One of the more surprising names on the latest line up announcement for the annual hoe down that is Bestival on the Isle of Wight, which includes The Prodigy, Dizzee Rascal, LCD Soundsystem and The Flaming Lips is the long forgotten synth pop man Howard Jones. Jones had a string of hits in the 1980’s including New Song, What Is Love, Things Can Only Get Better, Life in One Day and Hide and Seek and then faded away to obscurity. But following a four year campaign on the official Bestival website forum, Bestival head-honcho and curator Rob da Bank has wilted under the pressure and finally agreed to book the keyboard wizard to play the festival.

The leader of this campaign is one Robin Seamer, writer of one of Portsmouth’s most prolific music blogs – Breaking More Waves. But why Howard Jones? Looking at his blog Robins own tastes seem to be far more modern – the campaign for a long forgotten pop star seems somewhat at odds with his blog, which was named as one of the Tastemakers of 2010 in the annual BBC Sound Of 2010 poll. “It all started as a bit of a joke really,” Robin explains. “Then it just escalated, and before I knew it I was obsessing about getting Howard booked for Bestival. Part of the appeal is that he has never been seen as a hip or cool artist, yet Bestival always attracts such an eclectic and cool mix of bands and punters I thought it would be funny to campaign for a man who once sang the words ‘I don’t want to be hip or cool’, in one of his biggest hits.”

The campaign has now paid off, and Bestival regulars are delighted. “I finally got to meet Rob da Bank in London a few weeks ago and when he confirmed to me that Howard had been booked to play Bestival. I almost kissed him,” he laughs. “It’s going to be a right old party when Howard takes to the stage,” says Robin. If you want to join the party, get your tickets now before Bestival sells out.