User:Nreiling/James Neil Bond (Jimmy)

James Neil Bond, known to his friends and the general public as Jimmy Bond, was an American musician and artist active in the mid-west in the last half of the 20th century and early 2000's. Jimmy began performing publicly at the early age of 10, and continued to perform until his retirement in 2006. Jim would sing for clubs and organizations in his home town of Osage City. Then when in Junior High School he and friends would form their first band, The Vikings. The Vikings and later The Imperials would play for local dances in and around the area. Later, after some changes, they would then call themselves The Rain and would expand out to other areas in the Midwest. Most notably he fronted the Kansas band Plain Jane in the 1970's and 1980's. Changing personnel over the years, early cohorts of Jimmy's in Plain Jane were musicians who went on to form the rock band Kansas. Beginning in 1971 Plain Jane played successfully throughout western Kansas and the Kansas City areas for many years. The band's work was included in the 1982 movie "Zapped", starring Scott Baio and Willie Ames. In the 1990's Jimmy helped found the successful Kansas City based Beatles Tribute Band Liverpool. (ranking among the top 5 in Beatles tribute bands internationally - ref?) Jimmy performed as Paul McCartney in Liverpool for 16 years until his health forced him to retire in 2006. The retirement was somewhat sudden when after a long period of illness, while on stage, he announced he as retiring in the middel of a performance and walked off stage. As Jimmy would later put it, "I knew that I did not have the strength to continue with the performace, walked up to the microphone and in my best English accent stated, that I had been in the hospital three times already and was sorry, but I would  not be able to go on with the performance.  He reported that his fellow band members looked on in horror." Jimmy's artistic talents were not limited to his musical abilities. He graduated from Kansas State University in 1976 with a BA in Fine Arts. His art work is displayed in museums in Omaha, Neb.,Springfield, MO and Overland Park, KS. After retiring from performing live due to health reasons in 2006, Jimmy's attention returned to his love of visual art. He began drawing for friends in and around his home town of Osage City, Kansas, and for charitable causes. He worked exclusively in black pencil, creating stark images on the white paper background. He left a legacy of humourous portraits in addition to tongue in cheek social commentaries.

In 2010 Jimmy was inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame along with his fellow band members,(Jeff Frost, Steve Gibson, Rick Aubrey, Ron Hall, Doug Renbarger, Eric & Raphael Stein, Craig Biegler, Dave Hope, Richard Williams) for their work in Plain Jane.