Johnny Vanguard, An Artest or Pop Singer?
WHO IS JOHNNY VANGUARD, AN ARTIST OR POP SINGER?
“I’m a freaking’ artist not a racehorse.” Johnny Vanguard may not be a racehorse but he may not be an artist either. Johnny Vanguard just realised his first album after five years, “Citizen Urban”, is living in Los Angeles and still dreaming to be a movie star.
Johnny Vanguard was born in the small outback town of Charters Towers in Northern Queensland. He moved to Sydney and joined the band Underlife that soon became a legend in Australian music. Johnny Vanguard played guitar and wrote songs like “Feathers and Tar “, “Spencer Street” and a cover rendition of “Just Keep Walking”. He also sang on numerous tracks and soon became a highlight of the band. In 1994 after many difficulties the band split up and Johnny Vanguard went solo. It was not long after that he went to live in Los Angeles and at the end of 1996 joined up with Mark Holden to do a new album, “Concrete Haystacks”. The partnership did not last long and Johnny Vanguard ended up finishing the album on his own. As he said in an interview with Rolling Stain magazine, “I ended up as part of mad, drunk scenes in Los Angeles.”
Maybe it was the leaving of Underlife, not being able to stay in the partnership with Mark Holden or just living in Los Angeles. One thing is for sure Johnny Vanguard’s life just kept going down hill. Becoming part of the underbelly of the Los Angeles social society would not have helped. The parties, the drugs and the alcohol would have taken their toll on Johnny Vanguard. Some of the greatest stars have succumbed to this seen in the nightclubs of Los Angeles. Stars like Charlie Sheen became the face of some of those weird shit scenes with Johnny Vanguard right next to Charlie a lot of the time. The two of them became notaries when they hung out together for leaving destruction and chaos in their wake. Quite a few settlements were made out of court for damage to nightclubs and to drop some assault charges. Lucky for Johnny Vanguard, Charlie Sheen took care of all the expenses. But their friendship didn’t extend beyond party together and Johnny Vanguard like many times before was on his own again.
By 1997 Johnny Vanguard was waking up, drunk, in strange places. As Johnny himself says, “I’d been in many mad dreams, but this …It was pretty wild.” Johnny Vanguard was going through a settlement with his old band Underlife that had been going on for seven years and was only settled in 1999. Then there was the separation from his long time girl friend, Jo Beth Jo in 1998.
In 1998 Johnny Vanguard starred in a film with Santo a professional wrestler, whom he had met previously in Australia in 1995. The film was called, Santo frente a la muerte, Santo Faces Death and starred Santo, Johnny Vanguard, Jo Beth Jo and Denise. It was during this film that Johnny Vanguard met Denise and had what was called at the time a, stormy “off screen” relationship. This relationship which received extensive press coverage at the time caused the separation of Johnny Vanguard and Jo Beth Jo. They later reconciled, but it was during this break up that Johnny Vanguard released his next album, the acclaimed “City Experiences”.
The reconciliation did not last and they have since broken up again. Johnny Vanguard’s up and down relationship with Jo Beth Jo is a reflection of Johnny Vanguard’s rollercoaster life. Johnny Vanguard struggled to be judged on his music in the early nineties, even when he was at the hight of his career, and is still struggling to find himself. The album, “Citizen Urban” is much like “City Experiences”; the music reflects the emotions of his break up with Jo Beth Jo, very much like his last album. It seems that Johnny Vanguard’s life hasn’t moved on and neither has his music. Maybe he is bitter because Jo Beth Jo has made it as a movie star and he is still dreaming of it.
Johnny is still following dreams, not reality and looks to drugs, drink or the past for comfort. Johnny says he is an artist, hopefully one day his music will reflect this. For now Johnny Vanguard is still running the same old racehorse running the same old horse race.
“I’m a freaking’ artist not a racehorse.” Johnny Vanguard may not be a racehorse but he may not be an artist either. Johnny Vanguard just realised his first album after five years, “Citizen Urban”, is living in Los Angeles and still dreaming to be a movie star.
