John Miles is 65 years old today. If you have to ask the question who is John Miles, next you’ll be asking who was John Lennon?
To be fair, the name John Miles is nowhere nearly as well known as that of the ill-fated former Beatle, but thankfully he wasn’t cut down by an assassin’s bullet at the age of forty. Admittedly, he hasn’t produced an enormous body of work since the 1980s, but his first four albums, released 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979 constitute the bedrock of a unique sound. Although he had a massive hit with the single Music, it is fair to say that John Miles is to the UK what Aldo Nova is to Canada.
You can find his music on YouTube, and on his website, but better still, how about visiting Amazon and buying something? Where to start?
This is a purely subjective judgment, but of the early albums, Zaragon and More Miles Per Hour are the best. Both albums were co-written with bass player and regular collaborator Bob Marshall. Zaragon contains some fine uptempo, commercial rock. More Miles Per Hour also features some blistering tracks. Very few rock bands have used lead guitar backed by strings, the exceptions being early Deep Purple and the odd UFO track; here, multi-instrumentalist Miles follows in their footsteps with Fella In The Cellar and We All Fall Down.
But what has he been doing since the 1970s? More to the point, what is he doing now? He has some tournament dates lined up in Europe later this year for his regular Night Of The Proms, and if you want to keep up abreast, there is a John Miles mailing list on Yahoo! Groups.
He may now technically be an old man, but music like his will never die, and crosses all barriers, including those of age.
A recording of Satisfied from the classic John Miles album More Miles Per Hour
[The above article was first published April 23, 2014. John Miles died December 5, 2021 aged 72. I found this out only in 2023. Re the above, a small copy of the image was generated by the software when I wrote this article. I have included a full size image. Yahoo! Groups no longer exist although some, perhaps all, have been archived. This article was originally linked to a recording of Satisfied. The uploaded version here was downloaded from YouTube, and is, to quote the uploader (verbatim): “Audio extracted from the original recording room tapes, unsurpassed audio. Initial session for the album tok place on cote d’azur during november 1978, previewed a couple of the album’s tracks at the great britsh music festival at wembley in december, the recording was completed in munich in early 1979.” Finally, this John Miles website is extant, although I do not believe he ever had an official one.]
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