Jont

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Jont

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Img_capt = Jont Performing at one of his Unlit nights
Background = solo_singer
Born = Birth date and age|1973|8|17|mf=y
Origin = United Kingdom
Instrument =
Voice_type =
Genre =
Occupation = Singer-songwriter
Years_active = 1995–present
Label = Unlit
Associated_acts =
URL = [http://www.jontnet.com Jontnet.com]
Notable_instruments =

Jont (Full name Jonathan Mark Smith Whittington, born on August 17th 1973 in London) [Author Unknown. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/articles/2005/11/19/jont_interview_feature.shtml From Trent Bridge to the Social 19/11/05] . BBC.co.uk. Retrieved September 25 2008.] is a British Singer-songwriter, currently living in North London. First achieving prominence aged 18 as a slow left-arm spinner for Middlesex County Cricket Club [Palmer, Judith. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19960614/ai_n14042097 Arts: The Mad Cow Collective 14/06/96] . The Independent. Retrieved September 29 2008.] , he turned to poetry and finally to music, and had a song featured on the end credits of the 2005 US comedy film Wedding Crashers.He is well known as the creator of his own brand of music night called "Unlit", which is a combination of house party and gig. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/dermot/jont.shtml] A track from his most recent album "Supernatural" was featured in the Season Five premiere of US medical drama Grey's Anatomy on Thursday 25th September 2008.

History

Early years

Having spent most of his earliest years in the USA (his family moving to just outside of New York between the ages of 6 months and 4) [Verzeletti, Christian. [http://www.mescalina.it/musica/interviste-/interviste.php?id=18&l=en Jont Interview 18/12/02] . Mescalina. Retrieved September 25 2008.] , Whittington returned aged 17 when he attended a summer camp in North California and gained his first appreciation of the guitar. He took up the the instrument soon after his return.

He first started writing poems aged fourteen [Verzeletti, Christian. [http://www.mescalina.it/musica/interviste-/interviste.php?id=18&l=en Jont Interview 18/12/02] . Mescalina. Retrieved September 25 2008.] , and shortly after his return from summer camp wrote to the US poets that inspired him to ask if he could conduct an interview with them. Having received positive replies from twenty-three, he returned to America once more, traveling across the country on the Greyhound Lines bus to meet his heroes and to follow US Rock band The Grateful Dead on tour. The poet Allen Ginsberg was one of the twenty-three who has agreed to meet with Whittington, and invited him to his apartment on the lower east side of Manhattan for dinner. During the meeting, Ginsberg took a photo of Whittington with a portrait of Walt Whitman in the background and reportedly offered him sex. Whttington declined and they parted company. [Howell, J. [http://popshifter.com/2008-05-30/because-its-real-q-a-with-jont/3/ Because It’s Real: Q & A with Jont 30/05/08] . Femalefirst.co.uk. Retrieved September 25 2008.]

On the same trip he met Jonathan Williams in Asheville, North Carolina, poet and founder of The Jargon Society, who would become his mentor as a poet and introduce him back in England to Simon Cutts, founder of The Coracle Press. Cutts would also become a decisive influence on his poetry and show him how to make books, and with his wife and artist Erica Van Horn would help him make the first edition of his annual poetry magazine called MAD COW, which came out in 1994 and 1995 on Whittington's own Turnagain Press. Cutts came up with the title for the magazine, saying that "Schwitters would have liked it". Through these people and their attitude in their poetry, politics and publishing towards the establishment Whittington learnt a lot and would come to be influential in how he put out his music and eventually in set up his own performance night Unlit.

On his return to England aged eighteen, Whittington returned to play cricket for one year for Middlesex County Cricket Club as a slow left arm spinner and Phil Tufnell's number 2 [Author Unknown. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/articles/2005/11/19/jont_interview_feature.shtml From Trent Bridge to the Social 19/11/05] . BBC.co.uk. Retrieved September 25 2008.] . During this period he attended Manchester University to study English and American Literature.

