Jim Bob
Encyclopedia
Jim Bob is the stage name for James Morrison, the London
born writer and musician best known as the singer of indie
punk
band Carter USM
.
, on 22 November 1960. He changed his name because he did not want to be mistaken for, in his own words, "a fat, dead, crap poet" – in other words, the former singer
of The Doors
.
He played in various bands during the 1980s, one of which was Jamie Wednesday
who were performing between 1984 and 1987. In 1987 Jamie Wednesday
split up just before a gig at the London Astoria
. Morrison and Les "Fruitbat" Carter filled in, playing along to a backing tape, and Carter USM
was born. In fact, Jim and Les had known each other since the late 1970s, when their bands The Ballpoints (featuring Jim on vocals) and Dead Clergy (Les on bass and vocals) used to rehearse at the same studio behind Streatham station. When The Ballpoints' bassist quit at the end of 1980, Les joined the band, who then went on to play several gigs under the name of Peter Pan's Playground.
In Carter USM
Jim Bob had 14 top 40 singles, 4 top ten albums (including a number one) and played over 800 gigs all over the world as lead singer of the band. The band split up in 1997. Since Carter USM, Jim Bob has released two albums and three singles with his disco
-pop
-punk
group Jim's Super Stereoworld, four solo albums as Jim Bob or James Robert Morrison and played various live shows both with his band and solo. In 2001 he joined his old Carter bandmate Fruitbat onstage once again as part of supergroup Who's The Daddy Now?.
Jim Bob currently tours as a solo artist playing both Carter songs and his solo material. His Goodnight Jim Bob - On The Road With Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine autobiography was published by Cherry Red Books in May 2004 to critical acclaim. Jim Bob's album Angelstrike, was released on November 22, 2004.
In 2005, Cherry Red released a DVD
of a live solo acoustic performance titled Live From London
featuring songs from throughout his solo career as well as many Carter USM tracks.
This was followed by a concept album entitled School, which was released in March 2006, brought forward after a leak to the internet.
A "Best of" album was released in the autumn of 2006, accompanied by a UK tour. This release was originally intended to be a download only release, but a physical CD was produced. The album was accompanied by a free CD of Jim Bob and Jim's Super Stereoworld rarities. The cover design was re-worked by Jim Bob from an image by Jim Connolly
.
Jim Bob contributed two songs to Mark Ravenhill
's Barbican's 2006/7 Pantomime, Dick Whittington, "The Lord Major's show" and "The Victory Of Evil Song".
The album "A Humpty Dumpty Thing" was released in November 2007 by Cherry Red records. The album came with a Jim Bob penned mini novel called "Word Count". A single from the album "Battling The Bottle" was released with Jim Bob's reworking of the children's song "The Wheels on the Bus" on the B-side.
Jim Bob's next solo record was called Goffam. It was another concept album about a city in the grip of crime, deserted by its superheroes. He toured the UK in April and September 2009 promoting the album.
In December 2009 Jim Bob performed his 2004 song 'Angelstrike!' as part of The Return of 9 Lessons and Carols for Godless People shows for two nights at the Bloomsbury Theatre and at Hammersmith Apollo
, where he performed the song with a 23 piece orchestra.
His short story 'Word Count' has been optioned by Untold Pictures in light of turning it into a feature film. Jim Bob was also commissioned to write the screenplay.
His debut novel 'Storage Stories' was published on the day of the UK General Election May 6, 2010 by Ten Forty Books.
In August 2010 Jim Bob appeared in 'Gutted, A Revenger's Musical' at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The musical was written by Danielle Ward
and Martin White
and starred Doc Brown, Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Helen George, Colin Hoult, Michael Legge, Sara Pascoe, Lizzie Roper, Fiona Stephenson, Daniel Tawse and The Penny Dreadfuls
(David Reed, Thom Tuck, Humphrey Ker).
and Jamie Wednesday
for those bands' discographies.
A Free CD recorded by Jim at home and given away to the first 10 people to visit the T-shirt stall and ask for Marc or Neil on the October 2003 tour
25 readers of Jim's book won a copy of the CD 'Stolen From Westlife' - 8 cover versions recorded by Jim - after answering some questions posed by the author on page 95. There were surprisingly few competition entries as most people presumed it was a joke.
