Alexis Petridis (born 13 September 1971) is an English journalist. He is the head rock and

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

critic for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', and a regular contributor for '' GQ''. In addition to his

music journalism Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary o ...

for the paper, he has written a weekly column in the fashion section of ''The Guardian'' Weekend section, as well as contributing to its ''Lost in Showbiz'' column. Petridis was born to a family of Greek descent in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

in the north of England, but grew up in Silsden, near

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford, n ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. The family later moved to

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

. After studying at Dr Challoner's Grammar School in

Amersham Amersham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills, northwest of central London, south-east of Aylesbury and north-east of High Wycombe. Amersham is part of the London commuter belt. There ar ...

, he began his writing career at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

by contributing to the student newspaper '' Varsity''. He was the final editor of the now defunct music magazine '' Select''. He was also the

ghostwriter A ghostwriter is a person hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

's 2019 autobiography ''Me''. Petridis has won the "Record Reviews Writer of the Year" category at the Record of the Day awards eight times, every year from 2005 to 2012, as well as winning "Artist and Music Features: Writer of the Year" in 2006 and "Best Music Writer" (as voted by students) in 2012. In 2017, he was awarded a Fellowship by Leeds College of Music.

References

External links

Alexis Petridis archive
at ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Petridis, Alexis 1971 births Living people Alumni of Leeds College of Music Alumni of the University of Cambridge English male journalists English music critics English music journalists English people of Greek descent The Guardian journalists People educated at Dr Challoner's Grammar School People from Silsden Rock critics Writers from Buckinghamshire Writers from Sunderland Writers from West Yorkshire