Whilst a student, he started writing poems on walls in Manchester. The first, on a piece of wall the shape of a blank piece of A4 above Gemini's chip shop was a description of a finished English breakfast, and was written as a block of black capitals with no name at the bottom and nothing to suggest it was a poem. It read "A KNIFES SHADOW FALLS ACROSS THE TINES OF A FORK WHERE BRUSHSTROKES OF BROWN AND TOMATO SAUCE CREATE A LANDSCAPE SCATTERED WITH NUGGETS OF CHIPS TOO BRITTLE AND COLD TO EAT". Soon after that, for the launch of the second MAD COW (called Carnage, and adapted to a mini festival of 8 bands and 8 poets in the garden of his house [Palmer, Judith. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19960614/ai_n14042097 Arts: The Mad Cow Collective 14/06/96] . The Independent. Retrieved September 29 2008.] ), Whittington had another poem written up on the side of his house in white capitals against the red brick which ran "A DAY TAKEN OUT OF SEQUENCE ENJOYED FOR ITS VERY QUALITIES AND REPEATED AT WILL".

Music Career

Towards the end of his university years Whittington grew frustrated with the limited reception his poetry was achieving, and started performing songs he'd been writing on the side. His first band was called "Your Baby", before finishing university and moving down to London to be in another band, "Funnybone". Unsatisfied with the quality of the music the band was making, he started to perform solo, landing himself a residency at London's 12 Bar Club which he called Unlit [Howell, J. [http://popshifter.com/2008-05-30/because-its-real-q-a-with-jont/ Because It’s Real: Q & A with Jont 30/05/08] . Femalefirst.co.uk. Retrieved September 25 2008.] . Whittington would invite two other music acts (bands or songwriters), a poet and a classical musician, with the poet and the classical musician performing shorter sets in between the longer sets by the bands. The night was a commercial success, and over the next five years saw performances from (amongst others) Alison David, Tom Baxter, Polly Paulusma, Solomon (later to become The Duke Spirit), Boo Hewerdine, Archie Bronson Outfit, Sam Semple, Adem, Antonio Forcione, Mark Nevin, Barak Schmool and The Akwaaba Drum Orchestra.

During this time Whittington started to assemble a regular band from musicians who would play at the Unlit nights, and went on to record his first album, "Life Is Fine" [Author Unknown. [http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/amphitheatre/3834/newscene_frame2.html The New Indie Acoustic Scene Date Unknown] . Retrieved September 29 2008.] . In 2001 a song from that album was chosen to feature on a compilation album called "The Playpen Acoustic album", put out on Playpen Records. After touring with Tom McRae and Thea Gilmore on the first Roadworks Songwriters Tour, Whittingon released his next album, and first release on his own label Unlit Records, "28" in 2002. It was originally released only in Italy, where it received good reviews [Verzeletti, Christian. [http://www.mescalina.it/musica/recensioni/recensioni-musica.php?id=224 28 Review 07/11/02] . Mescalina. Retrieved September 25 2008.] , and he toured several times in support of the record. Due to complications with management negotiations outside of Italy at the time, "28" wasn't released anywhere else until 2008, when it was re-released retrospectively alongside his latest album "Supernatural" on his own label Unlit Records.

