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Jonathan King (born Kenneth George King, 6 December 1944) is an English singer-songwriter, record producer, music entrepreneur, and former television and radio presenter. King first success was in 1965 when "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", a song which he wrote and sang whilst he was still an undergraduate, had chart success in Britain and the United States.[2] As an independent producer, he discovered and named Genesis in 1967, and produced their first album From Genesis to Revelation. He founded his own label, UK Records in 1972. He released and produced some early songs for 10cc and the Bay City Rollers. From 1990-92 he produced the Brit Awards, and from 1995-97 he selected and produced the British entries for the Eurovision Song Contest.[3] In September 2001 King was convicted of child sexual abuse and sentenced to seven years in prison, for having sexually assaulted five underage boys in the 1980s.[4] He was released on parole in March 2005.[5][6] In May 2017, he was again charged with historical sexual offences against children.[7] The trial was sent to Crown court to start in June 2018 [8] Contents [hide] 1	Early life 1.1	Family background 1.2	Stoke House and Charterhouse 1.3	Gap year 2	Career 2.1	Early success 2.2	Discovery of Genesis 2.3	Broadcasting, Decca Records 2.4	Early 1970s 2.5	UK Records 2.6	Move to New York 2.7	Brit Awards, Eurovision Song Contest 3	Prosecution 4	Later life and media involvement 5	Selected works 5.1	Singles discography 5.1.1	As performer 5.1.2	As producer 5.2	Books 5.3	Films 6	Notes 7	References 8	External links Early life[edit source] Family background[edit source]

Brookhurst Grange, Ewhurst King was born in a nursing home in Bentinck Street, Marylebone, London, the first child of Jimmy King (d. 1954) and his wife, Ailsa Linley Leon (1916–2007), a former actress.[9] Originally from New Jersey, Jimmy King had moved to England when he was 14. King's birth was a forceps delivery and a muscle on his upper lip was affected during it, giving him his slightly crooked smile.[10][11] After he was born, the family lived in Gloucester Place, Marylebone, then moved to Surrey. In 1954, his father died from a heart attack, and the family moved to Forest Green.[13] In 1958 King became a boarder at Charterhouse in Godalming Gap year[edit source] King failed the scholarship exam for Trinity College, Cambridge, but he was offered a place in 1963 after an interview.[14] He accepted, but first took a gap year. In Hawaii June 1964, he met the manager of the Beatles, Brian Epstein. [15][16] Career[edit source] Early success[edit source] Further information: 1960s in music

In London, 1969 (photograph by Allan Warren)

Jonathan King – "Everyone's Gone to the Moon" (1965) MENU0:00 "Everyone's Gone to the Moon" was written and performed by King while he was at Cambridge University Problems playing this file? See media help. in 1965 Decca records released one of his songs, "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyone%27s_Gone_to_the_Moon".[18][19] When the song made number 18 in the charts, King performed it on the BBC's Top of the Pops, introduced by Jimmy Savile. It peaked at number three in the UK and 17 in the US, and was awarded a gold disc.[19][22][23][24][25] After telephoning King to ask his permission, Dietrich sang "Everyone's Gone to the Moon" and its B side, "Summer's Coming", at the Golders Green Hippodrome in October 1966, with an arrangement by Burt Bacharach.[26][27] His next release, "Green is the Grass", flopped, but the third (which he wrote and produced, but did not perform), "It's Good News Week" by Hedgehoppers Anonymous, made the top 10 in the UK charts. It was released in September 1965 through Decca and credited to King and his new publishing company, JonJo Music Co. Ltd, which was named after King, Ken Jones and Joe Roncoroni and based in Jones' and Roncoroni's office at 37 Soho Square.[29][30][31][2][32] Discovery of Genesis[edit source] In early 1967 King attended an old boys' reunion at Charterhouse. [35] When they heard he was going to be there, a school band recorded a demo tape for him, and a friend, John Alexander, left the cassette in Kings's car with a note, "These are Charterhouse boys. Have a listen."[36][37] Calling themselves Anon, the band consisted at that point of Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips, Chris Stewart and Mike Rutherford, all aged 15 to 17.