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Jim is best loved for his million selling hits "I Won’t Let You Down",
"I Should Have Known Better", "Hi Ho Silver"
and his beautifully haunting voice …
- Born in Glasgow’s East End, Jim, heavily influenced by the voices of Ray Charles and
Otis Redding ,joined his first band at the age of 14. Moving to London, he formed the band
Bandit and went on to sign to Clive Davis’ Arista Records. This brought his voice to the
attention of the Godfather of British Blues, Alexis Korner, who invited him to work with
him on his "Just Easy" album.
- Jim was then approached to go to Los Angeles to form a band
with Earl Slick (guitarist on Bowie's "Young Americans") and Carmine Appice from Rod
Stewart’s band. All three went on to write and record with Eddie Kramer, the legendary
producer of Jimmi Hendrix. While in LA, Jim was asked to return to London to hook up with
Tony Hymas and Simon Phillips from the Jeff Beck band and so Ph.D were formed. The first single
taken from "Ph.D The Album",
"I Won’t Let You Down" went on to sell millions and become the
classic song that it is today. The second album "Is it Safe?"
also included a European hit, "I Didn’t Know", which included
Jeff Beck on guitar.
- When Ph.D went their separate ways, Jim signed to A&M Records. Taken from his 1984 solo album
"Double Crossed" the single "I Should Have
Known Better" went straight to No.1 and went on to be
nominated for an Ivor Novello award. The song’s success became synonymous with the Band Aid single
released at the same time when Jim urged the public to buy the charity single and not his own.
- His next single "Hi Ho Silver" taken from his second solo album
"Desire for Freedom" scored Jim
another top ten hit.
- In 1993 Jim was approached by Polygram records to write and record an
album, and teaming up with Graham Lyle they released his top twenty eponymous album that year.
After which, Jim went on the road to perform his songs acoustically in art centres across
the country ending up at the Edinburgh Festival where The Scotsman described him, in their
5 star review, as Scotland’s answer to Ray Charles and a writer of hidden depth.
- In the late nineties Jim met up with saxophonist Snake Davis (MD of M People), and discovering
a shared love of blues and soul they joined forces and performed together to critical acclaim.
- Through Snake, Jim then met hammond player extraordinaire Paul Birchall and together they set
about writing and recording Jim’s new album "SOULED AND HEALED", released on the 7th February
on Hypertension Records. (HYP 5234)
And so a life in music goes on…..
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 Live at 'The Foyer', University of Sheffield, Feb 6 2005 |