John Pidgeon (writer)
Encyclopedia
John Pidgeon, born Carlisle, Cumberland, 1 March 1947, is a journalist, author, music historian, radio producer, comedy executive and, lately, crossword compiler.
John Pidgeon was brought up in a village in Buckinghamshire, where he attended the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, his time there overlapping with Ian Dury
and Roger Scruton
. He studied French at the University of Kent and postgraduate Film Studies under Thorold Dickinson
at the Slade School, where his writing career began with a review of Carry On Henry for the BFI's Monthly Film Bulletin. An uncredited script for a BBC2 Film Night special on pop movies followed, and in July 1972 he began a weekly film guide for New Musical Express. Around the same time he was invited to join the team about to launch Let It Rock
magazine by Charlie Gillett
, who subsequently recommended him as a scriptwriter for BBC Radio 1's The Story of Pop.
In December 1972 he joined The Faces' road crew for the band's UK tour in order to write a roadie's diary, which appeared in Let It Rock and America's Creem magazine. His association with the band led not only to 1976's Rod Stewart and the Changing Faces, a book which Paul Gorman
has suggested "broke the mould in terms of music books in the 70s," but to a songwriting partnership with keyboard player Ian McLagan
. A Backpages Classics Kindle edition of Rod Stewart and the Changing Faces was published in 2011.
In 1973 he took over as editor of Let It Rock, while continuing to write for NME and script documentaries for Radio 1. He wrote a "savagely readable" novelisation of Slade in Flame, which paid scant attention to the screenplay and was withdrawn from sale at cinemas where the film was shown in 1975 for its bad language and explicit violence. Slade
's Noddy Holder
nevertheless called it "a great book", suggesting John "must have been around the scene for quite a while, he knows a hell of a lot." Then, drawing on his teenage experiences of the British R&B scene for early material, John became the first biographer of Eric Clapton
.
An occasional contributor to Time Out, for whom he interviewed his football hero Stan Bowles
, John followed editor Richard Williams
to Melody Maker
, where he championed The Police
, accompanying the trio on their first US tour, as he did almost 30 years later during their reunion.
By the end of the decade he was back in radio, making documentaries and special programmes for Capital Radio, whose Head of Music was The Story of Pops producer Tim Blackmore. John also devised two long-running series - Jukebox Saturday Night and The View From The Top – for disc jockey Roger Scott
, and when Scott moved to Radio 1 in 1988, John devised Classic Albums
, which he and Scott produced as the network's first independent production. After Scott died of cancer in October 1989, Richard Skinner
took over as presenter, and more than fifty programmes were aired around the world.
Having produced and written sketches for Brunch, Capital's ground-breaking mix of music and comedy, whose regular performers were Steve Brown
, Paul Burnett
, Angus Deayton
, Jeremy Pascall
and Jan Ravens
, John broadened his radio output with comedy documentaries and four series of the award-winning Talking Comedy for Radio 2.
In 1999, he was approached by the BBC to run Radio Entertainment, which he did for six years, nurturing Dead Ringers, Flight of The Conchords
, Little Britain
and The Mighty Boosh
during his time in charge. He was appointed a Fellow of the Radio Academy
in 2003 and chaired the Perrier Panel in Edinburgh in 2005.
One of Pidgeon's first recruits to Radio Entertainment was 23-year-old trainee producer Danny Wallace. In 2008, asked who in the media he most admired and why, Wallace answered, "Jonathan Ross
for pioneering and quick wit. Terry Wogan
for reassurance and warmth. And John Pidgeon, my mentor at the BBC – a finer and more creative man you're not likely to meet."
In 2010 Pidgeon fulfilled a long-held ambition, when he began compiling crosswords for the Daily Telegraph, where his Toughie puzzles are attributed to Petitjean. According to one contributor to Big Dave's Crossword Blog, "I always consider that I need to put a ‘slightly mad’ hat on in order to solve a Petitjean crossword."
For articles on British R&B, the Faces, Let It Rocks 1973 critics' poll, writing for the NME and other topics, see Rock's Backpages Writers’ Blogs: http://www.rocksbackpagesblogs.com/author/johnp/
For his views on developing radio comedy at the BBC, see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/may/12/radio?INTCMP=SRCH
Stephen Armstrong's 2005 Guardian interview with John is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/aug/22/mondaymediasection.radio?INTCMP=SRCH
John Pidgeon was brought up in a village in Buckinghamshire, where he attended the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, his time there overlapping with Ian Dury
Ian Dury
Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...
and Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton
Roger Vernon Scruton is a conservative English philosopher and writer. He is the author of over 30 books, including Art and Imagination , Sexual Desire , The Aesthetics of Music , and A Political Philosophy: Arguments For Conservatism...
