Jim Irvin

Furniture

Irvin was the singer in the British indie band Furniture, who released singles and albums with Survival, Stiff and Arista Records between 1982 and 1990. He co-wrote their 1986 UK hit single, "Brilliant Mind", taken from the album, The Wrong People. The song also appeared in the John Hughes movie, Some Kind of Wonderful and was re-recorded for the soundtrack. Furniture made one further album, Food, Sex & Paranoia, for Arista (1990), and disbanded in 1991.^[1] In 1992, Irvin recorded an album, "Mad Scared Dumb And Gorgeous" with jazz musician Chris Ingham, under the name Because. It was released on Boo Hewerdine's Haven label.^[2]

Music journalism

In 1991, Irvin began contributing to Melody Maker magazine, where his work appeared under the name Jim Arundel. He was later made reviews editor. In 1994, reverting to Jim Irvin, he became the founding features editor of Mojo magazine. He was on the staff for seven years and left as its senior editor. One of his most notable pieces for the magazine was "Angel of Avalon", a major profile of the late Sandy Denny, published in 1998.^[3] He also edited an acclaimed book, The Mojo Collection.^[4] He has written for The Word, Time Out, The Sunday Times and The Guardian and continues to write a reissues column for Mojo. In February 2015 he published an e-book, A Book Of Wild Flowers, which collected his writings on Sandy Denny, Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush.

Later production and songwriting

In 1995, Irvin produced the first demos by the band Gay Dad, and co-write some of the songs which later appeared on their debut album, Leisure Noise. Their single, "Oh Jim", was said to be dedicated to him.

In 1999, he produced Lido, the debut album by Clearlake, released in 2000 on his own label, Dusty Company, an offshoot of Domino Records.

Irvin returned to full-time songwriting in 2001, concentrating initially on dance music. He co-wrote the 2004 hit "The Weekend" by Michael Gray, and has had work recorded by Groove Armada, Full Intention and David Guetta.^[5]

Since 2006 his work has been mostly outside dance music, with artists like Lana Del Rey, Lissie, Simple Plan and Nothing but Thieves.

Essays and reporting

• Irvin, Jim (Dec 2014). "The birth & death of Pink Floyd : the long goodbye". Mojo. 253 (6): 74–84.
• — (Dec 2014). "Kismet, Hardy". File Under. Mojo. 253 (6): 112. Review of five albums by Françoise Hardy.