 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
Music business veteran Roger St. Pierre worked on the last ever Bill Haley tour and the Jackson 5’s first visit to the UK. As PR and promotion man for James Brown, BB King, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, Wilson Pickett, the Drifters, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Slade, Glen Campbell, George and Gwen McCrae, KC & The Sunshine Band, Junior Walker, and many others, he had the inside track on the record industry through the 'Sixties and 'Seventies.
His Funk Funktion operation worked on six number-ones, including M’s ‘Pop Music’, Althea & Donna’s ‘Uptown Top Ranking’ and JJ Barry’s ‘No Charge’ – which he happily admits was one of the worse records ever made. The company also held the UK promotion contracts for such seminal labels as Ember, TK, reggae’s Studio One outfit and disco hit factory Solar.
Roger additionally ran his own Now! And Energy labels, with releases by such artists as the O’Jays, David Soul and The Valentine Brothers (with the original of ‘Money’s Too Tight To Mention’). And, in 1969, he was co-promoter of the historic ‘Peace For Christmas’ concert, which headlined John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band – and outfit which included that night Eric Clapton, Keith Moon, George Harrison, Billy Preston, Alan White of Yes, Delaney & Bonnie, the Manfred Mann Band’s Klaus Voorman and, of course, Yoko.
But above all else Roger has been a prolific editor and writer. His first of many articles for Blues & Soul appeared in issue six, back in 1967. For many years, he was a prolific contributor to the pages of New Musical Express and, under his Peter Kent pen-name, Record Mirror and Sounds. He was launch editor of both Disco Mirror and Disco International & Club News and over his 40 year music industry career he has written well over 1,000 sleevenotes – ranging from T Bone Walker, Brook Benton and Stan Getz to Sibelius, Tchaikovsky and Delius, from Freddie & The Dreamers to Dinah Washington.
Roger was the main writer of the NME Book of Rock and the subsequent Rock Handbook – the biggest selling rock music encyclopaedia of all time. He also co-wrote the best-selling The Encyclopaedia of Black Music and penned books on such artists as Jimi Hendrix, Bon Jovi, Ike & Tina Turner, Ah-Ha, Bob Marley and Madonna.
As a broadcaster, Roger worked on pirate radio and subsequently Solar Radio, currently hosting a weekly two-hour ‘Rhythm & Blues Revival Show’ that is broadcast across Europe on Sky Digital and around the world via the internet. He wrote the narration for Horace Ove’s award-winning TV and cinema documentary Reggae and in recent times has completed several series of six half-hour documentaries for BBC Radio Two – on Atlantic Records’ soul heritage, the life stories of Count Basie and Chuck Berry and the saga of blues giant Robert Johnson – for which projects he carried out all the field research, conducted the interviews and co-wrote the scripts.
List of articles in the library by artist
Allman Brothers Band : The Allman Brothers: A Rock Tragedy
Report and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, December 1972
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters : Hank Ballard: The Man Who Twisted Himself
Profile by Roger St. Pierre, NME, January 1974
Bill Black Combo, The : Al Green: Now Green Smashes The Big Memphis Monopoly
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, October 1971
Bloodstone: The Bloodstone Sound Spectrum
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, January 1972
James Brown: He Ain't Slowing Down
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, March 1973
Jerry Butler and Allen Toussaint: The Spice Of Life
Profile by Roger St. Pierre, NME, October 1972
Jerry Butler: The Iceman Cometh, Yet Again
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Black Echoes, July 1976
Jimmy Castor Bunch, The : Sister Sledge; Jimmy Castor; Ben E. King; The Spinners: Return of the Soul Package
Report and Interview by Bob Fisher, Roger St. Pierre, NME, April 1975
Merry Clayton: The Triumphant Acid Queen
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, December 1972
Lou Courtney : Howard Tate and Lou Courtney: The Blues and Dance Men
Profile by Roger St. Pierre, NME, September 1973
Papa John Creach: Papa John Makes It With Rock
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, January 1972
Exciters, The : The Exciters - Dark Clouds Over the Black Country
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, June 1975
Roberta Flack: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Roger St. Pierre, NME, February 1973
Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace (Atlantic)
Review by Roger St. Pierre, NME, August 1972
Al Green: Now Green Smashes The Big Memphis Monopoly
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, October 1971
Al Green: The Soul Story
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Beat Instrumental, December 1971
Isaac Hayes and The Platinum Pirates
Report by Roger St. Pierre, Record Collector, January 1972
Isaac Hayes: A Man Of The People
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Beat Instrumental, April 1973
Isaac Hayes: The Day Moses Came To Town
Report and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, West Indian World, February 1973
John Holt: Reggae In The Moonlight
Review by Roger St. Pierre, NME, February 1975
Jackson 5, The : The Jackson Five: Five Pranksters Puppets
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, December 1972
Jefferson Airplane : Papa John Creach: Papa John Makes It With Rock
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, January 1972
Ben E. King : Sister Sledge; Jimmy Castor; Ben E. King; The Spinners: Return of the Soul Package
Report and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Bob Fisher, NME, April 1975
Leiber and Stoller : Jerry Leiber And Mike Stoller: By Royal Appointment
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, February 1975
Little Beaver: Beaver's Blues
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, January 1975
Curtis Mayfield: Where He's Been And Where He's Going
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Let It Rock, October 1972
Meters, The : The Meters: Funk From The Crescent City
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, October 1974
Moments, The : Shirley & Co. and The Moments: The Carpenters Are My Real Faves
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, March 1975
Billy Paul
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, March 1973
Ann Peebles: Will Princess Ann Be Queen
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, 1972
Billy Preston: God Planned It Good
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, September 1973
Billy Preston: The Busiest Soul In Showbusiness
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, September 1974
Otis Redding: A Legend During His Lifetime, Or Only After His Death
Retrospective by Roger St. Pierre, NME, December 1974
Otis Redding : The Allman Brothers: A Rock Tragedy
Report and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, December 1972
Righteous Brothers, The : The Righteous Brothers: Two By Two (MGM)
Review by Roger St. Pierre, NME, September 1973
Gil Scott-Heron
Profile by Roger St. Pierre, NME, August 1975
Shirley & Co. and The Moments: The Carpenters Are My Real Faves
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, March 1975
Sister Sledge; Jimmy Castor; Ben E. King; The Spinners: Return of the Soul Package
Report and Interview by Bob Fisher, Roger St. Pierre, NME, April 1975
Staple Singers, The : The Staple Singers: Soft Sounds That Burn Deep
Profile by Roger St. Pierre, NME, June 1972
Edwin Starr: The Thespian Anglophile And The Motown Machine
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, December 1974
Candi Staton and Bettye Swann: Broken Hearts, Do Right Women
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, June 1975
Candi Staton: Foxy Lady Of Soul
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, September 1973
Swamp Dogg
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, April 1975
Bettye Swann : Candi Staton and Bettye Swann: Broken Hearts, Do Right Women
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, June 1975
Howard Tate and Lou Courtney: The Blues and Dance Men
Profile by Roger St. Pierre, NME, September 1973
Allen Toussaint : Jerry Butler and Allen Toussaint: The Spice Of Life
Profile by Roger St. Pierre, NME, October 1972
Doris Troy: This Little Lady Is Miss Troy
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, West Indian World, December 1971
Dionne Warwick : Worries of the Warwick sisters
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, July 1975
Geno Washington
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, May 1975
Johnny Guitar Watson : Larry Williams and Johnny Guitar Watson: The Two Who Weren't 'Revived'
Profile by Roger St. Pierre, NME, November 1971
Betty Wright: Do Me Wright List of genre pieces Reggae Music
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, March 1975
Comment by Roger St. Pierre,
Back to LIBRARY
|
||||||
 |
||||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Content Services | Magazine Archive | About Us | Press Room | Your Account | Home