. He studied French at the University of Kent and postgraduate Film Studies under Thorold Dickinson
Thorold Dickinson
Thorold Barron Dickinson was a British film director, screenwriter, producer, and Britains's first university Professor of Film.-Early life and career:...
at the Slade School, where his writing career began with a review of Carry On Henry for the BFI's Monthly Film Bulletin. An uncredited script for a BBC2 Film Night special on pop movies followed, and in July 1972 he began a weekly film guide for New Musical Express. Around the same time he was invited to join the team about to launch Let It Rock
Let It Rock (magazine)
Let It Rock was a monthly British music magazine which featured lengthy critical articles, record reviews, and features covering a wide spectrum of popular music, including soul, reggae, and blues. Between October 1972 and December 1975, 35 issues of the magazine were published in London...
magazine by Charlie Gillett
Charlie Gillett
Charlie Gillett , was a British radio presenter, musicologist and writer, mainly on rock and roll and other forms of popular music...
, who subsequently recommended him as a scriptwriter for BBC Radio 1's The Story of Pop.
In December 1972 he joined The Faces' road crew for the band's UK tour in order to write a roadie's diary, which appeared in Let It Rock and America's Creem magazine. His association with the band led not only to 1976's Rod Stewart and the Changing Faces, a book which Paul Gorman
Paul Gorman
Paul Gorman is an English writer.-Career:From 1978, Gorman worked on weekly news for trade publications. In 1983, Gorman won the Periodical Publishers Association award for campaigning journalism for a series of investigative food industry articles and in 1990 was appointed west coast bureau chief...
has suggested "broke the mould in terms of music books in the 70s," but to a songwriting partnership with keyboard player Ian McLagan
Ian McLagan
Ian McLagan is an English keyboard instrumentalist, best known as a member of the English rock bands Small Faces and Faces.-Small Faces and Faces:...
. A Backpages Classics Kindle edition of Rod Stewart and the Changing Faces was published in 2011.
In 1973 he took over as editor of Let It Rock, while continuing to write for NME and script documentaries for Radio 1. He wrote a "savagely readable" novelisation of Slade in Flame, which paid scant attention to the screenplay and was withdrawn from sale at cinemas where the film was shown in 1975 for its bad language and explicit violence. Slade
Slade
Slade are an English rock band from Wolverhampton, who rose to prominence during the glam rock era of the early 1970s. With 17 consecutive Top 20 hits and six number ones, the British Hit Singles & Albums names them as the most successful British group of the 1970s based on sales of singles...
's Noddy Holder
Noddy Holder
Neville John "Noddy" Holder MBE is an English musician and actor. He was the lead vocalist and guitarist with the rock band Slade....
nevertheless called it "a great book", suggesting John "must have been around the scene for quite a while, he knows a hell of a lot." Then, drawing on his teenage experiences of the British R&B scene for early material, John became the first biographer of Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
.
An occasional contributor to Time Out, for whom he interviewed his football hero Stan Bowles
Stan Bowles
Stanley Bowles was a leading English footballer who gained a reputation as one of the game's greatest mavericks. He was a cousin of Paul Bowles.-Career:...
, John followed editor Richard Williams
Richard Williams
Richard Williams is a Canadian animator. He is best known for serving as animation director on Disney/Amblin's Who Framed Roger Rabbit and for his unfinished feature film The Thief and the Cobbler...
to Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
, where he championed The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
, accompanying the trio on their first US tour, as he did almost 30 years later during their reunion.
By the end of the decade he was back in radio, making documentaries and special programmes for Capital Radio, whose Head of Music was The Story of Pops producer Tim Blackmore. John also devised two long-running series - Jukebox Saturday Night and The View From The Top – for disc jockey Roger Scott
Roger Scott
Roger Scott was a British radio disc jockey. He was best known for presenting an afternoon radio show on London's Capital Radio from 1973 until 1988....
, and when Scott moved to Radio 1 in 1988, John devised Classic Albums
Classic Albums
Classic Albums is a documentary series about pop and rock albums that are considered the best or most distinctive of a well-known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music.-Format:...
