Jim Bob
Biographie Jim Bob
James Robert Morrison aka Jim Bob
was born to two parents Frank and Jenny. Jenny was a singer, long distance swimmer and speed skater, while Frank was a theatre stage manager and carpenter. So, as show business, showing off and to a lesser extent – carpentry – was in the blood, Jim set out on the yellow brick road to fame and fortune.
After years of pop struggle Jim would release his first records with the band Jamie Wednesday, whose horn section Jim would work with again fumfty years later when Jim was reading a book about learning to play the recorder and discovered it was written by Jamie Wednesday sax player Simon.
After Jamie Wednesday Jim Bob formed Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine with guitarist Fruitbat. Together as Carter they would have 14 top 40 singles and a number one album, selling over a million records and touring the world. With Carter, Jim Bob would become known for his socially aware pop lyrics and in particular his use of puns.
Carter split in 1997 but reformed ten years later for two massive sell out shows: life affirming gigs that would lead to more sell out Carter shows in 2008. In November 2009 the band performed their first four albums in full at two shows in London. And in 2011 they headlined the Beautiful Days festival in Devon and played to further sold out shows at Brixton Academy and Manchester Academy. Three more Carter gigs followed in 2012: Glasgow, Leeds & London. In 2014, the final three Cater shows were announced: Bearded Theory Festival and two shows in London.
Outside of Carter Jim Bob has had a long and varied solo career. He has released seven albums – solo and with his discopoppunk band Jim’s Super Stereoworld. Jim’s eighth solo album ‘GOFFAM’was released in April 2009. ‘Goffam’ is his second concept record, following on from the critically acclaimed ‘School’ – which told the story of a struggling comprehensive and its orchestra. ‘The story of Goffam’ is set in a city in the grip of crime and in desperate need of superheroes.
Jim’s autobiography ‘Goodnight Jim Bob – On The Road With Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine’ was published by Cherry Red Books in 2004 to yet more critical acclaim.
Jim has written songs for Ian Dury and for the 2006 Barbican production of Mark Ravenhill’s Dick Whittington & His Cat, directed by Edward Hall and starring Trigger from Only Fools and Horses.
In August 2010 he made his Edinburgh Fringe debut in the Ward and White musical ‘Gutted, A Revenger’s Musical’.
His seventh solo album ‘A Humpty Dumpty Thing’ came with a mini novel ‘Word Count’, which Jim has adapted as a screenplay for a Hollywood production company and Jim’s eighth solo album ‘What I Think About When I Think About You’ was recorded with 26-piece The Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra. Jim Bob’s eighth solo album ‘Jim Bob Sings Again – Accompanied on the Piano by Chris T-T’ was released in 2016.
Jim Bob has written four novels; ‘Storage Stories’ (Ten Forty Books), ‘Driving Jarvis Ham’(Harper Collins) ‘The Extra Ordinary Life of Frank Derrick, Age 81’ and ‘Frank Derrick’s Holiday of a Lifetime’ (Pan Macmillan), published under the name J.B. Morrison and translated into French, Italian, German, Japanese, Turkish, Czech and Dutch.
The sequel to Jim’s memoir ‘Goodnight Jim Bob – On The Road With Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine’, ‘Jim Bob from Carter – In the Shadow of my Former Self’ was published by Cherry Red Books in March 2019. His fifth and sixth novels ‘A Godawful Small Affair’ and ‘Harvey King Unboxes His Family’ were published together in one paperback by Cherry Red Books in March 2020.
