John Young (musician)

John Young
John Young at "Baltic Progressive festival" in Lithuania.
Background information
Birth name	John Smith
Born	(1956-05-31) 31 May 1956 (age 60) Liverpool, England
Genres	Progressive rock, rock, jazz fusion, pop
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, keyboards
Years active	1974 - present
Labels	Heritage Records
Associated acts	Lifesigns, John Young Band, Scorpions, Bonnie Tyler, Greenslade, Asia, John Wetton, Fish, The Law, Paul Rodgers, Qango, Uli Jon Roth, Roy Wood, Lucio Battisti
Website	[1]

John Young (born 31 May 1956) is a British rock musician from Liverpool. He is currently the keyboardist and singer for the progressive rock band Lifesigns.

Young spent his early years at the Liverpool Cathedral where he was classically trained on piano and vocals. His first bands were mainly semi-pro jazz rock bands, and he played in these into the mid 1980s. His first major break came in 1985 when he auditioned and became part of Uli Jon Roth's Band (ex-Scorpions). After a world tour, Young did studio and session work with artists including Steeleye Span and Bon Jovi. He formed a band with Jon Camp (Renaissance) which signed to Warner Bros, but failed to produce any material before the project was disbanded. Young went on to play with the MTV band in London and during this time he met John Wetton who asked him to join Asia for two European tours. Shortly after that he joined Paul Rodgers and Kenney Jones in a very short lived band called The Law. They played a single show at the Bowl in Milton Keynes with Bryan Adams and ZZ Top.

Young joined Bonnie Tyler in the mid 1990s and has since worked with her. In 2000, he's worked with another short lived band called Qango including John Wetton on bass and vocals, Dave Kilminster on guitars and back-up vocals and Carl Palmer on drums, as a spin off from Asia. They've published a live album, Live in the Hood later that year, consisting of material from Asia and Palmer's previous band ELP and one original song The last one home. And then later in 2001, Young joined the Scorpions for a world tour of their CD Acoustica. 2001 saw him co-writing the Fish album Fellini Days with John Wesley and also appearing on the resulting live album Fellini Nights. John Young has also worked as part of the re-generated Greenslade appearing on the albums Large Afternoon and Live 2001. He also toured with John Wetton, appearing on several live albums with the singer bass player, Live In Tokyo 1997, An evening With John Wetton in 2002 on which he appears on one song. He was also a part of the band for the live 2002 album, Live At The John Wetton Fan Convention also featuring Geoff Downes on keyboards, John Mitchell on guitars and back up vocals, Steve Christey on drums as well as John Wetton on bass and lead vocals.