Paul Morley
Paul Morley (born
March 26,
1957 in
Stockport,
Cheshire) is an
English music 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 number of publications.
He was a co-founder, with
Trevor Horn, of
ZTT Records, and
The Art of Noise.Although known for a somewhat dour public persona, Morley first came to wider attention with a brief appearance in the video for
ABC's "
The Look of Love". Morley is also credited with steering the marketing and promotion of the early success of
Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
He was the first presenter of
BBC2's
The Late Show, and has appeared as a music pundit on a number of other programmes. For the shortlived
Channel 4 arts strand
Without Walls he wrote and presented a documentary on boredom.
He is the author of
Words and Music: the history of pop in the shape of a city 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" and
Kylie 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" by
DJ 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 of
Joy Division singer
Ian Curtis.
Morley has recently teamed up with
The Auteurs'
James Banbury to form the band
Infantjoy and has released an Album entitled 'Where The Night Goes' on
Sony BMG.
*Paul Morley:
Words and Music: a history of pop in the shape of a city. Bloomsbury, 2003. ISBN 0-7475-5778-0
*
Morley and Banbury's virtual record label*
Infantjoy official homepage*
Paul Morley on John Peel*
spikemagazine.com on Paul Morley*
Raiding The 20th Century featuring Paul Morley and a cast of thousands*
Zang Tuum Tumb and all that*
Paul Morley Interview 1999
