Writer and Broadcaster.
Bob is a freelance writer and broadcaster, based in Manchester UK and Bariloche, Argentina. He has worked in TV at the BBC, Granada and Channel 4, as well at BBC Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 4. Bob has also pursued academic research, as well as mentoring younger writers. He is a regular contributor to the journal Art Monthly and also writes for websites the Double Negative, Corridor 8 and a-n.
Writer
During Manchester’s post-punk years Bob wrote for alternative magazines and fanzines, as well as freelancing for the New Musical Express, the Guardian and others. His postgraduate MPhil thesis, published in 1997, researched the history of the alternative press in Manchester. At the same time, Bob wrote about the city’s regeneration for Manchester Area Psychogeographic (MAP). Bob currently focuses on contemporary art, examining its responses to the climate emergency, mass-migration and the refugee crisis, and exploring themes like work, unemployment, domesticity and intimacy. He has a special interest in performance art. His PhD, awarded in 2020, concerns critical writing and contemporary art.
Broadcaster
Bob worked at Granada Television in the 1980s and 90s. As a producer, Bob made many in-concert specials by bands including James, Inspiral Carpets, the La’s, Boo Radleys, World of Twist, and Half Man Half Biscuit. He also produced the weekly show, Express, featuring early appearances by Caroline Aherne as Mrs Merton, and Johnny Bramwell of I Am Kloot. In 1993 Bob moved to BBC Radio 1, co-producing Mark Radcliffe on The Guest List, with live appearances by Jeff Buckley, Kevin Ayers, the Creation, and others. Bob also produced Radio 2 Arts Programmes and Radio 4’s Front Row. For Radio 4 Bob produced many documentaries with presenters including Ray Gosling, Jarvis Cocker, Ian MacMillan, Mark Kermode and Evelyn Glennie.
And More
As a writer, Bob has collaborated with several artists and writers including the Norwegian collective Alt Ga Bra, the British-Taiwanese artist Yu-Chen Wang, and British artist John Newling. In 2008 he was one of the groups organising the psychogeographic conference, TRIP (Territories Reimagined International Perspectives) at Manchester Metropolitan University. Bob was also a member of Manchester Left Writers alongside Steve Hanson, Natalie Bradbury and David Wilkinson, who curated the exhibition The Powerhouse Liberation Movement, at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, 2016.
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