John Paul Young - One Foot In Front (1984) plus Bonus Tracks

(Australian 1972 - Present)
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In 1966 John Paul Young (known as Squeak or JPY) and his family moved from Glasgow, Scotland to Australia and settled in Sydney. John began is interest in music at an early age and learned to play the piano accordion.
John joined the Sydney based band Elm Tree in 1969. Members of Elm Tree included: Roger Barnett, Ollie Chojnacki, Phillip Edwards, Andy Imlah, Dave Kaentek, Ron Mazurkiewicz, Geoff Watts and John. Elm Tree had a following around Sydney, and were spotted by producer Martin Erdman, they cut one single for Erdman's Du Monde label. The cover Rainbow was released through Festival in November 1970. In 1971 Elm Tree entered Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds. Elm Tree broke up at the end of 1971.
John auditioned for Harry M. Miller’s production of Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice's rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar in 1972. John won a major supporting role. The show premiered in Sydney in mid-1972. As well as established theatrical performers, the cast featured leading pop-rock performers including Easybeat: Stevie Wright, John Paul Young, Marcia Hines and Air Supply. John left the show in February 1974.
John Paul Young became well known when working with producers/composers Harry Vanda and George Young. Simon Napier-Bell, producer and manager of many leading British acts at the time, produced John Paul Young’s debut solo recording for Alberts, the single "Pasadena" co-written by Vanda & George Young and English actor David Hemming. Pasadena charted at #10 on the Sydney charts, followed by "You Drive Me Crazy" in February 1973.
He signed to Alberts as a solo artist and released the single "It's Only Love" in March 1974. John was supported by the ABC's top-rating weekly pop show Countdown.

Between 1975 and 1980 John was one of the most popular male performers in Australia. His records were hugely success overseas. His records topped the charts in Europe, the USA and South Africa.

In March 1975 Alberts released John Paul Young’s recording of Vanda & Young's Yesterday's Hero, a song about the fleeting nature of pop stardom. The record hit the national charts in April, reaching #1 and staying at #1 on the Melbourne charts for six weeks. "Yesterday's Hero" sold strongly in the USA and reached #42 on the Cashbox top one hundred. A key factor to "Yesterday's Hero" success was the film clip made to promote it, which enabled the song to be given exposure on Countdown (following the official start of colour TV broadcasting March 1, 1975. The Hero LP reached #20 on the charts in November 1975 and became a gold record.
John made two national tours during the year, one of which was a joint headliner with Sherbet. In order to be able to tour regularly in support of the Singles and album, John had a backing band named the All Stars. Members of The All Stars included: Warren ‘Pig’ Morgan, Johnny Dick, Ian “Willie” Winter, Ronnie Peel, Ray Arnott, Vince Meloney, Kevin Borich, Phil Manning and Tony Mitchell.
John's next single "The Love Game", released in August 1975. "The Love Game" became John's second national Top 5 hit and peaked at #9 in Melbourne during October. In November 1975 he released his debut album, Hero, entirely written and produced by Vanda & Young.
In March 1976 John released the top 5 hit single "I Hate the Music", the single reached #3 nationally in April and gained gold status.

Later in the year Alberts released John's second album, J.P.Y. It reached #10 on the album chart and it achieved platinum status with sales of over 70,000. The album included: "Won't Let This Feeling Go By", "Give It Time" and "The Painting".

"I Wanna Do It With You" was released in February 1977, it reached #8 nationally and #11 in Melbourne. John Paul Young and the All Stars recorded the album Green, which was released in March, 1977. Five tracks were co-written by John and Warren Morgan. The next single, "Here We Go" was released in April at the start of a three month national tour.
"Where the Action Is" was released in September 1977, In December, Alberts released the Christmas compilation All The Best, and John Paul Young and the All Stars toured capital cities in Australia, by the end of the year the Green album had received gold LP status.
In January 1978 with the disco beat now popular, the dance-oriented single "Standing in the Rain" from the J.P.Y. album was released overseas and went to #6. To support the release John toured Germany and Holland in August. "Standing In the Rain" went to #1 in South Africa, and made the Top 10 in Germany and Holland, the Top 40 in France and the US Top 100.

