For more about what I'm up to now and what I've done in the past I'm on Facebook as Ian Ravendale here; https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ian-Ravendale/125837880959726?fref=ts My CV is on Linked In (as Ian Penman) and includes endorsements and recommendations from people I've worked with; http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=229095896&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile
Courtesy of those nice Wikipedia people, here's a quick biography. (In addition to the following one-liner the current Wiki description also has me down as an actor! Do they know something I don't?)
Courtesy of those nice Wikipedia people, here's a quick biography. (In addition to the following one-liner the current Wiki description also has me down as an actor! Do they know something I don't?)
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Career history
He began working for BBC's Radio Newcastle's Bedrock show in the 1970s and soon after started writing for local and national music magazines. To avoid confusion with the NME writer of the same name (who he actually preceded as both a radio and print music journalist) Penman wrote for Sounds under the name Ian Ravendale, for Pop Star Weekly and The Sunderland and Washington Times as Rick O'Shea and The Northern Echo as Chris Coupar. Contributions to BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 4 were under his own name. From 1982 to 1992, Ian Penman was a researcher, producer and director for Tyne Tees Television, Border TV and the independent sector, working with Carol Vorderman, Muriel Gray, Janet Street-Porter and many others. He also ran River City Productions, the production wing of Stonehills Studios, the North East's largest independent facilities company.
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Penman was Course Leader of New College Durham's Music Industry Management HND for four years in the mid-1990s and also promoted hundreds of concerts for the likes of The Bootleg Beatles, B'Eagles, U2our and Voulez Vous. Returning to radio and television production and journalism in the late 1990s, Ian Penman worked again for Tyne Tees and BBC Radio Newcastle, presented a long-running programme for Wear FM and was broadcast journalism tutor at the WOLF-FM community and Internet Radio Project. In the 00's he concentrated on writing television drama, including Death Of A Pirate about the 1960s pop entrepreneur and pirate radio pioneer Reg Calvert. Ian Penman also worked as a Music Industry Consultant on the New Deal For Musicians programme before returning to freelance journalism. |
| Me in the late 1980's. I've still got (and wear!) the jacket...see below. Photo by Moira Conway. |
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Penman also undertakes freelance corporate video scriptwriting and production work. In conjunction with Lodestone Productions he produced, directed, presented and conducted the interviews for "Vox and Rugs and Rock n' Roll", the first sell-through DVD for The Bootleg Beatles.
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Under his 'Ian Ravendale' byline Penman freelances for music magazines, including Classic Rock, AOR, Record Collector, The Word, American Songwriter, Classic Pop, Vive Le Rock, Iron Fist, The Beat, Vintage Rock and Fireworks along with work for travel, true crime, nostalgia and general publications.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Ian_Penman_(producer)"Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
* Ian Ravendale North East freelance journalist ian ravendale Newcastle freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Sunderland freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Tyne and Wear journalist northern freelance journalist Ian Ravendale long established freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Well known journalist Ian Ravendale veteran freelancejournalist Ian Ravendale Quick witted journalist Ian Ravendale Knowledgeable journalist Ian Ravendale freelance journalist Ian Ravendale long-established north east journalist Ian Ravendale respected freelance journalist Ian Ravendale busy Wearside journalist Ian Ravendale recognised freelance journalist Ian Ravendale respected journalist Ian Ravendale versatile freelance journalist Ian Ravendale
Ian Ravendale interviews Ian Penman
Ian Ravendale; Er, well, isn't this a little.....odd? Seeing as Ian Ravendale and
Ian Penman are the same person?
Ian Penman are the same person?
Ian Penman; Everyone talks to themselves! I know I do! And am!
Ravendale; Looking at the Wikipedia entry that's quite a wide variety of things we've done there.
Penman; I think everything complements each other. Having worked across
pretty much all areas of media (and also education) has meant that I haven't
got stale at any one thing. Even when I've not directly been employed as a
journalist, I've always written-press releases, promotional material and reports,
TV and radio scripts, academic essays and course brochures. I've enjoyed most
of what I've done, often in different ways. I've found I can frequently use what
I've learnt in one area to advantage in another.
Ravendale; Such as?
Penman; Many people involved in education have never actually worked
professionally in the field they are lecturing in. They've read about it, studied it
at college but never been paid to do it. Everything I've lectured in I've practiced
professionally at a high level and am can explain how the media and music businesses
really operate from an insider's viewpoint. I've done the same within Media Awareness Training and creative writing workshops, which I've conducted with writers groups and inmates of high security prisons.
Also I began interviewing on the radio which lead on to print and television. My
general interest in popular culture crossed over from one to another-very
helpful when it comes to generating ideas for articles, features or projects.
Ravendale; We started in music journalism but have written in lots of other genres.
Penman; Some music journalists just write about music, which is fine. But the television and radio programmes I've worked on have meant I've provided research or written scripts or conducted interviews for childrens', news and current affairs, arts and entertainment, games shows, stand up comedy and human interest programming. I like variety and have recently written for nostalgia, travel and true crime magazines, in addition to at least half of the monthly or bi-monthly music magazines you can find in WH Smiths.
