Paul Jones (born Paul Adrian Pond, 24 February 1942) is an English singer, actor, harmonicist, radio personality and television presenter. He first came to prominence as the original lead singer and harmonicist of the rock band Manfred Mann (1962–66) with whom he had several hit records including "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" (UK #1, US #1) and "Pretty Flamingo" (UK #1).
After leaving the band, Jones established a solo career and starred as a deified pop star in the 1967 film Privilege. In 1979, he formed The Blues Band, and toured with them until their breakup in 2022. He presented The Blues Show on BBC Radio 2 for thirty-two years, from 1986 to 2018, and continues to perform alongside former Manfred Mann bandmates in the Manfreds.
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Links to Peel[]
Peel played some of Manfred Mann's material on his shows, including some tracks which featured Paul Jones as member. His solo singles of 1966-67 were played on Radio London and Peel may have featured them when he hosted daytime shows on the station. During the mid-1960s, Paul Jones was one of the more articulate and outspoken pop stars of the era, as he showed in interviews on TV and in Melody Maker and other pop weeklies, but he had no interest in the hippy culture that Peel was encouraging on the Perfumed Garden. In one MM interview he dismissed the Grateful Dead as "just the Pretty Things in drag".
In the 1970s Jones developed his acting career while pursuing musical projects, not many of them of interest to Peel. An exception was Carla Bley's 1971 album Escalator Over the Hill, on which he appeared but didn't play a major role. In the late 70's, Peel played Paul Jones's easy listening covers of punk songs from the Sex Pistols' Pretty Vacant and the Ramones' Sheena Is A Punk Rocker, which appeared on both sides of a single produced by Tim Rice and released on Robert Stigwood's RSO label, hardly a home of punk.
Paul Jones later became a respected Radio Two broadcaster and host of the station's long-running blues show, yet despite Peel's love of the blues he is not known to have recommended Jones's show on air, or to have appeared on it as a studio guest. However, he did contribute to Pepper Forever!, a 1997 Radio Two documentary narrated by Jones on the thirtieth anniversary of the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP.
Shows Played[]
- PM074: Pretty Vacant (7" - Pretty Vacant / Sheena Is A Punk Rocker) RSO
- PM074: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker (7" - Pretty Vacant / Sheena Is A Punk Rocker) RSO