Peter Hooton (born 28 September 1962) is the

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

of Liverpool-based

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

the Farm. He was also its sole founder member in 1983, overseeing its rise to prominence with two top 10 singles in 1990, its breakup in 1996 and reformation in 2004.

Biography

Hooton was born in Everton and moved to the new

Cantril Farm Stockbridge Village is an area of Knowsley in Merseyside, England. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 6,018. It was the subject of an article in a special report by ''The Economist'' entitled "A new kind of ghetto", which descri ...

estate as a child. In about 1980, he landed a job as a youth worker on the estate, the nickname for which inspired the name of his band "The Farm". In 1981, Hooton was the founding editor of ''The End'', a music and football fanzine aimed at young, working-class readers and initially inspired by an

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

zine attacking that year's

royal wedding ''Royal Wedding'' is a 1951 American musical comedy film directed by Stanley Donen, and starring Fred Astaire and Jane Powell, with music by Burton Lane and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Set in 1947 London at the time of the wedding of Princess Eli ...

. It marked the start of a long career writing about football, music, and working class culture in Liverpool. He is a supporter of local club

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...

Hooton is a committee member of

Spirit of Shankly Spirit Of Shankly (SOS) is the official supporters' union and leader of the supporters board for fans of Liverpool F.C. Named after former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, the union was formed in early 2008 by disgruntled fans opposed to the fo ...

, a Liverpool Football Club supporters union, which was created in 2008 with the aims of ousting the club's controversial owners

Tom Hicks Thomas Ollis Hicks Sr. (born February 7, 1946), is an American private equity investor and sports team owner living in Dallas, Texas. ''Forbes'' magazine estimated Hicks' wealth at $1 billion in 2009, but it dropped to $700 million in 2010 ...

and

George N. Gillett, Jr. George Nield Gillett Jr. (born October 22, 1938) is an American businessman. Originally from Wisconsin, he lives in Vail, Colorado. Biography Gillett graduated from Lake Forest Academy in 1956. He attended Amherst College and is a 1961 graduate ...

and protecting the rights of Liverpool supporters. Hooton appeared on a

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

discussion about the future of football in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in April 2010. He has also been a vocal supporter and sometime spokesman for campaigns in Liverpool to boycott the Sun newspaper over its coverage of the Hillsborough Disaster. In 2015, Hooton, who has a degree in economics and public policy and a

Post-Graduate Certificate in Education The Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE/PGCertEd) is a one- or two-year higher education course in England, Wales and Northern Ireland which provides training in order to allow graduates to become teachers within maintained schools. In ...

, was awarded an honorary degree by

Edge Hill University Edge Hill University is a campus-based public university in Ormskirk, Lancashire, England, which opened in 1885 as Edge Hill College, the first non-denominational teacher training college for women in England, before admitting its first male st ...

. Hooton has been a spokesperson for boycotts of '' The Sun'' following its coverage of the Hillsborough disaster. In November 2019, along with 34 other musicians, Hooton signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party leader

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

in the 2019 UK general election with a call to end austerity.

References

1962 births Living people The Farm (band) members English male singers Alternative dance musicians People from Formby Madchester musicians Musicians from Liverpool {{UK-singer-stub