Jackie Lomax

John Richard Lomax (10 May 1944 – 15 September 2013)

Career 1962–1970 In January 1962, Jackie Lomax left Dee and the Dynamites to join the Merseybeat band The Undertakers. They followed The Beatles' route through local venues before setting out for Hamburg, Germany, and securing a recording contract. They signed with Pye Records and released four singles, In 1965 they decided to try their luck in the United States. The band began as a hoax review in Time Out magazine. Guitarist John Morshead from The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation and three ringers had posed for the "group's" photo in the magazine, so to cash in on the buzz Morshead and drummer Carlo Little released a single on promoter John Curd's Head Records ("Chewn In"/"Time Out", Head HDS4001, 1969). They were beaten to the punch however by the group Skip Bifferty who released their own single as Heavy Jelly, "I Keep Singing That Same Old Song" b/w "Blue", on Island Records. The A-side became fairly well known at the time from its inclusion on the Island sampler album, Nice Enough to Eat. Curd owned the rights to the name however, and stopped Island from releasing any other Heavy Jelly productions. Guitarist Morshead, along with his former Aynsley Dunbar mate bassist Alex Dmochowski, formed another version of Heavy Jelly with Jackie Lomax. (In December 2013, it was announced that after Lomax's untimely death his family resolved all issues with Apple amicably and the album was re-leased on Angel Air Records on 10 March 2014.)

Confusing matters further, another Heavy Jelly, produced by Simon Napier-Bell, released their only single in the U.S. and France on Avco Embassy, "Humpty Dumpty" b/w "Throw Down a Line", in a nice picture sleeve. This may have been a studio group since both sides were written by producer Napier-Bell and vocalist and sometime partner Ray Singer. In 1971, Lomax returned to the US to live and work in Woodstock, New York. mother of fashion photographer Terry Richardson. On 15 September 2013, Lomax died from cancer, on the Wirral while staying in England for the wedding of his daughter.

In 2019, one of his songs, "New Day", from the album Is This What You Want?, was used for a cricket commercial for UK sports channel, Sky Sports. It featured a reworked version by Irish female singer Lyra. Her version was also used in a commercial for Dutch bike company VanMoof in 2020, after which it was released as a single.

Recordings The Undertakers Unearthed 1963–65 The Lomax Alliance and CBS Recordings 1966–1967 Is This What You Want? 1969 No. 145 US Heavy Jelly: Heavy Jelly 1970 Home Is in My Head 1971 - AUS No. 34 Three 1972 Livin' For Lovin''' 1976 Did You Ever Have That Feeling? 1977 True Voices (Various Artists) 1991 The Ballad of Liverpool Slim 2001 & 2004 The Ballad of Liverpool Slim...and Others (Angel Air Records) Against All Odds (Angel Air Records) 2014

Badger White Lady'' – With Tony Kaye, ex-Yes