John L. Walters (born 16 April 1953) is an English editor, musician, critic and composer.

Early years

John L. Walters was born in Chesterfield,

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, England. He attended

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

and holds a degree in Maths with Physics.

Career

In 1974, John L. Walters was a founding member of the band

Landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

, which evolved into a five-piece band with

Richard James Burgess Richard James Burgess (born 29 June 1949) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, composer, author, manager, marketer and inventor. Burgess's music career spans more than 50 years. He came to prominence in the early 1980s a ...

(drums, electric drums, computer programming, synths, vocals), Christopher Heaton (synthesizers, piano, vocals),

Andy Pask Andrew Howard Pask (born 30 August 1955) is an English musician who was a member of the band Landscape. He co-wrote the theme to the TV show ''The Bill''. Early years Andy Pask was a pupil at Haileybury College in Hertfordshire, where he play ...

(fretted and fretless basses, vocals),

Peter Thoms Peter Thoms is an English musician and composer best known for playing keyboards and trombone for the synthpop band Landscape. Biography Landscape was formed in 1974 with Richard James Burgess (vocals, drums), Christopher Heaton (keyboards), A ...

(trombone, electric trombone, vocals), and Walters (

lyricon The Lyricon is an electronic wind instrument, the first wind controller to be constructed. Invented by Bill Bernardi (and co-engineered by Roger Noble and with the late Lyricon performer Chuck GreenbergIngham (1998) p.184) of Shadowfax, file ...

, soprano sax, flute, alto flute, computer programming, synths, vocals). The band is known for the 1981 hit single ‘Einstein A Go-Go’, written by Walters and Burgess, which reached number 5 in the UK charts, ’Norman Bates’ (Walters) and the album '' From the Tea-rooms of Mars ....'' After the band split, Walters went into record production. He subsequently produced and arranged records for Swans Way,

Kissing the Pink Kissing the Pink are an English new wave and synth-pop band that formed in London in 1980. The current members are lead singer and guitarist Nick Whitecross, keyboardist Jon Kingsley Hall, second keyboardist George Stewart, and guitarist Simon ...

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night, or What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Viola an ...

, The Mike Gibbs Orchestra and pianist

Mark Springer Mark Springer is a British Pianist and composer. Springer first came to public attention in the group Rip Rig and Panic. This group also featured the singer Neneh Cherry, Sean Oliver, Gareth Sager, and Bruce Smith. During his time with the group ...

, and worked with other artists from the era including

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer. Bush began writing songs at age 11. She was signed to EMI Records after David Gilmour of Pink Floyd helped produce a demo tape. In 1978, at the ...

, for whom Walters and Burgess programmed Fairlight CMI on

Never For Ever ''Never for Ever'' is the third studio album by English singer-songwriter Kate Bush, released on 8 September 1980 by EMI Records, it was Bush's first No. 1 album and was also the first album by a British female solo artist to top the UK Albums ...

Hot Gossip Hot Gossip (1974–1986) was a British television dance troupe and recording group. Formation Arlene Phillips moved to London to teach American jazz dance routines, working at Pineapple Dance Studios and the Italia Conti Stage School. ...

and Landscape colleague

. From 1987 to 1997, Walters was a member of the "electronic jazz orchestra" Zyklus, with

Neil Ardley Neil Richard Ardley (26 May 1937 – 23 February 2004) was a prominent English jazz composer and pianist, who also made his name as the author of more than 100 popular books on science and technology, and on music. Early years Neil Ardley ...

(his former composition teacher), guitarist/programmer Warren Greveson and

Ian Carr Ian Carr (21 April 1933 – 25 February 2009) was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator. Carr performed and recorded with the Rendell-Carr quintet and jazz-fusion band Nucleus (band), Nucleus, and was an associate professor a ...

. In 1992, with Laurence Aston, he co-founded the audio journal ''Unknown Public'', which won a Prudential Award in 1996. The first 12 ''Unknown Public'' (initially quarterly) releases came in the form of 'creative music in a plain brown box', including CD and detailed booklets including rich graphics. From UP13 (''Changing Platforms'') a CD-book format was used for more occasional releases. The last book issued was ''Re-Invented'' (UP17, 2006). Aston and Walters also founded the SoundCircus label with classical record producer James Mallinson and pianist

Joanna MacGregor Joanna Clare MacGregor (born 16 July 1959) is a British concert pianist, conductor, composer, and festival curator. She is Head of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music and a professor of the University of London. She was artistic director of t ...

