Richard Williams (journalist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Merchant Williams (born March 13, 1947 in Sheffield ) is a British sports and music journalist (especially in the field of rock music and jazz ) and music producer .

Life

Williams grew up in Nottinghamshire , was a high school dropout and a local journalist with a youth column that covered the local club scene and had a relatively free hand in terms of music selection. From 1969 to 1973 he worked for the then leading weekly British music magazine Melody Maker , where he became deputy editor-in-chief and in the late 1960s was known for contributions on progressive rock music (such as The Velvet Underground ), but also wrote about jazz. In 1971 he was the first presenter of the rock show The Old Gray Whistle Test on BBC 2 (soon afterwards also its producer). From 1973 to 1976 he was Artistic Director (Artists and Repertoire) at Island Records , where he produced Pete Wingfield , Bryn Haworth and John Cale , among others . From 1976 to 1978 he was editor (Editor) at Time Out and 1978 to 1980 again at Melody Maker as editor. He also wrote for The Times from 1970 to 1989 , where he was a pioneer in rock music and pop, but also wrote about jazz, for Streetlife and Let it Rock . He became Features Editor for The Sunday Times and Editor of the Sunday Review for the Independent on Sunday . In the 1980s he turned to sports journalism without giving up his preoccupation with music. Most recently he was Chief Sports Writer at The Independent and then in the same role for the Guardian .

He is the author of biographies on Miles Davis (and Kind of Blue and his influence on progressive rock), Phil Spector and Bob Dylan, and the editor of a book on George Best . As a sports journalist, he reported on many areas such as football, cricket, golf and Formula 1, on which he wrote several books.

In 2014 he was surprisingly elected as the successor to Bert Noglik as artistic director of the Berlin Jazz Festival 2015.

Fonts

Books on music
  • Long Distance Call: Writings on Music, Aurum Press 2000, ISBN 1-85410-681-3
  • Bob Dylan: A Man Called Alias, Henry Holt 1992
  • The Blue Moment: Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music, WW Norton 2010
  • Miles Davis: The Man in the Green Shirt, Henry Holt and Company 1993, ISBN 0-8050-2704-1
  • Phil Spector: Out of His Head, Omnibus Press 2009
Sports books

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Williams at the Guardian
  2. ↑ Morning Post of October 18, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Williams, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Williams, Richard Merchant (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British music and sports journalist
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Sheffield