John Harris | |
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| Born | 1969 (age 55–56) |
| Alma mater | The Queen's College, Oxford |
| Occupations |
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| Notable work | The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock (2003); Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll (2009) |
John Harris (born 1969) is a British journalist, writer and critic. He is the author ofThe Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock (2003);So Now Who Do We Vote For?, which examined the2005 UK general election; a 2006 behind-the-scenes look at the production ofPink Floyd'sThe Dark Side of the Moon; andHail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll (2009). His articles have appeared inSelect,Q,Mojo,Shindig!,Rolling Stone,Classic Rock,The Independent, theNew Statesman,The Times andThe Guardian.
Harris was born in 1969[1] and raised inWilmslow in northCheshire; his father was a university lecturer innuclear engineering,[2] and his mother a teacher who was the daughter of a nuclear research chemist. He became fixated by pop music at an early age.
Harris attended the comprehensiveWilmslow County High School (at the same time as members of the bandDoves[3]), then went toLoreto College, Manchester, aRoman Catholicsixth form college sited between theUniversity of Manchester andOld Trafford.[4] He applied to study Modern History atKeble College, Oxford, but was rejected, and claimed his membership of left-wing organisations had not won him many favours with such a traditional and conservative college.[4] He spent three years studyingphilosophy, politics and economics at another Oxford college,Queen's, between 1989 and 1992.
In 1991, Harris joinedMelody Maker. Between 1993 and the summer of 1995, he wrote for theNME. In 1995, he was named editor ofSelect magazine after a brief stint withQ.
In 1995, Harris resumed his career as a freelance writer, writing about pop music, politics and a variety of other subjects. His articles have appeared inQ,Mojo,Rolling Stone,The Independent, theNew Statesman,The Times andThe Guardian. He presented aBBC Four documentary on the musical movement,The Britpop Story.
In addition to writing, Harris often appears on television programmes concerned with late 1980s/early 1990s British pop music, as well as being a regular pundit onBBC Two'sNewsnight Review. In 2010 he created the video seriesAnywhere but Westminster[5] forThe Guardian, documenting the political feelings of people around the country. In December 2018 Harris wrote and presented a four-partBBC Radio 4 series,Tyranny of Story. Harris is a political columnist forThe Guardian and is one of the presenters of the newspaper’sPolitics Weekly UK podcast.
Harris is the editor of the companion book, published on 12 October 2021, of the documentaryThe Beatles: Get Back. The illustrated book compiles conversations recorded during the sessions of the albumLet It Be.[6] In addition, he hosted a short promotional film for the project calledThe Beatles, Get Back and London: On the Trail of a Timeless Story. He also contributed a chapter in the hardcover book accompanying the release of theLet It Be: Special Edition that same year.[7]
Harris lives inFrome,Somerset.[8] He has been aethicalvegetarian since the mid-1980s.[9]
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