Jo Callis

Jo Callis - © Jo Callis 2008

born on 2/5/1951 in Rotherham, Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Jo Callis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Jo Callis
Birth name John William Callis
Born May 2 1951
Rotherham, England
Genres Punk rock
New Wave
Post-punk
Synthpop
Occupations Instrumentalist
Instruments Synthesizer, Keyboards, Guitar
Years active 1977 - 1990
Labels Various
Associated acts The Rezillos, Shake, Boots For Dancing, The Human League

Jo Callis (born John William Callis 2 May 1951, Rotherham) is an English musician who played guitar with the Edinburgh based punk rock band, The Rezillos (under the name Luke Warm), and post-punk band Boots For Dancing before joining The Human League.[1]

Biography

Callis was educated at the Edinburgh College of Art.. He was a member of The Knutsford Dominators before forming The Rezillos in 1976.[1] He wrote the Rezillos' 1978 hit "Top of the Pops". In late 1978, after the release of the band's only album, The Rezillos split in two, with Callis forming Shake along with Simon Templar (b. Simon Bloomfield) and Angel Patterson.[1] Shake released two singles before splitting, with Callis later joining Boots for Dancing. Callis released a solo single, "Woah Yeah!", in 1981 on the pop:Aural label,[2] and also joined The Human League, playing both keyboards and lead guitar and making contributions as a backing vocalist.[1] Callis co-wrote many tracks and following his departure from the band in 1986, he has returned several times either to play keyboard, or to offer help with songwriting.

In 1985 he teamed up with Feargal Sharkey to write Sharkey's "Loving You" which reached number 25 in the UK Singles Chart.

Solo discography

  • "Woah Yeah!" b/w "Sinistrale", "Dodo Boys" (1981), pop:Aural

See also

  • List of guitarists
  • List of musicians who play left handed
  • Bands and musicians from Yorkshire and North East England

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Strong, Martin C. (2003) The Great Indie Discography, Canongate, ISBN 1-84195-335-0, p. 130-1, 240
  2. Gimarc, George (2005) Punk Diary: The Ultimate Trainspotter's Guide to Underground Rock 1970-1982, Backbeat Books, ISBN 0-87930-848-6, p. 502

External links

This page was last modified 03.09.2010 08:56:02

This article uses material from the article Jo Callis from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.