Jonathan Downes

Jonathan Downes (born Portsmouth, England, in 1959) is a cryptozoologist, Author, film-maker, journalist, composer and singer-songwriter, with a background in radical politics and mental health care. His father, the explorer and Colonial Service Officer J. T. Downes (1925-2006), authored several books on wide range of subjects, such as African history, theology and Devonshire dialect. His mother Mary Downes (nee Rawlins) (1922-2002) was a broadcaster and author who published several collections of Nigerian folklore under the pen-name `Yar Kunama`.

He is currently the editor of Animals & Men; the journal of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, the editor of Exotic Pets - a magazine published by CFZ Press, and until August 2007 was and the Deputy Editor of Tropical World magazine, a tropical fish magazine published in the UK. He has also edited and contributed to several other publications over the years According to his autobiography and other writings, as a child he lived in Nigeria, and then Hong Kong (then a British Crown Colony), and returned to the UK in 1971, when his father was 'invalided out' of the Hong Kong government. He was educated at Bideford Grammar School, (1971-6) and later West Buckland School (1976-7) from which he was expelled. He worked as a psychiatric nurse between 1981-90 and between 1990 and 1994 ran the fan club for Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel.

He is active in community work, and is part of the team organising the monthly children's service in the village church at Woolfardisworthy, North Devon. Having suffered from manic-depression for years, Downes is an activist for mental health issues. On the 21st July 2007 he married his second wife Corinna.

Cryptozoology

In 1992 Downes founded the Centre for Fortean Zoology, arguably the world's largest cryptozoological research organization. He is vocal in his opinion that cryptozoology should not be considered to be a branch of paranormal research. Although he has written a number of books on UFOS and other Fortean subjects (sometimes in collaboration with his friend and colleague Nick Redfern), he considers cryptozoology to be a branch of mainstream zoology, rather than anything more esoteric.

He has undertaken several cryptozoological research expeditions, including two to Puerto Rico in search of the vampiric chupacabra. Downes also presents his findings at suitable venues and is a regular at the CFZ's Weird Weekend and UnCon.

In 2005, after living in Exeter for 20 years, he moved to his old family home in Woolsery, North Devon, with the intention of establishing a full-time visitor's Centre and museum for the Centre for Fortean Zoology. Following his father's death in February 2006, he inherited the old family home and announced that construction of the museum and research facility will begin in early 2007.

Books

He has written the following books:

  • Take this Brother may it serve you well (1988)
  • Riding the Waves (1990)
  • El Grand Senor with Kim Andrews (1991)
  • Road Dreams (1993)
  • Smaller Mystery Carnivores of the Westcountry (1996)
  • The Owlman and Others (ISBN 1-905723-02-4, 1997)
  • The Rising of the Moon with Nigel Wright (ISBN 0-9544936-5-6, 1999)
  • Weird Devon with Richard Freeman and Graham Inglis (ISBN 1-899383-38-7, 2000)
  • UFOs over Devon (ISBN 1-899383-37-9, 2000)
  • Weird War Tales with Nick Redfern (2000)
  • Weird War Tales Volume 2 with Nick Redfern (2000)
  • The BlackDown Mystery (ISBN 1-905723-00-8, 2000)
  • Only Fools and Goatsuckers (ISBN 0-9512872-3-0, 2001)
  • In the Beginning - Animals & Men Collected Editions Volume One (Ed)(2001)
  • The Number of the Beast - Animals & Men Collected Editions Volume Two(Ed) (2001)
  • The Monster of the Mere (ISBN 0-9512872-2-2, 2002)
  • Monster Hunter (ISBN 0-9512872-7-3, 2004)
  • ''Strength through Koi (ISBN 1-905723-04-0, 2006)

His most popular, and indeed his best selling book is The Owlman and Others which has been through four editions, five different covers, and according to CFZ Press has sold a total of 8,000 copies in the last ten years. In his 2004 autobiography Monster Hunter, he discusses his years of substance abuse, as well as his achievements as a cryptozoologist. Once described by Nick Redfern as "Cryptozoology's answer to Hunter Thompson", Downes has stated on a number of occasions that this aspect of his life is now firmly in the past. His latest book is a collection of short stories, some fictional, others not, about fish, In addition he has edited eight annual Yearbooks for the CFZ.

Also Nick Redfern's 2004 book Three Men Seeking Monsters: Six Weeks in Pursuit of Werewolves, Lake Monsters, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs and Ape-men is a chronicle of the adventures of Redfern, Downes and Richard Freeman.

MusicAL career

1982 - 1996

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Downes was active as a musician and performer, mostly with cult art-rock band The Amphibians from Outer Space with whom he sang, played guitar, bass and piano. He integrated elements of psychodrama and performance art into the performances.

1996-2007

However, after his divorce which ended eleven years of marriage to first wife Alison in 1996, Downes all but dropped out of the music industry in favor of cryptozoology, and has since done only three records and a handful of live musical performances. He has stated publicly on a number of occasions that he now only makes music for fun, and that the vast majority of the music he presently makes will remain unreleased.