[38][39] King liked several songs such as "She is Beautiful" (which became "The Serpent" on the band's first album) and, according to Philips, they got the deal with King on the basis of that song. King signed the band to JonJo Music and licensed the short-term rights to Decca Records. He paid them ₤40 for four songs, and came up with their name, Genesis, to mark the start of his own production career.[37][38] According to Phillips, King was "hugely patient and indulgent" with the band.[37] John Silver, drummer on the first album, wrote in 2007: We would be pretending to rehearse or simply waiting around and somehow somebody would bring a message to the flat, "Quick, get over to Jonathan King's flat, because Paul McCartney's turning up." We would scurry over as quickly as possible because the art was to be there, looking casual, before the next famous person arrived, so that Jonathan King could say, "Hey, these are my new protégés. I trusted him as a god, because he knew these people. It wasn't celebrity like it is now. There were only a few famous people and he knew them. If Jonathan said jump or stand backwards or stand on your head, basically you did it. This was the nature of the relationship; he was completely omnipotent, in a decent way.[40] King produced their first three singles, including "The Silent Sun" (1968) and an album, From Genesis to Revelation (1969). Banks and Gabriel wrote "The Silent Sun" as a late-1960s Bee Gees "pastiche" to please King; Robin Gibb's voice was apparently King's favourite at the time.[41] The records made little impact; the album sold just 649 copies "and we knew all of those people personally," wrote Banks. Genesis left King in 1970 for Tony Stratton-Smith's Charisma Records, were joined by Phil Collins and Steve Hackett—and released Foxtrot (1972) to critical acclaim.[43][44] King retained the rights to the first album and re-released it several times under different titles.[45] Rutherford said in 1985 that, "for all his faults", King had given the band an opportunity to record, which at that time was hard to come by.[a] Broadcasting, Decca Records[edit source] External images King with Jimi Hendrix 1 January 1967 King at his graduation ceremony 23 June 1967 King on Top of the Pops 23 February 1972 King twas asked o present Good Evening, a weekly television show that ran nationally on ATV at 6:30 pm on Saturdays from October 1967 to 1968.[48][49] The following year he began broadcasting for BBC Radio 1, including a "blast off" slot on the Stuart Henry show.[50] Around this time, he was recruited by Sir Edward Lewis, the founder of Decca Records and another Trinity graduate, to be his unpaid (expenses only) personal assistant. King writes that Lewis recruited him twice for this position, once not long after graduation and again in the late 1970s.[31][52] Early 1970s[edit source] Further information: 1970s in music and Bubblegum pop "It's Good News Week" (1965) was the last hit King had for nearly five years. Then his cover of "Let It All Hang Out" (1969) made the top 30 in January 1970.[53] King also released "It's the Same Old Song". Released by B&C Records in December 1970 under a pseudonym, the Weathermen, it moved into the charts a month later. Using pseudonyms meant more airtime: radio producers might play several songs by the same artist during a programme without realizing they had devoted so much airtime to one person.[50] King's 1971 releases included a version of Bob Dylan's "Baby, You've Been On My Mind", released as Nemo, which failed to chart; The Sun Has Got His Hat On, also as Nemo; "Sugar, Sugar" as Sakkarin; "Leap Up and Down (Wave Your Knickers in the Air)" by St Cecelia (this one a real band, rather than a pseudonym), which went to number 12; and "Lazy Bones", released under his own name.[50] Bell Records asked King to produce four songs for the Bay City Rollers, including their first hit, "Keep on Dancing", on which King sang the 13 backing vocals himself. Released in May 1971, the single reached number nine [54] Another 1971 hit was "Johnny Reggae", a ska pop song about a skinhead, written by King after he was introduced to a Johnny Reggae at the Walton Hop disco in Surrey.[50] It was sung by King and middle-aged session singers pretending to be teenagers, credited to The Piglets and released by Bell.[50][58] John Stratton writes that "Johnny Reggae" was the "first British hit with a ska beat to have been written by a white Englishman ... and performed by white English singers and musicians."[59][60] While, according to Lloyd Bradley, the BBC was reluctant to play reggae by black Jamaican artists, "Johnny Reggae", which Bradley described as "lamentable [and] audibly jarring", reached number three in the UK in November 1971 (when Slade's "Coz I Luv You" was number one) and stayed in the top 50 for 12 weeks.[61][b] UK Records[edit source]

