Roger St. Pierre (8 November 1941 – 12 October 2021) was a British journalist, writer, promoter, and broadcaster, particularly on R&B, rock music, travel, and cycling. He was born in Weymouth, Dorset, but grew up in Goodmayes, Essex. "Who am I?", ''RogerStPierre.co.uk''
Retrieved 8 December 2021 He started writing for local newspapers and specialist cycling magazines in the late 1950s, and for a time was a successful amateur racing cyclist, before concentrating on music journalism and promotion. In the 1960s and early 1970s he worked on promotion for UK tours by acts including Bill Haley,

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...

B. B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimm ...

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Jackson Five. He also wrote articles on R&B and soul music for magazines including the ''

New Musical Express ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'', '' Sounds'', '' Record Mirror'', and '' Blues & Soul'', sometimes using the pseudonym Peter Kent. He also wrote liner notes for many LPs and CDs, covering rock,

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' (G ...

, jazz and

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

; he claimed to have written over 1500 sleeve notes. He was the lead writer on the ''NME Book of Rock'', its successor ''Rock Handbook'', and co-writer of ''The Encyclopedia of Black Music''. He also wrote 33 books including biographies of

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, Tina Turner, and others. Ed Hood, "Roger St. Pierre – One of Cycling’s Premier Historians and Archivists", ''Velo Veritas'', 22 December 2012
Retrieved 8 December 2021 "Roger St. Pierre", ''Rock's Back Pages''
Retrieved 8 December 2021Tony Burke, "Obituary: Roger St. Pierre", ''Blues & Rhythm'', No.365, December 2021, p.13 His promotion company, Funk Funktion, promoted British number one hits by M, Althea & Donna, and others. He also set up several record labels including Now! and Energy. As a broadcaster, he appeared on pirate radio and on

Solar Radio Solar Radio is a London-based radio station, which originally started life as a pirate radio station. Solar broadcasts primarily soul to London on DAB and online. Solar (originally short for ''Sound of Londons Alternative Radio'') first broa ...

, broadcasting R&B music. For BBC Radio, he wrote several documentaries including programmes on

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

, Count Basie, Chuck Berry, and Robert Johnson; and also wrote the script for the television documentary series ''Reggae''. He died after a lengthy illness on 12 October 2021, aged 79.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:St. Pierre, Roger 1941 births 2021 deaths British music journalists People from Weymouth, Dorset