Johnny Warman

Born in Bethnal Green, London, Johnny Warman made his stage debut as a child, when his local school choir was judged proficient enough to appear in two productions at London's prestigious Royal Opera House, alongside Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi. By the mid-'70s, however, he had gravitated to rock, forming the band Bearded Lady and releasing a 1975 single, "Rock Star." It went nowhere and, when the band split, Warman signed solo with Ringo Starr's Ring-O label, releasing a single in 1977 and a Germany-only album, Hour Glass, two years later. (Maintaining contact with Starr, Warman co-wrote four songs with Starr in 1992 for the latter's Time Takes Time album.)

By 1980, Warman had formed a new band, Three Minutes — following their breakup, he took much of the band's repertoire for his next solo album, 1981's Walking into Mirrors, released by Elton John's Rocket label. Recorded with Peter Gabriel's then-current band, with Gabriel himself guesting on backing vocals on the single "Screaming Jets," Warman found himself with a major Australian hit. Unfortunately, the follow-up, 1983's From the Jungle to the New Horizons, did little, prompting Warman to abandon his own recording career and concentrate on songwriting. Since that time, his music has been recorded by acts as disparate as Jefferson Starship, Cheap Trick, House of Lords, Vanity 6, and Elaine Paige, while a union with Asia in 1992 saw him contribute to both the Aqua album and Geoff Downes' solo set. Warman returned to the stage around 2000, forming two new bands, the Mods and Four Bills and a Ben. In addition, 2002 saw the long-overdue CD reissue of Walking into Mirrors.