A free Cd recorded by Jim and containing six acoustic covers, the CD is currently being issues only to members of Jim's "street team
". The CD includes a cover of a track originally written and recorded by former-Carter bandmate Les Carter.
A DVD featuring a live acoustic performance of Jim Bob songs and Carter USM songs. Bonus features include an interview with Jim, Jim reading excerpts from his autobiography and the video for the Jim's Super Stereoworld song Bubblegum.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
born writer and musician best known as the singer of indie
Indie (music)
In music, independent music, often shortened to indie music or "indie" is a term used to describe independence from major commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, and an autonomous, Do-It-Yourself approach to recording and publishing....
punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band Carter USM
Carter USM
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine is a British indie rock band formed in 1988 by singer Jim "Jim Bob" Morrison and guitarist Les "Fruitbat" Carter. They made their name with a distinctive style of power pop, fusing samples, sequenced basses and drum machines with rock 'n' roll guitars and...
.
Biography
Jim Bob was born James Neil Morrison in the city of LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, on 22 November 1960. He changed his name because he did not want to be mistaken for, in his own words, "a fat, dead, crap poet" – in other words, the former singer
Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American musician, singer, and poet, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors...
of The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
.
He played in various bands during the 1980s, one of which was Jamie Wednesday
Jamie Wednesday
Jamie Wednesday were a British 1980s jangle pop band, formed in Streatham, South London in 1984, that released eight songs on two records between 1985 and 1986...
who were performing between 1984 and 1987. In 1987 Jamie Wednesday
Jamie Wednesday
Jamie Wednesday were a British 1980s jangle pop band, formed in Streatham, South London in 1984, that released eight songs on two records between 1985 and 1986...
split up just before a gig at the London Astoria
London Astoria
The London Astoria was a music venue, located at 157 Charing Cross Road, in London, England. It had been leased and run by Festival Republic since 2000. It was closed on 15 January 2009 and has since been demolished...
. Morrison and Les "Fruitbat" Carter filled in, playing along to a backing tape, and Carter USM
Carter USM
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine is a British indie rock band formed in 1988 by singer Jim "Jim Bob" Morrison and guitarist Les "Fruitbat" Carter. They made their name with a distinctive style of power pop, fusing samples, sequenced basses and drum machines with rock 'n' roll guitars and...
was born. In fact, Jim and Les had known each other since the late 1970s, when their bands The Ballpoints (featuring Jim on vocals) and Dead Clergy (Les on bass and vocals) used to rehearse at the same studio behind Streatham station. When The Ballpoints' bassist quit at the end of 1980, Les joined the band, who then went on to play several gigs under the name of Peter Pan's Playground.
In Carter USM
Carter USM
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine is a British indie rock band formed in 1988 by singer Jim "Jim Bob" Morrison and guitarist Les "Fruitbat" Carter. They made their name with a distinctive style of power pop, fusing samples, sequenced basses and drum machines with rock 'n' roll guitars and...
Jim Bob had 14 top 40 singles, 4 top ten albums (including a number one) and played over 800 gigs all over the world as lead singer of the band. The band split up in 1997. Since Carter USM, Jim Bob has released two albums and three singles with his disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
-pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
-punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
group Jim's Super Stereoworld, four solo albums as Jim Bob or James Robert Morrison and played various live shows both with his band and solo. In 2001 he joined his old Carter bandmate Fruitbat onstage once again as part of supergroup Who's The Daddy Now?.
Jim Bob currently tours as a solo artist playing both Carter songs and his solo material. His Goodnight Jim Bob - On The Road With Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine autobiography was published by Cherry Red Books in May 2004 to critical acclaim. Jim Bob's album Angelstrike, was released on November 22, 2004.
In 2005, Cherry Red released a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
of a live solo acoustic performance titled Live From London
Live From London (Jim Bob)
Live From London is a concert DVD featuring an acoustic performance by ex-Carter USM singer/guitarist Jim Bob. Jim plays songs from both his solo career as well as many Carter USM songs...
featuring songs from throughout his solo career as well as many Carter USM tracks.
