Jon Poole

Jonathan Charles Poole (born 16 October 1969), also known by his stage name Random Jon Poole, is an English musician and songwriter.

A multi-instrumentalist, singer and producer, he is best known for his work as guitarist for Cardiacs and as bass player for the Wildhearts and Lifesigns.

Poole is the frontman and main performer of God Damn Whores, co-fronts The Dowling Poole with Willie Dowling, and has released two solo albums.

He has also been a member of Ad Nauseam and Dr Brighton, and worked with the bands Ablemesh, La Momo, Crayola Lectern, Two Worlds Collide and Celebricide (as well as various projects founded by Ginger Wildheart).

He is currently the live bass player for Dr Hook Starring Dennis Locorriere, and has fulfilled the same role for The Lotus Eaters.

He is one of the only Cardiacs members to have entire Cardiacs songs credited to him (including concert favourite "A Horse's Tail"), the others being Tim Smith and Colvin Mayers (who wrote the song "Food on the Wall" from the 1979 7" single "A Bus for a Bus on the Bus"), though this is from the period of which the band went by Cardiac Arrest. Poole also co-wrote songs with Smith and Leith and was also credited with co-writing riffs and arrangements on Smith's own songs. During his Cardiacs stint, Poole also participated in a pair of Cardiacs-related projects, covering on keyboards for William D. Drake at a couple of Sea Nymphs live performances and playing guitar in a lineup of the Christian Hayes-led thrash band Panixsphere (alongside Tim Smith on bass guitar).

Following some early cassette experiments, Jon Poole's first proper band as writer and performer was the Cardiacs-inspired Ad Nauseam, formed after a move to Milton Keynes circa 1990.

Although Ad Nauseam had a shifting lineup Poole played, at various times, most of the instruments in the band, with the band's other constant member being lead singer and drummer Bob Leith.

Ad Nauseam released one cassette-only album, 4 Little Boys, but split up a short time later after Poole's recruitment into Cardiacs.

Poole has since expressed interest in an Ad Nauseam reunion, saying "I'd really like to do it if only to get it right this time but I don't know if it'll ever happen. I don't even know if it'd be the same line-up. Me and Bob would be there of course as it was always our band. I had a brief thought of doing a set of Ad Nauseam songs with some more obscure Cardiacs songs chucked in such as "Bitter Pill" "Big Noise In A Toy World" or "Stench Of Honey" but I'm not sure if that might just be naff."

Poole's work with Ad Nauseam (plus relentless "pestering", as a fan) had brought him to the attention of Cardiacs and their leader Tim Smith.

Although Poole left the band during the 1990s, Two Worlds Collide (currently managed by former Public Image Ltd publicist Helen Maleed) has continued with a lineup of Giblin, Leith and Marina Young, working on a second album and live performances.

While still a member of Cardiacs, Poole also played and worked with Ablemesh, a Milton Keynes art-rock band centred on singer/publicist Gordon Glass, guitarist/lyricist Sean Walmsley and drummer/photographer Wig Worland.

On hearing of guitarist Christian 'Bic' Hayes departure from Cardiacs in May 1991, Poole promptly put himself forward as a replacement candidate and was recruited into the band later in the year.

(Other members of the band during its 1991-1996 lifespan included drummers Bob Leith and Mark Turner, bass players Andy Allum, Sujay Jayaram and Allan Thompson, and keyboard player Mike Turbutt.) Fiercely independent, Ablemesh practised a multimedia approach to their combined art and explored various new ways of reaching an audience.

This included a distribution experiment anticipating the later practise of viral distribution, in which the band's 1992 Shareware EP was produced in an extremely limited run of three CDs only, with the CD's recipients simply invited to copy the music onto cassette free of charge and to pass it on.

The band repeated the experiment with the follow-up EP Fecund.

They also explored a related promotion idea by exploiting a loophole in the law which effectively allowed them to place dummy Ablemesh cassette releases on the shelves of the record departments of mainstream retailers such as Woolworths (each dummy copy contained an insert telling the reader where they can get mail order copies).

(His Ad Nauseam bandmate Bob Leith would also join the band as drummer, replacing the outgoing Dominic Luckman in December 1993.)

Poole stayed in Cardiacs for the next thirteen years, playing second guitar and singing backing vocals (plus playing keyboards on record).

He also played some of the group's bass guitar parts both on record and live (when covering for Cardiacs bass player Jim Smith).

He was noted for his parodic tapping-style guitar solos on live performances of the songs "Fiery Gun Hand" and "Anything I Can't Eat".

Poole appeared on two Cardiacs albums (the 1995 double album Sing To God and its 1999 follow-up Guns) as well as on the song "Faster Than Snakes With A Ball And A Chain" from Greatest Hits album.

Poole's main involvement with Ablemesh was in 1995, when he played bass guitar with the band, apparently "reinvented" many of their songs and produced their album Present Imperfect.

The latter was recorded entirely on an analogue cassette 4-track machine using Poole's determined and innovative production skills.

In 1995, Poole and Walmsley formed Dr Brighton, a more straightforward rock band with punk and pop influences.

Poole fronted the band, sharing guitar and vocal duties with Walmsley (with whom he also wrote the songs).

The rest of the band were current or former Ablemesh members - Allum on bass guitar, Turbutt on keyboards and percussion and Leith on drums.

The band recorded a number of tracks and played live, but did not release any albums or singles.

In 2000, due to Cardiacs' influence on (and friendly relationship with) the Wildhearts, Poole began to work with Wildhearts leader Ginger on the latter's spin-off project Silver Ginger 5.

Poole played on the Black Leather Mojo album (produced by Tim Smith) and joined the Silver Ginger 5 live band as bass player.

It was on the first day of Silver Ginger 5 rehearsals that Poole gained his nickname of "Random Jon".

Poole's work with Silver Ginger 5 led directly to him joining the Wildhearts in 2003 (replacing Danny McCormack on bass).

Poole left Cardiacs amicably in 2004 due to other musical commitments, and has remained a friend and fan.

On joining Cardiacs, Poole befriended the band's guitar technician - the former Alternative TV guitarist Clive Giblin was hired in the role - and was subsequently drawn into a Giblin songwriting project "specifically designed to put the listener on edge."

This project became Two Worlds Collide, which Poole contributed to using virtually every instrument he played (initially guitar and keyboards, followed by bass guitar and finally, in a later line-up) drums). Two Cardiacs drummers - Bob Leith and Dominic Luckman - also played drums for the project at various times.

This move ultimately led to him leaving Cardiacs in 2004 due to the demands of the Wildhearts' touring schedule.

When the Wildhearts split up again in 2005, Poole continued to play as part of Ginger's band Ginger & the Sonic Circus and on Ginger's solo tours and albums.

During Poole's tenure, Two Worlds Collide recorded the Sympathetic Storm album (eventually released in 2006 by the Le Cluricaun label. ) but did not play live due to the members' other commitments.

The album remained unreleased until 2006 when a remastered version was made available as a download via the Ablemesh homepage.