John Young started playing in bands about the same time as his choral career (at Liverpool Cathedral) was coming to an end 1974-76. He missed out on a number of opportunities in his early years including playing with Manchester based 10CC. He worked semi pro mostly in jazz rock bands until the mid 1980's.

In 1985 John Young answered an ad in the Melody Maker that read "keyboard player wanted for World Tour". He duly turned up in a room in London along with 6 guys from Berkeley and awaited his turn. In the audition room was a long haired guitarist called Uli Jon Roth (ex the Scorpions). He said: "I am going to solo in different keys and I want you to add chords underneath. As soon as you are in the right key I will change key and you must then use your initiative to join me in that key". Off they went for about 5 minutes after which John threw his hands in the air and said: "Enough, I can't do this!" Uli Jon turned and said: "Well, you lasted longer than anyone else". John then said: "Where's the sustain pedal?". Uli Jon replied: "You did it without a sustain pedal?! You've got the job!!". And so John entered the music business proper.

Life has been turbulent since then (to say the least) and John would need a book to actually tell the whole story. A potted history is as follows...

John Young did the World tour and returned home to find the management company had used one of his credit cards to fund a portion of the hotel costs. It took him two years working in a studio to pay it off during which time he worked with a lot of bands ranging from Steeleye Span to Bon Jovi.

He formed his own band called 'Cathedral' which signed to Warner Brothers but got no further sadly.

John played with the MTV band in London and then met a chap called John Wetton who asked him to join Asia for two European tours. Shortly after that he joined Paul Rodgers and Kenney Jones in a very short lived band called The Law. They played one show at the Bowl in Milton Keynes with Bryan Adams and ZZ Top ...it was a great day out but that's as far as it went.

John Young joined Bonnie Tyler some 14 years ago and have worked with her all over the world since then. They rarely play in the UK sadly but it's been great fun and the band and crew are a great bunch. In 2001 John joined The Scorpions for a world tour of their CD Acoustica and they played their last gig last year to 40,000 people at the Egyptian Pyramids.

John Young is currently working with Jon Anderson (Yes) and Matt Malley (Counting Crows) on two separate writing projects in California. He chooses to write the music he believes in and not follows fashion. He is totally opposed to all things reality and celebrity and the dumbing down effect it has on society as a whole.

A chap from Virgin in Germany once said to him "I think your music is excellent John ...you just may not be alive to reap the rewards :-)" John dare says many a composer has had to face up to that one!!

Over the years John has been fortunate enough to play with everyone from George and Ringo to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. He has played and written with some of his musical heroes...and some still are :-)

John has music released in many genres rock, pop, classical, jazz, world, electronica, ambient and dance...and you may just have heard a tune or two...one of his semi-classical works was used by C.N.N. on their coverage of the aftermath of war in Iraq and he is a regular on National Geographic, Discovery Channel etc etc plus the BBC used some of his ambient music for Coast recently.

For further information, please visit myspace.com/johnyoungband