This was followed by a concept album entitled School, which was released in March 2006, brought forward after a leak to the internet.
A "Best of" album was released in the autumn of 2006, accompanied by a UK tour. This release was originally intended to be a download only release, but a physical CD was produced. The album was accompanied by a free CD of Jim Bob and Jim's Super Stereoworld rarities. The cover design was re-worked by Jim Bob from an image by Jim Connolly
Jim Connolly (illustrator)
Jim Connolly is an illustrator, designer and commercial artist from Sheffield, England. He is best known for creating comic book style designs for album/single covers, concert posters, magazine articles and silkscreen prints. His style features loud and brash bubblegum colours and comical...
.
Jim Bob contributed two songs to Mark Ravenhill
Mark Ravenhill
Mark Ravenhill is an English playwright, actor and journalist.His most famous plays include Shopping and Fucking , Some Explicit Polaroids and Mother Clap's Molly House . He made his acting debut in his monologue Product, at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe...
's Barbican's 2006/7 Pantomime, Dick Whittington, "The Lord Major's show" and "The Victory Of Evil Song".
The album "A Humpty Dumpty Thing" was released in November 2007 by Cherry Red records. The album came with a Jim Bob penned mini novel called "Word Count". A single from the album "Battling The Bottle" was released with Jim Bob's reworking of the children's song "The Wheels on the Bus" on the B-side.
Jim Bob's next solo record was called Goffam. It was another concept album about a city in the grip of crime, deserted by its superheroes. He toured the UK in April and September 2009 promoting the album.
In December 2009 Jim Bob performed his 2004 song 'Angelstrike!' as part of The Return of 9 Lessons and Carols for Godless People shows for two nights at the Bloomsbury Theatre and at Hammersmith Apollo
Hammersmith Apollo
Hammersmith Apollo is a major entertainment venue located in Hammersmith, London. Designed by Robert Cromie in Art Deco style, it opened in 1932 as the Gaumont Palace cinema, being re-named the Hammersmith Odeon in 1962...
, where he performed the song with a 23 piece orchestra.
His short story 'Word Count' has been optioned by Untold Pictures in light of turning it into a feature film. Jim Bob was also commissioned to write the screenplay.
His debut novel 'Storage Stories' was published on the day of the UK General Election May 6, 2010 by Ten Forty Books.
In August 2010 Jim Bob appeared in 'Gutted, A Revenger's Musical' at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The musical was written by Danielle Ward
Danielle Ward
Danielle Ward is a British stand-up comedian and writer.-Career:In 2006 Ward won the Time Outs Critic's Choice award for Best Newcomer and wrote Take A Break Tales - exaggerated adaptations of women's magazine stories - in which she appeared with Neil Edmond, Emma Fryer and Isy Suttie at the...
and Martin White
Martin White
Martin White is an English musician, comedian and animator. As well as performing solo with an accordion around the London comedy circuit, White also fronts the Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra and the Karaoke Circus live bands...
and starred Doc Brown, Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Helen George, Colin Hoult, Michael Legge, Sara Pascoe, Lizzie Roper, Fiona Stephenson, Daniel Tawse and The Penny Dreadfuls
The Penny Dreadfuls
The Penny Dreadfuls are a British sketch-comedy troupe consisting of comedians Humphrey Ker, David Reed and Thom Tuck. The sketch team perform regularly on the London comedy circuit.-History:...
(David Reed, Thom Tuck, Humphrey Ker).
Solo discography
All releases credited as Jim Bob unless otherwise stated. See Carter USMCarter USM
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine is a British indie rock band formed in 1988 by singer Jim "Jim Bob" Morrison and guitarist Les "Fruitbat" Carter. They made their name with a distinctive style of power pop, fusing samples, sequenced basses and drum machines with rock 'n' roll guitars and...
and Jamie Wednesday
Jamie Wednesday
Jamie Wednesday were a British 1980s jangle pop band, formed in Streatham, South London in 1984, that released eight songs on two records between 1985 and 1986...
for those bands' discographies.
