John Perry

Who is John Perry?

John Perry is an English musician, best known as guitarist with The Only Ones, a new wave rock band from London.

The Only Ones came out of London in the middle of Punk and, rather like the New York band Television with whom they later toured, suffered from being too musical for lumpen-punk but too "new" for conservative record business sensibilities. Separately both John and Richard Lloyd have made press statements to the effect 'we were just mainstream rock bands who happened to appear while punk was happening'.

His guitar style is noted for a combination of attack and melody, a combination which one UK music mag was moved to describe as "very superb"

Other bands in which John played include The Ratbites from Hell and Decline and Fall. Perry has also worked with Johnny Thunders, Marianne Faithfull, Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, The Sisters of Mercy, Mick Green, Robert Palmer, Freddie Stevenson, Jayne County, Screaming Lord Sutch, Nick Kent & The Subterraneans, Michael Nyman and Evan Dando of The Lemonheads. He was MD on the Johnny Thunders/Patti Palladin album Copycats.

John started out with local, late-60's bands in Bristol, then at 20 joined a loose bunch of musicians centered around The Pink Fairies, Hawkwind and other UK Underground bands. After playing the 1971 Glastonbury Fayre there followed a series of tours - Britain, Holland, Germany - and annual festivals in Pilton, Oxford, Trentishoe et al.