“I must have been the only guitarist on the planet that didn’t learn to play from Burt Weedon’s ‘Play In A Day’ book”…
By Ian Woolley
So says the ex-Argent guitarist and singer as he hinted at finally writing his life story.
John Verity
“Oddly, I’ve been looking into my past because there’s talk of me writing a book. There’s a lot of stuff that happened in my early career which I couldn’t remember the details of. I’ve kind of been researching a lot of things about my past in terms of music. The first proper band I was in back in 1963 was just a local band in my hometown of Bradford and it wasn’t until about ’66 or ’67 that I was traveling around the world.”
“Regarding the book, I haven’t 100% made up my mind to do the book yet but people have been asking me to do it for years. Over lockdown, I had a private group of followers and we helped each other through the whole thing really and I was telling them a lot of stories. A lot of them were pestering me that I have to write a book so I think I might.”
The rocker certainly has a lot of stories to tell. He supported the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin in the states in his band Tunnel and before that, Richard Kent Style was the first group where he became a polished guitarist.
I asked him what those early times were like.
“It was amazing really but in the trade, we say a gig’s a gig. It doesn’t make a fantastic amount of difference as you still approach it like any other show and often it’s in front of a lot of people. There’s a lot of pressure on you to perform well because back in those days the main band’s tour manager would make it as difficult as possible for us because we couldn’t be taking any of the glory away from the main band. It wasn’t a happy experience put it that way (John laughs).”
John (left) with Steve Rowland and Head of Probe records Dave Chapman at the signing of the contract.
After 3 years with Argent, along with Bob Henrit and Jim Rodford, he formed Phoenix, which soon signed to CBS records. The original line-up recorded the first album and toured Europe before recruiting Ray Minhinnet to share the guitar-playing duties in time for the second album scheduled for release on Rocket Records.
During this time Jim Rodford left to join the Kinks, and the line-up remained a 3 piece for the recording of In Full View for Charisma Records. John produced the Phoenix albums and co-produced the Charlie album Good Morning America as well as the first Saxon album during this time, and decided to divide his time between sessions and record production whilst Bob Henrit teamed up with Jim Rodford once again by joining the Kinks.
It was a different direction for the musician as John explained to me.
“During what would become the final Argent tour I had made up my mind to form another band anyway alongside the band. A lot of people were doing that back then for example Phil Collins with Genesis and Brand X doing slightly different stuff. So I wanted to do a pretty straight-ahead rock album and told the rest of the band. Bob Henrit the drummer and Jim Rodford the bassist said they’d like to come along and be in that new band which was great. So the 3 of us from Argent became what would become the band Pheonix.”
“That’s why the name. It was Pheonix rising from the ashes of Argent.”
Blues To My Soul
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of John forming the very first John Verity Band. “Passion” was released in 2020. Verity’s latest album, his 20th since the Argent days finds him once in the company of some great musicians. Called “Blues To My Soul”, it’s available now from his website (link below) plus the release of a lost Pheonix album “Out Of The Sun“.
On “Blues To My Soul”, John is once again in the company of some great musicians, continuing along his chosen path of blues-flavored originals and covers. As ever, the music is powerful yet soulful, mixing UK-style guitar blues influences with strong choruses, and lyrics bound to make you smile and perhaps even make you cry…
Conceived in 1977 but never released, the lost “Out Of The Sun” album is, at last, available in all its glory – one of the best rhythm sections in the business, Bob Henrit and Jim Rodford blowing up a storm behind JV, as always on guitar and vocals. Rod Argent provides some wonderful piano parts and together with Russ Ballard and JV provide the icing on the cake with stunning backing vocals on the track Fallin’.
“Lots of albums since the old Argent days so there’s a lot of me out there” chuckles John.
Read the full interview we had with John Verity in the January issue of the Beat. In it, John talks about helping to design his perfect guitar, who is his guitar Gods, joining Argent, and a word of warning on the future of venues. Order your copy today.
For more info on John Verity, go to www.johnverity.com