Albums
- Jim's Super StereoworldJim's Super Stereoworld (album)Jim's Super Stereoworld is the debut solo album by former Carter USM singer/guitarist Jim Bob. It was released in 2000 on Music Blitz Records.-Track listing:# Bonkers In The Nut# Greetings Earthlings # Pear Shaped World# Superslob...
, 2001 (Jim's Super Stereoworld) - J.R.J.R. (album)J.R. is the second solo album by former Carter USM singer/guitarist Jim Bob. It was released under the name James Robert Morrison to differentiate its mellower, largely acoustic sound from the more dance-oriented Jim's Super Stereoworld releases.-Track listing:# Good Hair Day# I Lost My Baby to...
, 2001 (James Robert Morrison) - Big Flash Car on a Saturday NightBig Flash Car on a Saturday NightIn a Big Flash Car on a Saturday Night is former Carter USM singer/guitarist Jim Bob's third solo album and second to be released under the Jim's Super Stereoworld moniker. It was released in 2001...
, 2002 (Jim's Super Stereoworld) - Goodnight Jim BobGoodnight Jim BobGoodnight Jim Bob is the first of Jim Bob's post-Carter USM albums to be released under the name Jim Bob. Musically, it's a more mature and fully realized rock album than its disco-tinged predecessors...
, 2003 - Angelstrike!Angelstrike!Angelstrike! is an album by Jim Bob, formerly of Carter USM. The song My Face Your Arse is a humorous duet with fellow ex-Carter USM member Fruitbat. The lyrics depict Jim and Fruitbat insulting each other and accusing each other of being the reason for the splitting up of Carter USM back in 1997...
, 2004 - School, 2006
- Best of Jim Bob, 2006
- A Humpty Dumpty ThingA Humpty Dumpty ThingA Humpty Dumpty Thing is the title of the 2007 solo album by Jim Bob, formerly of Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. It was released on Cherry Red Records and included a free book. "The story is set in the not too distant future when all art is commissioned by the State. It's about a man chosen to...
, November 2007 - Goffam, April 2009
Singles
- Jim's Super Stereoworld - "Bonkers In The Nut", 1999
- Jim's Super Stereoworld - "Could U B The 1 I Waited 4", 1999
- Jim's Super Stereoworld - "Bubblegum EP", 2002
- Dumb and Dumber, March 2005
- Battling The Bottle (Fighting The Flab, At War With The World), November 2007
- Our Heroes, June 2009
Other releases
- Acoustic Party 7
A Free CD recorded by Jim at home and given away to the first 10 people to visit the T-shirt stall and ask for Marc or Neil on the October 2003 tour
- Stolen from Westlife
25 readers of Jim's book won a copy of the CD 'Stolen From Westlife' - 8 cover versions recorded by Jim - after answering some questions posed by the author on page 95. There were surprisingly few competition entries as most people presumed it was a joke.
- Busker
A free Cd recorded by Jim and containing six acoustic covers, the CD is currently being issues only to members of Jim's "street team
Street team
A street team is a term used in marketing to describe a group of people who 'hit the streets' promoting an event or a product. 'Street Teams' are a powerful promotional tool that has been adopted industry wide as a standard line item in marketing budgets by entertainment companies, record labels,...
". The CD includes a cover of a track originally written and recorded by former-Carter bandmate Les Carter.
DVDs
- Live From LondonLive From London (Jim Bob)Live From London is a concert DVD featuring an acoustic performance by ex-Carter USM singer/guitarist Jim Bob. Jim plays songs from both his solo career as well as many Carter USM songs...
, 2005
A DVD featuring a live acoustic performance of Jim Bob songs and Carter USM songs. Bonus features include an interview with Jim, Jim reading excerpts from his autobiography and the video for the Jim's Super Stereoworld song Bubblegum.
Books
- Goodnight Jim Bob – On the Road With Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine Jim Bob's autobiographic tale of his time on tour with Carter USM. Published by Cherry Red Books.
- Storage Stories Jim Bob's debut novel, described as a darkly comic rollercoaster ride full of thrills, spills and warm sick on the back of the neck. A fictional autobiographical novel and collection of short stories told in words and pictures that, if nothing else, finally solves the mystery of what happened to all the missing boybands.