Cult musician Jon Gomm propelled to popularity by Youtube, Twitter and Stephen Fry
The world beckons for cult guitarist Jon Gomm after a chance posting of his youtube video "Passionflower" sent it zooming well past a million views. The posting on sharing website Reddit has brought global attention to the fiercely independent musician and won him thousands of new fans including celebrity serial-tweeter Stephen Fry who posted a link to the video on Twitter with the single word “Wow!”
After almost 10 years of touring Europe, playing over one thousand gigs, and releasing his own music, Jon’s life has changed.
Jon says: “My previous life - of driving from my home in Leeds to Vienna in my beat-up Astra to play a concert, playing up to 200 gigs a year in pubs around Britain, sleeping on sofas in Rome or floors in Reading and playing in a car park in Barnsley has suddenly changed dramatically.
“So far I've been invited onto national TV in Turkey, Portugal and Holland and, this year, will be touring in around 15 countries on three continents, and my CDs will be finding their way into stores from Germany to Japan.
“It's been crazy, but I felt lucky enough before, just being able to make my living as a musician, so anything more is a bonus.”
Jon, passionate about the guitar since he was a child (he wanted his first guitar at two but his parents, unable to find one small enough bought him a ukulele instead!) has long been regarded, by those in the know, as at being at the top of his game. Acoustic Magazine describes him as “one of the world’s most gifted guitarists”, and other top guitarists including fingerstyle legend Andy McKee, and heavy metal man Devin Townsend have posted links to Passionflower as a must-watch.
Jon, who turned down a place at Oxford University to pursue his passion for music, has always been uncompromisingly independent and his refusal to sign up to the commercialised music world and have his art watered down means he has previously only achieved cult status. But now all looks set to change for Jon, who spent his childhood practising his guitar in the bedroom of his Blackpool home and listening to music by all the world’s greatest guitarists.
His independence is matched by his generosity; in the autumn he launched his download-only Domestic Science Singles Series, on a pay-what-you want basis because he believes music should be available to everyone regardless of their means. He is also donating a percentage of the money paid for downloads to the Happy House, Kenya- a children’s home opened in 2010 by a small Blackpool-based charity, Children of Watamu.
Jon is modest about the acclaim he is receiving. “I do feel a bit strange being in the limelight, which I’ve always avoided really. Knowing someone like Mr Fry has watched my song and enjoyed it makes me happy, simply because it's like I've paid him back a little bit for entertaining me for years!’’
* Passionflower was inspired by a plant growing in Jon’s small backyard in Leeds. “I put the seeds in a tiny tub, but it grew like a Roald Dahl story until it took over the whole yard then, one day, the sun shone extra hard and 100 flowers all went “Pop!”. It was amazing, so I wrote a song for it.”
View on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Website: http://jongomm.com
