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Bob Stanley | |
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.jpg) Stanley in 2009 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Robert Andrew Shukman |
| Born | (1964-12-25)25 December 1964 (age 60) |
| Origin | Horsham, Sussex, England |
| Genres | Synthpop,alternative dance,trip hop,indie pop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, journalist, DJ |
| Instrument(s) | Keyboards, programming, guitar |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Labels | Heavenly Icerink EMI Disc |
| Website | Bob Stanley website |
Bob Stanley (bornRobert Andrew Shukman; 25 December 1964) is a British musician, journalist, author, and film producer. He is a member of theindie pop groupSaint Etienne and has had a parallel career as amusic journalist and author, writing forNME,Melody Maker,Mojo,The Guardian andThe Times, as well as writing several books on music and football. His second publication,Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Modern Pop, was published byFaber & Faber in 2013. His third publicationLet's Do It: The Birth of Pop Music: A History was published by Pegasus in 2022. He also has a career as a DJ and as a producer ofrecord labels, and has collaborated on a series of films about London.
Stanley is a member of the groupSaint Etienne for which he co-writes songs and produces. Live on stage, he normally plays keyboards.
Stanley was educated atWhitgift School inCroydon,London.[1] After leaving school, Stanley worked in various record shops. While working atVirgin Records inPeterborough he metAndrew Midgley (with whom he would later create the groupCola Boy). The two produced a fanzine calledPop Avalanche in 1986. Stanley also wrote four issues ofCaff, a fanzine created with childhood friendPete Wiggs (with whom he would later form Saint Etienne).
In 1987, Stanley sent an issue ofCaff toJames Brown, then live reviews editor forNME. This led to Stanley's first commissioned work, a review of aJohnny Cash show in Peterborough. After two years he moved toMelody Maker, where he wrote regularly until Saint Etienne became a full-time occupation in 1991.
Even as Saint Etienne dominated his career, Stanley continued to write occasionally forThe Face andMojo in the 1990s. In the 2000s he has returned to journalism, writing about art and architecture as well as music. He contributes regularly to various publications includingThe Times andThe Guardian.
Stanley has written two books that document the history of popular music. The 2013 bookYeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop examines the history of pop music from the publication of the first British pop chart in 1952 until the advent ofiTunes.[2] Its followup, the 2022 bookLet's Do It: The Birth of Pop Music: A History, examines the history of popular music from the start of recorded music until the advent of rock and roll in the early 1950s.[3]Let's Do It was originally titledToo Darn Hot.[4]
In 2007, withPaul Kelly, Stanley editedMatch Day, a book of football programme artwork.[5]
In 2023, Stanley publishedBee Gees: Children of the World, a biography of theBee Gees, with Nine Eight Books, an imprint ofBonnier Books.[6][7]
Stanley was the winner of the 2017 EcclesBritish Library Writers in Residence Award,[4] which supported his research forLet's Do It using the Library's American collections.
While recording the albumFinisterre in 2002, Stanley, Pete Wiggs and frequent collaboratorPaul Kelly made a film to accompany the record, also titledFinisterre, which was described byThe Observer as a "cinematic hymn to London".[8] It premiered at theInstitute of Contemporary Arts in London and was screened around the world byone dot zero.
In 2005, Saint Etienne and Kelly were invited by theBarbican Centre to create a film and music event, for which they madeWhat Have You Done Today Mervyn Day, a drama-documentary set in theLower Lea Valley, the site for the2012 Olympic Games. In 2007, their third London film,This Is Tomorrow, a history of theSouthbank Centre, premiered with a live performance, including a 60-piece orchestra, at theRoyal Festival Hall.
Kelly and Saint Etienne collaborated again onHow We Used to Live (2014), which has been described as "a cherishable, woozy-hazy trawl of London from postwar days to yuppiedom".[9]
Stanley has curated several film seasons for arts institutions including the Barbican, including Gonna Make You A Star (a series of pop documentaries) and Britain Learns to Rock (early British Rock'n'Roll movies).
In 2016, he was commissioned by14-18 Now as creative producer on a project to explore the impact of the First World War on the north-east of England. The resulting film and music commission, Asunder, featuring a film directed by artist-filmmaker Esther Johnson, co-produced and scripted by Stanley, and a soundtrack byField Music and Warm Digits, premiered at the Sunderland Empire in July 2016 and later toured to the Barbican in London.
In 2017, as part of Hull 2017:UK City of Culture's Mind on the Run season exploring the influence and legacy of jazz composerBasil Kirchin, Stanley co-directed a short film,Abstractions of Holderness, filmed in the isolated area of the east coast of England where Kirchin settled in the 1970s.Pete Wiggs composed the soundtrack, which was performed at the Mind on the Run concert by the BBC Concert Orchestra and various musicians who had collaborated with Kirchin in the past.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Stanley briefly ran arecord label calledCaff Records, which released 17 7" singles, all limited to 500 copies, including earlysingles by theManic Street Preachers andPulp. Between 1992 and 1994, Stanley and Saint Etienne bandmatePete Wiggs ran the indie labelIcerink Records; the most notable act to emerge from this endeavour was the girl-groupShampoo. In 1996, Stanley ran EMIDisc, again alongsideWiggs, backed by EMI Director of A&RTris Penna. The label was to be an EMI sub-label devoted to new talent. The label was short-lived, releasing albums byKenickie andDenim. Stanley and Wiggs also previously ran a CD imprint called Eclipse throughUniversal. Stanley started his own imprint, Croydon Municipal, viaCherry Red in 2012, specialising in music from the mid-twentieth century.
Stanley is known for his large collection of vinyl records. When Saint Etienne are between projects, he DJs, playing generally 1960s and 1970s pop music and soul. With Wiggs, he ran a club called Don't Laugh in the mid-1990s inMaida Vale. Cherrybomb, agirl group night inBloomsbury, ran from 2006 to 2009.[citation needed]
He regularly works as a consultant for reissue record labels, notablyAce Records.English Weather, which he compiled with bandmate Pete Wiggs, was namedThe Guardian's Album of the Week in January 2017.[10] He has written liner notes for many reissues, includingbox sets byJoe Meek,Sandie Shaw andThe Searchers.
Stanley lives with his girlfriend and their son, dividing his time between London and West Yorkshire.[11] He is ofScottish andUkrainian Jewish descent.[12]
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