10cc in 1974. Clockwise from left: Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley, Graham Gouldman and Lol Creme In 1972 King set up a record label, UK Records, distributed by Decca and later Polygram in the UK and London Records in the US. Chris Denning left Bell to run the UK office and Fred Ruppert, formerly of Elektra Records, the US office.[2][64][53] Don Wardell then took over the US office, Denning left and Wardell moved back to run the UK company. King's brother Andy was hired in 1974 as the promotion manager.[65] The label's first hit was "Seaside Shuffle" by Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs, followed by King's "Loop di Love", which reached number four, released under the pseudonym Shag.[66] Other signings included Ricky Wilde, then 11 years old and promoted to fill the gap later taken by Donny Osmond, a potential David Cassidy Simon Turner,[67] Roy C, the First Class and Lobo. The label also released King's cover of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1974) under the name Bubblerock, described as a "Grateful Dead"-style country version".[2][68][69] In June 1973, after seeing The Rocky Horror Show on its second night, King invested a 20 percent stake in it, making him one of its two original backers, along with Michael White, and released The Rocky Horror Show Original London Cast.[11][70] The label's most significant signing was 10cc. Eric Stewart, one of the band members, had known King since 1965, when Stewart was with The Mindbenders and King had wanted to write for them. The band had planned to release "Donna" as a B side, but decided it could be a hit: "We only knew of one person who was mad enough to release it," Stewart said, "and that was Jonathan King."[71][72] King gave the band its name and released two of its albums (10cc and Sheet Music) and eight singles. "Donna" (1972) and "Rubber Bullets" (1973), reached number two and one respectively, followed by "The Dean and I" (1973) and "The Wall Street Shuffle" (1974).[73] With King unable to help them crack the American market the band left King and joined Mercury records. They then went on to dent the American market, with "Rubber Bullets" making 73 on the Billboard Hot 100.[74] and had further sucess, particularly with "I'm Not in Love" (1975).[75] Move to New York[edit source]

King in 1982 In April 1978 King stood for parliament as an independent in the Epsom and Ewell by-election, calling himself the Royalist party. He gained 2,350 votes, finished in last position and was not elected[76][77] A year later he decided to leave the music industry and closed UK Records.[68] King set about building a new career in writing and broadcasting. He was given a weekly five-minute slot on BBC Radio 1 called "A King in New York", a "Postcard from America" slot in Radio 4, and he reported for Radio 1 on the 1980 presidential election.[79] In December 1980, watching television in bed, he heard there had been a shooting outside the Dakota Apartments. He called and woke up BBC producer Tom Brook, who was living in New York; Brook became the first to announce to the UK that John Lennon had died.[80] Throughout 1980 and 1981 King presented a radio talk show on New York's WMCA from 10–12 weekday mornings, and regularly reported from the United States on Top of the Pops. He devised and hosted a spinoff series, Entertainment USA, broadcast on BBC2.[81] He also created and produced No Limits, a youth programme.[82] He was also hired by The Sun, to write a weekly column, "Bizarre USA", which began in February 1985 and continued for eight years.[83] He continued with several music projects, including with the hard-rock supergroup Gogmagog, which released an EP, I Will Be There (1985).[84][85] Brit Awards, Eurovision Song Contest[edit source] In 1987 King hosted the Brit Awards for the BBC,[86] and from 1990 to 1992 was the event's producer.[3][87][88] The following year he founded The Tip Sheet (1993–2002), a weekly trade magazine promoting new acts.[89] King's media work included finding and producing the Eurovision Song Contest entrant for the BBC from 1995-97. He selected several songs from the ones presented to him, for them.[3] Love City Groove's song, "Love City Groove", came tenth in 1995. Gina G's "Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit" came eighth the following year, and was number one in the UK.[90] "Love Shine A Light" by Katrina and the Waves came first in 1997.[91] His entry for 1998, when the UK hosted the event in Birmingham, was by Imaani and came second.