Biography
Mick Wall began his career in 1977, at the
age of 19, when he began writing for the weekly music paper,
Sounds. Initially covering the nascent punk scene, by 1978 he
had started to write more about bands like Thin Lizzy, UFO and
Status Quo. He had never suffered the hang-ups about '70s rock
music that so many British music writers did in the aftermath
of punk. Plus, he admits, travelling to the Hammersmith Odeon
in the back of a limo with Thin Lizzy was simply “much
more fun than being squashed-up in the back of a transit van
with The Lurkers on the way to play a pub in Bradford” -
the highlight of his rock-writing career until then.
In January 1979, he accepted a job at an
independent PR company called Heavy Publicity, later becoming a
partner in the firm; dealing with such clients as Dire Straits,
Black Sabbath, REO Speedwagon, Thin Lizzy and Journey, to name
a few. It taught him about the business and afforded him the
kind of insights - and access - to the major artists he would
never have enjoyed merely as a writer. By 1981 he was the press
officer at Virgin Records, during the company's first flush of
success with the arrival into the UK charts of then new acts
like the Human League, Japan, Simple Minds, Culture Club,
Gillan and others.
The yen to be a writer had never left him,
however, and when the opportunity arose, in 1983, he began
working on a new title some of his old colleagues at Sounds had
earlier launched as a one-shot and had now turned into a
regular monthly magazine. Devoted entirely to heavy metal - an
idea then unheard of in that pre-niche market - the magazine
was called Kerrang! (after the sound of a loud open guitar
chord). Over the next eight years Mick Wall became the
magazine's best-known and most popular writer, helping build
the title into the world-beating brand it is today; from the
first monthly of its kind (there have been several imitators
since) to where it is now: the biggest circulation music weekly
in the UK, with its own satellite TV station, radio show,
website and officially Kerrang!-branded tours, albums,
merchandise and much-publicised annual awards ceremony.
It was during his time at Kerrang! that
Wall first began writing books, beginning with the official
biography of Ozzy Osbourne - Diary Of A Madman, published by
Zomba in 1986 (and later the same year in America by Cherry
Red). Glowingly reviewed in both the broadsheet and tabloid
press - Rock Book of the Year in the annual Virgin
Encyclopaedia - it was also serialised for three days in the
Daily Star.
Since then he has been the author of
several other rock biographies. For a full list of titles see
below but most notably, perhaps, his unauthorised biography of
Guns N' Roses, The Most Dangerous Band In The World, first
published in Britain by Sidgwick & Jackson in 1991 (and in
America, in updated form, the following year, by Hyperion) -
the idea of which so incensed GN'R singer W. Axl Rose that he
wrote a song about it, 'Get In The Ring', from their 1991
zillion-selling 'Use Your Illusion II' album.
More recently, Wall's semi-fictionalised
memoir of working in the music biz in the '80s, Paranoid: Black
Days with Sabbath & Other Horror Stories - first published
by Mainstream in 1999 (now into its third edition) - also
received a lot of attention. Described by The Times as 'dark,
twisted and frequently hilarious', The Telegraph and The
Guardian also offered lavish praise, the latter claiming: 'The
heroin scenes make Irvine Welsh look like the Teletubbies.'
His latest book, When Giants Walked The
Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin has been a huge hit all over
the world. Described by The Sunday Times as 'the most complete
account yet' and by the Daily Telegraph as 'a book that can
only be descriebd as definitive'. The mass market paperback
version of the book is published in the UK, with new updated
material, in October 2009.
It was also in the mid-'80s that Wall
began presenting his own weekly rock show for the then
fledgling, pan-European Sky TV channel - a 60-minute dose of
videos and chat called the Monsters Of Rock Show. It began in
1985 as the lowliest item on a cheap menu of game-shows, old
comedies and endlessly recycled pop videos. By 1988, when it
ended - along with all the station's domestic music
programming, in the wake of the new affordable Sky dish and the
incidental arrival with it of MTV - it was the most popular
music show on the channel: more than 5,000 letters were sent in
protest at its demise. But then it was playing to a captive
audience, unable to access such music at a time when it was
undergoing a huge resurgence of mainstream interest as new
albums by Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden and Bon Jovi
all now routinely went to No.1.
