Jonathan King

Who is Jonathan King?

Jonathan King is an English singer-songwriter, record producer, music entrepreneur, and former TV and radio presenter.

King first entered the music industry with his 1965 single "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", which reached no 4 in the UK and no 17 in the USA. He followed this with a string of record releases, of which four made the UK Singles Chart Top 10 in the 1970s. Many were "novelty" records credited to pseudonymous bands.

In parallel to his performing career, in the late 1960s and in the 1970s King produced other acts as well as his own recordings. He became a "talent spotter" for Decca Records and, in this capacity, discovered Genesis. After leaving Decca in 1970, he had a short period with Bell Records, where he produced a number of UK hits including the Bay City Rollers' first single. In 1972, he founded his own record label, UK Records. Its most significant signing was 10cc who were with the label during the period of their early hits. In the 1980s and 1990s King became more involved in media work and regularly appeared as a presenter of British television programmes including Entertainment USA.

King was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2001, after being found guilty of committing sexual offences against five boys aged 14 and 15 during the 1980s. Although King has always maintained that he is not guilty of the offences which led to the 2001 convictions, a 2003 appeal bid was rejected with one judge noting that the case "justifies a sentence that arguably may be somewhat higher than in some other cases". He was released on parole in 2005.