Christopher Dawes (author)

Last updated

Christopher Dawes (born 26 February 1961) is a British journalist and author. He works as a music journalist using the pseudonym Push. [1]

Contents

As Push, he wrote for the weekly music paper Melody Maker from 1985 to 1995. He was also the editor of the seminal London music magazine The Buzz from 1987 until its demise. He left Melody Maker in 1995 to become the founding editor of the clubbing magazine Muzik , before becoming the editor of the male lifestyle title Mondo in 1999. [1] [2] After several years as a book author, he returned to magazine publishing in 2012 as the editor of the specialist electronic music magazine Electronic Sound . [3]

Dawes was responsible for nurturing and guiding some of the brightest talent of the day, many of whom went on to further success in the music industry. He was one of the first UK music journalists to write about acid house and during his time at Melody Maker he conducted early interviews with the likes of Pulp, Soul II Soul, N.W.A, Soundgarden, De La Soul and The Orb. The very first interviews in the UK press with The Sugarcubes, Carter USM and The Shamen were published in The Buzz during his time as the editor.[ citation needed ]

Dawes's best known book is Rat Scabies And The Holy Grail , published in 2005 by Sceptre Books in the UK ( ISBN   0-340-83211-8) and by Thunder's Mouth Press in the US ( ISBN   1-56025-678-8). It is a gonzo-esque quest to find the Holy Grail by punk rock legend Rat Scabies, the one-time drummer of The Damned, with whom Dawes strikes up a friendship when the two become neighbours in the London suburb of Brentford. [4] [5] [6] [7]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<i>Melody Maker</i> Historical British weekly pop/rock music newspaper (1926–2000)

Melody Maker was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born composer, publisher Lawrence Wright; the first editor was Edgar Jackson. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.

London SS is a British rock group founded in March 1975 by drummer Geir Wade, bassist John Brown, guitarist Mick Jones, and guitarist Eunan Brady. They later became associated with the then new punk rock scene when the Sex Pistols broke in early 1976. In 2012 Brady put together a new lineup, featuring himself along with Jimi McDonald, Taj Sagoo, Michael Kane, and Andi Emm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rat Scabies</span> English musician

Christopher John Millar, known by his stage name Rat Scabies, is a musician best known as the drummer for English punk rock band the Damned.

<i>Sounds</i> (magazine) Defunct UK weekly music magazine

Sounds was a UK weekly pop/rock music newspaper, published from 10 October 1970 to 6 April 1991. It was known for giving away posters in the centre of the paper and later for covering heavy metal and punk and Oi! music in its late 1970s–early 1980s heyday.

Peter Paphides is a British journalist and broadcaster.

<i>Muzik</i> Former British dance music magazine

Muzik was a British dance music magazine published by IPC Media from June 1995 to August 2003.

<i>Rat Scabies and The Holy Grail</i> 2005 book by Christopher Dawes

Rat Scabies And The Holy Grail is a 2005 book written by Christopher Dawes, published by Sceptre Books in the UK and Thunder's Mouth Press in the US. It is a gonzo-esque quest to find the Holy Grail by punk rock legend Rat Scabies, the one-time drummer of The Damned, with whom Dawes strikes up a friendship when the two become neighbours in the London suburb of Brentford.

Colin Lester Irwin was a British music journalist.

David Stubbs is a British music journalist. He grew up in Leeds and in the early 1980s was a student at the University of Oxford where he was a close friend of fellow journalist Simon Reynolds. The two were part of the Oxford-based collective that in 1984 launched the pop journal Monitor and then in 1986 both joined Melody Maker as staff writers.

Rock's Backpages is an online archive of music journalism, sourced from contributions to the music and mainstream press from the 1950s to the present day. The articles are full text and searchable, and all are reproduced with the permission of the copyright holders. The database was founded in 2000 by British music journalist Barney Hoskyns. As of November 2018, its database contains over 37,000 articles, including interviews, features and reviews, which covered popular music from blues and soul up to the present date. Rock's Backpages also features over 600 audio interviews with musicians from Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Cash to Kate Bush and Kurt Cobain.

Barney Hoskyns is a British music critic and editorial director of the online music journalism archive Rock's Backpages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Reynolds</span> English music critic (born 1963)

Simon Reynolds is an English music journalist and author who began his career at Melody Maker in the mid-1980s. He subsequently worked as a freelancer and published a number of books on music and popular culture.

<i>Selected Ambient Works 85–92</i> 1992 studio album by Aphex Twin

Selected Ambient Works 85–92 is the debut studio album by the electronic music producer and DJ Aphex Twin. It was released on 9 November 1992 through Apollo Records, a subsidiary of the Belgian label R&S Records. The album consists of ambient techno tracks recorded onto cassette reputedly dating as far back as 1985, when James was fourteen years old. On release it received widespread acclaim and entered the UK Dance Albums Chart at No. 6 on 26 December 1992.

Blues & Soul is a British music magazine, established in 1967 by John Abbey. The Independent has noted Blues & Soul as being the equal of magazines such as NME and Q. Billboard magazine has called Blues & Soul "a respected publication."

Chris Charlesworth is a British-based music journalist and author; and, between 1983 and 2016, managing editor of Omnibus Press. He is particularly noted for his work about, and with, The Who, for whom he has worked as an executive producer. Charlesworth also worked as David Bowie's publicist at RCA Records from 1979 to 1981.

Henry Soskin, better known as Henry Lincoln, was a British author, television presenter, scriptwriter, and actor. He co-wrote three Doctor Who multi-part serials in the 1960s, and — starting in the 1970s — inspired three Chronicle BBC Two documentaries on the alleged mysteries surrounding the French village of Rennes-le-Château — and, from the 1980s, co-authored and authored a series of books of which The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was the most popular, becoming the inspiration for Dan Brown's 2003 best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code. He was the last living person to have written for Doctor Who in the 1960s.

Adam Sweeting is a British rock critic and writer. Graeme Thomson, writing for The Guardian, deemed him as an "influential journalist" of the 1970s. He currently writes film and television reviews for The Arts Desk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judith Sims</span> American journalist, music critic and magazine editor

Judith Sims was an American journalist, music critic, and magazine editor. She was the editor of the rock magazine TeenSet in the 1960s. Later she was the Los Angeles bureau chief for Rolling Stone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dele Fadele</span> English musician and music journalist

Ayodele Fadele was an English musician and music journalist who was active from the mid-1980s. He wrote for the NME in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and was one of the first music critics to introduce then emerging US rap artists such as Public Enemy, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest to mainstream British music fans.

Alan Lewis was a British music journalist and editor.

References

  1. 1 2 "Articles, interviews and reviews from Push: Rock's Backpages". Rock's Backpages. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  2. Skrufff, Jonty (2011). "Push: Founding Muzik Magazine, Fighting Serious Illness and Setting Fire to Jordan". Proti šedi. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  3. Griffiths, Robert (7 April 2015). "Crowdfunding campaign helps tablet-based digital music magazine to go monthly". Press Gazette. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  4. "RAT SCABIES AND THE HOLY GRAIL". Kirkus . 1 May 2005. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  5. Sinclair, Tom (15 July 2005). "'Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail'". CNN . Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  6. Sawyers, June (1 June 2005). "Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail". Booklist . 101: 1742. ISSN   0006-7385.
  7. "Christopher Dawes: Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail". The Bookseller . 5164: 37. 4 February 2005.