Jack Stafford

Jack Stafford (born June 23, 1977) is a nomadic troubadour from Bury St. Edmunds, England.

He is a socially conscious songwriter, combining meaningful lyrical content with engaging melodies. His songwriting is a journal that records his personal experiences, local issues and the characters he has met on his travels. He records these in an ongoing album called The Troubadour Chronicles, which now numbers over 110 songs. He is unique as an artist because of how the context of his life as a musician is applied to his product and how he reflects his sarcastic and amiable personality in his craft.

Early years
He was the lead singer and guitarist in Menagerie in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. He played there alongside notable bands Miss Black America and The Dawn Parade in a scene that John Peel supported. He moved to Eindhoven in the Netherlands in 1999.

2002-2005: Exes
Stafford has been writing music since his teens, but it was only moving to Amsterdam in 2002 at the age of 24 that he started performing live. His first album, Exes, were all songs about relationships gone wrong. The album producers were Marc Driessen and Paul Willemsen formerly of the band Supersub. He formed a live band with Rob Klerkx (drums) and Eddy Steeneken (keys) who later went on to form the band Moke. Two videos were played in rotation on MTV and TMF in the Netherlands. The video for The Hard Way was directed by Dave Bell and Nick Klinkert with an original 1970s police photofit used for identifying criminals. The video took two weeks to make in a dark basement with 3 digital cameras. The finished video contains over 7,000 photos edited together with eyes moving and lip-syncing for key parts of the song. The video was nominated for the Indie Music Video Festival. The second video for Toyboy parodied the adverts for sex chat lines that appear on Dutch television, except instead of girls, the boys from the band appear. The video was directed by Patrick van der Gronde. The phone number featured on the video was real, and fans could call up to speak to Jack Stafford and the band.

2006-2009: Long Live Love
At the launch party for Exes in the Casa Rosa Sex Theatre in De Wallen Amsterdam, Stafford met Jasmine Wynants, a Belgian singer. They started a relationship and then began performing together, playing songs Stafford wrote about their relationship. Long Live Love was recorded and mixed by Marc Driessen at MDPD Studio, Amsterdam in August 2006 and mastered by Darius van Helfteren at Wisseloord Studio, Hilversum in August 2006. 11 other musicians played on the album and instruments include harp, banjo, harmonica, accordion and church organ. They had the launch party in the Melkweg and toured the album for a few years round Holland and Germany, supporting The Veils and Supergrass. The video to the first single - Cedar Room - was directed by Peter Strange. It was shot on Super 8 during an all-night shoot at an indoor climbing wall in Amsterdam (to achieve the flying shots). During this time Stafford opened a shop on the Vijzelstraat in Amsterdam to sell the suits he had designed, with zips rather than buttons.

2009-present: The Troubadour Chronicles
In August 2009, Stafford was booked for a three-month tour of the United States but decided to make it last longer. He closed the shop and has stayed on tour ever since, playing over 600 show in 40 countries in two years. He has taken his music to Europe, North America and Oceania. And while touring through New Zealand, Australia and South East Asia, he travelled by bike. He has recorded his adventures in a musical journal called 'The Troubadour Chronicles', releasing new discs for download from his website when he has a new collection of songs. The Chronicles now numbers over 110 songs.

Albums

 * Exes (2005)
 * Long Live Love (2007)
 * The Troubadour Chronicles (2011)

Christmas tribute albums

 * Starman (2008) - David Bowie
 * T-Rexmas (2009) - T-Rex
 * A Kinky Christmas (2010) - The Kinks
 * Uncle Jack and Daddy (2011) - Various
 * Lost Christmas (2012) - Hank Williams