Jesus Jones drummer quits as original rejoins

This probably isn't what the members of Jesus Jones had in mind for the holidays.

Tony Arthy, their drummer since 2001, sent an e-mail to the members just a few hours after their last gig of 2013 on December 21 in Birmingham telling them that he was leaving the band. That left Jesus Jones with already scheduled dates in the new year but no drummer.

The band posted the news on their website saying:

Right, we have some news. It's a statement from Tony, and one that's left us a bit stunned. Tony writes:

"Great tour this week, all the gigs were amazing, everything we've done for the last 13 years has been amazing for me in fact. But now this amazing experience has come to an end. Im hanging up the drumsticks.

Ive loved everything about being part of this band, I love very song we've ever played, every gig we have played and everything in between, it's been life affirming for me."
With a deadline in mind, even if it was six months off, the band set about finding a replacement for Arthy and have now announced that their new drummer will be original member Gen (Simon Matthews).

So, we have a new drummer.
Or, more accurately, we have an old drummer.
Everyone – Gen is back!

But, let's back up a little.
We played the last gig of the STUK tour in Birmingham. Less than 12 hours later, Tony's email to say he was quitting dropped into our inboxes. We woke up to news that we had no drummer. All of us were totally shocked. We begged Tony to reconsider, but his mind was made up.

However, at that point, we needed to think about the future. We have at least 3 festival gigs in the diary for 2104, and above all, we want to tour "doubt". For the first time, start to finish. Like we did with Liquidizer.

So, we needed someone to sit on the drum stool, and help us out. And we had precious little time to make it happen.
We're a bunch of blokes in our 40's. We've been doing this for all of our lives, and the chances of finding someone who thinks like us, plays like us and understands us, is pretty slim.

So we made that call, and rang Gen.

Who else could we call? We were dealing with a shortlist of one.

But – would he say yes? When Gen left, back in 1997, it was pretty final. Gen is a man of principle. He made his choice, and he stuck to it. Bridges were burned,on both sides. But, we were 35. When you're 35, it all seems important. When you're ten years older, those issues fade, and you can build the bridges back up. So, we forgot about everything that happened all those years ago, and humbly asked Gen to play with us again.

But, we know what you're thinking; you're thinking "Oh, they just told Tony to get lost, so they could get Gen back for the doubt tour"

Let us reassure you all right now – that's not how it was.

Gen came down to the SBE gig, and spent a lot of time talking to Tony. There was no sign of what was to come, and he was as shocked by Tony's decision as anyone.
There was no masterplan, no intrigue, no plot. When we found ourselves without a drummer, we called on the one person we knew and trusted, and we hoped he'd say yes. And he has. Gen is back, and the original lineup of the band is complete.

So, to wrap this all up – we are now back to where we were a quarter of a century ago. 2014 will see us get back out on the road, playing Doubt in full, for the first time ever. It's a bittersweet moment, as we'll be without Tony, but we'll be back with Gen. Life with the Joneses is never simple, but we're hoping that whatever we do, we'll have your support along the way. That's the big thing for us. We hope you'll join us all on our adventure through 2014.

Love and respect,as ever, Mike, Alan, Jerry, Iain…………

…..and Gen.

Jesus Jones was formed in 1988 by Mike Edwards, Iain Baker and Jerry DeBorg who brought in Al Doughty and Gen to fill out the lineup before recording their debut, Energizer. Gen left in 1997 and, after a hiatus, Arthy became the drummer.