caption website associated_acts years_active first_album birth_place label name background instrument genre image article_title birth_name occupation
dick witts , 2006 http://www.richardwitts.com/ the passage hallé orchestra dreamtiger ensemble 1978 -- present pindrop 1980 cleethorpes , lincolnshire , england , uk virgin , cherry red , ltm richard witts solo_singer percussion keyboard music , musicology dick_witts . jpg richard witts
 richard witts singer/songwriter , multi-instrumentalist , author
richard witts

richard `` dick '' witts is a professional musicologist , music historian , and ex leader of 1980s band the passage .
he was born in cleethorpes , lincolnshire , england .
he attended clee grammar school for boys .
he studied at the royal manchester college of music and briefly at manchester university .
during this time he was a member of the hallé orchestra as a percussionist .
during the mid-1970s he wrote for the contemporary classical music magazine `` contact '' .
at that time , he was also involved in starting a manchester musicians collective -lrb- on the model of the recently established london musicians collective -rrb- .
this led into contact with the growing punk scene and he formed the passage , producing their recordings and singing on many of their releases .
he presented television programme oxford road show in the early 1980s for the bbc from oxford road studios , manchester and was also a reporter for bbc radio 3 .
thirty of his radio interviews and contributions are housed in the british library sound archive .
in 2003 he gave the saul seminar there on the history of music presentation in radio .
during the late 1980s he became involved in arts administration roles .
he subsequently wrote a critical history of the arts council of great britain : `` artist unknown : an alternative history of the arts council '' .
his first book , `` nico -- the lives and lies of an icon '' , was a biographical study of the german singer and songwriter -lrb- virgin books , 1993 -rrb- .
dick now lives in liverpool and is a writer who has lectured at the university of edinburgh , goldsmiths college , london , the university of surrey in guildford and the university of sussex .
he was appointed research fellow at the university of edinburgh where he made a simple catalogue of the archive of sir donald francis tovey -lrb- 1875 -- 1940 -rrb- .
in 2010 he was invited by edge hill university , ormskirk , to design an honours course in music .
his third book , a study of the music and history of `` the velvet underground '' , was published by equinox -lrb- uk -rrb- and the indiana university press -lrb- usa -rrb- in september 2006 .
he has also written chapters for the following academic books : `` kraftwerk : music non-stop '' -lrb- continuum , 2011 -rrb- , `` mark e. smith and the fall : art , music and politics '' , -lrb- ashgate , 2010 -rrb- , and the cambridge companion to recorded music -lrb- cambridge university press , 2009 -rrb- .
witts is mentioned in the book audio culture : readings in modern music .
he is credited with sending a package containing some of aphex twin 's music to karlheinz stockhausen .
he is currently researching a book on the history of british music from 1941 -- 2000 .
witts is consultant to the ensemble icebreaker .