Johnny Vanguard was born in the small outback town of Charters Towers in Northern Queensland. He moved to Sydney and joined the band Underlife that soon became a legend in Australian music. Johnny Vanguard played guitar and wrote songs like “Feathers and Tar “, “Spencer Street” and a cover rendition of “Just Keep Walking”. He also sang on numerous tracks and soon became a highlight of the band. In 1994 after many difficulties the band split up and Johnny Vanguard went solo. It was not long after that he went to live in Los Angeles and at the end of 1996 joined up with Mark Holden to do a new album, “Concrete Haystacks”. The partnership did not last long and Johnny Vanguard ended up finishing the album on his own. As he said in an interview with Rolling Stain magazine, “I ended up as part of mad, drunk scenes in Los Angeles.”
Maybe it was the leaving of Underlife, not being able to stay in the partnership with Mark Holden or just living in Los Angeles. One thing is for sure Johnny Vanguard’s life just kept going down hill. Becoming part of the underbelly of the Los Angeles social society would not have helped. The parties, the drugs and the alcohol would have taken their toll on Johnny Vanguard. Some of the greatest stars have succumbed to this seen in the nightclubs of Los Angeles. Stars like Charlie Sheen became the face of some of those weird shit scenes with Johnny Vanguard right next to Charlie a lot of the time. The two of them became notaries when they hung out together for leaving destruction and chaos in their wake. Quite a few settlements were made out of court for damage to nightclubs and to drop some assault charges. Lucky for Johnny Vanguard, Charlie Sheen took care of all the expenses. But their friendship didn’t extend beyond party together and Johnny Vanguard like many times before was on his own again.
By 1997 Johnny Vanguard was waking up, drunk, in strange places. As Johnny himself says, “I’d been in many mad dreams, but this …It was pretty wild.” Johnny Vanguard was going through a settlement with his old band Underlife that had been going on for seven years and was only settled in 1999. Then there was the separation from his long time girl friend, Jo Beth Jo in 1998.
In 1998 Johnny Vanguard starred in a film with Santo a professional wrestler, whom he had met previously in Australia in 1995. The film was called, Santo frente a la muerte, Santo Faces Death and starred Santo, Johnny Vanguard, Jo Beth Jo and Denise. It was during this film that Johnny Vanguard met Denise and had what was called at the time a, stormy “off screen” relationship. This relationship which received extensive press coverage at the time caused the separation of Johnny Vanguard and Jo Beth Jo. They later reconciled, but it was during this break up that Johnny Vanguard released his next album, the acclaimed “City Experiences”.
The reconciliation did not last and they have since broken up again. Johnny Vanguard’s up and down relationship with Jo Beth Jo is a reflection of Johnny Vanguard’s rollercoaster life. Johnny Vanguard struggled to be judged on his music in the early nineties, even when he was at the hight of his career, and is still struggling to find himself. The album, “Citizen Urban” is much like “City Experiences”; the music reflects the emotions of his break up with Jo Beth Jo, very much like his last album. It seems that Johnny Vanguard’s life hasn’t moved on and neither has his music. Maybe he is bitter because Jo Beth Jo has made it as a movie star and he is still dreaming of it.
Johnny is still following dreams, not reality and looks to drugs, drink or the past for comfort. Johnny says he is an artist, hopefully one day his music will reflect this. For now Johnny Vanguard is still running the same old racehorse running the same old horse race.
posted by TYLER-MEDIA | 8:10 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Tyler,
This is a good piece. Some great ideas here. I liked the title and the angle you took with Vanguard.
A couple of improvement areas:
Spelling - there are a few problems here, especially with words like 'artist' 'released' and height.
Grammar - some problems here, watch the way you structure sentences.
Quoting - some of this sounds a little too much like the Epic Media
website... vary the words.
Overall a very good effort.
MARK: B-
Hi Tyler,
I need you to finish your final two media assessments. They are the RADIO ADVERT and the INTERVIEW. Please post these by Wednesday the 29th at 5pm, or email me if you are unable to do this.
Cheers,
Michael
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