His career may have peaked back in the 1980s, but time hasn’t stopped Howard Jones from tapping into his creative juices.

The technology was not available in the mid-1980s to do justice to the songs

The British multi-instrumentalist has, in fact, consistently kept releasing records and touring incessantly all over the world throughout the many years that have passed since his breakthrough debut album Human’s Lib was released in 1984.

The classically-trained pianist first shot to fame as a pioneer of a then-emergent electronic pop sound that spawned hit singles such as New Song, What is Love, No One Is To Blame and Things Can Only Get Better.

His success began to diminish as the 1980s drew to a close, although Jones continued to clock up minor hits up until the early 1990s. When his contract with Warner Music UK expired, he relaunched himself as an independent artist, developing a live act that relied heavily on an acoustic presentation and supporting his album releases through extensive touring that also earned him a dedicated international following.

This week, Jones will be kicking off another North American tour, except that this time, his live sets will focus solely on his classic Human’s Lib and Dream Into Action albums, which will be performed in their entirety, with a good number of the songs being performed live for the first time.

Speaking about his 13-date tour, which kicks off on Wednesday in San Diego and ends in Chicago on October 27, Jones said that “the idea of doing the first two albums came from the fans constantly asking me to do this”, but it was only after he managed to get the original multi-tracks from Warners last year that he could start working on making it a reality.

“The technology was not available in the mid-1980s to do justice to the songs, and so many of them I am performing for the first time live.” The performances will also have a fresh visual aspect after Jones commissioned visual pieces to accompany all 24 tracks.

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