Jack Hues - short biography
Jack Hues is the lead singer, guitarist, and composer of the iconic band Wang Chung, whose string of hits including Dance Hall Days and Everybody Have Fun Tonight made them one of the most successful bands of the 1980s.
Hues studied music at Goldsmiths College and at the Royal College of Music in London. His writing throughout his career demonstrates wide-ranging interests in jazz and classical music, literature, and philosophy.
When Wang Chung ended in 1990, Hues began working in musically more progressive genres, including experimental jazz and progressive rock, all of which are infused with Hues’ interdisciplinary approach to his music.
In addition to his six recordings with Wang Chung, Hues has released two solo recordings, three recordings with his jazz group The Quartet, and he has scored music for two films, including William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in LA.
Follow your Bliss to the Crossroads
Jack Hues will talk about his long experience in the Music Business and in Music Education, reflecting on the tensions between making a living as a musician and remaining true to musical and artistic ideals.
He will reflect on the neighbouring fields of Rock and Jazz, what brings them together and what keeps them apart sociologically and aesthetically, with particular reference to The Canterbury Sound of the 1960s and 1970s.
He will discuss his work in Wang Chung creating top 10 hits, cult movie soundtracks, collaborating with poets, classical, and jazz musicians and his development as a writer, singer, and guitar player.
Furthermore, Jack Hues will explore the creative process in composition, the studio and live performance and how this can be developed as a life-long learning process.