I went to see one of the musical influences of my youth, Howard Jones, perform last Friday night at the Dennis Flyer Memorial Theatre on the Blackwood, N.J., campus of Camden County College. The venue seats about 600, but — disappointingly — it was only about half-filled. However, that did make for a very intimate performance.
HoJo, better known for his synthesizer-driven pop hits of the 1980s, played digital piano and was accompanied by long-time collaborator Robin “The Itch” Boult on acoustic guitar. I wound up buying a live CD from a show the pair recorded last year in the UK and had HoJo sign it after the show. I would have taken a picture of this brief meeting…except my camera batteries died and I forgot to bring extras with me. D’oh!
Anyway, I found this YouTube video of HoJo and Robin performing “Life in One Day” in Brisbane from a March 2007 show.
UPDATE…After I originally posted this, I found a couple of YouTube videos from the show I attended, plus one of HoJo and Robin performing “Life in One Day” at a March 2007 show in Brisbane.
Enjoy!
Howard Jones “Life in One Day” Live @ Brisbane, March 2007
This video starts out with HoJo telling a story about how the record company forced him to write it because the “suits” didn’t hear any hits on what would become his biggest-selling album (“Dream Into Action”)…and then there is a bit of a false start at the start of the song. But it’s all super fun!
Howard Jones “Like To Get To Know You Well” – Blackwood, NJ (1/18/08)
This video cuts off before the end of the song, but includes a funny story about how a translation of “Like to Get to Know You Well” into Japanese nearly destroyed Howard Jones’ career.
Howard Jones “No One is to Blame” – Blackwood, NJ (1/18/08)
No funny stories here…just HoJo performing his classic hit, “No One is to Blame,” the way it was meant to be heard (i.e., without Phil Collins messing around with it).
Tandem With The Random 