Jo Jo Gunne

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

Jo Jo Gunne is a rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1971 by Jay Ferguson (keyboards, vocals and guitar) and Mark Andes (bass guitar and vocals) after they had left Spirit.

Career

With the addition of Andes' brother, Matt Andes (born circa 1950, California) (guitar, vocals) and William "Curly" Smith (born 31 January 1952, Wolf Point, Montana) (drums, vocals and harp), they were signed to Asylum Records.

They had a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart with the song, "Run Run Run", taken from their first album, Jo Jo Gunne (1972).^[1]

The group did not maintain the commercial momentum of their first release. With Jumpin' the Gunne's tasteless album cover being blamed for drastically falling sales, they broke up in 1975. However they made several notable tracks, especially "Take It Easy", "Broken Down Man", "Neon City" and "Falling Angel".^{[citation needed]}

Personnel changes

Following the first album, Mark Andes left the band and was replaced by Jimmie Randall. Randall introduced a brighter bass sound and helped increase the band's overall volume.

Matt Andes left after Jumpin' the Gunne, and he was briefly replaced by Star Donaldson. A more permanent replacement was found in John Staehely (born 25 January 1952, Austin, Texas), who had played on Feedback, the Spirit album that followed Ferguson and Ande's departure. Staehely's overdriven guitar was a complete change from Matt Andes's Ry Cooder style slide guitar.

After the band broke up, Ferguson recorded several solo albums, including the hit singles "Thunder Island" and "Shakedown Cruise", and scored TV shows and mostly non-notable films. Andes joined Firefall and, later, Heart. Smith went on to have a successful career as a session drummer, and also played with Spirit in the 1980s and Boston from 1994 to 2000.

Reunion

The original line-up reformed in 2005, and began touring and recording again.

Albums

• Jo Jo Gunne (1972)
• Bite Down Hard (1973)
• Jumpin' The Gunne (1973)
• So...Where's The Show? (1974)
• Big Chain (2005)

See also

• List of Asylum Records artists
• List of 1970s one-hit wonders in the United States
• One-hit wonders in the UK

References

External links

• Official home page