Taylor Parkes (born April 30 1972) is a British journalist. He is best known for his music journalism which appeared in Melody Maker from 1993 to 1998, notable for a style which mixed dark humour, especially in bitterly critical pieces, with an intellectual tone, influenced by the likes of Simon Reynolds and Paul Morley. He took a stand against the more unadventurous Britpop groups of the mid-1990s (which motivated his involvement with the short-lived Romo scene), …

David Stubbs is a British journalist. He was born on September 13, 1962 in London, but grew up in Leeds, where he was educated in part at St Michael's College. It was here that he first began to demonstrate his caustic style of music review, in particular a review of Gary Numan's album, Telekon, where he described the opening as "16 consecutive synthesised farts".

Barney Hoskyns is a British music critic and editor of Rock's Backpages. He graduated from Oxford with a First Class degree in English. He began writing about music for "Melody Maker" and "New Musical Express", quitting his job as staff writer at "NME "to research a book about soul music. The result was "Say It One Time For The Brokenhearted: Country Soul In The American South" (UK: Fontana, 1987; Bloomsbury reissue 1998).

Jon Savage (born 1953), real name Jonathon Sage, is a Cambridge-educated writer, broadcaster and music journalist, best known for his award winning history of the Sex Pistols and punk music, "England's Dreaming" (1991). He was a high-profile writer during the glory days of British punk and wrote articles on all the major punk acts. Savage wrote and published a fanzine called "London's Outrage" in 1976, and in 1977 began working as a journalist for Sounds.

Steve Lamacq (born 16 October 1965), sometimes known by his nicknames Lammo (given to him by John Peel) or "The Cat" (due to his ability as a goalkeeper), is an English disc jockey, currently working with the BBC radio stations Radio 1, BBC 6 Music and now BBC Radio 2 on a Wednesday from 23:30-00:30 before Janice Long.

Nick Kent (born December 24 1951) is a British rock critic and musician. Along with such writers as Paul Morley, Charles Shaar Murray and Danny Baker, Nick Kent was seen as one of the most important and influential music journalists of the 1970s. He wrote for the British music publication New Musical Express, moving to Melody Maker later in his career, and is the author of "The Dark Stuff", a collection of his journalism.

Mark Stinker (born 7 June 1960) is a British writer (educated at Shrewsbury School and New College, Oxford). While working for the New Musical Express (1983-88) and briefly for Melody Maker (1988-89) he also wrote for The Wire from 1985. He then became its editor from 1992-94 and remained a contributor until around 2003. He is a contributing editor at the film magazine Sight and Sound, and has worked on a critical history of music and technology, …

Everett True (born Jerry Thackray in 1960 or 1961) is a British music journalist, who grew up in Chelmsford, Essex. He became interested in rock music after hearing The Residents, and formed a band with school friends. In 1982, he went to a The Laughing Apple gig and met the group's lead singer Alan McGee. McGee offered him a column in his new fanzine, "Communication Blur", but Thackray left after two issues, …

Chris Welch was reviewer and critic with "Melody Maker" during the 1960s and 1970s, reporting on the rise of such bands as The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Traffic, If, as well as Cream. During that time he also reported on the UK jazz scene. A former local newspaper reporter, Welch joined the Melody Maker in 1964. He was later assistant editor of "Musicians Only" and editor of "Metal Hammer".

John Harris (born 1969) is a British journalist, writer, and critic. Harris was raised in Cheshire by two university lecturers and became fixated by pop music at an early age. After three years at Queen's College, Oxford, he began his professional writing career with "Melody Maker" in 1991, but he didn't stay long and has since expressed his distaste for its more intellectual writing style.

Colin Irwin is a British music journalist. Irwin was an assistant editor of "Melody Maker" in the 1970s and 1980s, before leaving in the summer of 1987 as the magazine moved in a different direction, and editor of "Number One" magazine in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His book "In Search of the Craic" details a comic journey around Ireland seeking out pub music sessions and became a best-seller in Ireland.

Caroline Coon is a British artist, journalist and political activist, born in 1945. Her artwork, which often explores sexual themes from a feminist standpoint, has been exhibited at many major London galleries, including the Saatchi Gallery and the Tate. Trained as a figurative painter, Coon became involved in the 1960s underground movement in London while still attending art school.

Allan Jones is a prominent British music journalist. Originally from Wales, he moved to London in the early seventies where he attended art school. Following his graduation he got a job working in the stock room of Hatchard's on Piccadilly. While there he applied for a job writing for the famous rock weekly Melody Maker by writing a letter to the then editor.

Richard Williams (born 1947 in Sheffield) is a British music and sports journalist. As a writer, then deputy editor, of the weekly rock magazine "Melody Maker", he became an influential commentator on the rise of new forms of rock music at the end of the 1960s. Williams and "MM", as it was known, helped to promote and contextualise styles such as progressive rock and folk rock.

Bob Stanley (born Robert Andrew Shukman, 25 December 1964, in Horsham, Sussex) is a UK musician, film maker and journalist. He is best known as a member of the pop/dance group Saint Etienne for which he co-writes songs and produces. Live on stage, he normally plays keyboards and xylophone. He has had a long parallel career as a music journalist writing for amongst others NME, Melody Maker, Mojo, The Guardian and The Times.

Caitlin Moran (b. 5 April 1975) is a British broadcaster and columnist for "The Times". She is TV critic and current affairs columnist at "The Times". She also writes for "ELLE" magazine, "WORD" magazine, "Period Living", "Times Educational Supplement", "Radio Times" and "The Sunday Times Magazine". She began her career as a journalist on "Melody Maker", the weekly music publication, at the age of 16.

Simon Price is a music journalist, born on September 25, 1967 in the Welsh town of Barry. He is now best known for his weekly review section in The Independent on Sunday, his book on Manic Street Preachers and his unusual hair. He made his name at Melody Maker, where he worked from December 1988 to December 1997 - his first article being a review of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds live in Paris, …

Sarra Manning is a writer from England. She attended the University of Sussex and took up an English with Media Studies degree. She became a freelance writer after submitting her work to "Melody Maker". She worked as the entertainment editor for five years of the now-defunct teen magazine "J-17". Manning was the editor of "Elle Girl" (UK edition), …

Ray Coleman was a British author and former editor-in-chief of "Melody Maker" best known for various biographies of The Beatles. Besides "Melody Maker", Coleman was a major participant with various other music magazines including "Disc", "Black Music", and "Musicians Only", and a regular contributor to magazines such as "Billboard".

Peter Paphides is a British journalist. He is the Chief Rock Critic of The Times and presents The Times' weekly music podcast for Sounds Music supplement. Born to Greek parents in Birmingham, he went on to attend the University of Wales, Lampeter. He later wrote for Melody Maker and Time Out. Today, he is based in London, and is married to fellow Times columnist Caitlin Moran. They have two children.

David Keenan is a Scottish writer and musician. He is the author of "England's Hidden Reverse", a biography of Coil, Current 93 and Nurse With Wound, a regular contributor to "The Wire", and proprietor of Volcanic Tongue, a shop, distributor, record label and mailorder service. He also curates the Subcurrent festival, held annually in Glasgow. In 2005 he was the creative consultant for the Instal festival, …