Still hitting the right notes

Published 12:00 pm Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Have you noticed that the ‘80s are back? Leggings worn with baggy sweaters, pencil jeans and gaudy jewelry. It’s all back on the racks. It’s appropriate then that the performer coming to the Admiral Theatre Sept. 29 is also a blast from the past.

Keyboardist Howard Jones released his first single, “New Song” in the United Kingdom in 1983, breaking ground in the field of electronic music.

After several years at the top of the charts in the UK Jones broke into the American music scene in 1984 with his second album “Dream Into Action,” which featured the hit single “No One Is To Blame.” The song reached No. 1 on the United States single charts and has had more than 3 million radio plays. The album went platinum in the U.S., and took the synthesizer to new prominence on the ‘80s music scene. It also earned Jones the distinction of being one of the few British artists to break into America after the Beatles.

Rolling Stone magazine crowned him Keyboard Player of the Year in 1986, and in 1987 and ‘89 he toured the U.S. extensively.

Jones continued the album-release world-tour format until the early 1990s. Around that time he recorded “Working In The Backroom” on his own Dtox label and made it available only at live concerts and on his Web site. It has never been sold in stores.

In 1996 Jones took a break from the synthesizers and went acoustic. He is after all a classically trained pianist.

After touring for years with a battalion of electronic gear and performers, that year’s “The Acoustic Tour” featured simply Jones on grand piano and Carol Steele on percussion.

A career high came in 2001, when he was invited to play keyboards on Ringo Starr’s “Ringo’s AllStar Band” tour. That who’s who from the ‘80s lineup included former Supertramp frontman Roger Hodgson, dance-percussionist Sheila E, former Mott the Hoople singer Ian Hunter and King Crimson/Emerson, Lake and Palmer bassist Greg Lake.

On the tour he realized his dream of playing Keith Emerson’s classic keyboard arrangement, “Karn Evil 9.”

That same year Jones pioneered what was a fresh approach to “live recording” — each concert on “The Peaceful Tour” was recorded and digitally photographed, and a CD was produced and ready for sale the same night. He produced 19 such live CDs, then compiled a “best of” CD, “The Peaceful Tour Live,” at the end of the tour.

In 2002 he recorded an album of intimate piano solos, “Piano Solos for Friends and Loved Ones,” which is only available on his Web site. It is said to “express a soundscape of deep and tender emotion.”

Jones has continued to record and tour in a career that now spans two decades. He alternates between playing acoustic and electronic shows and continues to produce new works, not resting on his past hits.

Howard Jones performs 8 p.m. Sept. 29 at the Admiral Theatre, 515 Pacific Ave., Bremerton.

Tickets are $51 main floor dinner and show, with dinner at 6:30 p.m.; $20 main floor show only and loge, $15 balcony. All seats reserved. Tickets available at the box office or by phone at (360) 373-6743.