Stuart John Maconie (born 13 August 1961 in Whiston, Lancashire) is an English radio DJ and television presenter, writer, journalist, critic and champion of pop music and popular culture. He is currently active on BBC Radio 2, co-hosting with Mark Radcliffe the Radcliffe and Maconie Show from 8-10 pm Monday to Wednesday. He used to present his own solo show on Saturday afternoons from April 2006 until 29 March 2008 and is a frequent stand-in for holidaying presenters on Radio 2. He also hosts BBC 6 Music programmes The Freak Zone, on Sundays from 5.30-8 pm and The Freakier Zone, on Friday night/Saturday mornings from midnight-1am.
He lives in and broadcasts from Birmingham, though the Radcliffe and Maconie show is broadcast from BBC's studios in Manchester.
Maconie was born in Whiston Hospital, Lancashire. While still at St John Rigby school in the sixth form, Maconie formed a band named (after several iterations) "Les Flirts", featuring Maconie on guitar/vocals, Nigel Power on bass and Jem Bretherton on drums. They performed at Wigan venues like the BierKellar and 'Trucks'. Performance style was influenced by the early Elvis Costello school of delivery. Set highlights included the self-penned "Little Flirts" and a crowd-pleasing cover of "Satellite of Love".
In his career as a writer and journalist he has written for Q, Word Magazine, Elle, The Times, The Guardian, the Evening Standard, the Daily Express, Select, Mojo, Country Walking, Deluxe and was an assistant editor for the NME. In September 2008 he began a new monthly column for Cumbria Life magazine. Maconie previously worked as an English and sociology teacher at Skelmersdale College, Lancashire for one year in 1987-88.
He has written screenplays for television and films. He is also the author of Cider With Roadies, an autobiography of his experiences as a music journalist. Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North, a humorous book that discusses the modern reality of the North of England (as opposed to the popular myths), was published in February 2007, with an audio version following in March 2009. Maconie, himself a 'northerner', uses his own childhood experiences alongside anecdotes from recent visits to illuminate the book. A third book, Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England was published in March 2009.
Maconie also is credited with starting the urban legend that Bob Holness, UK host of the game show Blockbusters, played the sax solo on Gerry Rafferty's hit single "Baker Street". The rumour first appeared as a blatant joke in a spoof NME 'Believe It or Not' feature but has since been repeated elsewhere as if it were true. He also claims to have coined the well used phrase 'Britpop' in the 1990s. ‘I’m sure someone must have used the expression before me about the Hollies, or the Beatles, back in the ‘60s. But I was the first person to use it about bands like Oasis and Blur.’
He was a music reporter for Mark Goodier's Evening Session on BBC Radio 1, alongside Andrew Collins. Also on Radio 1, from 1995—1997, Maconie joined forces with Collins presenting a music review called Collins and Maconie's Hit Parade, which originally went out on Monday nights from 9-10 pm and then on Sunday afternoons from 3-4 pm. From 1994 to 2001, he presented the satirical news review The Treatment, on BBC Radio 5 Live.
In addition to this, in October 1996, Maconie took over a weekly album show on Radio 1 on Sunday nights, until late 1997.
Radio 2
Maconie joined BBC Radio 2 in 1998, with shows such as All Singing, All Dancing, All Night, a northern soul music show, and, for several years, Stuart Maconie's Critical List on Saturday evenings. He also presents documentaries and deputised for Johnnie Walker on Radio 2's Drivetime programme.
From April 2006 to 29 March 2008, Maconie presented the Saturday afternoon show previously presented by Chris Evans.
In addition to his Saturday show, on 16 April 2007, Maconie joined forces with Mark Radcliffe to present a new show on BBC Radio 2 that broadcasts between Monday and Wednesday (Monday to Thursday up to April 2010) from 8-10 pm.
BBC 6 Music
He also joined BBC 6 Music from its inception in 2002 where he presents The Freak Zone radio show. It is described as "the weird, the wonderful and all that's in between", and is very diverse in musical content. This show is broadcast every Sunday from 5.30-8 pm, and has been supplemented in 2010 with The Freakier Zone, aired from midnight–1 am every Friday night/Saturday morning.
Other broadcasting
Maconie has also presented musical specialities for BBC Radio 4 and has appeared on television and in films. In 2007 he presented Stuart Maconie's TV Towns for ITV3, six one hour shows about TV and film locations in Newcastle, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Liverpool and London.
Maconie had his Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2001, collaborating with fellow BBC 6 Music presenter Andrew Collins, and with writer and pundit David Quantick, in Lloyd Cole Knew my Father, which has been re-broadcast on BBC Radio 2. The two also collaborated on the late night movie review television series Collins & Maconie's Movie Club in 1996 for ITV.
He wrote Folklore, the official biography of long-standing Manchester band James, and 3862 Days, the official biography of Blur.
In 2001, Maconie was the winner of the Sony Radio Academy Award for Music Broadcaster of the Year. He also won a silver Sony Award 2007 for the Freak Zone.
He also guest starred in Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights as the presenter of a spoof version of Crimewatch called 'Crimetime' and appeared as himself in Monkey Dust, becoming a victim of retro-obsessed serial killer Ivan Dobsky.
Maconie is also a keen fellwalker having completed, on 20 June 2009, all 214 Wainwrights (in the county of Cumbria).He is an honorary member of the Wainwright Society, and gave their Memorial Lecture in 2006. Married, he lives in the Midlands and in late 2009 Experience Northwest released a series of short stories he wrote about the Hidden Gems in England’s Northwest. In December 2009 Maconie was awarded an honorary Masters Degree by Edge Hill University, Ormskirk.
On 28 December 2009 he won BBC's Celebrity Mastermind, answering questions in his specialist subject round on British poetry of the 20th Century.
