Paul Lester is a British musicjournalist, author and broadcaster fromElstree, Hertfordshire.

He began his career as afreelancejournalist, forMelody Maker in the early 1990s, as well asCity Limits,20/20,Sky Magazine andThe Jewish Chronicle. He coveredgrunge,shoegaze,Madchester andBritpop, also spending time with bands touring the UK and internationally.^[1][2]

In 1993, Lester becameMelody Maker'sfeatures editor; then in 1997, left to joinAllan Jones in launching monthly music and film magazineUncut, remainingdeputy editor until 2006.

Lester has written more than a dozen rock / pop biographies, co-authored theVirgin Encyclopedia of Albums and often appears as a radio / televisionmusic pundit. He has interviewed hundreds ofthespians and musicians includingKylie Minogue,Janet Jackson,Mick Jagger andSnoop Dogg. He has also writtensleeve notes on many, including:Todd Rundgren,Hall & Oates,The Smiths andThe Sex Pistols.^[3]

He currently resides inHertfordshire, from where he has been freelancing since January 2007. He contributes newspapers, including :Guardian (dailycolumnist of 'Critics Picks'^[4] and 'New Band of the Day'^[5]),The Sunday Times, theDaily Express,The Mail on Sunday,The Daily Telegraph andThe Scotsman. He writes of otherperiodicals, including:Q (magazine),GQ,Record Collector andThe Jewish Chronicle (an autobiographical column about recently remarried life, as a father of three children).^{[citation needed]}

In July 2011, he joined digital stationAmazing Radio to present a weekly show dedicated to new music.^[6] The programme continues to broadcast on Thursday afternoons between 1 and 3pm, on the nationalDigital One network in the UK and online viaamazingradio.co.uk and the UKRadioPlayer.

In 2018, Lester became the editor ofRecord Collector magazine.^{[citation needed]}

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(March 2016)

• Lester, Paul (1995).Oasis : the illustrated story. London: Hamlyn.
• — (1996).Oasis : the illustrated story. New ed. London: Hamlyn.
• Blur: The Illustrated Story (Paperback). Pyramid, May 1995,ISBN 978-0-600-58689-0
• Pulp: The Illustrated Story (Paperback). Hamlyn, Feb 1996,ISBN 978-0-600-58974-7
• Björk: The Illustrated Story (Paperback). Hamlyn, Aug 1996,ISBN 978-0-600-59067-5
• Spice Girls: The Illustrated Story (Paperback). Hamlyn, Feb 1997,ISBN 978-0-600-59255-6
• Kula Shaker: The Illustrated Story (Paperback). Hamlyn, Mar 1997,ISBN 978-0-600-59270-9
• The Prodigy: The Illustrated Story (Paperback). Hamlyn, Nov 1997,ISBN 978-0-600-59511-3
• The Encyclopedia of Albums (co-authored with Chris Roberts) (Paperback). Dempsey Parr, 1998,ISBN 978-1-84084-031-5
• The Verve: The Illustrated Story (Paperback). Hamlyn. Jun 1998,ISBN 978-0-600-59592-2
• Robbie Williams: The Illustrated Story (Paperback). Hamlyn, Oct 1998,ISBN 978-0-600-59746-9
• Gang of Four: Damaged Gods (Paperback). Omnibus Press, Sep 2008,ISBN 978-1-84772-245-4
• Lowdown: The Story of Wire (Paperback). Omnibus Press, May 2009,ISBN 978-1-84772-710-7
• Pink: Split Personality (Paperback). Omnibus Press, November 2009,ISBN 978-1-84938-060-7

In 2008, Lester won the 'Breaking Music Writer' award at the Record of The Day Awards for Music Journalism and PR^[7] for his 'New Band of the Day' column inThe Guardian.

• New Band of the Day:The Guardian
• Paul Lester's blog:The Jewish Chronicle
• List of rock articles by Paul Lester
• Paul Lester atIMDb
• UNCUT
• Amazing Radio show page

• Living people
• British music journalists
• Melody Maker writers
• Mojo (magazine) people
• People from Elstree
• British male journalists

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from September 2016
• Use British English from September 2016
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from August 2020
• Incomplete lists from March 2016
• Year of birth missing (living people)