John Perry

More recently, Perry has played live and recorded with Martin Stephenson and the Daintees, Mark Keds' East London band Deadcuts, The Members frontman JC Carroll and Texan singer Alejandro Escovedo. Perry and Perrett appeared on Alejandro Escovedo's album The Crossing and, in January 2019, Perry joined guests Wayne Kramer (MC5), James Williamson (Stooges), and Joe Ely for the tour's opening night at The Paramount in Austin, Texas.

He contributed an article on the influential acoustic guitarist Bert Jansch to a collection of 33.3 authors published in 2019 by Bloomsbury.

The band's tour schedule throughout 2008–10 took them to France, Spain, Holland, Norway, Sweden, and twice to Japan. They returned to play Japan for a third time in November 2014. Despite packed concerts and great reviews, sources close to the band confirmed that the new songs heard in concert were not scheduled for release. These shows in Tokyo mark the band's final appearance.

Perry, who played lead guitar on the Lemonheads' album Varshons, joined Evan Dando onstage at the Ben & Jerry's Summer Sundae festival at Clapham Common, London on 27 July 2008.

The Only Ones split in 1980 during an eventful US tour supporting the Who, which saw the arrests of several band members in separate events in California. In late February 2007, the Only Ones reformed, appearing at All Tomorrow's Parties and a sold-out show at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. That summer they played huge outdoor festivals; they were second on the bill in London's Hyde Park to The White Stripes, and appeared at Harewood House in Yorkshire, and Inveraray Castle in Scotland where they played with Big Star, Primal Scream, Johnny Marr and many others.

The Only Ones came out of London during the first wave of punk (1976–77) and, rather like the New York bands the Heartbreakers and Television with whom they later toured, suffered from being too musical for lumpen-punk but too "new" for conservative record business sensibilities. Though they were lumped in with the new wave vanguard, the band were too musically literate - not to mention long in the tooth - to be punks. Rather they were sophisticated guitar rockers whose sound embraced all flavors of 1950s and 1960s rock. Although never a huge commercial success, the band are highly influential.

Between 1976 and 1980, the band recorded three studio LPs for CBS Records (Epic Records in the US) and also made sufficient appearances on BBC Radio and TV to release two albums: The John Peel Sessions and a double CD, Darkness & Light: The Complete BBC Recordings. John Perry cites The Peel Sessions as his favourite of all the bands' releases. "We were a great live band and the Peel recordings represent that. In bigger studios some band-members went overboard, filling all 48 tracks 'because they were there'; the Peel Sessions were live performances recorded on 8 track. Four songs in an afternoon. Less piddling around."

In late 1975, Perry hooked up with Peter Perrett, recording demos in South London. Over the next twelve months this collaboration evolved into the band the Only Ones. After a self-produced single, "Lovers of Today/Peter and the Pets," the Only Ones signed a recording contract with CBS in January 1978. The band also received offers from Sire, Anchor and Island. According to reliable sources Island owner Chris Blackwell made several impassioned pleas to the band, culminating in a helicopter dash to a Midlands gig where he made a final appeal for the band sign to Island.

John Perry was born in Bristol, England, and began to play the guitar at the age of 12. In his early teens he played roles in BBC Radio Drama and for the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Well paid, and a Beach Boys fan, he was torn between buying a surfboard or a guitar. He chose the latter and started his music career with local bands in Bristol. At 20 he joined a loose bunch of musicians centred on the Pink Fairies, Hawkwind and other UK Underground bands. After appearing at the 1971 Glastonbury Fayre (the first with the pyramid stage), he played in a series of British and European tours and festivals in Pilton, Oxford, Trentishoe etc.

John M. Perry (born 4 June 1952) is an English musician, songwriter, and author. He came to prominence in the mid-1970s as the guitarist for the English rock band the Only Ones.