Jean-Marie "JC" Carroll is an English composer, songwriter and musician of French-Irish descent. He has Been a Members of English Post Punk Group The Members for over 40 Years, and is an established Film Composer
Biography
JC Carroll was born in Camberley on 9 February 1956, and attended Salesian College in Chertsey, Surrey. After playing in various school bands, Carroll's first taste of serious music was a 1974 chance meeting in the Three Mariners in Bagshot, Surrey, with pub rock pioneer and 1970s icon Graham Parker. Together they subsequently recorded a two-track 1/4-inch tape in Carroll's bedroom later to become known in Parker mythology as "The Akai Tapes". Parker went on to international acclaim, whilst Carroll settled into life as a bank clerk living in a bedsit in Kilburn writing songs on a battered acoustic guitar about living in a bedsit in Kilburn writing songs. A chance meeting on a train with Nicky Ritz a Liverpool University graduate, sometimes insurance salesman, singer, beat poet bon vivant with a fantastic talent for self-promotion led in 1977 to him being asked to join Ritz's band The Members. The Members' first single, "Solitary Confinement", was released on Stiff Records. The original 7-inch pressing of this record is highly collectible. In the spring of 1979 the Members released their UK anthem "The Sound of the Suburbs". This record went on to sell 250,000 copies in months. The track has subsequently been on hundreds of punk compilations and is what The Members are most known for. The subsequent album At The Chelsea Nightclub... gained critical approval and has been listed in Record Collector as one of the top 20 punk albums ever made. The Members then recorded "Offshore Banking Business", a very early example of white reggae. The Members then concentrated on the American and overseas market as they chalked up hits in America and Australia before becoming dormant in 1983. Carroll married Sophy Lynn, the famed fashion designer, in 1988 and together they opened a boutique in Notting Hill Gate in London, called the Dispensary. The Dispensary later grew to 4 separate shops in Soho. In 2009, Carroll recorded a concept album, The Golborne Variations, with Guy Pratt, Nick Cash, Chester Kamen, Chris Payne and Jennifer Pearl. Long-term collaborator and producer David M. Allen produced this album. In 2011 Carroll shot and edited a movie, with filmmaker Simon Godley, called The Golborne Variations. This film was subsequently premiered together with the first public performance of Golborne Variations at the 2011 Portobello Film Festival, where it won a special prize, A Golden Trellick. In 2011, New Musical Express listed two of Carroll's songs, 1979's "Offshore Banking" and 2009's "Caveman TV" as among a list of forgotten masterpieces in a publication called 501 Lost Songs. in 2012 Carroll produced and released two records on his own AngloCentric Label - The Members fourth studio albumIngrrland and a solo album entitled 21st Century Blues. He also released a single using the stage name jPad - Totally Obsessed. He also wrote soundtrack music for Julien Temple's documentary London a Modern Babylon 2013 saw The Members tour Australia and New Zealand and Carroll continued to produce videos, notably a cover of David Bowie's "Where Are We Now?" some weeks after Bowie finished his. 2014 The Members toured the USA. JC worked on soundtracks for the following films: 6 Bullets to Hell, Hec McAdam, Looking for Johnny. 2016 JC completed production of The Members fifth studio album entitled One Law. The album was released in conjunction with Cadiz Music and JC's own Anglocentric Label on CD Vinyl, and Digital Formats. This was the first Members album produced by Carroll. It featured Nigel Bennett on lead guitar, Chris Payne on bass, Nick Cash on drums, Carroll on various instruments and vocals. It also featured guest appearances by original Jam vocalist Steve Brookes and longtime Pink Floyd and David Gilmour bass player Guy Pratt on the epic "Incident at Surbiton".