It was also at Sky that Wall began to
write and produce his own documentary shows: 60-minute specials
based on face-to-face interviews he filmed with major artists
such as David Bowie, Elton John, Little Richard, Boy George,
Bob Geldof, Phil Collins and others. In 1988, he was Consultant
Editor on the documentary Heavy Metal, for the BBC2 Arena
series; and in 1989 he co-wrote and presented an
award-nominated 40-minute documentary for Sky One on the Moscow
Music Peace Festival, starring Bon Jovi, Motley Crue and Ozzy
Osbourne, and others.
It was also in the late-80s that he began
appearing on radio. First, in 1987, as a regular pundit on the
Sunday afternoon Andy Kershaw Show on Radio One. Then, in 1989,
as the presenter of his own weekly Saturday night show on
Capital Radio, the Mick Wall Rock Show.
He left London, however, in 1990 to spend
more time in Los Angeles - a city he already knew well -
leaving Kerrang!, Capital Radio and Sky TV behind to start a
new life presenting and editing what was then billed as 'the
world's first heavy metal video magazine' (Hard N' Heavy) and
writing for American magazines like RIP, Faces, and Billboard.
Returning home to London in 1992, he began
presenting a weekly Friday night show for BBC Greater London
Radio (GLR), while also regularly deputising for Tommy Vance at
Radio One. He also returned to Kerrang!, where he was hired to
help bolster the circulation of its previously ailing sister
title RAW. He also spent some time in the mid-'90s working in
PR again, enticed back by the prospect of working with clients
such as Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, The Band and Steve
Earle.
Meanwhile, he also continued to write
books and began contributing regularly to Mojo and other
newspapers and magazines. That came to a temporary halt,
however, when, in 1998, a contact at Dennis Publishing offered
him the opportunity to help put together what, for shorthand,
was simply called the “grown-up version of
Kerrang!”
The result - a hurriedly thrown together
84-page test-run disguised as a one-shot called Classic Rock -
sold over 25,000 copies. Two months later the second issue sold
nearly 30,000. Future Publishing bought the title and launched
it as a full-blown monthly with Wall as editor in February
2000. Within three years, its circulation had risen to over
50,000, as the mag became a 132-page fixture on newsagents'
shelves, making it the UK's fastest growing music title in
2002.
Having spent years building the title up,
Wall resigned as editor-in-chief in 2004 in order to return to
full-time writing. Since then, as well authoring the
best-selling biographies of Status Quo and John Peel, he has
also contributed the extensive booklet notes for the recent
lavish Led Zeppelin DVD; along with similar jobs for
Motorhead's 5CD box-set on Sanctuary, Rhino's acclaimed 4CD
Black Sabbath box-set in the US and, similarly, their 4CD Deep
Purple collection.
Latterly, Wall has also become one of
those talking heads that crops up regularly on various Channel
Four Top 10 shows and the BBC's Liquid News, not to mention
several satellite TV documentaries, from MTV's now infamous
Behind The Music series to such televisual alco-pops as Sky
One's Pop Stars Behaving Badly. More seriously, he was
delighted to act as Consultant Editor on director Chris
Wilson's excellent 2002 BBC1 documentary, When Rock Ruled The
World; and again, when he appeared in his acclaimed 2003
follow-up, There's Only One Rolling Stones.
Aside from his various book projects, in
2004 Wall accepted an invitation to write full-time again for
Mojo, contributing acclaimed articles on Thin Lizzy singer
Philip Lynott and Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. In 2006,
however, he was invited back to Classic Rock magazine, where as
well as reviews and features he now contributes a monthly
column, titled War Stories, and writes and presents the
official weekly Classic Rock radio show on the Rock Radio
network - which can be found on the internet at
www.rockradio.co.uk
In 2007, he published W.A.R. - The
Unauthorized Biography of W. Axl Rose, editions of which have
subsequently appeared in America, Australia, Japan and many
other countries around the world. His latest book, however, and
the one he is currently most proud of is When Giants Walk The
Earth: A Biography Of Led Zeppelin.
Mick Wall continues to write for numerous
newspapers and magazines around the world, including The Times,
The Mail On Sunday, Music Week, Guitar World, Metal Hammer and
many others. He is also a contributor to the BBC World Service
arts-programme The Strand. He currently writes and presents the
weekly Classic Rock Magazine show on Rock Radio, broadcast
every Sunday in the UK from 2pm - 5pm
The rest of the time he tries to live as
quietly as possible with his wife and three small children in
Oxfordshire.
