Album Notes

ABOUT THE BAND: The star is of course the front man and bandleader, Mr J Evans himself. He's the one who provides the vocals and most of the compositions, arrangements and guitar sounds.

A loner noted for his black, self-deprecating humour, he takes on a new persona when he's up there leading the band through a searing electric blues-laced piece of rock'n'roll.

"It's the most exciting thing I know," he confided. "It's always been the only thing I've really wanted to do."

Born in Dartford, southeast of London, John Evans has been playing guitar and singing since his early teens.

In the 1990s, he fronted The Business, later renamed Fat City, with his friend Eli Eliasen. They successfully rose to the challenge of entertaining rough, tough and boozy audiences with some full-on rock on two German tours.

A subsequent one-man show interlude saw the singer-songwriter JJ Evans, as he then called himself, open for Nina Simone at the Albert Hall in 1998, among other things.

But by 2003 the Charles Baudelaire of West Hendon wanted back in the rock'n'roll mainstream. It was time to aim high and go for the full works, an album with a complete, commercial rock'n'roll, pop and soul sound.

"In the Wild Years" is the result of nearly a year of struggle in putting together the J Evans Band and getting that sound right on record.

ABOUT THE SONGS: The title track is the beautiful rolling rock ballad 'In the Wild Years'. Inspired by J Evans' time in Paris, when he was a street musician, it captures both the pathos and the joy of youth. There are some brilliant guitar licks which are a pure joy to the ear!

'The End of the Night' and 'Sweet Salvation' are both rockers, but with a touch of class, while 'We're Not Lovers' and 'D T Blues' draw on that deep well of the blues form.

The poignant 'Love Just Slips Away' is very personal, yet easy to identify with.

Equally remarkable, 'Billy Stone' was originally conceived as the theme song of a film about a character on the periphery of London's underworld in the 1960s. As the sad song says, Billy was 'so loved but in the end so alone'.

A last-minute addition to the album is 'The Border Song', another mean blues. This one features some dynamite keyboard work.

And then there is the mysterious and highly original 'Harry's Back in Town'.

'Turn Up the Heat' is THE other stand-out number, and it closes the album. The haunting arangement manages to sound dark, stark, mean and sleazy all at the same time. 'This song is a nihilistic eulogy to hedonism,' its author explained.

There are just two cover-songs. 'Ain't Too Proud to Beg' was a huge hit for The Temptations and has also been covered by The Rolling Stones. 'It's My Life, Baby' was originally recorded by Bobby 'Blue' Bland. Johnny Winter did a fine version, but this cheeky treatment owes much to the genius of Chuck Berry.