Wizz Jones, the English folk icon best known for the role he played in the British folk revival and for being a consistent figure in the scene for the past 60 years, has passed away aged 86.
The news was confirmed by his son, Simeon, yesterday (April 27) on his dad's official social media platforms. “With an extremely heavy heart, I’m letting you all know that my beloved father, the great Wizz Jones, passed away early this morning, two days after his 86th birthday,” reads the statement.
“His loss has left a huge hole in the lives of our family and has robbed the music world of one of its precious treasures. His health declined rapidly this year and we thank Trinity Hospice for making his last few days as comfortable as possible.”
Born Raymond Ronald to a working-class family in Thornton Heath, Surrey, England, the young Jones earned the nickname Wizzy from his mother after the Beano comic strip character “Wizzy the Wuz” – because at the age of nine, Jones was a budding magician. The name stuck, and when he formed his first band, The Wranglers, in 1957, it became his stage name.
Inspired by the likes of Big Bill Broonzy and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Jones learned his guitar licks from contemporaries like Davy Graham and Long John Baldry while playing in coffee bars in Soho, London, in the late ’50s. This was followed by a busking stint spanning from the streets of Paris to the markets of Marrakech in the early ’60s, further developing his guitar style.
Despite releasing his only single in 1965 – a rendition of Bob Dylan's Ballad of Hollis Brown – it took until 1969 for Jones to release his first solo album, Wizz Jones. By 1988, he had ten solo albums under his belt – plus a host of collaborations, including playing on Ralph McTell's 1974 album Easy, briefly joining acoustic folk-rock outfit Accolade alongside “king of the buskers” Don Partridge, as well as traditional folk band Lazy Farmer in 1975.
Speaking about his trusty guitar, his 1963 Epiphone Texan – which accompanied his ventures since 1967 – in an interview with the Orpington Folk Club, Jones once said, “I nearly lost it recently. It was on a jet going to Milan, coming from Scotland, supposed to be changing planes to go to Germany, they canceled the flight and my baggage went missing. I lost it for ten days, so I borrowed a guitar from the shop. Whenever I borrow a guitar I realize just how good this one is.”
A key fixture since the very start of the folk scene and a keen collaborator, Jones has also been cited as an inspiration for Keith Richards, Thurston Moore, Eric Clapton, and Rod Stewart, to name a few – so much so that he's often included in their lore.
“I found out Eric used to come to a little club in Croydon and watch me play, but I didn’t know him. In a recent book about the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards said I used to teach him guitar in the toilets at Art College! Complete fabrication,” he clarified.
In the mid-’90s, Jones' career experienced a revival thanks to an appearance on the Bert Jansch TV documentary Acoustic Routes, which led to renewed interest in his work. In 2001, he collaborated with John Renbourn and other members of the folk-rock band Pentangle on his album Lucky the Man, followed by a reissue of his 1970 album The Legendary Me and 1973'sWhen I Leave Berlin in 2007 by the Sunbeam record label.
In 2012, another working-class hero – Bruce Springsteen – opened his sold-out Wrecking Ball tour date at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, Germany, with Jones' song, When I Leave Berlin. Fast forward to 2019, and Wizz finally received the recognition he deserved when he was presented with the lifetime achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
Performing until the end, Jones played his final show at London's Ivy House on February 28, 2025.
“Always a humble man, these were his closing words at the end of his last ever gig earlier this year,” writes his son.
“‘Thanks to all the people – all over the world in fact – that heard my songs and my guitar playing, and came to my gigs for all those years. Thank you very much.’”
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