John Bottomley

Hello. My name is John Bottomley. 

I got my start in music at the age of six playing classical piano. My first public performance i think i was eight when i sang for the Homefield school choir in England. The spitfire pilot Douglas Barder went to that school. I started playing guitar when I was fifteen and played in a Band called Celcius and also a band called Albatross. We mostly played in The Black forest area of Germany where i was living at the time. Celcius shared the stage with Bill Haley and the Comets as well as Vanity Fair who had a couple of hits in Europe.  I cut my teeth in the 1980's with a Band called Tulpa. Formed in 1981 in Toronto, Tulpa started out as a punk band and we played the clubs. Hundreds of them. My first record was in 1983 and was followed by two more releases with the band - Mosaic Fish on the Midnight music Label out of England, and also Live a CBGB's on the CB's Label out of New York City. Hilly Krystal managed us for awhile and we played his famous club many times. He mentioned us in his book "This Aint no Disco."

 I released my first solo recording called Library of the Sun in 1990. It first came out on my own Label Crane/bag recordings and was soon picked up by Latent recordings run by Michael Timmins from the Cowboy Junkies. My second release on the Latent label was called Songs with the Ornamental hermits. It won me a Canadian Juno Award. BMG music signed me and I released Blackberry which spawned a couple of top ten hits in Canada. There have been many more releases since. The different styles I have dabbled in are rock, country, rockabilly, blues, folk, soul, hillbilly, pop as in popular, spoken word, celtic and a little bluegrass. I have busked on the street, sang in clubs and coffee houses, music halls, theatres, fun fairs and festivals. There have been lots of highlights. Many more to come. My newest recording is called Songpoet and was released in June 2007. Deep peace to you. Our love is gonna grow ...

Myspace: www.myspace.com/johnbottomley