Howard, John -& The Night Mail-
Howard, John -& The Night Mail-
In 1975 CBS released "Kid in a Big World", the debut LP by a golden-voiced young piano man called John Howard. But somehow, between glam and pub rock, this early masterpiece fell through the gaps. The world may have been ready for Bowie flirting with androgyny, but not quite ready yet for an out gay pop star. Forty years on, Canterbury-based/Vienna-born pop writer and musician Robert Rotifer enticed this living singer-songwriter legend back to England from his Spanish exile to work on the collaborative project John Howard & The Night Mail. Apart from Howard himself on vocals and piano and Rotifer on guitar the band features Andy Lewis (Paul Weller's bassist, DJ and Acid Jazz regular) on bass and mellotron and Ian Button (Papernut Cambridge, ex-Death in Vegas, ex-Thrashing Doves) on drums. Apart from the Roddy Frame cover "Small World" ("Great! Brilliant! I'm flattered," says Frame) Lewis, Button and Rotifer are sharing all the writing credits with John Howard.