Jack Jones (Irwin Thomas)
Jack Jones is the nicely innocuous pseudonym of Irwin Thomas, who has a long, prestigious and star-studded relationship with the music industry. To millions of people he’s probably best known as the singer and guitarist in the band Southern Sons, which had considerable commercial success in the short seven years they were around. Their singles ‘Heart in Danger’ and ‘Hold Me in Your Arms’ flew into the top ten charts. After that he was the guitarist for Electric Mary, who have toured with rock royalty such as Alice Cooper, Judas Priest, Deep Purple and Whitesnake. Also known for working with John Farnham and Rick Price, he played at John Farnham’s sellout shows in Melbourne Park in 1999. He’s a well-known session guitarist in Melbourne, all over Australia and abroad, and he can be spotted setting fretboards alight in many bands, in many venues, including, of course, the Evelyn. Jack plays here semi-regularly, with his own band or someone else’s, and it’s always good to catch up with him over a beer and hear anecdotes of rock stars he’s worked with, both here and internationally. Despite the stars that he’s worked with, he’s a wonderfully humble character, not to mention an amazing guitarist and vocalist.