Fred Dellar

Frederick Dellar (29 May 1931 – 15 May 2021) was an English music writer and journalist, regarded in the popular music scene as "the king of trivia".

Life and career

Fred Dellar was born in Willesden, London, and lived above a fish and chip shop which was bombed in the Second World War. He undertook National Service in 1950, and was posted to the RAF base at High Wycombe, where he started a jazz club. After returning to London, he worked in factories and warehouses while also producing jazz fanzines. From 1955, he began contributing reviews to magazines including '' Record Mirror'', and liner notes for records. He became the secretary of the Frank Sinatra Appreciation Society in the UK, edited a fanzine, ''Perfectly Frank'', attended a wide range of jazz and other gigs, and accumulated a collection of magazines and files of information that proved invaluable in later years."Fred Dellar 1931-2021", ''Mojo'', No.333, August 2021, p.113 He married in 1958, and in 1964 started working for the London Book Centre distribution company, while writing reviews in his spare time.

In 1971, after being made redundant from a warehouse job in London, he and his wife moved to Northampton. He successfully applied for a job at the ''New Musical Express