Jon Keats

It is a great honour to have Jon as an Ambassador for the Peacing Together project. Jon was the first person we approached for help in navigating this new-to-us at the time, Beatles world. He was and still is the embodiment of kindness and generosity, with a heart and soul commitment and dedication to the celebration of John Lennon and treasuring of his legacy.

Jon was born, raised and still lives in Liverpool. He started playing in bands from the age of fourteen before switching to acting. His first job after leaving drama school in 1990 was playing the part of John Lennon in the musical play “Imagine”. He went on to form the band “Instant Karma”. Focusing mainly on John’s solo career, they became one of the headline bands at Liverpool’s International Beatleweek for many years, as well as touring the UK and Europe extensively. In 2007, Jon was one of the first inductees into Liverpool’s Beatleweek Hall of Fame for his outstanding contribution to the festival.

As an actor, Jon had a varied career working in Film, TV and Theatre. As an actor/musician he appeared in several national touring musicals including The Roy Orbison Story and The Sound of Fury. His last TV appearance saw him driving a taxi in his underwear in Channel 4’s Hollyoaks – the less said about that the better!

Fast forward to today, and Jon is now a Director of Cavern City Tours, the company behind International Beatleweek, and of course, the owners of the Cavern Club – the most famous club in the world. As well as this, Jon performs solo acoustic gigs every week in the Cavern as one of their resident artists, still paying tribute to John and the Beatles, as well as all of the other great bands to have performed at this legendary venue. Over the years, Jon has performed at Beatle festivals all over the world including the US, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, France, Italy, Germany and Spain.