Returning to the UK he worked for
Polydor in record promotion in 1974 with
The Who,
The Rubettes,
Slade,
The Osmonds and
Barclay James Harvest, before moving to
Island where he promoted
Bob Marley and The Wailers, and was label manager for
Shelter Records who housed artists such as JJ Cale,
Leon Russell,
Dwight Twilley, and
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He was music editor of
Radio and Record News between 1977 and 1979, before a brief artist career as singer/writer in East Side Band, signed to
Mickie Most's
RAK Records label, and was a guitarist with The Brians, for
Dindisc. In 1981, he began managing electro duo Blancmange, and became a session producer for
BBC Radio One. Over a five-year period he produced sessions for
John Peel,
Kid Jensen,
Janice Long,
Peter Powell, including landmark recordings by
Aswad,
Big Country, Simple Minds,
Barrington Levy,
Cocteau Twins,
Bauhaus,
The Birthday Party Killing Joke, The Waterboys,
China Crisis, The Housemartins,
Southern Death Cult,
The Cure,
Cookie Crew,
The Gymslips,
APB,
Loudon Wainwright III,
the Men They Couldn't Hang,
Ludus, and Blue Poland. In 1985, he joined
Chrysalis as senior A&R manager, and produced both The Housemartins albums, including
London 0 Hull 4, and the chart topping single "
Caravan of Love", signed and produced the debut album by
The Proclaimers,
This Is the Story, and A&R'd Jethro Tull's Grammy winning
Crest of a Knave album. He became director of A&R at Polydor in 1987, working with
Level 42,
Sarah Brightman, and
Andrew Lloyd Webber, plus signing Cathy Dennis along with
The Wonderstuff and
Little Angels. He also produced albums by
Craig Ferguson,
James Taylor Quartet,
The Almighty and
The High. Returning to Chrysalis in 1990, he reunited with Jethro Tull and The Proclaimers. During this period he A&R'd albums for both artists and producing albums by
Kingmaker and signing
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. From 1995, he began a 10-year tenure with the
Sanctuary Group. Running Viper Records, he managed the
Coronation Street star
Matthew Marsden, and produced chart singles by
Joyrider,
Blameless,
Stereo Nation, and wrote and produced with Matt Prime,
Abe Messiah, the cast album from
The Tribe TV series, as well as composing the theme music for series two of the six part series. As senior Vice President of A&R for
Sanctuary Records, he worked with Robert Plant, The Blue Nile, Simple Minds, Alison Moyet, Ocean Colour Scene, Status Quo,
Gary Jules, before starting W14 Music at Universal and signing The Proclaimers, Level 42,
Paul Heaton, The Waterboys, Siouxsie Sioux, and producing
Get Happy with jazz singer
Clare Teal. After leaving W14, Williams produced and co-wrote Petula Clark's
Lost in You album which charted at number 24 in the
UK Albums Chart. In 2013, Williams produced
Michael Nyman's
Piano Sings 2. He also produced
Paul Heaton and
Jacqui Abbott's
What Have We Become?, which debuted at number 3 in the UK Albums Chart in 2014. In October 2014, Williams co-wrote and produced a new solo album,
Where Else (Cherry Red), with Claudia Brucken. On 30 October 2015, the second Heaton/Abbott collaboration,
Wisdom, Laughter and Lines, also produced by Williams, achieved a second UK Top 10 album charting at No. 4. He co- wrote and produced "From Now On" by Petula Clark, released in September 2016, before returning to work with Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott on their third album,
Crooked Calypso, which entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 2 in July 2017. John spent most of 2019 in Manchester working at Blueprint Studios in Salford producing the sessions for Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott's album
Manchester Calling. The album was released 6 March 2020 and debuted at No 1 in the UK ALBUM CHART In 2021 John released his debut album ‘Out of Darkness’ under the name The John Williams Syndicate. In 2022 he produced Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott chart-topping album ‘N.K-POP’,` and co-written xPropaganda’s Top 10 album ‘The Heart is Strange’. The John Williams syndicate second album 'Into The Light' follows in the summer of 2023. ==References==