In April 2003 Whittington moved to New York citing the need of a change of scenery, and transferred Unlit from the 12 Bar Club to Williamsburg's Galapagos Art Space. Here he continued his knack for finding soon-to-be-famous artists to perform, including Joanaspolicewoman, Inouk (who later signed to Independiente in the UK) and Artanker Convoy. During this period he also met Tony Meilandt, who became his manager and proved to be a huge source of inspiration and enthusiasm. Whittington was to find Meilandt dead in his apartment six months later. After this, he was taken under the wing of Fleetwood Mac manager Tony Dimitriades in Los Angeles, with whom he developed his skills for several years. Whittington moved to Hollywood, and again redefined his Unlit night, this time hosting it in his own apartment once a week and making it free and open to everyone. During this time he worked with several producers including Tom Rothrock, Bill Laswell and Mushroom from Massive Attack, before recording a mini-album entitled "One Long Song" which was released on Everybody's Records in London in the autumn of 2005. One Long Song was given four stars in Q Magazine, and the single released from it, "You Can Be The Stars", was played heavily on Dermot O'Leary's BBC Radio 2 show. Whittington appeared on the show to perform a live session, and his cover of Goldfrapp's "Number One" was released on the compilation album "The Saturday Sessions - The Dermot O'Leary show". The song "Sweetheart" from the mini-album was used on the end credits to the Hollywood comedy "Wedding Crashers".

In the summer of 2006, Whittington posted a message on his Myspace profile asking people to offer their homes as a venue for Unlit, and embarked on his second road-trip of the USA, traveling from New York to Los Angeles. Cameraman Dave Depares joined him to document the tour, and the resulting ten-part video blog series was posted on Youtube entitled "The State We're In". Following the tour. the BBC asked Whittington to put on a special Unlit as part of the Electric Proms, selecting three of his favourite acts from the tour to join him. He chose DW Box, The Experimental Instrument Orchestra and Myshel Prasad, and the event was recorded at Camden's Lock Tavern in North London on Wednesday 25th October 2006 [Author Unknown. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/dermot/jont.shtml Electric Proms Unlit Date Unknown] . BBC.co.uk. Retrieved September 25 2008.] .

2007 saw more Unlits and gigs in the UK, and following a particularly intense run of Unlits in the spring, and after writing 6 or 7 new songs in about as many weeks, Whittington started preparations for a new album. Notable gigs included supporting Newton Faulkner at Bush Hall on the 4th April, who went on to perform at an Unlit the following week. The album "Supernatural" was recorded over the Summer and Autumn of 2007 in Paris and London, and was put out on Unlit Records in Spring 2008. From April to May 2008 Whittington and Depares filmed a second ten-part series of their video blog, this time entitled "The House We're In" and taking Unlit to Myspace user's houses in the UK.

Shortly after this UK telecoms company Orange sponsored a third series of the show, called "The Road We're On", as part of their "I Am Everyone" campaign and made in conjunction with production company Monkey Kingdom. Whittington and Depares were joined by a second cameraman, and provided with a winnebago to travel the UK in during the summer of 2008. The tour utilised many new technologies, broadcasting several Unlits live across the internet and reporting tracks played on the vehicle's stereo via Last.fm. Episodes were premiered on Myspace a week before being posted on Youtube. Seven episodes have so far been posted.

On Thursday 25th September 2008, a track from Supernatural entitled "Another Door Closes" was featured in the Season Five premiere of US medical drama Grey's Anatomy .

Jont has recently been receiving airplay from Radio Two's Jonathan Ross and is due to play a session on Dermot O'Leary's show on October 11th.

A new version of the song Sweetheart is due for release in December.

Discography

tudio albums

* "Life Is Fine" (2000)
* "28" (Unlit Records) (2002 Italy, 2008 Rest of World)
* "Everything You Need To Know About Life In 74 minutes" (Private) (2002 Italy, 200 copies made for Italian tour)
* "One Long Song" (Everybody's Records) (2005)
* "Supernatural" (Unlit Records) (2008)

ingle releases

References

External links

* [http://www.jontnet.com/ Official Site]
* [http://www.myspace.com/jontmusic Official Profile] on MySpace
* [http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Jont/7779643631?ref=ts Official Page] on Facebook
* [http://www.jontnet.com/unlit.php Unlit Page] featuring all three series of the video blog - "The State We're In", "The House We're In" and "The Road We're On"
* [http://www.i-am-everyone.co.uk/orangeunlit/ Orange Unlit Tour] central website