a musician as he had decided to become a graphic designer, but his interest in music became stronger and as a result he forgot about graphics. His musical influences started to widen and he practiced hard to become like his idols who at that time were people like Otis Reading, Stevie Wonder and Ian Anderson.
Jon had always kept in touch with his school friends in Bournemouth and he formed a new band with Steve Enever, drumming pal John Manners and Carl Chamberlain. This meant that Jon Dean could concentrate on singing. This band was called Zenith and they began to write their own songs. Steve Enever went on to become a successful record producer working with Columbia. In 1975 The band had entered a beat contest in Bournemouth and came first which fuelled the desire to perform, they were surviving doing village hall gigs. As with most groups people went their separate ways. Jon decided that he'd had enough of the local music scene and went to London where he started working as a session singer but never managed to break through into the inner circle.
In 1980 he got tired of this and decided to come back to Bournemouth and renewed his friendship with Steve Enever. Jon was asked by Steve if he would like to go to Italy as Steve had a job in a studio out there. Jon had the foresight to take tapes of some of the songs he had been writing with him. Some of the record company guys who were there liked what they heard and on returning to England he had only been home literally 5 minutes when the phone rang. It was Steve saying that the record company had booked tickets for him to fly straight back to Italy to do a cover of Frankie Goes to Hollywoods Relax because Jon could emulate the voice of Holly Johnson. This was successful on a compilation album and was signed by a company called Mini records in Milan. One of the songs Jon wrote went to Number 1 in the Italian charts and he also had a number 5 singing one of his own songs. The record company sold Jon's contract to CBS for a two album deal with singles. Things however did not go to plan and Jon became disillusioned with the situation. Jon came back home and moved to Highcliffe, he kept writing songs and did some more session work. Jon found that he missed the live performances and formed a Soul band called Max Temp, this lasted for ten years.
Steve Smith phoned Jon to ask if he would like to co-write some songs with him. Jon had met Steve some years before as their fathers were friends but it was only to say hello to each other. Steve had a recording studio from a very early age so Jon went over to the studio and they started to write songs together. They became great friends and have been writing together ever since.
Jon met his wife Felicity at a gig in 1991 just to say hello to each other as Flick was married at the time and Jon was in a steady relationship. A few months later Jon bumped into Flick and they both discovered that their relationships had broken down. They started to spend more time together and married in 1997. Jon and Flick went on honeymoon to Florida which is where Jon's interest in country music was renewed while listening to artist such as HaL Ketchem, Phil Vasser and early Shania Twain.
After the split with Max Temp Jon was contacted by his old mate John Manners who suggested that they form a country band with Jon Dean playing guitar which he had never done before. Jon bought a guitar and began to write in a different style which is when he wrote Born Survivor and Mystified. The band went out under the name of Big Ray, they played lots of gigs and went down a storm. This is when Jon realised he had found the music that he really wanted to sing and play.
Jon was still writing songs with Steve Smith and Steve rang Jon one day to say that he had been working with Dave Christopher from A.B.B. who had been signed by a new record label called Springboard Media. Dave mentioned to Steve that the label were looking for new talent and they had asked Dave to speak to Jon. Steve put together a demo tape of some of their songs and played it to Dave who passed it on to the record label, as he was producing the labels other artists. After Geoff Green the MD had heard the tape and discussed it with his co director Anthea Green he spoke to Jon and asked him what he would like to do. This gave Jon the opportunity to write songs that he felt really comfortable with.
Jon was still working as a session singer with Andy Murray, Christian Ballard and Russ Ballard. Jon was at Russ's studio and told Russ that he had the chance to record an album. Jon asked Russ what style of music he should record. Russ told Jon that it should be a country album as he felt Jon sounded great when singing country. Jon knuckled down to writing the songs together with Steve Smith for the album. It was hard work as Jon was working during the day as a demolition contractor and writing songs in the evenings. The demos were put together fairly quickly whilst going on in the background Dave Christopher and Steve Smith were putting the studio band together who were Robbie McIntosh on guitar, Paul Beavis on drums, Melvin Duffy on pedal steel, Dave Christopher on bass, Steve Smith on keyboards and Simon Swarbrick on fiddle. Dave also decided to draft in Jerry Donahue on guitar. The first recording sessions took place in August 2000 but there was quite a delay in finishing the album due to Dave other commitments with A.B.B. and other Springboard artists in Asia. The album Born Survivor was finally finished at the end of June 2001 and is due to be released in September 2001. Jon would also like to thank Sheila, Jeanette and Emily for their great backing vocals on the album.
Jon's most memorable gig up to now is when during his Max Temp days the band was invited to play at Wintershall by Gary Booker. They were thrilled to find that they were performing with Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Steve Winwood.
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Robbie McIntosh
Paul Beavis
Dave Christopher
Melvin Duffy
Steve Smith
Jerry Donahue
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