- Paul Morley
Paul Morley (born
26 March 1957 inStockport ,Cheshire ) is an English journalist, who wrote for the "New Musical Express " from 1977 to 1983, during one of its most successful and relatively notorious periods, and has since written for a wide range of publications. His style divided the NME readership of the time (an early, confrontational interview withJerry Garcia was judged to have lost the paper several thousand regular readers),Fact|date=April 2007. British Alternative bandThe Cure played a version of their song 'Grinding Halt' with new lyrics parodying Morley's writing style after an unfavourable review of their debut albumThree Imaginary Boys . He has been described as 'a nodder' and a 'pretentious git' on more than one occasion.For a period of time, Morley produced and managed Manchester punk band The Drones. [ [http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:g9frxqy5ldhe~T1 The Drones' band biography] at
Allmusic ] However, Morley first came to wider attention with a brief appearance in the video for ABC's "The Look of Love" (in which he mimes the words "what's that?" in a call-and-response routine with singerMartin Fry ), but he achieved genuine notoriety as co-founder, withTrevor Horn , ofZTT Records , and electronic groupArt of Noise . Morley is also credited with steering the marketing and promotion of the phenomenal early success of ZTT's biggest act,Frankie Goes to Hollywood . Although it has never been confirmed, it is generally accepted that it was Morley who authored the provocative slogans on the band's T-shirts (e.g. "Frankie Say Arm The Unemployed", "Frankie Say War! Hide Yourself"), which became a fashion phenomenon in 1984, and are almost as well remembered as the band's music.He was the first presenter of
BBC Two 's "The Late Show", and has appeared as a music pundit on a number of other programmes. For the shortlivedChannel 4 arts strand "Without Walls " he wrote and presented a documentary on boredom.He is the author of "" The book is an authoritative, scholarly and highly idiosyncratic journey through the history of pop; it seeks to trace the connection between
Alvin Lucier 's experimental audio recording, "I am sitting in a room " andKylie Minogue 's "Can't get you out of my head". A synthetic Kylie features as the central character of the book. The book was later turned into the hour-long epic musical track "Raiding the 20th Century" byDJ Food , which features Morley reading from his book and speculating on the cultural significance of the mashup amidst the sounds of those very mashups. His other books include "Ask: The Chatter of Pop" (a collection of his music journalism) and "Nothing", a biographical book reflecting on his father's suicide and that ofJoy Division singerIan Curtis , and unhappy parts of his teenage life such as the time he spent atStockport Grammar School .Morley has teamed up with
The Auteurs 'James Banbury to form the band Infantjoy and in 2005 released an Album entitled 'Where The Night Goes' onSony BMG . A new album, With, featuring collaborations withTunng ,Isan andPopulous amongst others, is released in October 2006 on Morley and Banbury's own label ServiceAV.He was married to
Claudia Brücken with whom he has a daughter.References
General Reference
*Paul Morley: "Words and Music: a history of pop in the shape of a city". Bloomsbury, 2003. ISBN 0-7475-5778-0
External links
* [http://www.serviceav.com Morley and Banbury's virtual record label]
* [http://www.infantjoy.com Infantjoy official homepage]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3956343.stm Paul Morley on John Peel]
*An extended review/meditation on Paul Morley's book 'Nothing'. [http://www.davehaslam.com/control.php?_command=/DISPLAY/16/1//3000&_path=/102/104]
* [http://www.spikemagazine.com/0600bangsandmorley.php spikemagazine.com on Paul Morley]
* [http://www.ubu.com/sound/dj_food.html Raiding The 20th Century featuring Paul Morley and a cast of thousands]
* [http://www.zttaat.com/ Zang Tuum Tumb and all that]
* [http://www.geocities.com/mayjahtom/taon.htm Paul Morley Interview 1999]
* [http://www.myspace.com/paulmorley Paul Morley's Myspace]
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