[92] In October 1997 King received a Music Industry Trusts Award [1][94][95][96] ] Prosecution[edit source] In September 2001 King was convicted, after a two-week trial at the Old Bailey, on four counts of indecent assault, one of buggery and one of attempted buggery, committed between 1983 and 1987 against five boys aged 14 and 15. At a seperate, second trial for other charges, he was found not guilty after an alleged victim (someone King denied having ever met) acknowledged that he could have been over 16 at the time.[c][104][63][105] The National Criminal Intelligence Service had begun investigating King for child sexual abuse in 2000, when a man told them he had been assaulted by King and others 30 years earlier.[106] The man had approached the publicist Max Clifford, himself later jailed for sexual assault, about other men, and Clifford told him to go to the police.[107] King was arrested in November that year and bailed on £150,000.[108] He was arrested again in January 2001 on further allegations.[109][110] Twenty-seven men told police that King had sexually assaulted them during the period 1969–1989.[111] Police found "several hundred" pictures, mostly Polaroids, of teenage boys in a search of King's home.[111] King acknowledged having approached thousands of people with a questionnaire about youth interests, saying he was doing market research. The questionnaires asked teenagers to list certain topics according to importance, and the prosecution said that boys who listed sex high in their list of priorities were then targeted by King.[112] At the Old Bailey on 21 November 2001, Judge David Paget QC sentenced King to 7 years in prison. In addition, King was placed on the Sex Offenders Register, prohibited from working with children, and ordered to pay £14,000 costs.[113][d] In 2003 the Court of Appeal rejected his application to appeal both the conviction and the sentence.[115] He appealed twice unsuccessfully to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.[116][117] He served over 4 years of his sentence and was released on parole in March 2005.[118] In September 2015, King was arrested as part of Operation Ravine, an investigation into claims of sexual abuse at the Walton Hop disco in the 1970s.[119] He was later released on bail.[120][121] On 25 May 2017, he was charged by Surrey Police with 18 sexual offences, relating to nine boys aged between 14 and 16, allegedly carried out between 1970 and 1986. He was released on bail and appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 26 June,[7] where he was released on conditional bail to appear at Southwark Crown Court on 31st July.[122] [123] The trial date was set to start on 11 June 2018.[124] Later life and media involvement[edit source] Journalist Robert Chalmers wrote that King's creative output after he left prison "resembled a primal scream of rage".[11][27] Two novels appeared: Beware the Monkey Man (2010), under the pen name Rex Kenny, and Death Flies, Missing Girls and Brigitte Bardot (2013), under his real name, Kenneth George King. He also published a diary, Three Months (2012), and two volumes of his autobiography, Jonathan King 65: My Life So Far (2009) and 70 FFFY (2014). King maintained an interest in prison issues and writes a column for Inside Time, the national newspaper for prisoners.[125] He released Earth to King in 2008. Mainly new songs, one appeared to defend the serial killer Dr. Harold Shipman.[127] He also produced three films. Vile Pervert: The Musical (2008), available for free download, is a 96-minute movie in which King plays all 21 parts and presents his version of events surrounding his prosecution. He portrays his viewpoint of those he holds responsible for his troubles.[128] [128] Rod Liddle called it "a fantastically berserk, bravado performance".[129] King has complained about his media coverage since his conviction. In 2005 he went to the Press Complaints Commission about an article in the News of the World that said he had gone to a park to "ogle" boys. The complaint was not upheld, but Roy Greenslade argued that King had a good case.[132] In October 2011 then BBC Director-General Mark Thompson apologised to King for the removal of King's performance of "It Only Takes a Minute" from a repeat, on BBC Four, of a 1976 episode of Top of the Pops. King described the cut as a "Stalinist revision approach to history".[133] When asked by a newspaper in 2012 if he believed he had anything to apologise for, to anybody from his past, King replied, "The only apology I have is to say that I was good at seduction. I was good at making myself seem attractive when I wasn't very attractive at all."[134]