. In 1997, after working for a number of newspapers and magazines, including the ''

Architectural Review ''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism � ...

'', he joined ''

Eye An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system. In higher organisms, the ey ...

'' magazine as managing editor. Walters has been the editor of ''Eye'' magazine since the publication of ''Eye'' no. 33 in 1999. He became its co-owner (with art director Simon Esterson) after a management buy-out in 2008. Walters also writes about creative music (including jazz, electronica, ‘world’ and contemporary music) for a number of newspapers and magazines including ''The Independent'', in which he wrote a monthly music column called ‘Stretch Your Ears’ plus features,

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...

Jazzwise ''Jazzwise'' is a British monthly magazine focused on jazz, launched in 1997. The magazine covers a range of jazz sub-genres and provides news coverage, a national gig guide, a jazz-on-film page, feature articles, and a review section that evalua ...

, London Jazz News and ''The Guardian'', for which he wrote the ‘On the Edge’ column for five years; also reviews and music features, some of which have been published on the Rock’s Backpages site. Walters has been a guest lecturer at colleges and conferences internationally, and he served as an external examiner at

Central Saint Martins Central Saint Martins is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of short ...

from 2003 to 2006. Walters has also served as chair for several international juries, including one for the inaugural

European Design Award The European Design Awards, also known as the ED-Awards, are annual awards presented to European designers for outstanding work in the communication design field. The ED-Awards is a joint initiative of design magazines from across Europe and endors ...

and also the 24th International Biennial of Graphic Design. He has received many nominations for the UK's BSME (

British Society of Magazine Editors The British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME.market) is a professional association of print and onlinBSME.MARKETeditors in the United Kingdom. Established in 1981, the BSME.market has 148 members. Its annual awards—the BSME.market Awards and t ...

) Awards, and won in 2002, 2016 and 2018. In January 2010, Walters was the co-curator of a one-day conference about music and design at

St Bride Library St Bride Library (formerly known as St Bride Printing Library and St Bride Typographical Library) is a library in London primarily devoted to printing, book arts, typography and graphic design. The library is housed in the St Bride Foundation In ...

, London, and he co-programmes the regular ‘Type Tuesday’ events that ''Eye'' has held at St Bride since 2013. In February 2020 he spoke at the Plan D Conference in Zagreb.

Personal life

Walters is married to writer and journalist Clare Walters and has two daughters: circus artist and costume designer Jessie Rose, formerly a member of the

hula hoop A hula hoop is a toy hoop (rhythmic gymnastics), hoop that is twirled around the waist, limbs or neck. It can also be wheeled along the ground like a wheel with careful execution and practice. They have been used by children and adults since ...

trio Hoop La La (semi-finalists, ''

Britain’s Got Talent ''Britain's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated to ''BGT'') is a televised British talent show competition, and part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (colloquially ...

'', 2008) and Rosie Walters.

Articles and books

Walters has written hundreds of articles about music an
graphic design
and two books. • ''50 Typefaces That Changed The World'' (Octopus, 2013) • ''Alan Kitching, A Life In Letterpress'' (Laurence King, 2016)"Alan Kitching Special Edition: A Life in Letterpress"
at Amazon.

References

External links

list of articles by John L. Walters for ''Eye'' magazine

list of articles by John L Walters
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 ...

list of articles by John L Walters
for

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

list of articles by John L. Walters at Rock’s Backpages

Eye in Focus: An Interview with John Walters by Steven Heller
Published in ''AIGA Voice: Journal of Design'', 18 July 18 2006.
The ninth of our interviews republished from Jeremy Leslie’s book 'Independence' features the co-owner and editor of design journal Eye, John L Walters
Published 18 August 2017.
John L. Walters: The Editor Who Keeps An “Eye” On Graphic Design Worldwide. The Mr. Magazine™ Interview
Published 5 December 2018.
David A. O’Brien’s Lyricon archives

Zyklus on the Neil Ardley site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walters, John L. 1953 births Living people People from Chesterfield, Derbyshire English male journalists English magazine editors English record producers English jazz composers British male jazz composers English male composers English writers about music Design writers Alumni of King's College London English male non-fiction writers Landscape (band) members