"Inspired by hearing Big Bill Broonzy and Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Wizz Jones learnt his guitar licks from the likes of Davy Graham and Long John Baldry whilst playing in the coffee bars of London's Soho in the late 1950's.
He then followed the time-honoured buskers' trail from the streets of Paris to the markets of Marrakech during the early 1960's and returned to Britain with a unique acoustic guitar style,
an eclectic repertoire and a 'right hand worthy of Broonzy'!
John Renbourn, Clapton and Keith Richards have all named him as an important early influence and in May 2012 Bruce Springsteen opened his Berlin show with Wizz's song 'When I Leave Berlin'.
Furthermore in October 2019 Wizz was presented with a life-time achievement award at the BBC Radio Two Folk Awards held at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.
With a career now spanning more than 60 years Wizz is officially retired.
A serious biog... Raymond Ronald Jones -aka Wizz Jones was born April 25th 1939 to a poor working class family in Croydon which was at that time a small town in the county of Surrey on the outskirts of South London. Attending Oval Primary and Junior School and later Selhurst Grammar School for boys where Jones felt well out of his depth amongst boys mainly from fairly well-off middle class professional families.
Being constantly absent due to severe bouts of migraine and having to attend weekly physiotherapy exercises for a curvature of the spine he left school at the age of 16 in 1955 with meagre qualifications.
Inspired by Folk and Blues music heard on BBC and European Radio, Jones began to teach himself to play the acoustic guitar.
He worked for a year or so at a textile warehouse in the City of london and then at a similar establishment in the West End. On leaving home around this time he moved into a rented attic room in Porchester Square close by Marble Arch and soon discovered the delights of a bohemian life-style in Soho.
In February 1958 Jones was 'called up' for a 2 years National Service choosing to join the RAF. However he was discharged 3 days later on medical grounds because of a history of hemiplegic migraine. His papers bearing the depressing legend 'Reason for discharge - not likely to become efficient.'
After a period in London he hitch-hiked to Cornwall in April 1959 following friends who had travelled there the year before. After an idyllic year of casual hotel work and busking in Newquay
he continued travelling for the next couple of years throughout Europe and Morocco mostly with girlfriend Sandy Wedlake. They married in 1963 and he continued to pursue a modest living as a guitar playing folksinger to this day (2023) achieving moderate success. They have 3 sons , a daughter and 4 grandchildren. With failing health Wizz finally retired in 2025.
(For high res photos and posters for gigs please go to press page)
Hector's Hause webmaster@wizzjones.com 
