John Hardman

John Hardman is an English guitarist, keyboard player, songwriter and producer. He begins his professional career in 1975 as a writer and as a guitarist and keyboard player with EMI act Sunfighter, and remains active across recording, production and performance work.

Career

After his period with Sunfighter, Hardman spends 1978 to 1980 working as a session musician in major London studios. During this time he also tours with musician and comedian Max Boyce and appears on television programmes including Top of the Pops, Supersonic, Pebble Mill, the Royal Variety Show, as well as in televised live shows and videos.

In 1980, he and his brother set up the independent label Swamp Records. The label issues releases by a range of artists including Telephone Bill & The Smooth Operators, Neil Lewis, Eugene & The Syncopaters, The Chief, Susie Hep, Ian Lang & Small Change and others. From 1986, the label focuses mainly on Hardman’s own work with his rock band Beats Working.

Beats Working and later projects

Beats Working releases around ten albums and several singles. The band’s catalogue includes Good Love, issued under the one-off project name Class of 2, which features Hardman and Lynn Sheppard, the bass player and co-vocalist in Beats Working. Hardman also releases solo material under his own name, including the song collection Cooked Oxide, followed by two further Cooked Oxide albums.

He also records In Short Trousers - protest songs of generations past with musician and artist Denny Lloyd. The album is an acoustic set of 14 well-known protest songs plus an original track, Losing My Mind, written by Hardman and Lloyd.

Work as a writer and producer

Hardman continues to produce, play guitar and keyboards for other artists, and to write and produce material for the rock band The Rushing and for the female dance/rock artist K8. He also works with other musicians, including Thomas Crimble, who has played with Skin Alley and Hawkwind.

Associated bands

His bands and projects are listed in chronological order as Sunfighter, the Max Boyce Band, John Hardman, Beats Working UK, the John Hardman Band, John Hardman Music and Intrinsik. The listed styles range from pop rock and folk rock to alt pop rock, rock, hard rock, indie, blues, keyboard-led rock and acoustic-based rock.

Family

He has a daughter, Sarah Harding.