In June 1978 John Paul Young released Vanda & Young's "Love Is in the Air"; it is one of the best known of all Australian popular songs and was included on the soundtrack of the hit film Strictly Ballroom and by its use in the Sydney Olympics closing ceremony. John toured extensively throughout Europe, United Kingdom and the USA. John Paul Young appeared on Top of the Pops. In September 1978 John toured nationally. "The Day that My Heart Caught Fire" went to the national top twenty, reaching #18 in September. He was awarded TV Weeks - King of Pop. He released "Fool In Love" in December of the same year.

A greatest hits album John Paul Young 1974-1979 came out on the budget Hammard label, and Alberts released the single "Heaven Sent" in August 1979 and a new album of the same name was released in November. John released the single "Hot For You Baby" in January 1980 and ended his contract with Alberts. He recorded an album of 1960s rock and pop favourites called The Singer in 1981. John released the single Oh No No in July 1982 on the Southern Cross label.

In 1983, John signed to the Australian branch of German label I.C. Records. He flew to Germany with producer, composer and keyboard player John Capek to record a new album, with sessions at Horus Sound Studios, Hanover and Union Studios, Munich, Los Angeles, AAV Studios Melbourne and Albert Studio 2 Sydney. The result was the featured album 'One Foot In Front' in March 1984; One Foot In Front was renamed Soldier Of Fortune for the European market. It produced four singles including "Soldier of Fortune", "War Games", "L.A. Sunset" and "Call The Night".

Album Review
The album displayed a contemporary electro-pop sound. Most of the material had been written by John Capek and Canadian Marc Jordan, with one Young/Morgan composition `Cryin' Eyes'. `Soldier of Fortune' returned Young to the Australian Top 20 for the first time in five years when it reached #15 in December. "Soldier of Fortune" was picked as the theme song for the 1984 Disabled Olympics held in New York, and it also went on to be a hit in Germany. The album put Young back in the spotlight for a while, but apart from two more singles, "Spain"/"Money to Burn" (on EMI, October 1986) and "Don't Sing that Song"/"Here We Go" (for CBS, June 1989), he essentially retired from the music business. One Vanda and Young song, the whimsical acoustic tune "Lazy Days" (from the Love is in the Air album) summed up Young's philosophy best: amongst the hurly-burly of pop stardom, Young would rather be sitting on his sail boat with fishing line in hand and sipping wine.

In 1984, John retired from recording and performing, although he continued to work on and off as a radio DJ.
In 1992 "Love Is in the Air" was chosen as the theme song to director Baz Luhrmann's internationally acclaimed feature film Strictly Ballroom. A CD single of Love is in the air (Ballroom Mix) was released in August 1992 through Albert/Sony and peaked at #4 in Australia.

John Paul Young went to Spain to appear on two of Spanish television, European networks, Japan to perform for members of the Royal Family, Thailand and Fiji. He appeared at many events including: the Sydney Olympic bid, the AFI Awards, the Australian Music Awards and the Australian Grand Prix Ball.

In 1993 John Paul Young appeared in the re-opening of Newcastle Civic Theatre production titled A Rare Jewell with cast: Geraldine Turner,John Macternan, Michelle Pettigrove, Terry Serio, Celia Ireland and Peter Ross. Special guests included: Bill Smith, David Wood, The Tap Brothers, The Curvettes, Irene Waugh, Nola Wallace, Clair McHugh, Jamie Redfern, Shirley Purvis, Ian Sandercoe and John Paul Young.

