Robert Frederick Elms is an English writer and broadcaster. Elms was a writer for '' The Face'' magazine in the 1980s, and is known for his long-running radio show on

BBC Radio London BBC Radio London is the BBC Local Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Greater London. It broadcasts on FM broadcasting, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Broadcasting House in Langham Plac ...

and his 2006 book, ''The Way We Wore''.

Early life and education

Robert Frederick Elms was born in

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...

and educated at Orange Hill Grammar School for Boys, a state grammar school in the north-west London suburb of

Burnt Oak Burnt Oak is a suburb of London, England, located northwest of Charing Cross. It lies to the west of the M1 motorway between Edgware and Colindale, located predominantly in the London Borough of Barnet, with parts in the London Boroughs of Br ...

, after passing the 11-plus examination for state school pupils.Meades, Jonathon (1984).
Carving a Career in Style: Robert Elms
, ''CliveJames.com''. Retrieved 28 April 2009
archived
28 April 2009. From there, Elms studied at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

(LSE) in

Central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...

Life and career

While still at the LSE, Elms became deeply involved in the "club scene" that was developing in London suburbs. He became a columnist for both ''The Face'' and ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'', writing on both music and fashion. According to Elms, he was "almost a member" of the band

Spandau Ballet Spandau Ballet ( ) were an English new wave band formed in Islington, London, in 1979. Inspired by the capital's post-punk underground dance scene, they emerged at the start of the 1980s as the house band for the Blitz Kids (New Romantics), ...

. He championed them, having suggested their name, and introduced the group at early concerts by declaiming a brief verse. Band member

Gary Kemp Gary James Kemp (born 16 October 1959) is an English songwriter, musician and actor, best known as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and principal songwriter for the new wave band Spandau Ballet. Kemp wrote the lyrics and music for all 2 ...

later commented that Elms was their "

spin doctor In public relations and politics, spin is a form of propaganda, achieved through knowingly providing a biased interpretation of an event. While traditional public relations and advertising may manage their presentation of facts, "spin" often i ...

", and said he "inspired" songs such as " Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)", a number 3 UK Singles Chart hit for the band in 1981. Elms also worked as a DJ at clubs including the

Palladium Palladium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1802 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas (formally 2 Pallas), ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. Elms was a chronicler of the

New Romantic New Romantic was an underground subculture movement that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The movement emerged from the nightclub scene in London and Birmingham at venues such as Billy's and The Blitz. The New Romantic mo ...

movement of the early 1980s, which saw him become a popular interview choice for the broadcast media. Elms then developed a broadcasting career of his own, working in both radio and television. He was a contributor to '' Loose Ends'' (

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

) and presented the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

travel series ''Travelog'' during the 1990s. In 1989, his first novel, ''In Search of the Crack'' was published by

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

. In 2006 he published ''The Way We Wore: A Life in Threads'', which charts the changing fashions of his own youth, linking them with the social history of the times. He served as a patron for the

Arts Council An arts council is a government or private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts; mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing arts events. They often operate at arms-length from the government to prevent pol ...

's Architecture Week, until the demise of the event in 2007. Since 1994, Elms has presented a long-running radio show on

, in 1999 being referred to as "its top presenter". The show features reports, discussions, and call-ins about

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

, the history, architecture, geography, city planning and the language of London: in short, the minutiae of the city. Guests who are acknowledged experts in their fields of study appear on a regular basis, including architect Maxwell Hutchinson and film critic Jason Solomons. An extract of the shows is published as a

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

every week. Solomons often covers for Elms when he is on holiday. Elms is a critic of

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

, and refuses to play the band on his BBC London daily radio show. He has been quoted as saying "I just think they are either childlike and simple or rather leaden and pompous – one or the other all the time. For me they turned something that was once sexy and raw and had roots, into something that was totally soulless, playground sing-along music. I think everything that is over-inflated deserves a pin-prick in it occasionally. How can they be above criticism? That's ludicrous." His memoir, ''London Made Us'', was published in 2019.

Personal life

In the 1980s, Elms squatted with singer

Sade Adu Helen Folasade Adu ( ; born 16 January 1959), known professionally as Sade Adu or simply Sade ( or ), is a British-Nigerian singer and songwriter who is the lead vocalist of her band Sade. One of the most successful British female artists in ...

Tottenham Tottenham (, , , ) is a district in north London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, ...

. He is married to Christina Wilson and has three children. The family lived in Camden, an area of London he promotes and where he has renovated a Georgian house. Elms is a

Queens Park Rangers F.C. Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English fo ...

fan. In 2021, Elms and his wife moved from their home in Camden to a flat at the

Barbican Estate The Barbican Estate, or Barbican, is a residential complex of around 2,000 flats, Apartment#Maisonette, maisonettes and houses in central London, England, within the City of London. It is in an area once devastated by World War II bombings an ...

, Central London.

Works

* * * * *

References

External links

''Robert Elms''
(BBC Radio London)
Robert Elms podcast
from BBC * {{DEFAULTSORT:Elms, Robert Living people People from Hendon English male non-fiction writers English non-fiction writers English radio personalities English television personalities 20th-century squatters Alumni of the London School of Economics 20th-century English novelists Writers from the London Borough of Barnet 1959 births