John Geza Ashton (born 30 November 1957) is an English musician, songwriter, composer, and record producer, with a career spanning more than 40 years. He is best known as the guitarist of

the Psychedelic Furs The Psychedelic Furs are an English rock band founded in London in February 1977. Led by lead vocalist Richard Butler (singer), Richard Butler and his brother Tim Butler on bass guitar, the Psychedelic Furs are one of the many acts spawned from ...

Early life

John Geza Ashton was born on 30 November 1957 in Whipps Cross Hospital, Forest Gate, London, and lived in North Kilworth in south Leicestershire.

Career

Ashton came to prominence in the early 1980s as the guitarist of

. The band is an English

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

group formed in 1977 by

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...

and

Tim Butler Timothy George Butler (born 7 December 1958) is an English musician and songwriter. He is the bassist, and co-founder of the English rock band the Psychedelic Furs. His brother Richard Butler and himself founded the band. He is also the youn ...

, Duncan Kilburn and Roger Morris. Their debut studio album was a hit in the UK and Europe, and they had added John Ashton on guitar and Vince Ely on drums. Their second studio album ''

Talk Talk Talk ''Talk Talk Talk'' is the second studio album by the English rock band the Psychedelic Furs. It was released on 15 May 1981 by Columbia Records. It was reissued with bonus tracks in 2002 by Columbia/Legacy and on vinyl in the UK in 2011 withou ...

'' (1981) placed them on the US charts. Before the release of '' Forever Now'' in late 1982, Morris and Kilburn left the band, and Ashton and the Butler brothers went on to release ''

Mirror Moves ''Mirror Moves'' is the fourth studio album by English rock band the Psychedelic Furs, released in May 1984 by Columbia Records, two years after their previous studio album, '' Forever Now''. The album includes the dance hit "Heartbeat" and the ...

'' (1984) and other subsequent albums. The Psychedelic Furs went on hiatus after their 1992 tour, but reformed in 2001. Since then, Ashton has joined the band on occasion for tours. After the Psychedelic Furs went on hiatus, Ashton became a record producer and worked on a number of projects including

Marianne Faithfull Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (29 December 1946 – 30 January 2025) was an English singer and actress who achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her UK top 10 single " As Tears Go By". She became one of the leading female art ...

the Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy are an English rock band formed in Leeds in 1980. After achieving early underground fame, the band experienced a commercial breakthrough in the mid-1980s, sustaining their success until the early 1990s, when they halted th ...

, Red Betty, and Seven Color Sky. Ashton mixed and co-produced the Secret Post's studio album ''From Train to Station'', released in 2015, and oversaw recordings with Los Angeles' Silence. Ashton has also pursued a solo career and released his debut studio album, ''Satellite Paradiso'', in 2014.

Personal life

Ashton moved to the United States around 1989 and is married to Catherine Dewson, a

Virginia Beach Virginia Beach (colloquially VB) is the List of cities in Virginia, most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in southeaster ...

native. The couple have two children, and currently resides in

Woodstock, New York Woodstock is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, New York, Kingston. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The popula ...

. In the summer of 2021, Ashton was diagnosed with

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...

; there was a

GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the ...

page set up by friend and fellow musician,

Gail Ann Dorsey Gail Ann Dorsey (born November 20, 1962) is an American musician. With a long career as a session musician mainly on bass guitar, she performed regularly in David Bowie's band, from 1995 to Bowie's last tour in 2004. Aside from playing bass, sh ...

, to help the family with the costs.

References

External links

* * *
John Ashton interview by Brian D. Holland

Satellite Paradiso
1957 births English male guitarists English new wave musicians English record producers English male songwriters Living people Musicians from the London Borough of Newham People from Forest Gate The Psychedelic Furs members English expatriate musicians in the United States Musicians from Woodstock, New York {{UK-guitarist-stub