Mick Wall, London, July 2009
Mick Wall’s Timeline
1977 - 78
Small-time freelance contributor to the
weekly music paper, Sounds, writing about bands few if any
people have or will ever have heard of, and being told off for
writing, in the words of editor Alan Lewis, “like an
ex-NME writer.”
1978 - 79
Still getting nowhere reviewing shite
bands no-one has ever heard of but also now working for Step
Forwards Records working with such 'punk legends' as The
Cortinas, Chelsea, Alternative TV, The Police, The Fall and
loads of others. Only allowed the rubbish, though, like poor
old Chelsea, who I actually thought were quite good.
1979 - 80
Working for - then quickly promoted to
partner in - independent PR company Heavy Publicity. The
company specialises in hard rock and heavy metal bands like
Wild Horses, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Dire Straits, Black
Sabbath and others. First proper job and insight into the
actual music business. Sex and drugs and rock'n'roll.
1980 - 81
Disillusioned with music biz, man, now
working as dishwasher in 'posh' burger bar Crusts, in Ealing,
where nobody knows me and life is very easy on
£10-a-night and all the beer you can drink. Eventually
crack and go back to freelancing for Sounds, this time writing
actual features.
1981 - 82
Tempted by the prospect of an expense
account and car, which I haven't learned to drive and never
will but which looks nice parked outside, I return to full-time
employment as a PR for Virgin Records, working with Gillan,
Human League, Japan and a ton of others I can no longer
remember.
1982 - 83
Sacked from Virgin for 'wayward behaviour'
after taking unplanned - and unannounced - six-week 'hiatus' in
order to 'get my head together', return once again to freelance
writing, this time for Flexipop magazine, covering top stars of
the day like Dollar, Bucks Fizz, Duran Duran and other
history-makers. Manage to combine new career path with bouts of
dishwashing, furniture removing and general layabouting.
1983 - 91
Finally find a long-term home at Kerrang!
where I rule the rocking world for the next eight years. In
this time I also start to present my own weekly TV show for the
fledgling Sky, called the Monsters Of Rock Show, write my first
books, do my first radio shows, get my first proper newspaper
stories published, and make myself a new home in Los Angeles
where I briefly become Big In America.
1992 - 93
Disastrous spell at early version of Metal
Hammer, where the company is being run by thieves and
vagabonds. Eventually manage to get away to work for...
1993 - 95
... RAW magazine, where I am roundly
loathed by all the staff (bar the editor, my old mucker Jon
Hotten) for daring to write stories that help the magazine sell
enough copies to keep them all in jobs. They are all music fans
and think they are somehow in the music business. They are not.
They are in the magazine business - just.
1995 - 96
Back working in PR for Rock Hard PR and
Work Hard PR - two names for the same company. A good time had
by Wall doing his best for Yes, Motorhead, Fu Manchu, Steve
Earle, The Band, Willie Nelson and many others.
1996 - 98
Back writing yet again, this time for a
succession of one-shots (all the rage in the mid-90s before the
2.0 internet kicked in) including stuff on the Spice Girls,
Prince Edward's marriage, Phones 4U or whatever the fuck
they're called, and suchlike. Also get to do some football
writing.
1998 - 2004
Editor from second issue onwards of
Classic Rock magazine, working with some of the old music
enthusiasts from RAW, some old warhorses from Metal Hammer and
Kerrang! and one or two largely clueless newcomers. It is
uphill all the way trying to turn this would-be fanzine into a
monthly magazine of merit, but we get there in the end. I leave
before I kill someone. Or myself.
2004 - 06
Writing for Mojo. Great joy. While it
lasted. Unfortunately, mistaken belief that I had never heard
of the Beatles (or Dylan or the Stones or anyone else outside
the worlds of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest) mean I am never
quite in that thing they call 'the loop'. Eventually decide,
fuck this.
2006 - present day
Return to writing for Classic Rock. Like
coming home. Especially as my successor, Scott Rowley, and old
mate-stroke-new-publisher, Chris Ingham, make me feel most
welcome. Good to be back, all living happily ever after. Now
better known as a best-selling author, low-rent journalist,
obscure radio presenter, TV scrounger, website whore and
overweight four-eyed father of three. Or as The Guardian, The
Times and the Daily Telegraph all recently and variously
described me: 'road-hardened'; 'veteran rock writer'; and, my
favourite, 'legendary, lived-it, done-it, rock scribe'. May yet
return to dishwashing, however...
