In 1984 I heard „Missing you“on the radio and I was impressed by the voice of John Waite. I bought the single and also the album „No brakes“. The next year I bought „Mask of smiles“ at Virgin in London, imported from Japan. In that period Virgin was the ideal shop for buying stuff from The Babys and John Waite. They sold almost everything, including the 12" „For Japan Only“. Sometimes I heard nothing on John for a very long time. There was no Internet yet and European magazines hardly wrote about John. But everytime a new record was released, I was impressed. When Bad English became big, I bought quite a few magazines with stories on them. But, after that, just silence. „Temple bar“ was released but I couldn't find any European magazine with an article on John.
Same story after „When you were mine“.
In the summer of 1997 I saw this ad in „Record collector“ from Kevin Scott: he had started a John Waite fanzine.
I became a member, found a friend with access to the Internet and I was pleasantly surprised that so many people made an effort to write and talk about John's music. But, I was still wondering, when will a good magazine like maybe „Record collector“ or „Mojo“ or „Goldmine“ write about John. As this didn't seem very likely to happen, I decided to write a story on John myself. But, I more or less missed The Babys period and I had no clue how and where to start. Kevin introduced me to David Waite and as soon as I read David's 1988 „Goldmine“ story on John, I knew I had my perfect start. The outcome:

Music: The art of John Waite