Jonathan King
Jonathan King
Jonathan King (born Kenneth George King, 6 December 1944) is an English singer-songwriter, record producer, music entrepreneur, and former television and radio presenter. King first came to prominence in 1965 when "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", a song that he wrote and sang while still an undergraduate, achieved chart success in Britain and the United States. The Guardian reported in 2002 that he had sold over 40 million records in his career. As an independent producer, he discovered and named Genesis in 1967, and produced their first album From Genesis to Revelation. He founded his own label, UK Records in 1972. He released and produced songs for 10cc and the Bay City Rollers. In the 1970s King became known for hits that he performed and produced under different names, including "Johnny Reggae", "Loop di Love", "Hooked On A Feeling" and "Una Paloma Blanca"; between September 1971 and 1972 alone he produced 10 top 30 singles in the UK. Rod Liddle described him as someone who could "storm the pop charts at will, under a hundred different disguises".While living in New York in the 1980s, King continued to appear on radio and television in the UK, including on the BBC's Top of the Pops and Entertainment USA. In the early 1990s he produced the Brit Awards, and from 1995 he selected and produced the British entries for the Eurovision Song Contest, including the winning entry in 1997, "Love Shine a Light" by Katrina and the Waves.In September 2001, King was convicted of child sexual abuse and sentenced to seven years in prison, for having sexually assaulted five boys, aged 14 and 15, in the 1980s. In November 2001 he was acquitted of 22 similar charges. He was released on parole in March 2005. A further trial for sexual offences against teenage boys resulted in several not guilty verdicts and the trial being abandoned in June 2018.