Spencer Leigh (radio presenter)

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Spencer Leigh
Spencer Leigh.jpg
Headshot of Spencer Leigh
Born (1945-02-01) 1 February 1945 (age 80)
Waterloo, Lancashire, England
Occupation(s)Radio presenter, author, obituarist
Years active1972–present
SpouseAnne Leigh
Website Spencerleigh.co.uk

Spencer Leigh (born 1 February 1945) [1] [2] is a BBC Radio presenter and author, with particular expertise in the development of pop and rock music and culture in Britain.

Contents

Career

Leigh was born in Waterloo, Merseyside. [3] He attended Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, Crosby. [4] He qualified as an actuary, and worked for Royal Insurance. [5] He became Royal Life's chief underwriter. [6]

Broadcaster

Leigh started broadcasting on BBC Radio Merseyside in the early 1970s. In 1975 he did public interviews with Allan Williams, one being in front of Southport Arts Centre. [7]

Leigh wrote that Mike Hart was his preferred performer on the Liverpool poetry circuit. [8] In July 1972 he took part in a poetry event at Freshfield, with the poets Harold and Sylvia Hikins, and the folk duo Rusty of Allen Mayes and Declan McManus. [9] His first radio series, No Holds Bard, of that year, was based around the Mersey poets. [10]

His music programme On the Beat ran continuously from 1985 to 2020 on BBC Radio Merseyside. Over the years, Leigh interviewed thousands of musicians on the show. [11] He has interviewed many people connected to the Liverpool 1960s scene. There have been several one-off series on BBC Radio Merseyside, the best known being Let's Go Down the Cavern (1981), which was also broadcast on local BBC stations throughout the UK. [12]

The entire collection of 2,027 programmes has been donated to Liverpool Central Library, and there is an on-going project to archive them. Some one-off series have been given to the British Library.

Writer

Leigh's first book was Paul Simon - Now and Then, published in 1973, which was the first biography of the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. Since then, Leigh has written, or collaborated on, over two dozen books. Many of his books relate to The Beatles or Merseybeat. He has written the sleeve notes or CD booklets for over 300 albums. [12] He writes obituaries of musicians for The Guardian , The Independent , [11] and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ; he has also written extensively for Record Collector , Country Music People and Now Dig This. [12] He has a weekly 'My City' column every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo .

His history of British pop before the Beatles, Halfway To Paradise (1996), has been expanded and issued in two volumes as British Pop Before The Beatles, available only on Kindle. He has written a series of musical biographies for McNidder & Grace: Frank Sinatra (updated with 50 pages of lists in 2022), Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Simon & Garfunkel. [13]

For the sixtieth anniversary of the Beatles' first Parlophone single, "Love Me Do", he and Mike Jones wrote The Road to Love Me Do, which was published in September 2022. [14] It tells the story of Merseybeat through the Liverpool artists who came before the Beatles, and details numerous private recordings made by local bands prior to October 1962. The music is highlighted with QR codes, and is the first such book to use QR codes in this way.

Leigh has also published on health insurance ethics. [15]

Publications

Collaborative works

Spencer Leigh has also written or collaborated on the following books with other authors:

Family

In 2015 Leigh was living with his wife Anne in Ainsdale, south of Southport. [26]

References

  1. ↑ "British National Bibliography | The British Library". Bnb.data.bl.uk. Retrieved 2015-07-13.
  2. ↑ Jones, Catherine (30 January 2025). "Spencer Leigh celebrates 80th with new memoir". artscityliverpool.
  3. ↑ Haygarth, Dan (1 February 2025). "'I was interviewing all the stars but I was making a mistake'". Liverpool Echo.
  4. ↑ Wade, Stephen (1 January 2001). Gladsongs and Gatherings: Poetry and Its Social Context in Liverpool Since the 1960s. Liverpool University Press. p. 143. ISBN   978-0-85323-727-3.
  5. ↑ Staff (25 March 2010). "Looking Back 30 years: From actuary to rock star interviewer - Insurance Post". www.postonline.co.uk.
  6. ↑ Grant, Peter (24 November 1994). "Claim to Fame". Liverpool Echo. p. 6.
  7. ↑ Brocken, Michael (3 March 2016). The Twenty-First-Century Legacy of the Beatles: Liverpool and Popular Music Heritage Tourism. Routledge. p. 65. ISBN   978-1-317-01291-7.
  8. ↑ Wade, Stephen (1 January 2001). Gladsongs and Gatherings: Poetry and Its Social Context in Liverpool Since the 1960s. Liverpool University Press. p. 145. ISBN   978-0-85323-727-3.
  9. ↑ "Ladies leapfrog team helps evening swing!". Formby Times. 12 July 1972. p. 11.
  10. ↑ "Spencer Leigh". www.bbc.co.uk.
  11. 1 2 "Saturday Presenters: Spencer Leigh". BBC.co.uk. 26 June 2007. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  12. 1 2 3 "BBC Radio Merseyside - On the Beat". BBC.
  13. ↑ "Buddy Holly: Learning the Game". Goodreads. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  14. ↑ "The Road To Love Me Do 2022 by Spencer Leigh, Mike Jones". Waterstones. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  15. ↑ Sorell, Tom (1 November 2002). Health Care, Ethics and Insurance. 2: Routledge. ISBN   978-1-134-71508-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  16. ↑ Leigh, Spencer (30 April 2015). Best of the Beatles: The sacking of Pete Best. McNidder and Grace Limited. ISBN   978-0-85716-102-4.
  17. ↑ Leigh, Spencer (3 October 2015). The Cavern Club: The Rise of The Beatles and Merseybeat. McNidder and Grace Limited. ISBN   978-0-85716-098-0.
  18. ↑ Leigh, Spencer (10 January 2019). Buddy Holly: Learning the Game. McNidder & Grace. ISBN   978-0-85716-189-5.
  19. ↑ Leigh, Spencer (12 September 2016). Love Me Do to Love Me Don't: Beatles on Record. McNidder & Grace. ISBN   978-0-85716-135-2.
  20. ↑ Leigh, Spencer (25 September 2015). Frank Sinatra: An Extraordinary Life. McNidder and Grace Limited. ISBN   978-0-85716-088-1.
  21. ↑ Leigh, Spencer (22 September 2016). Simon & Garfunkel: Together Alone. McNidder & Grace. ISBN   978-0-85716-151-2.
  22. ↑ Leigh, Spencer (3 August 2017). Elvis Presley: Caught in a Trap. McNidder & Grace. ISBN   978-0-85716-166-6.
  23. ↑ Leigh, Spencer (24 May 2020). Bob Dylan: Outlaw Blues. McNidder & Grace. ISBN   978-0-85716-206-9.
  24. ↑ Leigh, Spencer (27 October 2023). Little Richard: Send Me Some Lovin'. McNidder & Grace. ISBN   978-0-85716-245-8.
  25. ↑ Kutner, Jon; Leigh, Spencer (26 May 2010). 1,000 UK Number One Hits. Omnibus Press. ISBN   978-0-85712-360-2.
  26. ↑ Bowman, Jamie (31 March 2015). "Writer Spencer Leigh celebrates 100th anniversary of Sinatra's birth with new biography". southportvisiter.
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