For those unaware, Like To Get To Know You Well: Live At High Wycombe Town Hall, 1983 is a most wondrous CD/DVD Edition package of Howard Jones’ early ’80s live show featuring Jed.

Packaged in a digipack with a fully illustrated 16-page booklet containing great images of Howard taken from this live performance. The CD features the full concert remixed and remastered from the original multi-track master tapes and restored to its original running order and released for the very first time.

It includes live versions of the hit singles New Song, What Is Love?, Hide And Seek, Pearl In The Shell and Like To Get To Know You Well plus Howard’s previously unreleased version of the Xmas favorite Ding Dong Merrily On High, sung to the backbeat of his hit single New Song.

With a DVD (NTSC/Region-Free) of the concert which was originally released as a VHS back in 1984, this restored live in concert performance by Howard Jones is being released on DVD for the first time. It also includes a version of the track Human’s Lib featuring Howard’s full spoken introduction entitled The Story Of Ruth, David and Dennis.

I have personally loved everything Howard has brought out since these very early days, seen him live three times (back then), interviewed him twice, and even had the pleasure of having a face-to-face with him back some 20 odd years ago (maybe more).

His music can be summed up as relentlessly optimistic synth-pop anchored by classical craftsmanship and whilst many of his ’80s new wave contemporaries leaned into moody, dark, or detached electronic sounds, Howard carved out a unique identity by using cutting-edge technology to deliver uplifting, human-centric messages.

A beautiful combination of both poptimism and philosophy, this lyrical thread of positivity relentlessly runs through his entire discography. Songs like New Song and Things Can Only Get Better function as life-affirming anthems, urging listeners to shed fear and embrace the present. Even his melancholier tracks, such as No One Is to Blame, are delivered with a comforting, empathetic warmth.

This live show, catching him at the very start of his what would become burgeoning career, is a gem to behold musically, and now visually due to the DVD capturing the maestro on a wondrous nine tracks.

What we didn’t know back then, was that beneath the synthetic layers sat a highly trained musician, because Howard actually studied classical piano growing up. Thus on a lot of his piano tracks (latterly) they feature strong harmonic structures and sophisticated arrangements that allow his music to easily strip down to just wood, wire, and voice" on a grand piano without losing any emotional depth.

In closing, Howard live is always a joy to behold, his shows bigger and more expansive today than they ever were in these small UK venues, but that is what makes this particular show all the more of a rare gem to unearth.

CD:
1. Hunt The Self 2. Pearl In The Shell 3. Always Asking Questions 4. Don’t Always Look At The Rain 5. Natural 6. Bounce Right Back 7. Hide And Seek 8. What Is Love? 9. Equality 10. Like To Get To Know You Well 11. New Song 12. Conditioning 13. Ding Dong Merrily On High 14. Human’s Lib - The Story of Ruth, David and Dennis 15. Human’s Lib

DVD:
1. Hunt The Self 2. Pearl In The Shell 3. Bounce Right Back 4. Hide And Seek 5. What Is Love? 6. Equality 7. Like To Get To Know You Well 8. New Song 9. Conditioning

Official CD+DVD Purchase Link

www.howardjones.com