John Verity began his music career in the early 1960’s, playing guitar in various local groups around his home town of Bradford, Yorkshire, until he was offered a full time gig with a pro band the ‘Richard Kent Style’.
By the spring of 1970 the Kent Style had morphed into ‘Tunnel’. Living and working in the US, doing prestigious support slots with many of the big names of the day including Jimi Hendrix (July 5th 1970 – 2 days after JV’s 21st birthday), Mountain, Canned Heat, Savoy Brown, and Janis Joplin. Very soon, Tunnel would morph into the very first John Verity Band, formed in Miami later that year.
On his return to England in 1971, John secured a contract with producer Steve Rowland to record his first solo album for ABC Dunhill/Probe records, ‘John Verity Band’, which was released in the spring of 1973.
Whilst on tour promoting the album, JV was spotted by Rod Argent who was looking for a new lead vocalist for his band following the departure of Russ Ballard. John eventually joined Argent late in 1973 and there followed a period of intense recording and touring until the band decided to come off the road late in 1976. Argent never did go back on the road, and decided to disband, at which point John became involved with various new projects both as Artist and Record Producer.
First of all, along with Bob Henrit and Jim Rodford he formed Phoenix, which soon signed to CBS records. The original line-up recorded the first album and toured Europe before recruiting Ray Minhinnet to share the guitar-playing duties in time for the second album scheduled for release on Rocket Records. During this time Jim Rodford left to join the Kinks, and the line-up remained a 3 piece for the recording of In Full View for Charisma Records. John produced the Phoenix albums and co-produced the Charlie album ‘Good Morning America’ as well as the first Saxon album during this time, and decided to divide his time between sessions and record production whilst Bob Henrit teamed up with Jim Rodford once again by joining the Kinks.
The next few years were spent in recording studios throughout the world, producing, playing guitar, or doing backup vocals with various acts including Motorhead, Tank, Ringo Starr, Russ Ballard, Colin Blunstone, Brian Connolly, John Parr, BowWowWow and The Searchers amongst many others, until late in 1981 when PRT Records MD Matt Haywood asked JV to record a comeback album.
By now living in his native Yorkshire, John had built his own 38-track studio achieved by synchronising together 24 and 16-track tape machines – state of the art at the time, and had moved into full-time record production. The Matt Haywood offer meant that JV could get back out on the road again to promote the album, and touring always seemed to bring out fresh ideas… “Interrupted Journey”, released under the name Verity in 1982, was highly acclaimed in the UK, USA and Europe and successfully relaunched John’s performing career, as he once again took to the road.
The next two albums “Truth Of The Matter” and “Rock Solid” were also well received, and John soon had offers to join various name bands including MSG, Ted Nugent, and Asia which he declined, deciding instead to come off the road to record an album with newly reformed Zombies.
John has continued to record and tour with the Phoenix and John Verity bands to this day. His latest album, “Passion” was released in 2020.