Jim Irvin

Jim Irvin is an English singer, songwriter and music journalist.

Early life

Born James Lawrence Irvin and raised in west London.

Career

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 and Paranoia, for Arista (1989), and disbanded in 1991. 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.

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. He also edited an acclaimed book, The Mojo Collection. 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.