John Miles
b. 23 April 1949, Jarrow, Tyne And Wear, England. Miles achieved international fame in 1976 with the classic rock ballad "Music" ("music was my first love and it will be my last/the music of tomorrow, the music of the past"). His beginnings in the music business found him manufacturing toilet signs by day, but by night performing in a semi-professional band called the Influence, which also included Paul Thompson (later in Roxy Music) and Victor Malcolm (later in Geordie). After this band split, Miles formed his own John Miles Band, who were successful in their native north east and also recorded several singles for their own Orange label, as well as a one-off single ("Jose") for Decca Records in 1971 In 1975, Miles and bass player Bob Marshall moved to London and signed a proper recording contract with Decca. Recruiting Barry Black (and later adding pianist Gary Moberly) they reached the UK Top 20 with the Alan Parsons-produced "Highfly". The 1976 epic length follow-up "Music" reached number 3 and earned the band an American tour with Elton John. The accompanying album portrayed Miles as a moody, James Dean figure and the artist came across as such when defending his composition from quarters of the music press who unfairly ridiculed the artist as pretentious. He had two further UK hits in "Remember Yesterday" (Top 40, 1976) and "Slow Down' (Top 10, 1977), but Miles was forever linked with his self-confessional epic. This ultimately proved to be a burden on Miles' development and although he continued to record into the 80s, he was never able to brush off the memory of that song. On 1983"s Play On, Miles used a 40-piece orchestra and Elton John's old producer Gus Dudgeon. In the 90s Miles took to the road with artists including the Alan Parsons Project, Joe Cocker and Tina Turner. By the late 90s he was working with writer Tom Kelly on various projects, including Tom & Catherine, a musical about romantic novelist Catherine Cookson.
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