John’s autobiography, Incidents Crowded With Life, which has been posted chapter-by-chapter on this website since January 2016, has now been published in book form by Fisher King Publishing.
It tells John’s story from his childhood in 1950s Lancashire, and goes up to October 1976, when he broke his back in an accident at his Earl’s Court flat.
It was published on March 26th, and is already getting rave reviews in magazines like Record Collector, Shindig and online review sites like Monolith Cocktail.
The book is for sale from Amazon and all good book shops.
Great news is that You Are The Cosmos Record Label have recently released Kid In A Big World on L.P. The album was first released in 1975 but has been unavailable on vinyl for decades, except on rare records sites. In 2003, Kid was issued on CD by RPM Records, which is for the time being now deleted.
So, this new release on LP, featuring the original 1975 artwork and lyric insert, has created quite a stir in JH World!
Not only is You Are The Cosmos releasing Kid on LP, they have also compiled a new album, The Hidden Beauty, featuring many of John’s 1970s recordings, rarities, outtakes, demos and long-deleted singles.
The LPs are available from Amazon, all good record shops, and from You Are The Cosmos direct.
In November 2016, my new album, ‘Across The Door Sill’ will be released by Occultation Recordings on LP, CD and download. Here is the link to the label’s dedicated John Howard web page:
You’ll find links there to information about Across The Door Sill, including Ordering Links to how to buy the LP, CD or download direct from the label’s website. Buying direct from Occultation will mean you receive, as well as your LP or CD ordered, mp3s of all the tracks as soon as you have paid for your order, a beautifully-designed exclusive lyric insert, a lovely postcard designed by Christian Cook who did the ‘Door Sill’ sleeve designs, and a free download of a bonus track which was recorded during the ‘Door Sill’ sessions but not included on the LP or CD. There is also a JH Through The Years photo gallery, an album sleeves gallery featuring every one of my albums released since my 1975 debut, track-by-track notes on the new album, and videos which have been made for each track on the album.
The album has just five tracks, but worry not, it’s not a ‘mini-album’ or an E.P., it’s a full-length album, with a running time of 40 minutes (20 minutes a side for the vinyl version). Three of the tracks are just under ten minutes long, another is almost seven minutes long. I wanted to try a new concept for this album, my fifteenth studio album release. If you go to Occultation’s JH web page (link above) you can read all about how I wrote and recorded it, using a stream-of-consciousness method, working very much in a free-form way, rather than the usual verse/chorus/middle eight pop method. My inspirations for the album were Roy Harper (whose 1971 album, ‘Stormcock’ had just four tracks) and Laura Nyro, who often worked in a free-form manner when writing her songs. I didn’t realise it when I was recording the album, but when Nick Halliwell of Occultation said ‘Across The Door Sill’ reminded him of Judee Sill, I realised just how much her music had inspired me somewhere from my love of her work in the early ’70s.
Here is the first video posted from the album, the opening track, ‘Who Cares’:
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