FROM ALL MUSIC GUIDE
A side
group started in 1982 by Mekons co-founder Jon Langford, the Three
Johns, originally made up of Langford, John Hyatt, Phillip "John"
Brennan, and a drum machine, specialized in abrasive, politically
charged, danceable rock. Sounding almost nothing like Langford's main
band, the Johns were a silly-serious bunch of political and cultural
provocateurs. Recording during the height of Margaret Thatcher's
ill-conceived Tory rebellion, the Johns were openly antagonistic to
this new, conservative vision of Britain's future. And while their
elliptical and epigrammatic lyrics might not offer the sloganeering
that would easily identify them as lefties, certainly there were
enough hints dropped along the way to remove any doubt. Unlike other
rock agit-prop, the Johns played a fairly accessible version of
polemical post-punk anti-pop that embraced big, messy
arena-rock-sounding guitars and hard, repetitive, quasi-hip-hop dance
beats. Perhaps the most subversive thing about the Johns is that,
despite Langford's and Hyatt's goofy vocals, they were, in their own
weird way, pure pop for now people, especially those who hated
Thatcher. With collective tongue planted firmly in cheek, the Johns
took on British and American obsession with materialism, the
diabolical Reagan-Thatcher lovefest, the machinations of the pop music
industry, all of it done with a great sense of humor mixed in with
genuine fear and horror. Frequently hard to pin down, the Johns
reveled in being slippery, exhibiting a love and loathing for pop
music. In some respects, the Johns resembled friends and fellow Leeds,
England mates the Gang of Four, but where the Gang of Four was dour
and serious (bordering on academic), the Johns were loutish and
boisterous, which when combining politics and rock roll can,
ultimately, be a good thing. After the release of Eat Your Sons in
1990, Jon Langford turned his attention full-time to the Mekons,
putting the Three Johns on what has turned out to be an indefinite
sabbatical.
