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Just for a laugh, on a Saturday afternoon in April 1987, while Name Card was at the Wallsend Forum Co-op, Jowls nipped into Alnwick Street Studios to lay down the vocal tracks for his forthcoming album 'Tony Reynolds Sings Blue Tree'.

Did he know the legend he was to create that rain soaked gray Wallsend afternoon? As he sang his hero-worship drenched homage to the little remembered writer of those 'Blue Tree' ditties, did Tony Reynolds (his little known pre-fame name by birth) imagine the effect this music would have on a Thatcher dulled world? Now, years later, the answers seem obvious. No!

Only an imagination driven by four wild horses could anticipate the remarkable outcome of that first recording session. Unbelievable as it seems now, there are no photographs of that historic session, in fact, the original master tapes were thought lost (wiped over by a Decota Pains tuneless demo) until a thorough trawl through the Alnwick Street Studio archives revealed this hidden treasure. Now put together for the first and only time, the complete Jowls anthology has been lovingly and digitally restored by the still anonymous producer, so sit back, put your feet on the pouffe and sing along.


		With an eye on history, it could be said that not since the release of The Beatles’ 'Please Please Me' has a first album had such an impact on the tastes of the music lover.

'Jowls Sings Blue Tree' came as a shot in the dark and a bolt from the blue (tree). Originally recorded as a low budget mono project for the 1987 boat holiday, the album was at first dismissed by the critics:“He just can't sing, the bloke's a nutter, he's crackers.” But soon the word spread, and that word was Jowls.

Kicking off with a literally dramatic version of 'Passion And Pain', the listening boat holiday crew were originally stunned by the stunningly original spoken narration of the chorus to this sonnet of torture.
Without time to recover their breath, the crew were taken to the dark, avant-garde jazz harmonized 'Shadows', then plunged straight into the sunlight of the optimistic 'Laughs Along The Way'.
A silence, broken only by tape hiss, followed the last track 'Paris Gay', a rare rocker and a bringer of controversy when the title was misinterpreted by a member of the boat crew.

Lovers of the first Jowls album were in for a treat with the long awaited release of his follow up 'Jowls Sings Frank Sinatra'. As with all Jowls albums, stories and intrigue surround this release, enveloping it in a mist of mystery, a wrapping of rumour and a shawl of speculation.
A flagship of a start, 'I've Got You Under My Skin', bleeds with class, and points the sign post of Jowlsdom in the direction of a one way street to quality.
No other track has been the cause of so much speculation as 'Love For Sale'. The story goes that a second, more sexy, version of this was recorded, but the Alnwick Street executives refused a release on the grounds of prudence. As an act of defiance, Jowls ordered the instrumental soloist, said to be from the Sooty-Braiden Show Band, to play his solo by inflating a condom, then slowly letting the air out to obtain the correct pitch.
The album ends triumphantly on an inviting 'Come Fly With Me'.

An overwhelming success, 'Jowls Sings Frank Sinatra' witnessed massive sales and the awarding to its producer of the Perborate Prize for Social Activity


		Surprising everyone, Jowls’ next release was to take the form of a girl-boy duet. If stories evolved about the making of his previous albums, they were as nothing to the Henry Ford-like mass production of speculation, which in time would form the raw materials of the Jowls myth making industry.

It was announced the lucky girl was to be ‘Lesley’. A million hearts were broken as this million pound project went into production. Top class musicians, arrangers and producers were hired to make this third Jowls album a million miles better than anything before.

Smashing into 'Did You Ever', the album's start left the Jowls and Lesley fans wondering - did they ever? Dashing up behind came 'Cinderella Rockafella' - did Lesley rock-her-fella? The complex 'Lets Call The Whole Thing Off' shows that Jowls, despite his rocketing into celebrity status, was not too humble to acknowledge his low-life North-East working-class roots by singing the last verse in his native language. The guards van to this hurtling train of first class music was the tear jerking 'Somethin’ Stupid'. A sensitive and sometimes touching torch song to unspent love.


Over the years no more was heard of Jowls. As usual, the stories came and went. Stories of a new album of Eurovision Song Contest Hits, said to be called 'Jingly-Jangly-Jowls' or 'Boom-Bang-a-Box-On-a-String' circulated for a while to fill the vacuum fans felt for their favourite (rocka)fella.

There was even talk of a 'Desert Island Jowls', but sadly the script was cast away before it reached the BBC.

Keep a place in you MFI flat-pack CD rack for this Jowls anthology. Take it out from time to time and dust it down. Maybe have yourself a well earned break from the spring cleaning, stick the kettle on, put your feet up, and sing along to the phenomena that was Jowls.

Click below to hear a selection of Jowls tracks.