In the late 1970’s I used to frequent a 2nd hand record stand on the Hilversum market every Saturday and the guy who ran it introduced me to a lot of good artists and groups.
One of those turned out to be a musician I had completely forgotten about: Jona Lewie…
Joan only recorded 2 albums for Stiff: On The Other Hand There's A Fist (1978) and Heart Skips Beat (1982), which I both dutifully purchased, excellent songs I thought. Unfortunately for Jona there were no more hits and that was the end of his career at Stiff.
Visiting record shops in various towns I did however manage to find more of his work, incl. his first album Gatecrasher on Sonet which was a 11 track collection of singles, some released under his own name, others as Terry Dactyl And The Dinosaurs With Jona Lewie. Then I discovered why I was vaguely familiar with his name, in 1977 he’d scored a minor hit with Come Away (a cover of Roberto Leaĺ’s Bate O Pe) and even appeared on Dutch television!
Another 45 I found was Cherry Ring with a non-album B-side: After We Swun, a very quirky blues track, utterly bonkers but brilliant!
Both Stiff albums and compilations of those tracks are still rereleased, especially Find Me In The Kitchen (used for a commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCtLrVihFhQ ) and Stop The Cavalry (which has become a Christmas standard, despite that holiday being mentioned only once!).
Gatecrasher was never released on CD which was a shame to say the least…
BUT in 2020 Grapefruit Records released a 6 CD box set:
Brett Marvin & The Thunderbolts – The Sonet Anthology of which Jona was a member as well and the last CD consisted of the entire Terry Dactyl And The Dinosaurs With Jona Lewie output! It even included that wacky B-side…
This made it possible to come up with an extended Gatecrasher collection for your listening pleasure!
Question: What's your favorite Jona Lewie (if any!) song?
