Johnny Warman

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Johnny Warman (born 1950s) is a London-born singer songwriter best known for his 1981 recording "Walking Into Mirrors".

[edit] Biography

Born in Bethnal Green, East London, he joined local band Bearded Lady in early 1970s. Mainly a live act, they released one single "Rock Star" on the YoungBlood label in 1975. Gigging by night, Warman worked a day job to support a wife and two daughters, Zowie and Tammy. Ambitiously he soon departed Bearded Lady to try his hand as a solo artist.

He approached Arista Records with three of his songs, but was rejected. Unperturbed he then touted the same demo tapes throughout the industry, to be finally signed by Richard Starkey's Ring O Records in 1977. The first release of this new solo act was a three-track EP single and an album called Hour Glass released in Germany by RCA in 1979.

Hour Glass received strong reviews but failed to make any chart impact. Undaunted, Warman continued touring and began to work on his approach, veering away from the rock standard and creating his own sound, incorporating the energy and vitality of the developing punk scene. In 1980 this emerged as the band Three Minutes - a band which he now jokes lasted about the same length of time. They toured with XTC and The Vapors, but soon burned out and split up.

Material developed during the Three Minutes period became Warman's highly successful second album, Walking Into Mirrors, released in 1981 on Elton John's Rocket Records label. This album featured Peter Gabriel on backing vocals of one track - the best-selling single "Screaming Jets".

In 1983, the success of Walking Into Mirrors spawned a followup From the Jungle to the New Horizons, again released by Rocket. Following poor sales of that album, and the closure of the Rocket label, Warman turned to writing tracks for other acts such as Ringo Starr (four Warman co-penned tracks appear on 1992's Time Takes Time), Starship, Asia, Cheap Trick and Elaine Paige among others.

Since then he has been involved with two London bands, the session-supergroup 4 Bills and a Ben, and its derivative The Mods, who played at the Steve Marriott tribute in 2001.