Mark John ("MJ") Hibbett (born 19 June 1970) is an English guitarist singer-songwriter, often compared to

Billy Bragg Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His music is ...

Web Watch
Dave Green, The Guardian, 21 August 2003.The Fuzztival: Oh, what a night!
Alex Hodgson, BBC South Yorkshire, 15 November 2003. and

Richard Digance Richard Digance (pronounced DYE-jance; born 24 February 1949) is an English comedian and folk singer. Early life Digance was born in Plaistow, East London. After his family moved to nearby East Ham, he attended Vicarage Lane Primary School ...

. With his band The Validators, Hibbett came to widespread online notice in 2000 with "Hey Hey 16K", an ode to the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

and other home microcomputers of the 1980s. The song gained larger acclaim when an animated music video for the track, created by

Rob Manuel Rob Manuel (born 5 December 1973) is the English co-founder of the website B3ta (where he is affectionately known as "the Ginger Führer"). Work Manuel is responsible for numerous quizzes and Flash animations. He has also collaborated with Joel Ve ...

, was released in 2004.''Hey Hey 16K''
song, video and history. Hibbett later collaborated with Manuel, who directed the music video for his song "The Gay Train". In 2004, Hibbett gained national exposure in the United Kingdom, on the

Steve Lamacq Stephen Paul Lamacq (born 16 October 1964), sometimes known by his nickname Lammo (given to him by John Peel), is an English disc jockey, currently working with the BBC radio station BBC Radio 6 Music. Early life He attended The Ramsey Academy ...

show on

BBC 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available onl ...

, by regularly performing "The Fair Play Trophy (Again)", a song whose lyrics were updated for each rendition to reflect the then-ongoing events of the

UEFA European Football Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

. Hibbett's songs have mostly been released on his own record label, Artists Against Success. He is an advocate of the

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

, which he has used for solo performances. Hibbett lives and works in London, where he is employed as a

database administrator Database administrators (DBAs) use specialized software to store and organize data. The role may include capacity planning, installation, configuration, database design, migration, performance monitoring, security, troubleshooting, as well as back ...

. He holds master's degrees from City University and

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was tak ...

and attended

Deacon's School Deacon's School was located in Dogsthorpe, Peterborough, England. In 2007, the school was demolished and replaced by the Thomas Deacon Academy. History The school opened in 1721 as Mr. Deacon's Charity School in Cowgate. In his will, Thomas D ...

. He was awarded a doctorate in philosophy at the

University of the Arts London University of the Arts London is a collegiate university in London, England, specialising in arts, design, fashion and the performing arts. It is a federation of six arts colleges: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea Coll ...

comics studies Comics studies (also comic art studies, sequential art studies or graphic narrative studies) is an academic field that focuses on comics and sequential art. Although comics and graphic novels have been generally dismissed as less relevant pop c ...

, focusing on

Doctor Doom Doctor Victor Von Doom is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and first appeared in ''The Fantastic Four'' #5 in July 1962. The monarch of the fi ...

. This was later published by SpringerLink in 2024 as ''Data and Doctor Doom: An Empirical Approach To Transmedia Characters'' (ISBN 978-3-031-45175-1).

References

External links

MJ Hibbett homepage and blogMJ Hibbett on MySpaceMJ Hibbett discography
* 1970 births Living people English pop guitarists English rock guitarists English male guitarists English male singer-songwriters English singer-songwriters English bloggers Alumni of City, University of London Musicians from Peterborough Alumni of De Montfort University People educated at Deacon's School 21st-century English singers British male bloggers 21st-century British guitarists 21st-century British male singers {{England-musician-stub