Jonathan Noyce

Jonathan Mark Thomas Noyce (born 15 July 1971) is an English musician. He is a bass guitarist primarily known as a member of British rock group Jethro Tull, with whom he toured and recorded as a member from 1995 until 2007.

Noyce was born in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London, Jonathan enjoyed his first success with the British pop group Take That, for whom he supplied bass in the studio in 1993. During this period Jonathan worked closely with producer Joey Negro aka Dave Lee.

In 1995, Jonathan was asked to play on Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre's solo album The Meeting. This became a stepping stone to meeting Tull frontman Ian Anderson, who subsequently asked Jonathan to join him on his Divinities world tour later that year. A few months later Dave Pegg announced his retirement from Jethro Tull. Jonathan was a natural first choice and joined the band in August 1995. During his eleven year stint with the band, he travelled the globe, recorded a (few) studio albums plus a few more live ones.

Outside of Jethro Tull, Jonathan has also appeared with Gary Moore, playing with him on his Old New Ballads Blues CD as well as the DVD recording of the concert to commemorate the life of Phil Lynott, One Night in Dublin, which featured members of Thin Lizzy. 2006 saw Jonathan play with The Divine Comedy and in 2007 he joined Archive for a successful two year stint which included the recordings Live at the Zenith, Controlling Crowds and Controlling Crowds Part 4.

Rick Wakeman called upon Jonathan for his concerts at Hampton Court Palace in 2009. These shows were also recorded and filmed and feature on the CD, DVD and Blu-ray release The Six Wives of Henry VIII Live at Hampton Court Palace.

2010 saw Jonathan re-uniting with Gary Moore for his Summer of Rock shows throughout Europe. This band also included drummer and friend Darrin Mooney and, following a 21 year hiatus, keyboard and guitar player Neil Carter, Gary's right-hand man during his rise to international success in the 1980s. A studio album is currently in the pipeline as is a live DVD release.

PERSONAL LIFE

After many years as a "confirmed bachelor", John became embroiled in a difficult emotional entanglement with a well known female comedian. The difficulty lay in the fact that although John had become deeply attached to said lady, the emotion was not reciprocated. John later wrote his triple concept album: "The Unkindness of Ravens" in order to lay the ghost of this turbulent episode.

2010 has also seen Jonathan having one of his greatest successes with the release of French-Canadian superstar Mylène Farmer's latest CD Bleu Noir which features Jonathan's bass playing on the majority of the tracks. For somebody normally associated with other musical forms, it's an unlikely move for Jonathan, but it seems that he was, once more, called on for his bass expertise over his love of Italian footwear and quality hair products.

Noyce was supposed to continue working on-stage and in the studio with Gary Moore on his Celtic rock project but Moore's untimely death in February 2011 meant an end to their collaboration.

External links

• Jethro Tull official website
• Jonathan Noyce's page at myspace.com
• Archive official website
• Gary Moore's official website