Ravendale; Has our writing style changed over the years?
Penman; I've always been able to write in different styles. I started in the "hip young gunslinger" period of music journalism of the late 70's/ early 80's and some of what I came up with was along those lines. I can be fairly opinionated and as a reviewer I wasn't afraid to show it! But even when I was working for Sounds, I was also having stuff used by Pop Star Weekly and writing weekly music columns for the Sunderland and Washington Times and Northern Echo.These were all in a more straight -forward style geared towards either younger music fans or the more casual local paper reader.
Most of what I write today is fact and information lead. Readers want to know
about the band or songwriter and what they think or about the holiday resort or an
unsolved crime, rather than my inner thoughts and feelings about something!
There are exceptions, like Gloving The Alien, my personalised recollections of
working on kids TV pop shows in the 1980's for The Word, but generally I'm
there to tell the story, not get in the way of it.
Ravendale; So how does the earlier stuff stand up, do you think?
Penman; I hadn't read most of my early journalism for many years until a couple of years
ago when I was sorting through old copies of Sounds and other papers. While
there was a few clunkers, I was actually pleasantly surprised by most of it. Even
something like a gig review of North East singer-songwriter John Miles, of
Music fame. I wrote the entire thing in cod Geordie, as a letter to him from an
imaginary uncle.
I remembered doing it and when I re-discovered the review I thought "Oh yeah.....".
When I looked at it again and laughed a couple of times I thought,
"Y'know......this works....sort of".
Ravendale; Having said that, we wouldn't write it like that now?
Penman; Nah man, we widna. Bonny Lad.
Ravendale; It's in the 'Ian Ravendale Rock Journalist' Archives section so we can make our own minds up. Any other particularly memorable review?
Penman; The music biz as we all know is dominated by style, fashion, what's cool,
what's not, who's new, who's out of date, who's hip, who's trendy. I've never
personally paid much attention to that. For me the singer and the songs are what
counts. The band Devo had attracted a lot of critical acclaim in the late 1970's.
I'd liked Jocko Homo and their version of Satisfaction, the first couple of
singles, but had got lost off after that.
I went to see them at Newcastle City Hall and found them vapid and
empty-essentially a piss-take at the audience's expense. I can't claim to have
read everything that was written about Devo at that time, but my review
definitely went against the general music paper consensus that the band were
these great creative innovators and, in my opinion, more a case of the Emperor's New Clothes.
It's in the 'Ian Ravendale Rock Journalist' Archives section. And then there was the review that got me quoted in a no.1 record.....
Ravendale; Go on.
Penman; After years playing every dive and punk club in the UK Adam and the Ants had just broken big and were doing their first ever concert hall tour. I reviewed them at Newcastle City Hall, writing that 'He's got the moves, they've got the grooves'. A couple of months later Ant Rap comes out. Amongst the lyrics was; 'I've got the moves, they've got the grooves'. Adam liked writing about himself, y'see.
Ravendale; A bit like us, then. Remind us; why are you sometimes me?
Penman; In the late 1970's I was co-presenting the Bedrock local music and rock show on BBC Radio Newcastle. This gave me ongoing weekly experience as both a broadcaster and journalist.
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| The 'Bedrock' team, , BBC Radio Newcastle 1983. Left to right, Tom Noble, Arthur Hills, Rik Walton (who took the pic. See the remote in his left hand) and me. I'm sure I've still got that scarf somewhere. |
Ravendale; A fact wryly noted by fellow freelancer Des Moines (yes, we liked our pseudonyms at Sounds...) in a 1980 article where, to show how industrious the band Vardis were, he wrote that they "got through more gigs than Ian Ravendale"! Where did the name come from?
Penman; Because by this time the NME, one of Sounds' rivals, had a journalist called Ian Penman writing for them I needed to think up a different name. I toyed with a few ideas. One was "Ian Neon"...the punk thing was happening. Billy Idol, Captain Sensible, Lux Interior, Ian Neon.......
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Ravendale; Right...East Ravendale is actually a small village just outside of
Grimsby......
Grimsby......
Penman;.......that I've visited many times because a couple of my oldest friends
live there. So, to Sounds readers I was Ian Ravendale. For my radio work, and
when I started in television, I stayed Ian Penman.
It's like one of my favourite authors, the late Evan Hunter. Most of his fans
knew that Hunter wrote the 87 Precinct series of books, even though they were
published under the "Ed McBain" byline.
Ravendale; I don't hide the fact that Ian Penman is Ian Ravendale. And actually....
Penman; ........I almost wrote for the NME before the other Ian Penman. I'd done a radio feature following Michael Nesmith around on a short UK tour he was doing. I decided to write it up and see if I could place it anywhere. I mentioned this to Michael and the next time I spoke to him he told me that the NME would buy my story. Circumstances changed and this didn't happen and my article ended up in the Out Now magazine instead. In addition to the article Out Now 2 has a short preface which says that two weekly music papers (and not just the NME, although I can't remember who the other one was) had expressed interest in using the article and Let It Rock monthly was actually all set to publish it but then went out of business!