2007 album

However, in November 2007 he made the following announcement on his blog:

"I can, therefore, happily announce that I have a New album due out in the next few weeks. It is called Twilight over England and following in the worthy footsteps of Radiohead it will be available as a download, with the payment being via paypal in the form of a voluntary donation of whatever you want to give to CFZ funds. There are fourteen tracks:

1 All because of You
2 The Unknown [...] (Usama's Hymn)
3 Leap of Faith
4 Ratop (Instrumental)
5 Underwater Chicken Music (Skippo)
6 Amerikan Synergy (The King is Dead)
7 Time after Time (Picnic beneath the Lake)
8 I've been bitten by the yellow shark (Instrumental)
9 Wardance
10 Sing me to sleep
11 The man who killed the moon (Your mother is a [...])
12 Bernadette
13 EndGame
14 Opium Tea
Track 6 features an astounding guest appearance by CFZ stalwart David "Geordie Dave" Curtis, doing his best Elvis impersonation while I vent my spleen on the current American president. (Note to all my American friends, and other US readers of this blog - I have always had great fun in the USA, and I have many American friends. It is merely the upper echelons of your present government that I find repellant. There is a heck of a lot that I admire about the USA, and I would hate to be accused (again) of xenophobia."''

Records released by Downes include:

  • The Mistake with The Amphibians from Outer Space (1982)
  • You took me up (1984)
  • Emotional Fascism (1984)
  • Outside the Asylum with The Amphibians from Outer Space (1990)
  • Breakfast with Brian Storer (1991)
  • Pyramidiocy (1992)
  • SexGodBaby with The Amphibians from Outer Space (1993)
  • The Chicken Sleeps Tonight with The Amphibians from Outer Space (1993)
  • The Case with The Amphibians from Outer Space (1995)
  • Contractual Obligations with The Amphibians from Outer Space (1996)
  • The Weird World with Fr Lionel Fanthorpe and The Amphibians from Outer Space (2000)
  • Hard Sports (2002)
  • Lost Weekend (2003)
  • Twilight over England (2007)

On November 12th 2007, Downes announced on his blog that he was making his latest album, together with every record he has made since The Case in 1995 available for free on a dedicated page of the CFZ website. He is only asking for voluntary donations to the CFZ research fund in return.

Film Maker

In his autobiography and in other published writings, Downes admits that one of his earliest ambitions was to make films. He has made a few of them over the years, including:

He freely admits that his first two films are "rubbish", the former of which is "a load of avant garde [...]", and the second "a seedy art movie; a semi homage to John Walters, featuring gratuitous nudity, violence, and a pre-op transexual [...]." His more recent films, however, are part of the ongoing CFZtv project, and are rough-cut `Guerilla Journalism` projects available for free on the CFZtv website, together with some songs from his albums.

On the Track

In October 2007 Downes announced a new CFZtv project: a monthly webTV show giving all the latest news from the CFZ and cryptozoology news from around the world. It is called `On the Track` and can be found on its own dedicated blog at http://cfzmonthly.blogspot.com/. The fourth edition was released on New Year's Day 2008.

Politics

Downes describes himself as "basically an anarchist" . As an artist, and indeed in many other ways he was primarily influenced by anarcho-punks Crass, "not really by the music, but by the D-I-Y attitude." He has always maintained the opinion that "in many ways it is more important to be heard than to get paid for it," and the CFZ, his music and films have always been disseminated along broadly anarchist/libertarian lines.

In October 2005 he posted the following entry on his blog:

"To me, punk was and is as much about the attitude and The Politics than the music. I was a punk the first time round, and the libertarian do-it-yourself ethic of the movement has influenced me - and the CFZ - ever since. Even the name of our journal comes from a track by Adam and the Ants from their 1980 album 'Dirk wears White Sox'. A quarter of a century ago it was my privilege to meet CRASS on several occasions. They were an Essex based anarchist collective who were not only responsible for a string of gloriously nasty albums but managed to sell over 2 million of them. Not only this, but they managed to do it all themselves without the backing of record companies or the music industry. When I visited them I was impressed how the whole family worked together to run the office, and how - despite the lack of'' professional involvement - they not only managed to get all their product assembled and sent to the retailers, but they managed to be cheaper (and better) than anything coming out of the mainstream music industry.

Nearly fifteen Years ago I founded the CFZ. I did so for precisely the same reason that Penny Rimbaud and Steve Ignorant founded CRASS in 1977. The cryptozoological establishment was moribund, boring and - worse of all - becoming increasingly corrupt. It was time for a new broom. Everyone from the old guard sneered at me when I told them what I was gonna do. "You can't start a scientific organisation without the backing of Either industry or one of the universities" they said, as they carried on planning research whose only real motive was self aggrandaisment or to make rich people even richer.

I remembered the tumbledown Essex farmhouse full of punks tirelessly stuffing LPs into envelopes and grinned to myself. I went on with my plans and now we are the biggest cryptozoological research organisation in the world...and we are still not, nor will we ever be in bed with any multinational corporation or establishment university if it means that the integrity of our work is threatened.

Cryptozoology is the study of unknown animals, but what we do is more than just looking for new species. Knowledge should be free and available to all. All too often these days it isn't. Not only are we untainted by association with major establishment figures, but our research is available to EVERYONE - whether or not they are members of the CFZ. We are working towards building a full time Visitors Centre - a truly global community resource and a place where researchers from all over the world can meet and work together.

I haven't really thought about it before, but I guess that not only was I a punk the first time round, but I still am!

ANARCHY PEACE AND FREEDOM

JD"