In 1996 John recorded a new album, which included a re-recorded version of Love Is in the Air. The single was released in August. John returned to Germany and appeared on all the major TV programmes & specials, which in turn led to a month-long tour in Germany in 1998 with The All Stars. In 1998 he sang on a new version of I Hate The Music, backed by indie band Ratcat and the single made the charts as a spin-off from the Australian movie Occasional Coarse Language. The song All Hell Broke Loose, which John Paul Young co-wrote with Angry Anderson and Warren 'Pig' Morgan, was recorded and released by Rose Tattoo for their 1998 national tour, and in 2000 John appeared in a quirky Kraft Foods TV commercial which used Yesterday's Hero.

John and The All Stars have appeared at corporate events for: General Motors Holden, Toyota, Subaru, National Mutual, McDonalds, Digital Equipment Corporation, National Panasonic, Dairy Farmers, AMP and IBM.John has also had a long involvement in radio, working as an announcer at New FM in Newcastle, Sydney's 2CH and on the breakfast slot on Curtin Radio 927 in Perth in 2000/2001. He also recorded a syndicated program aptly named Yesterday's Heroes which was broadcast in the eastern states of Australia on the RG Network.

In 2000 he played to his largest audience as a featured performer at the Closing Ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics.In September 2002, John Paul Young and the All Stars appeared in the TV Series Long Way to the Top. John Paul Young and The Allstar Band toured in 2002 Long Way to the Top with the cream of Australian talent to celebrate the music and its Stars of the 60’s, 70’s & 80’s.


In 2003 and in 2005 John appeared in the musical Leader of the Pack – The Ellie Greenwich Musical as fast talking record producer Gus Sharkey - a composite character based around the legendary team of Leiber & Stoller and later Phil Spector. 2005 John Paul Young joined the Celebrity Race at the Melbourne F1 GP. 2006 saw John return to the studio at Flashpoint Music to record his first album of new material in many years In Too Deep, which sees John reunite with his 70's hit maker Harry Vanda as producer and principal songwriter.
John appeared in the Countdown Spectacular 2 concert series in Australia between late-August and early-September 2007. He sang 2 songs including the favourite Love Is in the Air.

John has appeared on many national television programs including the Coca Cola Summer Promotion, Channel 7's The Hard Yards, the premiere of Channel 9's Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, Roy & HG's Club Buggery, Channel 9's This is Your Life tributes to Molly Meldrum & Jon English, Channel 10's Monday to Friday show presenting the entertainment & music news segment and 7's Full Frontal in which he appeared in a spoof on The Footy Show performing Simply the Tops and Popstars TV series. He also went to New Zealand where he performed and competed in NZTV's Celebrity Wheel of Fortune Christmas Special.

Away from his musical work, John is a long-time resident of Lake Macquarie Newcastle Australia, where he is active in the Landcare movement and is an outspoken community activist on issues related to mining in the western Lake Macquarie area.

This post consists of  FLACs ripped from my vinyl copy which is in very good condition. Full album artwork is also included, along with CD artwork for a later release entitled "The War Years".
Also included are 3 bonus tracks taken from JPY's 12" Single "Soldier Of Fortune" which featured 2 other versions of the title track plus the non-album track "The Sirens".

Track Listing
01 War Games       
02 She Made A Fool Out Of You       
03 System Overload       
04 Call The Night        

Later Release with Bonus Tracks

05 Soldier Of Fortune        
06 Cryin' Eyes       
07 Body Heat        
08 Love Is For Heroes       
09 Television Girl       
10 L.A. Sunset       
11 The Sirens (Bonus B-Side Single)
12 Soldier Of Fortune (Bonus Single Edit)
13 Soldier Of Fortune (Bonus Extended Mix)

JPY and the AllStar Band:
John Paul Young (VOcals)
John Capek (Keyboards, Synths)
Alex Conti (Guitar)
Mark Puch (Guitar)
Russell Dunlop (Percussion)
Steve McDonell (Didjeridoo)
Veronica Lee, Wendy Matthews, Marc Jordan, Russell Dunlop (Backing Vocals)

JPY FLAC Link ( 347Mb)
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