Paul Lester is a British music journalist, author and broadcaster from Elstree, Hertfordshire.
He began his career as a freelance journalist, for Melody Maker in the early 1990s, as well as City Limits , 20/20 , Sky Magazine and The Jewish Chronicle . He covered grunge, shoegaze, Madchester and Britpop, also spending time with bands touring the UK and internationally. [1]
In 1993, Lester became Melody Maker's features editor; then in 1997, left to join Allan Jones in launching monthly music and film magazine Uncut , remaining deputy editor until 2006.
Lester has written more than a dozen rock / pop biographies, co-authored the Virgin Encyclopedia of Albums and often appears as a radio / television music pundit. He has interviewed hundreds of thespians and musicians including Kylie Minogue, Janet Jackson, Mick Jagger and Snoop Dogg. He has also written sleeve notes on many, including: Todd Rundgren, Hall & Oates, The Smiths and The Sex Pistols. [2]
He currently resides in Hertfordshire, from where he has been freelancing since January 2007. He contributes newspapers, including : Guardian (daily columnist of 'Critics Picks' [3] and 'New Band of the Day' [4] ), The Sunday Times , the Daily Express , The Mail on Sunday , The Daily Telegraph and The Scotsman . He writes of other periodicals, including: Q (magazine) , GQ , Record Collector and The Jewish Chronicle (an autobiographical column about recently remarried life, as a father of three children).[ citation needed ]
In July 2011, he joined digital station Amazing Radio to present a weekly show dedicated to new music. [5] The programme continues to broadcast on Thursday afternoons between 1 and 3pm, on the national Digital One network in the UK and online via amazingradio.co.uk and the UK RadioPlayer.
In 2018, Lester became the editor of Record Collector magazine.[ citation needed ]
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Album title | Artist | Reviewed in |
---|---|---|
Sacred songs | Daryl Hall | Lester, Paul (December 2014). "Consecration piece". Buried Treasure. Mojo . 253 (6): 114. |
In 2008, Lester won the 'Breaking Music Writer' award at the Record of The Day Awards for Music Journalism and PR [6] for his 'New Band of the Day' column in The Guardian.
The Slits were a post-punk/punk rock band based in London, formed there in 1976 by members of the groups the Flowers of Romance and the Castrators. The group's early line-up consisted of Ari Up and Palmolive, with Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollitt replacing founding members Kate Korus and Suzy Gutsy. Their 1979 debut album, Cut, has been called one of the defining releases of the post-punk era.
Doc Savage is a fictional character of the competent man hero type, who first appeared in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. Real name Clark Savage Jr., he is a polymathic scientist, explorer, detective, and warrior who "rights wrongs and punishes evildoers." He was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L. Nanovic at Street & Smith Publications, with additional material contributed by the series' main writer, Lester Dent. Doc Savage stories were published under the Kenneth Robeson name. The illustrations were by Walter Baumhofer, Paul Orban, Emery Clarke, Modest Stein, and Robert G. Harris.
Robert James Smith is an English musician who is the co-founder, lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the Cure, a post punk rock band formed in 1976. His guitar-playing style, singing voice, and fashion sense, often sporting a pale complexion, smeared red lipstick, black eye-liner, unkempt wiry black hair, and all-black clothes, were highly influential on the goth subculture that rose to prominence in the 1980s.
The Amazing Pudding (1983–1993) was a British fan magazine devoted to Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, and the solo careers of other Pink Floyd band members, including Syd Barrett. It was seen as being the main fanzine of Pink Floyd during the time of its publication. Journalist Stuart Maconie wrote about The Amazing Pudding as part of a feature in the April 1993 issue of Q.
John William Weller, better known as Paul Weller, is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame with the rock band the Jam in the late 1970s. Following the dissolution of the Jam in 1982, he pursued different musical styles in the Style Council (1983–1989), then became a solo artist with his eponymous 1992 studio album.
Be Here Now is the third studio album by the English rock band Oasis, released on 21 August 1997 by Creation Records. The album was recorded at multiple recording studios in London, including Abbey Road Studios, as well as Ridge Farm Studio in Surrey. Although most tracks retain the anthemic quality of previous releases, the songs on Be Here Now are longer and contain many guitar overdubs. Noel Gallagher said this was done to make the album sound as "colossal" as possible. The album cover features a shot of the band members at Stocks House in Hertfordshire. It is the last Oasis studio album to feature founding members guitarist Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs and bassist Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan as the two left in 1999.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions is a 1988 reference book on the English rock band the Beatles written by Mark Lewisohn. It was published by Hamlyn in the UK and by Harmony Books in the US.
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"I'll Cry Instead" is a song written by John Lennon, and recorded by the English rock band the Beatles for their third studio album, A Hard Day's Night (1964), a part-studio and part-soundtrack album to their film of the same name (1964). In the United States, the song originally appeared in the US version of A Hard Day's Night before it was released as a single backed with "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" along with the US album Something New.
"I'm Down" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released on a non-album single as the B-side to "Help!" in July 1965. The song originated in McCartney's attempt to write a song in the style of Little Richard, whose song "Long Tall Sally" the band regularly covered.
Barry Miles is an English author known for his participation in and writing on the subjects of the 1960s London underground and counterculture. He is the author of numerous books and his work has also regularly appeared in leftist newspapers such as The Guardian. In the 1960s, he was co-owner of the Indica Gallery and helped start the independent newspaper International Times.
The First Letter is the ninth studio album and the last album released by Wire before their second extended hiatus. It was released in October 1991 by Mute Records. It was one of only three releases credited to "Wir", the others being the "So and Slow It Grows" single, and a limited edition two-song EP entitled Vien. The band changed their name to "Wir" after drummer Robert Gotobed's departure; he quit the band because the musical direction increasingly relied on drum machines and loops. Other than an Erasure remix in 1995, the band would not reform until 1999, and not release any new material until 2002's Read & Burn 01 and Read & Burn 02 EPs and 2003's subsequent Send album. The First Letter produced the single "So and Slow It Grows."
Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now is a 1997 biography of Paul McCartney by Barry Miles. It is the "official" biography of McCartney and was written "based on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews undertaken over a period of five years", according to the back cover of the 1998 paperback edition. The title is a phrase from McCartney's song "When I'm Sixty-Four", from the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The book was first published in the United Kingdom in October 1997 by Secker & Warburg.
Chris Hunt is a British journalist, magazine editor, and author.
Paul Hamlyn, Baron Hamlyn, was a German-born British publisher and philanthropist, who established the Paul Hamlyn Foundation in 1987.
John Masouri is a journalist, author, reviewer and historian for Jamaican music and several of its musical offshoots including dub, roots and dancehall. He is one of the world's foremost reggae music journalist and has worked extensively over it.
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.
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