John D. Bryant started his musical career at school. He was in Tooting band The Shifters, who gigged extensively and
appeared on ITV’s ‘Ready, Steady, Win’. John went solo and recorded the first of three singles for Fontana Records in 1965,
Tell Me What You See. He appeared on ‘5 O’clock Club’ and supported the Small Faces at Streatham Ice Rink.
The Shadows recorded John’s Dear Old Mrs Bell as their first vocal single in 1968. John went on to record singles for
Decca and MCA before signing a 5-year deal with Polydor records in 1970, recording five singles, an EP and an album
between ’70 and ’73, then going on to release singles on Pye, Tony Visconti’s Good Earth label and Private Stock Records.
John played the Rainbow, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Marquee, the Cambridge Folk Festival, and had a residency at Smalls
after-theatre restaurant in Brompton Road, alternating with the Dudley Moore Trio.
On radio, he performed live on Folk Meets Country, Both Sides Now, Country Club and Speakeasy for the BBC and recorded
sessions for Capital Radio.
In 1974, his song, Painter of the Sky, reached the final of the first American Song Festival in Saratoga Springs where it was
performed by José Feliciano. That gave him the opportunity to travel to Nashville and work with Marijohn Wilkin (One Day at a
Time) and Clarence Selman (Jim Reeves’ manager). They introduced him to some of the real country greats, including Johnny
Cash and Waylon Jennings, and he played and sang on sessions with legendary producer, ‘Cowboy’ Jack Clement.
In the 1970s John teamed up with an artist friend, Peter Edwards and wrote the story and songs for The Lion’s Tale, a
musical about a lion cub. It was proposed as a concept album in aid of the WWF with a star-studded cast and Phonogram
contracted as producers. Tim Rice and John worked together to build the list of performers, but the project was left up in
the air when the MD of Phonogram left suddenly.
John turned to producing, but while recording tracks for Polydor with the hugely talented writer/pianist/singer, Brian Chatton,
the sessions were arbitrarily cancelled in favour of a little-known punk band, The Jam. John left Polydor and signed to
Private Stock. He gave up recording when the label closed.
In 1985, he set up a design partnership in New Bond Street, with a client roster which included Marks & Spencer, Tesco and
Avon Cosmetics. One strange commission was to buy and restore an ex-pirate radio ship, formerly Laser 558, and move it
to the Costa Del Sol to compete with Radio Gibraltar. One night the ship was raided by a group of thugs intent on stealing
it. John and his partner responded by hiring a group of ex-SAS guys, who stormed the ship brandishing serious weaponry.
The ship was eventually impounded by the DTI when the anchor chain broke and it strayed into British waters.
After the partnership was dissolved in 1988, John went on to launch and edit Satellite Times magazine when the first Astra
satellite went up. The magazine was so successful that Robert Maxwell, Asil Nadir, Richard Desmond and Conde Nast all
made offers to buy it, but any deal was scuppered by the non-executive Chairman. John resigned and went freelance again
as a designer/illustrator until 1992, when he was asked to join the staff of the Brit Performing Arts School in Croydon,
where he taught A-level music technology and grade 8 classical guitar.
At the same time, John worked with producer David Mackay on the Up With People stage show concepts, writing three
songs for their World In Motion show, while continuing to develop The Lion’s Tale, now renamed Delta Ball, which
opened the Stoppard Theatre in Yorkshire as a musical play in 2000.
Tom Stoppard described the new £1.5 million Tom Stoppard Centre as a "brilliant theatre" and after opening it, he watched pupils
perform part of a new musical play called The Delta Ball by the school's head of art, Peter Edwards, and composer, John Bryant.
York Press interview 2001
In 2004, John was commissioned to write a score and songs for a feature film about the death of Diana, Princess of
Wales and, in 2006, he set up Bryant Whittle Ltd with Amanda Whittle to develop and produce concepts for film and TV.
John went on to conduct a forensic investigation into the death of Princess Diana, and his book, The Diana Jigsaw, was
published at the end of August 2019. John is now planning to make a film of the same name, based on his investigation.
Meanwhile, John completed a seven-movement orchestral suite, Earth Chronicle, and realised that he should put together
a new album of his unreleased recordings. The result is The Poor Man’s Troubadour, which is now available to download
on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Pandora, Amazon, Google Play, Tidal, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Deezer and many more.
John has since released ‘We Are Refugees’ for the Ukraine Appeal, a new version of ‘Peace Will Be Mine’ and ‘If I could Fly’,
as well as completing his ‘Earth Chronicle Suite’ for orchestra, choir and soloists. He has also written two books.