JACK HUES - THE BIOGRAPHY
Jack Hues has had a career that most musicians can only dream of. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London, England, he recorded sessions for John Peel, the legendary British DJ, he topped the US charts with Wang Chung, scored major Hollywood motion pictures and has released a string of ensemble and solo albums over the last 15 years including the critically acclaimed double LP “PRIMITIF” and collaborations with producer Chris Hughes (Tears For Fears, Paul McCartney, Robert Plant), Tony Banks (Genesis), avant-jazz pioneers Led Bib, the Psych-Prog band Syd Arthur and vocalist Miss Baby N’Sola.
Jack grew up in Gillingham in the Medway Towns about 40 miles south-east of London. He was interested in music from an early age.
“My dad was a saxophone player and my grandfather was an organist and orchestral conductor, but it was hearing “Please Please Me” by The Beatles on the radio when I was about 8 years old that made me wake up and think…ahhh, so this is MY music”.
Jack attended Goldsmiths’ College, London, got his music degree and won a BBC Composers Competition which enabled him to take a year at the Royal College of Music studying composition and electronic music.
“Those four years immersed in classical music, particularly contemporary classical music, were very important and expanded my musical horizons immensely. However, when I came out of college the musical language I “spoke” was rock music”.
Jack met bassist Nick Feldman through a musicians wanted ad in the Melody Maker. They formed a couple of bands before finally distilling their talents into Huang Chung. The band later renamed themselves Wang Chung at the suggestion of the head of their record label, David Geffen. The name has been referenced countless times in movies and TV shows including “Cheers” , “The Simpsons” and “Austin Power’s “The Spy Who Shagged Me” among countless others. The band continues to be relevant with “Dance Hall Days” featured in an episode of HBO’s “The Righteous Gemstones” in 2023 and extensively featured in the Amazon Prime movie “The Idea of You” starring Ann Hathaway in 2024. The song “To Live and Die in LA” was used to introduce John Mulaney’s show “Everybody’s in LA” which also copied the graphic style of the iconic movie.
Jack wrote the future hit-to-be “Dance Hall Days” while still teaching guitar at various schools around London. The song proved pivotal and established Wang Chung as an international success. They were signed direct to Geffen Records in the US so Jack’s career was based in LA throughout the 80’s.
“I was fortunate to work on movie soundtracks during this time. William Friedkin (director of “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist”) commissioned us to score his movie “To Live and Die in LA” which was an incredible opportunity and Billy became a friend and something of a mentor to me. We contributed songs to “The Breakfast Club” and “Inner Space”. In 1986 we had a Billboard #2 (Cashbox No. 1) hit in the US with “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” whose chorus line “Everybody have fun tonight, Everybody Wang Chung tonight” continues to capture the public imagination nearly 40 years later”.
Wang Chung toured extensively in the U.S. in 1984 with The Cars and in 1987 with Tina Turner, but 2024 saw them busier than ever touring with Thomas Dolby, Tom Bailey of The Thompson Twins, The Motels and others.
"Through the 90’s I did various projects. I scored “The Guardian” for Bill Friedkin, I was the only composer to ever work for him twice! I recorded a solo album for Columbia in the US, but for various reasons the project was never released. I produced an album for Arkana and an EP for Arturo working with Mick Glossop, I co-produced a couple of albums with Chris Hughes for The Definition of Sound and Gene and I formed Strictly Inc. with Tony Banks (of Genesis) to record his eponymous solo album”.
In 2019 Jack and Nick recorded and released an album of orchestral versions of Wang Chung songs entitled “Orchesography “ to enthusiastic reviews.
Due to a series of personal losses, Jack found himself more concentrated on music than ever. In the first 3 months of 2018 he wrote and recorded most of PRIMITIF. When asked to name the music that inspired and influenced the album classical composers such as Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler and Claude Debussy rub shoulders with Miles Davis, Robert Wyatt, Jon Hopkins, The Books and Lana Del Rey.
“I worked on the album through 2018-19 with another intensive period of writing and recording at the beginning of 2019. The resulting double album is my first-ever solo release and is, for me, the culmination of nearly 60 years of obsession with Music and Recordings”.
PRIMITIF was released on Dawn Chorus Recordings on 20th March 2020.
In 2021 a second solo album entitled “Electro-Acoustic Works 20;20” was released. Written during the lockdown the album contains an eclectic mix of songs ranging from the entirely acoustic “Sheep” to the 20 minute Prog workout, “Hymn to the Moon Goddess”.
In 2022 Jack returned to The Quartet and released a live album drawn from a gig in Canterbury recorded in 2019 entitled “Epigonal Quark”. Working with rock musicians from Syd Arthur and jazz players from Led Bib, two drummers, two bass players… once again Jack refused to be limited by traditional genre boundaries. Tracks included Robert Wyatt’s “Sea Song”, an incredible version of Soft Machine’s “Facelift”, a 22 minute jam on Beck’s “Nobody’s Fault But My Own” plus an homage to Talk Talk, fellow travellers from the 80s, and their song “Myrrhman”.
2024 has been a year of extensive touring in the USA for Wang Chung preparing the way for the release of a career retrospective, “Clear Light, Dark Matter”, a double vinyl album and CD release featuring the hits plus never before released studio tracks and demos.
2025 will see further touring in the USA, Australia and a UK show plus the release of a brand new Wang Chung live double album recorded at the legendary El Mocambo in Toronto in 2024. 2025 is also the 40th anniversary of “To Live And Die in LA” and plans are in development to do a deluxe re-issue of the soundtrack and movie. A third solo album is also underway so there is no sign of Jack slowing down any time soon…
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