John Lang

John Lang, born on May 10th, 1952 in Arizona has always been very important throughout the career of Pages and Mr. Mister. He's a gifted songwriter who co-wrote lots of songs for other artists as well, together with Richard Page and Steve George.

John is Richard Page's cousin. He has had an incredibly turbulent life. He was adopted, his father ditched him when he was a kid, his mother died of cancer and he was raised by his grandparents. His grandfather was a military man, one of the first settlers of Arizona back in the early 1900's before it became a state. He was a land baron, multi-millionaire type of guy who ruled with an iron hand. The first time John made a mistake as a kid, he was sent off to a Mexican military institute where he spent three years in hell. That's where he started to write. He sent a lot of poems to Richard Page.

He spent a lot of time in the church of Richard Page's father. They were about 16 and 15 years old then. The two of them wrote songs with Richard playing the piano and singing. But music wasn't John's calling. As a matter of fact he was 'tonedeaf' as a kid. Anyway their co-operation worked out fine. John contributed to all Pages albums writing lyrics with Richard Page and Steve George. He's a very introverted kind of man, always thinking about meaning of life. He's a struggling novelist.

During the Mr. Mister years he kept the same role and co-wrote practically all songs. Still he wanted to remain on the background, not giving away interviews. His only appearance on a record cover is on the back sleeve of the third Pages album.

In the mid-eighties he divorced his wife and started travelling around, moving to Berlin and living in Paris for a while.

After Mr. Mister broke up John relocated to New York and got more and more interested in forming his own band. In 1991 he formed Langsters consisting of John Lang (vocals and guitar), Russell Battelene (drums and backing vocals), David Battelene (guitar and backing vocals) and Rob Page (keyboards - Richard Page's brother). They recorded a demo but never took off.

In 1995 his current band Djinn saw the light of day, evolving from Langsters with band members John Lang, the Battelene brothers and added in 1997 by Gregory Carson (bass). They released a first album in 1995 entitled "Radio Beirut" with a Live!- and Pearl Jam-like alternative music style.

In early 1998 he relocated from New York to Malibu, California. There's a chance he will be writing again with Richard Page in the future.

The funny story goes that back in 1986 John invited a girl in Richard Page's house, where they were all alone. The girl thought John was the lead singer of "Broken wings" and that got her into bed ...

The follow up was released in the summer of 1998 on the German label Dogo Bros. The title is "All-time". More news as soon as I get a copy of the CD!

Personal Discography