Peter Joseph Hooton (born 28 September 1962 ) is the

vocalist Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

of Liverpool-based

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

the Farm. He was also its sole founder member in 1983, overseeing its rise to prominence with two top 10 singles in 1990, its breakup in 1996 and reformation in 2004.

Biography

Hooton was born in Everton. In about 1980, he landed a job as a youth worker in Cantril Farm estate. The bands name comes from a farm that they used to rehearse in in Melling. In 1981, Hooton was the founding editor of ''The End'', a music and football fanzine aimed at young, working-class readers and initially inspired by an

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

zine attacking that year's

royal wedding ''Royal Wedding'' is a 1951 American musical comedy film directed by Stanley Donen, and starring Fred Astaire and Jane Powell, with music by Burton Lane and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Set in 1947 London at the time of the wedding of Princess ...

. It marked the start of a long career writing about football, music, and working class culture in Liverpool. He is a supporter of local club

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founded in ...

Hooton is a committee member of

Spirit of Shankly Spirit Of Shankly (SOS) is the official supporters' union for fans of Liverpool Football Club and is leader of the supporters board. Named after former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, the union was formed in early 2008 by disgruntled fans oppo ...

, a Liverpool Football Club supporters union, which was created in 2008 with the aims of ousting the club's controversial owners

Tom Hicks Thomas Ollis Hicks Sr. (born February 7, 1946), is an American private equity investor and sports team owner living in Dallas, Texas. ''Forbes'' magazine estimated Hicks' wealth at $1 billion in 2009, but it dropped to $700 million in 2010 ...

and

George N. Gillett, Jr. George Nield Gillett Jr. (born October 22, 1938) is an American businessman. Originally from Wisconsin, he lives in Vail, Colorado. Biography Gillett graduated from Lake Forest Academy in 1956. He attended Amherst College and is a 1961 gradua ...

and protecting the rights of Liverpool supporters. Hooton appeared on a

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

discussion about the future of football in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in April 2010. He has also been a vocal supporter and sometime spokesman for campaigns in Liverpool to boycott the Sun newspaper over its coverage of the Hillsborough Disaster. In 2015, Hooton, who has a degree in economics and public policy and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education, was awarded an honorary degree by

Edge Hill University Edge Hill University is a campus-based public university in Ormskirk, Lancashire, England. The university, which originally opened in 1885 as Edge Hill College, was the first non-denominational teacher training college for women in England, befo ...

. Hooton has been a spokesperson for boycotts of ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' following its coverage of the Hillsborough disaster. In November 2019, along with 34 other musicians, Hooton signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party leader

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

in the

2019 UK general election The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 12 December 2019, with 47,074,800 registered voters entitled to vote to elect 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons. The governing Conservative Party, led by Prim ...

with a call to end austerity.

References

1962 births Living people The Farm (band) members English male singers Alternative dance musicians People from Formby Madchester musicians Musicians from Liverpool {{UK-singer-stub