jilted john

jilted john, 1978.

from the sleeve notes of true love stories we learn that:
jilted john, otherwise known as graham fellows, is a full time drama student in manchester and his ambition is to become a full time actor.   he has three sisters and a very nice mother and father who live in yorkshire.
jilted john likes fancy mice, kate bush and the countryside.   his dislikes include gordon the moron, anyone successful with girls and gardening.

jilted john is one of hannett’s earliest production jobs, and one of the first releases on rabid records.   hannett and john collaborated on this 7", and, perhaps, on the "gordon the moron" 7", also on rabid - although rumours are rife as to gordon's true identity!   jilted john is a novelty 7" that hit unexpected popularity in britain in the summer of 1978, where it reached number 4 in the charts.   the song tells a typical story of, well, a guy named john who’s jilted by his girlfriend, julie, for another guy, gordon.   with wonderfully dumb lyrics and an irresistable sing-a-long chorus ("gordon is a moron!"), this wouldn’t seem to be a natural hannett production.   but remember, hannett was first and foremost a punk rock producer, and in this case gives the vocals ample room to tell the story while still emphasizing the bass and percussion.   the b-side is some more nonsense, naturally.  at the time, jilted john was a drama student at manchester university, and perhaps his most memorable role was in the soap coronation street, playing a miserable youth hanging around the city centre - having been jilted.

john returned to coronation street a few years later, playing les charlton, gail's boyfriend, for a few months.   these days jilted john is better known, in britain at least, as john shuttleworth.