John Perry | |
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![]() John Perry recording in Cambridge, Mass. | |
Background information | |
Birth name | John M. Perry |
Born | Bristol, England | 4 June 1952
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Years active | 1971–present |
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John M. Perry is an English musician, songwriter, and author. He came to prominence in the mid-1970s as the guitarist for the English rock band the Only Ones.
The Only Ones came out of London during the first wave of punk (1976–77) and, rather like the New York bands the Heartbreakers and Television with whom they later toured, suffered from being too musical for lumpen-punk but too "new" for conservative record business sensibilities. Though they were lumped in with the new wave vanguard, the band were too musically literate—not to mention long in the tooth—to be punks. Rather they were sophisticated guitar rockers whose sound embraced all flavors of 1950s and 1960s rock.[1] Although never a huge commercial success, the band are highly influential.[2]
Perry's guitar style is noted for a combination of attack and melody, a mixture that the UK music magazine Sounds described as being "very superb".[3]