David Hepworth (born 27 July 1950) is a British music journalist, writer and publishing industry analyst who was instrumental in the foundation of a number of popular magazines in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Along with the journalist, editor and broadcaster

Mark Ellen Mark Ellen (born 16 September 1953) is a British magazine editor, journalist and broadcaster who lives in West London. Early life Ellen was born in Fleet, Hampshire, England. Whilst at Oxford University in the 1970s, he briefly played bass alo ...

, he turned the pop magazine ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand fo ...

'' into one of the most popular UK music magazines of the 1980s. He co-presented the BBC broadcast of

Live Aid Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 fami ...

on 13 July 1985, when he was the presenter told by

Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter, and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as lead singer of the Rock music in Ireland, Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved ...

to "fuck the address" when pleading with viewers to send in their money.

Early life

David Hepworth was born in

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...

, then in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, and attended the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School,

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

, and Trent Park College of Education. He worked for HMV and

Beserkley Records Beserkley Records was an American independent record label based in Berkeley, California, from 1973 to 1984. Beserkley is usually regarded as a power pop and rock and roll label. During the 1970s, the label released albums by Earth Quake, Gre ...

, before becoming a freelance journalist.

Career

His career in journalism began with contributions to ''

NME ''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 ...

'' and ''

Sounds In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

''. He joined the newly launched magazine ''

'' in 1979, and two years later, after turning it around financially, became its editor. In 1983 he launched '' Just Seventeen'', a perennially popular magazine for teenage girls, and in 1984 ''Looks''. Since then he has launched several other magazines, including '' Q'' (1986), ''

More More or Mores may refer to: Computing * MORE (application), outline software for Mac OS * more (command), a shell command * MORE protocol, a routing protocol * Missouri Research and Education Network Music Albums * ''More!'' (album), by Booka S ...

'' (1987), ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'' (1988), ''

Mojo Mojo may refer to: * Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * MOJO HD, an American television network * ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film * ' ...

'' (1993), ''

Heat In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...

'' (1999) and '' The Word'' (2003). He is currently director of the publishing company Development Hell. In the early 1980s he presented the BBC television show ''

The Old Grey Whistle Test ''The Old Grey Whistle Test'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''Whistle Test'' or ''OGWT'') is a British television music show. The show was devised by BBC producer Rowan Ayers, commissioned by David Attenborough and aired on BBC2 from 1971 to 1988. ...

'' and was one of the presenters covering

. On both of these he worked with long-term friend Mark Ellen. Hepworth famously provoked

to repeatedly use the word "fuck" live on air. Hepworth has written for ''The Guardian'' and for the UK trade magazine ''InPublishing''. In the 1990s he was a regular presenter on BBC GLR 94.9 – the BBC's Rock station for London. In 2006, Hepworth sold his independent publishing company Development Hell to the

EMAP Ascential plc, formerly EMAP, is a British business-to-business media business specialising in exhibitions & festivals and information services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History Ric ...

group (today known as Ascential).Dispatches: Last mag standing
. ''The Guardian'', 14 April 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2021 He now concentrates on publishing books on music nostalgia, his "David Hepworth's blog", and collaborations with Mark Ellen on ''Word In Your Ear'', a series of podcasts and music-themed live events. In 2021, Hepworth's book ''1971 - Never a Dull Moment: Rock's Golden Year'' was adapted into the

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

documentary mini-series ''1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything''.

Publications

*''Abbey Road Studios at 90''. London: Bantam, 2022. *''Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There: How a Few Skinny Brits with Bad Teeth Rocked America''. London: Bantam, 2020. *''Rock & Roll A Level: The only quiz book you need''. London: Bantam, 2020. *''A Fabulous Creation: How the LP Saved Our Lives''. London: Bantam, 2019. *''Nothing is Real: The Beatles Were Underrated And Other Sweeping Statements About Pop''. London: Bantam, 2018. *''Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars''. London: Bantam, 2017. *''1971 – Never a Dull Moment: Rock's Golden Year''. London: Bantam, 2016. *''The Secret History of Entertainment''. London: Fourth Estate, 2010.

References

External links

David Hepworth's blog

Collection of Hepworth's ''In Publishing'' columns
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hepworth, David 1950 births Living people Alumni of Middlesex University BBC television presenters British magazine editors British music critics British music journalists People educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield People from Dewsbury Rock critics