Chris Salewicz is a British music journalist.[1]
Salewicz was a Senior features Writer for New Musical Express from 1975 to 1981. There, under the tutelage of editor Neil Spencer, he and other journalists "re-wrote the book" on music journalism.[citation needed] The period Chris spent at NME coincided with the Punk rock "explosion"; as a result the genre changed into a complex revolutionary socio-economic critique rather then the fan-club style journalism of the previous decades.
Salewicz also wrote for serious mainstream publications such as the Sunday Times, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, Conde Nast Traveller, Q, Mojo and Time Out. He also wrote for Face magazine. His time at NME helped him forge a relationship with two men who would reshape music in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, Joe Strummer (of the Clash) and Bob Marley. As his subjects' influence expanded beyond musical spheres, Salewicz’s writing and subsequent books on Joe Strummer (Redemption Song) and Bob Marley (The Untold Story) would also expand beyond the music.
In 1995 he and film director Don Letts moved to Jamaica for two years to develop film ideas. Drawing on extensive research, Salewicz embarked on the writing of Third World Cop – the most successful film ever in the Caribbean when it was released in 1999. Salewicz is the author of fifteen books, including Rude Boy: Once Upon a Time in Jamaica; Redemption Song: the Definitive Biography of Joe Strummer, and Bob Marley: the Untold Story. He was the on-screen narrator in 2010’s Beats of Freedom, a documentary feature film about how Polish rock’n’roll helped bring down Communism. The same year he went into Tivoli Gardens in Kingston, Jamaica, to report on the ‘Dudus affair’ for the Wall Street Journal.
References
edit- ^ Harper Collins Author Profile. Accessed 18 April 2013