Johnny Warman entered the world in Bethnal Green, London, and first stepped onto a stage during childhood after his school choir earned selection for a pair of productions at the Royal Opera House, where he shared the bill with Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi. Rock drew his attention by the middle of the 1970s, leading him to assemble Bearded Lady and issue the 1975 single “Rock Star.” The track failed to register, and once the group disbanded Warman secured a solo contract with Ringo Starr’s Ring-O imprint, which yielded a 1977 single and the Germany-only album Hour Glass two years afterward. He kept in touch with Starr, and the pair co-wrote four songs that appeared on the 1992 release Time Takes Time.
Warman launched the band Three Minutes in 1980; after its dissolution he repurposed much of its material for his own 1981 solo effort Walking into Mirrors, issued on Elton John’s Rocket label. The album was cut with the musicians then touring alongside Peter Gabriel, who added backing vocals to the single “Screaming Jets,” and the track became a substantial hit in Australia. Its successor, 1983’s From the Jungle to the New Horizons, made scant impact, after which Warman stepped away from recording under his own name to focus on songwriting. Subsequent compositions have been interpreted by Jefferson Starship, Cheap Trick, House of Lords, Vanity 6, and Elaine Paige, while a 1992 collaboration with Asia resulted in contributions to both the Aqua album and Geoff Downes’ solo project. Around 2000 Warman resumed live performance by forming the Mods and Four Bills and a Ben, and 2002 finally brought a compact-disc reissue of Walking into Mirrors.
