Johnny Warman - From The Jungle 1981-1983

From The Jungle 1981-1983

1981 saw the most chart successful period in Johnny Warman's career with the all but universal release of his second solo album Walking Into Mirrors. The sound was heavily rooted in demos and performances by Warman's former band 3 Minutes although neither of the two former band members featured on the album. Warman attempted to hire the best possible array of musicians for his new album, originally suggesting that Phil Collins play the drums. Due to a schedule conflict Phil was unavailable and suggested Jerry Marotta who at the time was in Peter Gabriel's backing band. Dave Lawson was brought in to play keyboards. Recording was set to begin to Townhouse Studios' Studio Two "The Stone Room" on the 9th December 1980. Recording started in earnest on time, but with the news of the sudden death of John Lennon in the air.

By the end of the first day of recording 4 backing tracks had been completed the first track being "Walking Into Mirrors". Over the next two weeks the album continued to develop, Tony Levin invited the musicians to The Record Plant in New York and Larry Fast also became involved in the project before moving the recording once more to the House Of Music in West Orange, New Jersey, during which time the Ampex tape the recordings were made on started to decompose. Prior to leaving for America Warman had asked Peter Gabriel if he would sing on the album to which he agreed, with the musicians moving to America and then returning to England they had forgotten that Peter had said he would contribute towards the album so were surprised one day when the phone rang informing them that Peter was on his way to the studio. Warman quickly had to choose which song he wanted Peter's vocals on and decided that he would sing on "Screaming Jets" a song Warman had written in 25 minutes after watching Apocalypse Now. Warman had been changing the arrangements on "Screaming Jets" and his vocal track had his commands on it for changing keys, which when Peter heard it he asked if that was staying and that he would try something like that on his next album. Warman then decided to keep the vocal track with the commands in as the master vocal track, even though Warman had had a cold at the time of recording. Warman, Peter and Larry then worked together on how the track should feel and what noises Peter should make which ended with Peter chanting throughout the record. Peter had arranged prior to coming to the studio that he would take a fee of £250, which Warman has since said was the best £250 he's ever spent.

The lead single from the album was "Dance With Me" which was backed by the non-album "King Robot". The second single was "Screaming Jets" backed by the non-album "American Machines" which was also released before the album. "Screaming Jets" also saw the creation of Warman's first music video which was directed by Jeff Baines. Warman was promised an Australian tour if the single sold 7,000 copies in Australia. The single sold 76,000 copies and reached number 9 in the Australian charts though the tour never happened. Warman did however appear on an episode of "Countdown" with Molly Meldrum which was filmed in London. The album was released in July 1981 in Great Britain, France, West Germany, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, The Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand and sold over 100,000 copies worldwide. A second music video was also made for the title track of the album "Walking Into Mirrors" also directed by Jeff Baines. Later in 1981 "Martian Summer" was also released as a single although only in the Netherlands and the final single from the album was a remix of "Three Minutes" backed with the non-album Jon Glass.

With Warman's success with the Walking Into Mirrors he took to the road including live and television performances in Sweden, West Germany, Belgium, France, Spain (Music Express), Portugal (Fiesta Fiesta), Great Britain, performing second on the bill to Ian Hunter at the New Pop Festival in Rotterdam in 1982. Rocket encouraged Warman to start work on a second Rocket album which he took to at The Manor Studios in Oxford. Warman invited back Jerry Marrota and Tony Levin as well as inviting Chris Payne of Dramatis (who at that time were Gary Numan's backing band) and Andy Clark who had just returned from backing David Bowie on tour. Warman's concept for the From The Jungle To The New Horizons album was the process from Apeman to Spaceman. The album would be a more musically complicated production than the previous Walking Into Mirrors album. Kiki Dee was invited to contribute backing vocals to (United) The State Of America and Looking Back (To See If Someone's Looking Back At Me). Although Kiki was only scheduled to work in the studio for one day she (as all the other musicians) enjoyed herself so much she stayed for three days. "Dream Dream Dream" was the lead and only single from the album being released on Rocket a month before the release on the album. Neither the single nor the album managed to make any impact in the charts and once again with the downsizing of Rocket Records Warman found himself without a record label even with all the successes of 1981/2 under his belt.