Jonathan King

Jonathan King (born December 6, 1944) is the stage name of Kenneth George King, a pop music producer and personality. He had a global smash in 1965 which he wrote and sang, "Everyone's Gone To The Moon". It topped charts all over the world. He went on to become one of Britain's top producers, record label executives and TV personalities. In 2001 he received a seven year prison sentence for four indecent assaults and two more serious sexual offences on schoolboys aged 14 and 15. These are currently being reviewed by the official Government body, the CCRC.

Musical career

The child of an American father and an English mother, King was educated at Charterhouse School and Trinity College, Cambridge. As an undergraduate, he wrote and sang his first hit, Everyone's Gone To The Moon in 1965, eventually selling a reported 4.5 million records worldwide. Before graduating, he wrote and produced further hits such as It's Good News Week by Hedgehoppers Anonymous, also discovering, producing and naming Genesis, whose founding members were at Charterhouse.

Soon after King graduated, his Saturday evening ITV series Good Evening; I'm Jonathan King, was seen nationally for six months.

He ran Decca Records for a time, and in 1971, 1972 and 1973 was acclaimed Producer of the Year. He performed and produced many big hits under different names, often two or three at the same time. He produced The Bay City Rollers and sang most of their first hit, Keep On Dancing. He backed and produced The Rocky Horror Show. His own label, UK Records had hits with 10cc and others. King usually performed under pseudonyms, such as 'Shag', 'St Cecilia', 'Bubblerock', '100 Ton and a Feather', although in 1975 a rendition under his own name of Una Paloma Blanca was named Record of the Year. He scored another Top 20 hit is 1978 under his own name with a song titled 'One for Me, One for You', which spawned a memorable appearance on Top of the Pops with him wearing a multi-coloured wig and two girls behind him in similar headgear - one of whom, Viola Wills, went on to have limited success as a solo singer. His smash in 1965, under his own name, was entitled 'Everyone's Gone to the Moon'. The satirical journal Private Eye parodied this title around the time of his arrest in 2001 with a caption showing King singing 'Everyone's Gone to the Police'. The Mail On Sunday also quoted from the chorus of Una Paloma Blanca "No-one can take my freedom away". King responded that it was true and cited Nelson Mandela as another example. It was reported in 1975 that Gary Gilmore requested King's Paloma Blanca as the last record to be played at his execution in the USA.

In 1979 King scored a minor hit single under the pseudonym Father Abraphart and the Smurps entitled 'Lick a Smurp for Christmas (All Fall Down)', a parody of Father Abraham and the Smurfs. The title of the song referred to the fact that some Smurfs toys had been painted using lead paint, and that young children had been falling ill from placing them in their mouths.

King presented his own daily radio show on New York's WMCA throughout 1980 and started doing regular reports from the US on Top of the Pops. These developed into Entertainment USA, a BBC2 series that reached over nine million viewers. He also started and produced No Limits which topped the channel ratings chart at over five million.

During the 1980s, he wrote a column in The Sun for eight years. He has written regular features in many other newspapers and magazines, and two published novels. In the early 90s, he stirred up some controversy by writing some jokey articles about Scots . He considered these to be humour, not jingoistic at all and very much tongue in cheek.

King wrote and hosted The Brit Awards for the BBC in 1987, 1990, 1991 and 1992. In 1995 he took over A Song For Europe, the BBC quest for a Eurovision Song Contest winner, and won the contest in 1997 with Katrina and the Waves' Love Shine A Light. Over nine million ITV viewers saw his Record of the Year shows at Christmas 1998-9 and 2000, and the annual show still continues on Saturday evenings in early December with equally spectacular ratings.

In 1993 he formed The Tip Sheet, a music weekly publication, promoting artists like The Corrs and Eva Cassidy, whilst they were unsigned or unknown, and such future hits as Chumbawamba's Tubthumping, Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia and Who Let The Dogs Out. King recorded the original finished version of the latter under the pseudonym Fat Jakk And His Pack Of Pets.

In 1995 he presented a programme on Talk Radio UK.

In October 1997, the British Music Industry Trust honoured King with a lifetime achievement award. In a letter read out at the ceremony, Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged King's "important contribution to one of this country's great success stories".

In 2001 King received a seven year prison sentence for four indecent assaults and two more serious sexual offences on teenagers.

Pet Shop Boys Controversy

In 1987, Jonathan King was involved in a legal battle with English pop duo Pet Shop Boys. He repeatedly accused the boys of stealing the melody for their hit single It's a Sin from the Cat Stevens song Wild World When King continued with his allegations, the Boys took him to court. The Sun newspaper, for whom King wrote the weekly column, settled the case out of court, paying a small sum in settlement to the Pet Shop Boys, who in turn donated it to charity. King then recorded and released a version of Wild World with the same arrangement and in the same style as It's A Sin to prove his point. Neil Tennant once auditioned for King, when King was looking for new singers. He, however, was not impressed with Tennant's singing.

Sex abuse convictions

On November 24, 2000, King was charged with three sexual offences, dating back 32 years. In the light of the publicity surrounding his arrest, a dozen other boys (now men) came forward to claim that King had abused them too, during the 1970s and 1980s. King denied these allegations and claimed his contact with teenagers had been market research, promotion, helping him write hits and genuine friendships. He was found guilty and sentenced to 7 years, and was released on parole after serving half that. On March 21, 2005 King's lawyer announced that he had made parole at the very first application. He was released on Tuesday, March 29th. He planned to spend time with his mother, then go back to work. He issued the single "My Love, My Life" at the same time as his jail release. King still protests his innocence and he says he is confident that he will be cleared on appeal. He says his time in prison was not as bad as he thought it would be, finding it "fascinating". His only complaint was about the food at Belmarsh. He intends to spend time campaigning for others who believe they have been falsely accused. Since his time in prison, he has made regular monthly contributions to Inside Time, the national newspaper for prisoners. His appeal process continues and it was announced in 2006 that the Criminal Cases Review Commission have opened a further urgent review into the safety of his convictions. Another new song "Plead Guilty" was issued by King at this time. King's involvement with prison and justice reform continued; in June 2006 he addressed an audience in The House Of Commons alongside Jonathan Aitken and spoke at length on the need for reform of the system, an appearance covered at length in The Times on June 27th.

External links

Jonathan King | Jonathan King

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Musical career

Pet Shop Boys Controversy

Sex abuse convictions

External links