Roy Carr (1945 – 1 July 2018)^[1] was anEnglishmusicjournalist, coveringpop,rock andjazz. He joined theNew Musical Express (NME) in the late 1960s, and editedNME,Vox andMelody Maker magazines.

Born inBlackpool,Lancashire, after his family moved there from London during theSecond World War,^[2] he was the son of jazz musician and composer Tony Carr, a member ofJoe Loss's band and writer of "March of the Mods".^[3][4]

Roy Carr started his music career as a member of Blackpool-based band The Executives, who also featuredGlenn Cornick. The band supported many leading acts in the mid-1960s, includingthe Beatles,the Rolling Stones andThe Who, and had several unsuccessful singles issued on theColumbia andCBS labels.^[5][6] Carr became friendly with many leading musicians, includingJohn Lennon; in 1969, when working with a local promoter inToronto, Carr reported on Lennon's appearance at theToronto Rock and Roll Revival.^[2]

After first starting to write reviews forJazz News and theNME in the early 1960s, he joined theNME staff in 1970. He contributed as reviewer, interviewer and columnist to the magazine's relaunch later in the decade under editors Alan Smith andNick Logan.^[3] During the 1980s and 1990s Carr compiled the majority of free tape and CD compilations that were given away with music magazines such asNME,Vox andMelody Maker,^[1] including the influentialC86 cassette compilation.^[2] Carr also worked as a broadcaster, record producer, and writer of albumliner notes.^[5] His career as a music journalist and magazine editor continued until his official retirement in 2006, in later years contributing as a freelance writer to jazz magazines.^[2]

His health deteriorated after the sudden death of his son in 2013.^[2] Carr died of a heart attack in hospital on 1 July 2018, aged 73.^[3]

Carr's books as author or co-author include:

• The Beatles: An Illustrated Record (1975), withTony Tyler^[7]
• The Rolling Stones: An Illustrated Record (1976)^[8]
• Fleetwood Mac: Rumours n' Fax (1979), with Steve Clarke
• David Bowie: An Illustrated Record (1981), withCharles Shaar Murray^[9]
• Elvis Presley: The Illustrated Record (1982), withMick Farren^[10]
• The Hip: Hipsters, Jazz and the Beat Generation (1987), with Brian Case andFred Dellar
• Jazz on CD (1995), with Tony Russell
• Beatles at the Movies (1996)^[11]
• A Century of Jazz (1997)
• A Talk On the Wild Side (2010)

• Articles by Carr at Rock's Back Pages

• 1945 births
• 2018 deaths
• English music journalists
• English magazine editors
• People from Blackpool

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022
• Articles with hCards