, which he and Scott produced as the network's first independent production. After Scott died of cancer in October 1989, Richard Skinner
Richard Skinner
Richard Skinner was an American politician, attorney, and jurist from the US state of Vermont.Skinner was born in Litchfield, Connecticut. He completed preparatory studies and graduated from Litchfield Law School, and was admitted to the bar in 1800, beginning a practice in Manchester, Vermont...
took over as presenter, and more than fifty programmes were aired around the world.
Having produced and written sketches for Brunch, Capital's ground-breaking mix of music and comedy, whose regular performers were Steve Brown
Steve Brown
Steve Brown may refer to:* Steve Brown , American football player* Steve Brown , American pastor, syndicated radio host, and seminary professor* Steve Brown , American baseball player...
, Paul Burnett
Paul Burnett
Paul Burnett is an English radio disc jockey, who began his radio career while in the Royal Air Force in the Persian Gulf in 1964. In 1966 he joined offshore radio station, Radio 270, broadcasting off Scarborough, North Yorkshire...
, Angus Deayton
Angus Deayton
Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster. He is best known for his role as Victor Meldrew's long-suffering neighbour Patrick Trench in the comedy series One Foot in the Grave...
, Jeremy Pascall
Jeremy Pascall
Jeremy Pascall was an English screenwriter, broadcaster, journalist and author.He specialized in writing about humour and rock music, starting his career at the magazine New Musical Express. At 26 he moved on to be a producer at London's Capital Radio...
and Jan Ravens
Jan Ravens
Janet "Jan" Ravens is an English actress and impressionist, famous for her voices on Spitting Image and Dead Ringers.-Early life:...
, John broadened his radio output with comedy documentaries and four series of the award-winning Talking Comedy for Radio 2.
In 1999, he was approached by the BBC to run Radio Entertainment, which he did for six years, nurturing Dead Ringers, Flight of The Conchords
Flight of the Conchords
Flight of the Conchords are a New Zealand-based comedy duo composed of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. The duo's comedy and music became the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series, which premiered in 2007 on HBO, also called Flight of the Conchords.They were named...
, Little Britain
Little Britain
Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...
and The Mighty Boosh
The Mighty Boosh
The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows and a six episode radio series, it has since spawned a total of twenty television episodes for BBC Three and two live tours of the UK, as well as two live shows in the...
during his time in charge. He was appointed a Fellow of the Radio Academy
Radio Academy
The Radio Academy is a registered charity that is dedicated to 'the encouragement, recognition and promotion of excellence in UK broadcasting and audio production'....
in 2003 and chaired the Perrier Panel in Edinburgh in 2005.
One of Pidgeon's first recruits to Radio Entertainment was 23-year-old trainee producer Danny Wallace. In 2008, asked who in the media he most admired and why, Wallace answered, "Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross may refer to:* Jonathan Ross , English television and radio personality* Jonathan Ross , United States Senator, Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court* Jonathon Ross , former Australian rules footballer...
for pioneering and quick wit. Terry Wogan
Terry Wogan
Sir Michael Terence Wogan, KBE, DL , or also known as Terry Wogan, is a veteran Irish radio and television broadcaster who holds dual Irish and British citizenship. Wogan has worked for the BBC in the United Kingdom for most of his career...
for reassurance and warmth. And John Pidgeon, my mentor at the BBC – a finer and more creative man you're not likely to meet."
In 2010 Pidgeon fulfilled a long-held ambition, when he began compiling crosswords for the Daily Telegraph, where his Toughie puzzles are attributed to Petitjean. According to one contributor to Big Dave's Crossword Blog, "I always consider that I need to put a ‘slightly mad’ hat on in order to solve a Petitjean crossword."
External links
Pidgeon's Guardian article on The Police's reunion can be found at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/aug/24/popandrock1?INTCMP=SRCHFor articles on British R&B, the Faces, Let It Rocks 1973 critics' poll, writing for the NME and other topics, see Rock's Backpages Writers’ Blogs: http://www.rocksbackpagesblogs.com/author/johnp/
For his views on developing radio comedy at the BBC, see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/may/12/radio?INTCMP=SRCH
Stephen Armstrong's 2005 Guardian interview with John is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/aug/22/mondaymediasection.radio?INTCMP=SRCH