Johnnie Fingers (born John Peter Moylett, 10 September 1956) is an Irish keyboardist and co-founding member of the
new wave band
The Boomtown Rats
The Boomtown Rats are an Irish rock music, rock band originally formed in Dublin in 1975. Between 1977 and 1985, they had a series of Irish and UK hit record, hits including "Like Clockwork", "Rat Trap", "I Don't Like Mondays" and "Banana Repub ...
. He was notable for his attire of striped pyjamas on stage and his melodic
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
style.
Background
Fingers came from a large family of actors, artists and musicians. His cousin is his fellow Boomtown Rat
Pete Briquette
Patrick Martin Cusack (born 2 July 1954), known by the stage name Pete Briquette, is an Irish bassist, record producer and composer. He is a member of the Boomtown Rats and has also played in Bob Geldof's band.
Boomtown Rats
He was born in B ...
, as their mothers, Margaret "Peggy" (Bowles) Cusack and Cecilia "Sheila" (Bowles) Moylett, were sisters. They are nephews of Irish conductor and composer
Michael Bowles
Michael Andrew Bowles n Gaelic: Micheál Ó Baoighill(30 November 1909 – 6 April 1998) was an Irish conductor and composer, who was also active in New Zealand, the US, and England.
Life
Bowles was born in Riverstown, County Sligo, and grew u ...
. He learned the piano from a young age from "Miss Grist" who he claims "stole his youth". After the demise of the Boomtown Rats in 1986, he founded Gung~Ho with his fellow Boomtown Rats member
Simon Crowe and Yoko Kurokawa in 1987. Fingers is now married with two children. Fingers decided to not return to the Boomtown Rats when the band was reunited in 2013, as he lives in Tokyo.
Career
He currently lives in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
, Japan, where he continues to work in the music industry. Apart from
producing and
writing
Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols.
Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...
music for Japanese stars such as
UA, and theme songs such as for the hit anime
B't X, Fingers is the "point man"
Metropolis.co.jp
/ref> with the concert music production company Smash Japan, producers of Fuji Rock Festival
is an annual rock festival held in Naeba Ski Resort, in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. The three-day event, organized by Smash Japan, features more than 200 Japanese and international musicians, making it the largest outdoor music event in Japa ...
, the largest music festival in Japan.
Discography
With The Boomtown Rats
With Gung~ho
* "Play To Win" ( single, 1987)
* 10 (1988)
With Greengate
*"Daydreaming" - Vinyl 7"
*''Metaphysical Vibration'' - CD
With Ruffy Tuffy
* ''Ruffy Tuffy'' (1999) album
* ''Respect!'' (2000) omnibus Live album
* ''Natsu no Jujika'' (2000) album
* ''Aki no Jujika'' (2000) album
* ''Mizu no Awa'' (2001) EP
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fingers, Johnny
Living people
1956 births
Irish pianists
Irish rock musicians
Irish songwriters
Irish record producers
Irish expatriates in Japan
Irish DJs
Irish new wave musicians
The Boomtown Rats members
Electronic dance music DJs
21st-century pianists