Jona Lewie - Some great 45's

• Jona Lewie (born John Lewis, 14 March 1947, Southampton) is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.

• Lewie formed his first group, Dramatis Personae, while still at school in 1964, and started in the music industry as a session pianist, before joining the already popular cult rock band, Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts, in the late 1960s. The group has been a popular live act for 40 years, their mainstream hit single being "Seaside Shuffle" (1972), released under the one-off nom de disque Terry Dactyl and The Dinosaurs, "Seaside Shuffle" was an unashamedly commercial disc, quite at odds with the Thunderbolts' usual style, and reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart.
  

• However, Lewie looked likely to remain a part of a one-hit wonder until he was signed up by Stiff Records in 1977. Following appearances on the Stiff package tours, he finally scored a solo hit with the humorous synthpop number, "You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties" (1980) which made the British Top 20.

• Although his next single "Big Shot - Momentarily" failed to make any impact, by the end of the year he was back in the charts with what became his biggest (and, to date, last) UK hit, "Stop the Cavalry".
  

• Although now one of Britain's (and, incidentally, Germany's) most familiar Christmas singles, "Stop the Cavalry" was not originally intended as a Christmas song – it was released in late November after the record label spotted the line referring to the festival: "'I wish I was at home, for Christmas'". Not only this but the specific style of the brass instruments and bells in the chorus are very noticeable as a 'Christmas' style theme. The melody is loosely based on a theme from Swedish Rhapsody No. 1 by Hugo Alfvén, and its major musical elements copied directly from Mozart's Rondo in D Major, K382.
  
• He reached No 2 on the Australian chart in 1981 with "Louise (We Get It Right)", but failed to enter the Top 100 in U.K.
  
  
• His last single for Stiff came in 1983, the lovely and quite strange "Love Detonator" flopped big time, and Jona took a long break from the music industry.

• Lewie has not performed for many years but is currently recording a new album for release in 2008.

Track-List:

1. Terry Dactyl and The Dinosaurs - Sea Side Shuffle (1972)
2. You'll always find me in the kitchen at parties (1980)
3. Big Shot - Momentarily (1980)
4. Stop The Cavalry (1980)
5. Louise (We Get It Right) (1981)
6. Love Detonator (1982)
7. Love Detonator (Extended Version (1983)

Music-Videoes:

1. You'll always find me in the kitchen at parties
2. Stop The Cavalry
3. Louise (We Get It Right)

More info about Jona Lewie