Curriculum Vitae

Media Career

I am a freelance journalist, with a long career in the broadcast media, including BBC and independent television and BBC Radio. I am a regular contributor to the UK journal, Art Monthly, and I have contributed to online journals a-n News, Corridor 8, the Double Negative, and others. I have also written for the Guardian, the Observer, and New Musical Express. 

I worked freelance and staff at the BBC in Manchester between 1993 and 2016. 

Between 2000 and 2016 I produced many arts-related documentary programmes (some of which I also presented) including: Music to Save Grimethorpe; Three-Sided Football; Wittgenstein’s Jet; The Art Bunker; The Body of Art; Really Happening!; Merzman: The Art of Kurt Schwitters; Forced Entertainment; The Art of Pop; Zine Scene; Li Yuan Chia; OULIPO; The Wonderful Weightless World of the Flexidisc; The Strange Parallel World of Christian Pop; Malcolm Lowry: The Lighthouse Invites the Storm; Theatre of the Absurd; The Liverpool Poets; Lord Buckley; Tiny Tim; Mel Blanc; Ziggy Stardust Came From Isleworth; David Vaughan; Metal at 40; Nancy Storace: Mozart’s English Soprano; Barrow; Who Was Opal Whitely? 

I also produced Archive on 4 programmes including: The Shoemakers; Ready Teddy! ; Refugees From Tyranny; Aunty Beeb and Religion; The Sound of Music; Alexander Korda; Alfred Bradley; Queen Victoria; Jack Hylton; Buchan to Bond; Ladies or Gentlemen; George Bernard Shaw; Shakespearean Women; Charles Dickens; The Heavens Reflect Our Labours; The Beveridge Report; The Alternative Press. 

From 1993-2000, I worked as a producer for BBC Radios 1 and 2, where I co-produced Mark Radcliffe’s first show for Radio 1, The Guest List.

Between 1985 and 1993 I worked at Granada Television, where I presented and co-produced the live music series The New Sessions, as well as several live in-concert specials with bands including the Inspiral Carpets, James, and the Saw Doctors. I also produced Express, a series for teenagers featuring Caroline Aherne as Mrs Merton. As a researcher I worked on news, arts, children’s and entertainment programmes. 

My first work in television was as a researcher for Reality Productions making the documentary film A Rough Stage for Channel 4 TV in 1982. 

Between 1977 and 1982 I worked as a researcher and oral history interviewer for the North West Film Archive. I also wrote for regional alternative publications including New Manchester Review, City Life and City Fun.

Academic Qualifications

In 2020 I was awarded a PhD at Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University. My thesis is entitled Network Entelechy: Critical Writing and Contemporary Art in North-West England. 

In 1996 I was awarded M Phil at Manchester Metropolitan University, Institute of Popular Culture, Department of Law, examining the history of the alternative press in the Northwest. The thesis was published as Imprinting the Sticks: The Alternative Press Beyond London, (Ashgate/Arena 1996).

Mentoring

Between 2015-6 I helped organise Contemporary Visual Art NW’s Critical Writing Programme, acting also as a mentor for young critical writers participating in the scheme. Some of the best writing from the scheme appeared in the book On Being Curious: New Critical Writing on Contemporary Art from the North-West of England, (The Double Negative, 2016).

Collaborations 

I have collaborated with several artists, including Agnes Nedregard (contributing to the book The Big Toe, Dimanche Rouge, 2015), Yu-Chen Wang (resulting in the book and filmed performance, The Song of the Machines, Chinese Arts Centre, 2012), and John Newling (contributing to the book The Preston Market Mystery Project, Harris Museum, 2008). 

Education

I graduated with a BA in English and American Literature from the University of East Anglia in 1977.

I attended schools at Sandbach, Cheshire (1968-73) and Godalming, Surrey (1966-68). 

I have 3 A Levels (Art, English Lit, General Studies) and 8 O Levels.