Paul Jones (singer)
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Paul Jones (born Paul Pond, 24 February 1942, in Portsmouth, England) is an English singer, actor, harmonica player, and radio and television presenter.
In 1962, Jones became resident-singer with Alexis Korner's Bluesbreakers (alongside Long John Baldry, both towering out above a shorter third vocalist, aspiring Michael 'Mick' Jagger).
Jones then went on to be the vocalist and harmonica player of the successful 1960s group, Manfred Mann. He had several Top Ten hits with Manfred Mann before going solo in 1966.
He was less successful without the band than they were with his replacement, but did have a few hits, notably with "High Time" (1966) and "I've Been a Bad, Bad Boy" and "Thinkin' Ain't For Me" (both 1967), before attempting to break into acting.
His performance opposite model Jean Shrimpton in 1967 film Privilege, directed by Peter Watkins, did not bring the hoped-for stardom, although the film, a satirically dystopian view of the pop world, later became something of a cult classic. In 1972 Paul recorded "Crucifix in a Horseshoe" with White Cloud a New York based session group featuring Teddy Wender on keyboards and Kenny Kosek on fiddle![1] It was not until the 1990s that Jones became a familiar face on television in the children's series, Uncle Jack. In the meantime, he enjoyed a parallel career as presenter of radio programmes focusing mainly on rhythm and blues, notably a long-running weekly show on BBC Radio 2.
Jones met and married the actress Fiona Hendley in the mid-1980s. The pair were converted to Christianity around the same time, and in the 1990s toured Britain with a gospel show discussing their faith. Together they present The 700 Club With Paul and Fiona, a UK version of Pat Robertson's The 700 Club.
He is also a member of The Blues Band and The Manfreds, a group reuniting many original members of Manfred Mann, and has also played harmonica as a session musician on recordings by Gerry Rafferty, Dave Edmunds, Katie Melua and others.
Despite the insistances of many people claiming otherwise, he is not the father of the writer Matt Jones.
