Update on John Ashton #3

Today on the PFurs Facebook fan page someone shared a post from Satellite Paradiso and their post was an update on John Ashton. It has been over a year since I heard anything about him and his health but thankfully the band had good news. They said that John is officially in remission!! I'm so happy John is doing okay now and I want to congratulate him and his family. I hope there will be brighter days ahead for John and that he will continue to feel better. Wishing him all the best.

On Satellite Paradiso's post they included a message from John Ashton himself.

"June 3, 2024

Dear Friends,

As many of you may know, in June of 2021 I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer. This coming on the heels of Covid was an unwelcome surprise. However, I was lucky enough to receive treatment through MSK in NYC & Westchester.

After 50 doses of radiation, (25 in one treatment, followed by 25 daily radiation treatments over the course of the following five weeks) 2 years of hormone therapy and a daily study medication, I am thrilled to report that the treatment was a success and I am currently in remission.

I could not have done this without the help and support of my family and friends and for them and to you, I will always be truly grateful. I was one of the lucky ones, we have all lost too many friends to this disease.

I really appreciate all the positive messages and my hope is that my experience will give others fuel to carry on the fight.

However, I cannot lie, despite the positive health outcomes, it's been a rough couple years. There has been little to no music or film work during this time and the wolves are constantly at the door. Hopefully this will change and the universe will bring new energy to tap into.

Thanks again for the outpouring of love and support. It has meant the world to me and my family. It has changed my life for the better and for this, I am truly grateful.

Peace

John Ashton"

Update on John Ashton #2

A day ago another GoFundMe page was created for John Ashton, and it was organized by Frank Coleman, the drummer of John's band Satellite Paradiso. Frank shared the page on his Facebook and Instagram, and here's what he wrote:

"I'm organizing this fundraiser to help my friend and colleague, John Ashton, best known as the former lead guitarist for The Psychedelic Furs. He and his beautiful family, Catherine, Oliver, and Tallulah, are trying to survive another year, while navigating the awful realities of John's stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis.

"The outpouring of support last year was INCREDIBLE, and we are all so tremendously grateful! Despite his best efforts, though, John hasn't been able to find work since last June. The man is one of the most influential guitarists of our generation. He is my musical hero, my bandmate, and my friend. He and his family could really use your help. Please share widely! THANK YOU! WE LOVE YOU!"

On the GoFundMe page Frank wrote that so far since August 2021 John had one session of Brachiotherapy, followed by 25 sessions of radiation treatments. Right now he is still in treatment and is receiving hormone therapy, plus a clinical trial drug protocol until August 2023.

Here is the link to the second GoFundMe page and please share, donate, and do everything you can to help John Ashton and his family. Wishing them all the best and I hope they will get the help and support they need. https://www.gofundme.com/f/love-my-way-for-my-friends-in-need-part-2?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&fbclid=IwAR1VYbuaTLd_UaETenWjYO8e_fzm6CyS4xLQYllRZkcSbKPynk1tY20ChC4

Self-Written Compositions

Most of the music on the songs by The Psychedelic Furs were composed by several of the band members but the songs that interest me are the ones where the music is written by only one member. I want to talk about the four who were the main composers on some of the songs: Tim Butler, John Ashton, Rich Good, and Paul Garisto.

The idea of this topic came to me recently and I was originally going to do four polls on the PFurs Facebook fan page that I'm on. I would do each one for Tim, John, Rich, and Paul, list the songs they wrote, and people would vote for their favorites. Then after that I would post the results on here, and I thought this would be a fun project to do. Two days ago I did the one for Tim, and after I posted the poll I waited for it to be approved and uploaded. But later that day I found out one of the administrators deleted the poll. I honestly don't know the reason why they did it, but since it didn't work out, I decided to just talk about the songs on here. Oh well, at least I tried...

Anyway, let's begin.

Tim Butler

Photo: Matthew Reeves

Tim Butler was the main composer of (as far as I know) seven songs. Four from Mirror Moves, a b-side, and two from Made Of Rain.

1. The Ghost In You

2. Here Come Cowboys

3. Heaven

4. Like A Stranger

5. Another Edge

6. You'll Be Mine

7. Tiny Hands

As a bonus I will list the Love Spit Love songs Tim composed. He wrote five songs and they were on the first Love Spit Love album.