The article-probably the first piece of print (as against radio) music journalism I ever wrote-is in the 'Ian Ravendale Rock Journalist' Archives section.
Ravendale; If it had seen national print me and me might not be having this conversation as
'the other guy' would have been the Penman who needed to change his name.
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Penman; When I'm sending out proposals or discussing ideas with
magazines I haven't worked with before it's important to that editors aren't put off by any
potentially negative baggage that the former NME journalist may have attracted to the name we share. 'Other Ian' is-to coin a cliche-a bit like Marmite. Some really like his stuff. Others.....don't.
magazines I haven't worked with before it's important to that editors aren't put off by any
potentially negative baggage that the former NME journalist may have attracted to the name we share. 'Other Ian' is-to coin a cliche-a bit like Marmite. Some really like his stuff. Others.....don't.
Ravendale; ......Which is why we generally write under the Ian Ravendale journalism byline.
Penman; "There can be only one" after all. Getting through almost as many gigs as Vardis.
Ravendale; Actually.....I understand that Vardis have got back together. I'll just give Des Moines a call....
ENDS (Fortunately)
Apart from......here's the proof! Vardis are back! I went to this, but on the night Fist were on. Pity Vardis played on a different night because I could have then introduced myself as Ian Ravendale to see if they asked about the number of gigs I was getting through.
And......the ' Des Moines' article about Vardis that mentions me is now online here; http://archive.today/8CjLs
(Really; ENDS)
Ian Ravendale North East music journalist ian ravendale Newcastle music journalist Ian Ravendale Sunderland music journalist Ian Ravendale Tyne and Wear music journalist northern music journalist Ian Ravendale long established music journalist Ian Ravendale Well known music journalist Ian Ravendale veteran music journalist Ian Ravendale Quick witted music journalist Ian Ravendale Knowledgeable music journalist Ian Ravendale freelance music journalist Ian Ravendale long-established music journalist Ian Ravendale respected music journalist Ian Ravendale busy music journalist Ian Ravendale recognised music journalist Ian Ravendale respected music journalist Ian Ravendale versatile music journalist Ian Ravendale
Ian Ravendale North East freelance journalist ian ravendale Newcastle freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Sunderland freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Tyne and Wear journalist northern freelance journalist Ian Ravendale long established freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Well known journalist Ian Ravendale veteran freelancejournalist Ian Ravendale Quick witted journalist Ian Ravendale Knowledgeable journalist Ian Ravendale freelance journalist Ian Ravendale long-established north east journalist Ian Ravendale respected freelance journalist Ian Ravendale busy Wearside journalist Ian Ravendale recognised freelance journalist Ian Ravendale respected journalist Ian Ravendale versatile freelance journalist Ian Ravendale
Ian Ravendale North East freelance journalist ian ravendale Newcastle freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Sunderland freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Tyne and Wear journalist northern freelance journalist Ian Ravendale long established freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Well known journalist Ian Ravendale veteran freelancejournalist Ian Ravendale Quick witted journalist Ian Ravendale Knowledgeable journalist Ian Ravendale freelance journalist Ian Ravendale long-established north east journalist Ian Ravendale respected freelance journalist Ian Ravendale busy Wearside journalist Ian Ravendale recognised freelance journalist Ian Ravendale respected journalist Ian Ravendale versatile freelance journalist Ian Ravendale
Ian Ravendale North East freelance journalist ian ravendale Newcastle freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Sunderland freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Tyne and Wear journalist northern freelance journalist Ian Ravendale long established freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Well known journalist Ian Ravendale veteran freelancejournalist Ian Ravendale Quick witted journalist Ian Ravendale Knowledgeable journalist Ian Ravendale freelance journalist Ian Ravendale long-established north east journalist Ian Ravendale respected freelance journalist Ian Ravendale busy Wearside journalist Ian Ravendale recognised freelance journalist Ian Ravendale respected journalist Ian Ravendale versatile freelance journalist Ian Ravendale
Ian Ravendale North East freelance journalist ian ravendale Newcastle freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Sunderland freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Tyne and Wear journalist northern freelance journalist Ian Ravendale long established freelance journalist Ian Ravendale Well known journalist Ian Ravendale veteran freelancejournalist Ian Ravendale Quick witted journalist Ian Ravendale Knowledgeable journalist Ian Ravendale freelance journalist Ian Ravendale long-established north east journalist Ian Ravendale respected freelance journalist Ian Ravendale busy Wearside journalist Ian Ravendale recognised freelance journalist Ian Ravendale respected journalist Ian Ravendale versatile freelance journalist Ian Ravendale
Ian Ravendale North East music journalist ian ravendale Newcastle music journalist Ian Ravendale Sunderland music journalist Ian Ravendale Tyne and Wear music journalist northern music journalist Ian Ravendale long established music journalist Ian Ravendale Well known music journalist Ian Ravendale
