4 D Man - The Field Guide To Howard Werth

As most of you probably know by now, besides music I have a strong interest in art and design.
This occasionally leads me to weird places and forgotten artists…
I really like the cover (and assorted) art Barney Bubbles did for several artists (e.g. Ian Dury) during the 70s and 80s.
Last month a google image search led me to an artist I’d completely forgotten about, the singing guitarist Howard Werth
Barney designed the album art of his 1979 solo record: ‘Six of One and Half a Dozen of the Other’, as well as the sleeve of the ‘4 D Man’ single.
According to allmusic Six of One is ‘one of the most schizophrenic albums of the late '70s’ as it’s swinging between Rock & Roll and New Wave…
For me one song in particular stood out: ‘4 D Man’ as this was included in a compilation I bought many years ago…

Among the musicians helping out Howard were Steve Nieve and Billy Bremner who later covered ‘Meek Power’ from this album.
I discovered that Howard had been active before with his art rock band Audience with whom he recorded 4 albums during the early 70s for Blue Plate and Charisma Records.
Although well received no breakthrough appeared, therefore Howard decided to try it solo and recorded an album with The Moonbeams, 1975’s 'King Brilliant'.
At the same time he was approached by The Doors and asked to fill the space left by Jim Morrison. Howard spent some time rehearsing with them, but finally Ray Manzarek decided against The Doors reforming.
Howard worked for a while with Ray on various musical projects, including songs that would end up reworked on the earlier mentioned 'Six of One' and 'The Evolution Myth Explodes' (2003).
He reformed Audience in 2004 and did a much more successful tour which resulted in a live album: Alive&Kickin'&Screamin'&Shoutin'
A compilation album 'The Grapes of Werth' was announced in 2012 but never appeared. Sadly enough the record label which was supposed to release it, Luminous Music, no longer exist either.
As Howard is definitely an artist worth hearing imo this 20 track Jokonky compilation should be a decent introduction. Including here are some of his tracks with Audience, solo albums, B-side, live, Blank & Jones remix, and his final (up till now at least) recording with Blue Pulse.