1. Superman

2. Half A Life

3. Am I Wrong

4. Please

5. More

John Ashton

John Ashton was the main composer of four songs (again, as far as I know) and they are all from Mirror Moves.

1. Heartbeat

2. My Time

3. Only A Game

4. Highwire Days

Rich Good

Rich Good was the main composer of four songs from Made Of Rain.

1. The Boy That Invented Rock & Roll

2. This'll Never Be Like Love

3. Come All Ye Faithful

4. No-One

Paul Garisto

Paul Garisto was the main composer of three songs. Two from Made Of Rain, and one that was recorded during the Made Of Rain sessions but didn't make it on the album; although a year later it got released as a digital download. I wish Paul had written more songs because he's a very talented writer.

1. Ash Wednesday

2. Turn Your Back On Me

3. Evergreen

There are three other songs that I don't know who wrote the music for. The first is "Anodyne," a song that was featured on the live DVD Live From House Of Blues (2001); the second is "Cigarette," also from Live From House Of Blues, which was turned into a song called "Angelic" from John Ashton's band Satellite Paradiso years later. Because of this I feel John might have written the music for "Cigarette," though I could be wrong. And the third is "Little Miss World," a song that was debuted at one of The Psychedelic Furs' concerts back in 2012. I wonder if that song will appear on the upcoming album, and I'm curious to know if the music was written by either Tim Butler, Rich Good, or Paul Garisto, or if it's a band collaboration.

Speaking of the upcoming new album, I'm looking forward to find out what the songs will be and who composed them, and since Zachary Alford is in the band, I wonder if he will do some compositions. It will be very interesting and I can't wait.

Tim Butler's Lineup Ranking

I thought this was interesting but here's how Tim Butler ranked The Psychedelic Furs lineups from an interview with the Chicago Tribune back in 2014.

1. The current version*: "The best that has ever toured."

Left to right: Paul Garisto, Rich Good, Mars Williams, Richard Butler, Tim Butler, Amanda Kramer. Photo by Reed Davis.

2. The first version: "Usually we were not sober, to be honest."

Left to right: Duncan Kilburn, Vince Ely, Richard Butler, John Ashton, Roger Morris, Tim Butler. Photo by Tom Sheehan.

3. The version that toured in support of the band's smash Midnight To Midnight album: "Very polished."

Left to right: Mars Williams, John Ashton, Paul Garisto, Tim Butler, Richard Butler. Photo by Henry Diltz.

Marty Williamson: Backup guitarist for the Midnight tour.

Roger O'Donnell: Keyboardist for the Midnight tour.

4. The rest of the '80s versions: "Very keyboard-y, a very big sort of stadium sound." (This one is pretty much a tie)

*Nowadays the lineup is still mostly the same but this time Zachary Alford is on the drums. He's very good and I would love to see him play with the band live someday.

Left to right: Tim Butler, Mars Williams, Zachary Alford, Richard Butler, Rich Good, Amanda Kramer. Photo by Matthew Reeves.

For John

Tonight The Psychedelic Furs are going to do the benefit concert for John Ashton at the Bearsville Theatre in Woodstock, New York.

In honor of today I am reposting here one of my blog posts called Thinking of John Ashton. On it I posted the link to John's GoFundMe page and if it's still active, please do everything you can to help him and provide for him the help he needs. https://ontomorrowspages.blogspot.com/2021/08/thinking-of-john-ashton.html

Lately I haven't heard any more updates about John but I truly hope he's still doing okay. Sending all my love and best wishes to him. <3

Update on John Ashton

Today I discovered that a week ago on Facebook The Psychedelic Furs posted a video that Gail Ann Dorsey uploaded and it was an update on John Ashton. He was in the video and he said he will be going through treatment for I think a couple years and also radiation treatment for 45 days. He thanked everyone for the love, support and for sharing the GoFundMe page and I actually teared up while watching it. I feel ashamed I didn't see it when it was first posted and I wish I did. But I'm glad I did now and I wish John all the best. I hope he will recover and please still share, contribute, and do everything you can to help him. The link to his GoFundMe page is on this post here: https://ontomorrowspages.blogspot.com/2021/08/thinking-of-john-ashton.html

Here is the link to The Psychedelic Furs' post. To those of you who are on computers the reason this link is on the mobile version is because I'm writing this on a tablet. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10159069750629961&id=325752909960&m_entstream_source=timeline&__tn__=%2As%2As-R

Thinking of John Ashton

Today when I looked at The Psychedelic Furs' Twitter they posted a link and wrote "For John." I clicked on the link and it was a GoFundMe page for John Ashton. It was created by Gail Ann Dorsey (former David Bowie bassist and a close friend of John's) to help him and his family, because Gail wrote that sadly a couple months ago John was diagnosed with Stage 4 Prostate Cancer, and it had spread to his lymph nodes. I was shocked and saddened hearing the news and my thoughts and prayers go out to him. We all love you John Ashton and I hope you will get all the help and recovery you need.

