Spencer Leigh (radio presenter)


Spencer Leigh is a BBC radio presenter and author, with particular expertise in the development of pop and rock music and culture in Britain.

Career

He started broadcasting on BBC Radio Merseyside in the early 1970s. His first series, No Holds Bard was based around the Mersey poets. His music programme On the Beat has been running on BBC Radio Merseyside since 1985 and is currently broadcast between 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm on Sundays. Over the years, Leigh has interviewed thousands of musicians on the show.
His first book was Paul Simon - Now and Then, published in 1973, the first biography of the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. Since then, he has written, or collaborated on, over two dozen books. Many of his books relate to The Beatles or Merseybeat and he has interviewed many people connected to the Liverpool 1960s scene. There have been several one-off series on BBC Radio Merseyside, the best known being 'Let's Go Down the Cavern' in 1981.
Leigh has written the sleeve notes or CD booklets for over 200 albums. He writes obituaries of musicians for The Guardian, The Independent, and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and he also writes for Record Collector, Country Music People and Now Dig This.
His history of British pop before the Beatles, Halfway To Paradise, has been expanded and issued in two volumes as British Pop Before The Beatles, available only on Kindle. His biography of Buddy Holly was published by McNidder and Grace in 2019.

Publications

Spencer Leigh has also written or collaborated on the following books with other authors: