His earliest work was alongside
Chris Sievey, with whom he formed The Bees Knees, recording unreleased material, and
The Freshies, around the mid-1970s. In 1977, he answered an ad placed by ex-
Buzzcocks Howard Devoto, who solicited musicians to form a new band, and joined the fledgling
Magazine, which began to be very influential among future rock musicians. He took part in the recording of the "
Shot By Both Sides" single which the band performed on
Top of the Pops, and the album
Real Life. But after the British tour for the album, he left in late July 1978. His whereabouts were unknown until 1982, when he joined
The Chameleons briefly to replace John Lever, departing in 1983 when the latter rejoined. He appeared in some songs of the live compilation
Here Today... ...Gone Tomorrow. In 1984, he teamed up with DJ
Greg Wilson and keyboardist friend
Andy Connell to create an album called
UK Electro. Connell and Jackson later collaborated with Design 9, alongside Steven Murray of the power-pop band Fast Cars and Haydn Rydings from Two-Tone Pinks but they left the project to form
Swing Out Sister with singer
Corinne Drewery in 1985. Jackson played drums on their debut album in 1987, but left the band in the middle of recording Swing Out Sister's second album
Kaleidoscope World. He also worked with
The Durutti Column, playing on the
Sex and Death album released in 1994. ==References==