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Howard Jones (British musician)

British musician (born 1955)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ712820 ↗
Source-derived summary

John Howard Jones (born 23 February 1955) is a British musician. He had ten top-40 hit singles on the UK singles chart from 1983 to 1986, six of which reached the top 10, including "Like to Get to Know You Well", "What Is Love?", "New Song", and "Things Can Only Get Better". His debut studio album Human's Lib (1984) reached number one on the UK Albums Chart. Around the world, Jones had 15 top-40 hit singles from 1983 to 1992. The 1986 single "No One Is to Blame" reached No. 4 on the US charts. Four others placed in the US top 20.

Jones is associated with the 1980s Second British Invasion of the US. He has been described by the AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine as "one of the defining figures of mid-'80s synth-pop", and he performed at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985. He has sold over eight million albums.

Early life

John Howard Jones was born on 23 February 1955 in Hythe, Hampshire, to Welsh parents and spent his early years in Rhiwbina, Cardiff, South Wales, where he attended Heol Llanishen Fach primary school and then Whitchurch Grammar School.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Howard Jones (British musician)” as british musician (born 1955). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1955, 1983, 1986, 1984—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1955-02-23. The account is most persuasive where Howard, Jones and British can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as british musician (born 1955). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q712820. VIAF identifies the subject as 85571915. The Library of Congress control number is n85361220. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1955, 1983, 1986 and 1984.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Howard Jones (British musician)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Howard Jones (British musician) primary sources, Howard Jones (British musician) archive and Howard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Howard Jones (British musician)”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Howard Jones (British musician)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.