Lucky turn, John´s neighbour in New York is the boss of  IMAGO and beside that, a good old acquaintance - Terry Ellis, head of Chrysalis in THE BABYS era and during John´s first solo release „Ignition“. They meet at Terry´s house, chat for a while, have a glass of wine and John leaves with a record contract. In three studios in Manhattan, he then begins to work. „I had a hard time getting back on the beam, because it was hard to find a company that would believe in me“, he concedes. „If you don´t make them a million dollars and do the expected thing, what are you to them? Terry gave me a shot really. He´d let me do whatever I wanted to do. I´m really grateful to him for everything.“

The result, which is going to be released on Valentine´s day in 1995 is worth the listening. „Temple Bar“ proves to be as nothing less as a small masterpiece. Beside seven new songs it contains three cover versions: „Someone Like You“ - Van Morrison, „I´m So Lonesome I Could Cry“ - Hank Williams and Bill Withers´ „Ain´t No Sunshine“. So John´s adaptation of „I´m So Lonesome I Could Cry“ proves that his voice hardly needs a musical correction. Dobro, a largely unknown instrument gives that song -- beside John´s remarkable vocal brilliance -- the very special something.

„In Dreams“ already appeared on the soundtrack for True Romance and has been released in 1993.
„How Did I Get By Without You“ makes it to the US Top 20. But the jewel of that album doubtless is Downtown. No commercial success though, but it wins the audience´ fascination. John seldom revealed himself to his audience like that - the link to „Missing You“ is unmistakably, even though there is no similarity, neither in content, nor musically. But by listening carefully to Downtown´s lyrics it rings a bell with the inclined John-Waite-fancier.

The „Temple Bar“ in New York.

The onset of this flawless album doesn't leave any wishes unfulfilled and according to John Waite, he gets the best reviews of his career by then. „Temple Bar“ is about to carve its way to the charts when the seeming unavoidable happens - IMAGO loses the license and John the album... So further promotion for „Temple Bar“ is consequently impossible. „It was weird to watch that happen“, he says. „In one moment I had a hit and in the next 'Temple Bar' goes down the toilet. But hey - I survived it and in the end it was a damn good record.“

The question on what was harder - the period up to and recording Temple Bar or the collapse of the label and the time after that, is answered by John like this: „That was interesting. It was the two years of just sitting here. I had been on tour for a couple of years, I had made two albums with BAD ENGLISH and hadn´t stop running. A restless time. And then I had two years of... I went to Italy and spent about two months drifting around, then I went back to Britain, then I went back to America. But I was just basically trying to disappear. I didn´t want to make any more records at that point anyway. I think I was in Italy for so long because I couldn´t speak their language. It was hard to get hold of me.
I just had everybody leaving me alone.“

„But it wasn´t hard to get back up and start again. I´m always writing lyrics and stuff, but I was waiting for something more honest. I mean, the idea of 'Temple Bar' was a very subtle idea. I didn´t want to grab out a bunch of commercial rock songs where you shake your ass and jump up and down. The songs on 'Temple Bar' were written in small rooms,
not in the studio. They were written in rooms where you sleep. That´s why they sound so conversant.
'Temple Bar' was a very grown up record.“

Many people were pretty surprised about this grown up John Waite, and Andrew McNeice said to him: „I had to listen to 'Temple Bar' a few times and it was like: Wow - what´s that? But after a few listens I was hooked and now I love it.“

Together with Glen Burtnik (Ex-Styx, photo below), co-writer of the awesome Downtown John does some informally acoustic gigs. „We just went out and played for the people“, he says. „I wanted to do something that has nothing to do with the business. Just going out and playing for anyone that wants to listen to. Without putting on a facade, or any of that pretentious mess that comes with touring. At this point I´m only interested in music. It was a great time and there were some memorable gigs. I would kill for a tape of that!“ None of these gigs have ever been recorded.

Fans would like to see John Waite at „VH1 Story Tellers“ but each efforts fail (as yet). MTV doesn´t seem to be interested in an  „Unplugged“ either. „Looks like I´m sort of the best kept-secret“, laughs John. „I have a hit every few years, (Unfortunately only in the USA, annotation Petra) the public sort of embraces me and it´s like I´m back, but then I disappear again. Who knows, maybe one day I´ll do an acoustic album with some of my older songs. That would be an interesting thing.“

At least a similar idea becomes reality two years later.

Photo Credit Mark Sullivan