John Pidgeon

Who is John Pidgeon?

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.