If you would like to help John Ashton and his family here is the link to the GoFundMe page. https://www.gofundme.com/f/rn6gr6-xxxxx?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer

9/11/21 Update: I just discovered this blog post was referenced on the Wikipedia page for John Ashton. I really appreciate that this got featured and hopefully there will be more people checking it out and spreading the word. I want it so much for John and I hope he is doing okay. <3

10/2/21 Update: I posted a new update on John Ashton. Here is the link: https://ontomorrowspages.blogspot.com/2021/10/update-on-john-ashton.html

1/28/23 Update: Another GoFundMe page was created for John: https://ontomorrowspages.blogspot.com/2023/01/update-on-john-ashton-2.html

6/12/24 Update: New update on John: https://ontomorrowspages.blogspot.com/2024/06/update-on-john-ashton-3.html

Zon Guitars Photo

Here is an interesting picture that I found on the Facebook fan group page For Fans Of The Psychedelic Furs. This is a photo from Zon Guitars and it has John Ashton and Tim Butler posing with a Legacy bass guitar. It looks like this was taken during the early 80s (1981 or '82?) and the guy on the right is probably from the company.

Credits to Zon Guitars

Happy Birthday John Ashton

Wishing a happy birthday to the great John Ashton, who turns 62 today. John was the guitarist of The Psychedelic Furs from 1978 - a year after the band was formed - all the way up to the 2000s when they got back together. He left The Furs in 2009 and nowadays is in a band called Satellite Paradiso.

According to the Midnight To Midnight tour programme John's favorite guitar solo of all time was his own on "Dumb Waiters," and interestingly, his solo on "Heaven" was actually Tim Butler's favorite guitar solo of all time! As for me, I don't really know what my favorite guitar solo is because there's just so many, but my number one favorite solo from John Ashton is definitely at the end of "Forever Now." It is just so awesome sounding and has an epic feel to it.

Even though John Ashton is not in The Psychedelic Furs anymore and is doing his own thing we will always remember his contribution to the band with his music. I sometimes wonder if someday John will join the Furs on a future tour or do just one gig with them. A month ago the other guitarist Roger Morris went with The Psychedelic Furs on their UK/European tour and performed alongside Rich Good. It would be really cool if John Ashton did the same but the most important thing is for him being happy doing what he loves.


Happy Birthday John!

John Ashton's Profile

Former Psychedelic Furs guitarist John Ashton's profile from the Midnight To Midnight tour programme.

Name: John Ashton

Date and place of birth: 11-30-57, Whips Cross Hospital, Forestgate, Westham

Favorite color, number and vice: Black, 7, cars

Favorite food and favorite drink: Japanese, tea

Favorite film and/or director: Aguirre - Wrath Of God, Michael Cimino

Favorite book and/or author: Machineries Of Joy - Ray Bradbury

Most memorable occasion: Sophie's birth [John's daughter]

What's the worst job you've ever had: Being unemployed

Favorite artist and/or work of art: Dali, the murals and ceiling of Dali's house

Favorite clothes designer: Harley Davidson

Favorite club: Various

Favorite single and album: "Hey Joe" - [Jimi] Hendrix, Houses Of The Holy - Led Zeppelin

First record you ever bought: Electric Warrior - T. Rex

Last record you ever bought: Infected - The The

Favorite musician: Jimi Hendrix

Favorite songwriter: [Mick] Jagger, [Keith] Richards

Favorite guitar solo of all time: Mine on "Dumb Waiters"

Band you would least like to be in: The Oak Ridge Boys

Best and worst gig ever seen: Best - Iggy Pop, Los Angeles. Worst - Furs at Baton Rouge

Favorite actor and actress: Klaus Kinski, Bette Davis