John Moore

John Moore, entered the world at a quarter past midnight on 23rd December 1964.

At school, he acquired the nickname Mussolini, for his habit of scowling at classmates and refusing to come out from under the table.

At the age of ten he began having guitar lessons. To save his family from further renditions of ‘Street of London’ and ‘Scarborough Fayre’, a family friend gave him some Muddy Waters, Little Richard and Bo Diddley LPs to learn, which he did.


In 1985, owing to a remarkably similar dress sense to the The Jesus and Mary Chain’ he was asked to join the band - eagerly abandoning his degree course – before it abandoned him.

He left in 1988, then released two albums as John Moore And The Expressway, then squandering his advances in New York.

Having explored Rock’n’Roll in great detail, he returned to England. Just as Grunge was sweeping the nation, he formed the minimalist trio Revolution 9. Critically applauded, but out of sync with the times, they released an album called ‘You Might As Well Live.’

While on tour in The Czech Republic, Moore discovered Absinthe. He fell in love with the stuff, and the feeling was mutual. Having managed to persuade the distiller that he should be allowed to import it, he came to the attention of The Idler Magazine, with whom he set up a company called Green Bohemia. Right in time for the Millennium they started the Absinthe craze - and did well out of it.


At the same time, Black Box Recorder – the group he founded with Luke Haines and Sarah Nixey, hit the top twenty with The Facts Of Life, and a mere eleven years after his previous appearance, he was back on Top Of The Pops. Black Box Recorder released three albums – England Made Me,

The Facts Of Life, and Passionoia, as well as a Worst Of Black Box Recorder compilation.

Interest in the band remains high, and fresh activity is being planned.

In 2005, Moore released Half Awake on his own label – The Germ Organization, which despite critical success, confirmed to him that he was not best suited to the DIY approach.

In May 2006, he became the first man to have appeared on Top of the Pops, and been interrogated by Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight and University Challenge.

In December 2007 Black Box Recorder recorded a joint Christmas single with the group Art Brut. Christmas Number One by The Black Arts was released on Fantastic Plastic Records – narrowly missing its intended target

In 2008, he released the album Floral Tributes – a collection of old songs. He is now writing new ones.

He lives in central London, where he ekes out a living writing music, journalism and fiction. He is a regular contributor to The Guardian newspaper and Weekend Magazine, and writes a weekly blog for the Guardian Website.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/arts//author/john_moore/

He has written for periodicals including The Idler and The Erotic Review, contributed to books such as The Decadent Handbook and Crap Holidays, and written one novel Bad Light.

http://www.myspace.com/johnmoore23


 http://www.john-moore.net/

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