Poole is the frontman and main performer of God Damn Whores, and has also worked with the bands Ablemesh, Dr Brighton and Celebricide. He is currently the live bass player for The Lotus Eaters and has recently joined the Brighton band La Momo as drummer.

Jon Poole comes from a musical family and is the youngest of six children, all of whom play musical instruments. One of his brothers is highly-regarded session bass player Ed Poole and one of his sisters is jazz trombonist Cathi "Trombabe" Poole, a member of the Cathi Cook Quintet and former musical director of the Milton Keynes Open Band.[citation needed]

Poole currently lives in Brighton with his wife Louise.[citation needed]

Poole's projects tend to draw from or combine punk rock, progressive/art rock and hard rock, mostly due to his manic performance style, punk-style vocals and dual interest in complexity and raw riffs. He has also commented "I find beautiful perfection repellent."

However, Poole has cited a wide range of influences affecting his music, starting with the jazz which his family were all interested in (and played). As a listener, he subsequently became interested in (in rapid succession), contemporary disco and soul, New Wave and 1980s synth pop, and 1960s pop. This was followed by a period “catching up with” punk and post-punk, followed by ska, 2-Tone music and Trevor Horn producer pop. By the mid-to-late 80s, when he was beginning to play in bands, he was listening to maverick American art-rock heroes such as Captain Beefheart, Tom Waits, Frank Zappa and also to British progressive rock from the 1970s (as well as contemporary prog-inspired bands - most notably Cardiacs).

Poole has also expressed interest in a variety of 1990s rock and pop acts including Nirvana, Blur, Sugababes and others. He is a fan of several classical composers - Igor Stravinsky, Eric Satie, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst.

"I tried to keep Ad Nauseam going... but internal arguments, power struggles and jealousy regarding girls and certain people joining their favourite bands tore the band apart. I'd vowed that I'd come back for Bob and get him in (Cardiacs) somehow but then we didn't talk for a year. We did however then kiss and make up and still love each other to this day and hey, fuck...I got him in the band!"

Poole began his musical career with the Cangels Close Crew producing such works as "The Beano" and "Softy Walter" in the Moorland Road Studio with fellow band member Rob Flowers. It was in this period that his love for Adam and the Ants and "Tiger Feet" began.

After a move to Milton Keynes circa 1990, Poole wrote and performed in his first proper band, the Cardiacs-inspired Ad Nauseam alongside lead singer and drummer Bob Leith. Although Ad Nauseam had a shifting lineup Poole played, at various times, most of the instruments in the band.

Ad Nauseam split up a short time after Poole's recruitment into Cardiacs. Poole has since expressed interest in an Ad Nauseam reunion, saying "I'd really like to do it if only to get it right this time but I don't know if it'll ever happen. I don't even know if it'd be the same line-up. Me and Bob would be there of course as it was always our band. I had a brief thought of doing a set of Ad Nauseam songs with some more obscure Cardiacs songs chucked in such as "Bitter Pill" "Big Noise In A Toy World" or "Stench Of Honey" but I'm not sure if that might just be naff. Who knows? Not me,boy!"