JOHN HOWARD Celebrates 50 Years of Music With Re-Release of ‘Kid In A Big World’ Along With Original Demos

Here to hip you to a brand new release on the Kool Kat label – APRIL 21 – “KID IN A BIG WORLD + THE ORIGINAL DEMOS” by JOHN HOWARD!!

2023 marks 50 years since John Howard moved to London and began recording demos of the songs which would comprise his debut LP, “Kid In A Big World”.  He’d brought the songs “Family Man”, the title track, “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”, “Third Man” and “Maybe Someday In Miami” with him from his home in the North of England, and over the next few months wrote several more, including “Goodbye Suzie”, “Spellbound”, “Deadly Nightshade”, “Missing Key” and “The Flame”.  

In January 1974, John was signed to CBS Records and went into Abbey Road Studios in April to begin recording the album with producer Tony Meehan. 

Compared to the demos, Tony made quite a few arrangement changes to the songs, especially “Missing Key”, “Maybe Someday In Miami” and “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”, and filled out all the songs with backing from Bob Henrit, Rod Argent, Dave Wintaur and, on “Maybe Someday In Miami”, Harry Gold’s Pieces of Eight in full 1930’s Palm Court mode. 

Tony left others virtually untouched in terms of the overall feel and sound of the original demos.  “The Flame”, “Goodbye Suzie”, “Spellbound” and “Deadly Nightshade” were simply given a great backing behind John’s piano and voice.  

In September of that year “Family Man” and the title track, which Meehan produced, were re-recorded at Apple Studios with Paul Phillips producing, those versions were included on the released LP.  It was felt that John’s original piano and voice demos were more in keeping with the label’s vision for those songs. 

The original versions of both songs were eventually released on the 2004’s “Technicolour Biography” CD.  The remaining demos included here remained unreleased and unheard since John recorded them in the Autumn of 1973/early 1974.  

To celebrate their 50th anniversary, “Kid In A Big World + The Original Demos” is a 2CD set that features the original 1975 album plus a second disc of John’s original demos which offer a fascinating insight into his original vision for the songs.  The running order of the demos disc reflects what Tony Meehan envisioned before CBS decided to open the LP with the first two singles “Goodbye Suzie” and “Family Man”, and close with the title track. 

As it’s a part of the album’s back story and was the originally-planned closing song, a previously unreleased demo of “Third Man” (a finished version was the B-side to the “Goodbye Suzie” single) produced by Eddy Pumer, of Fairfield Parlour and Kaleidoscope) closes the demos disc. 

The demos have been cleaned up and restored by Javier Roldon for this release, a fascinating addition for fans of the album, that completes the story of this long-admired piece of work.

Pre-order the album here.