Jonathan Brick is a Watford-based editor and proofreader. He writes songs, stories and journalism with a focus on music and football. His book From Kids to Champions: The History of the FA Youth Cup, is out in hardback on Pitch, while Moz Winter, Albion Manager is out on The Stand. Banternalysis, a look at football punditry around the world, and This Place: A Diary, by Simon Alexander MP, can both be found as eBooks. His songwriting can be found on Soundcloud.
I’ve written for plenty of sports publications, including Late Tackle magazine (a bi-monthly title), Stand Against Modern Football (a quarterly title dedicated to fan culture), Our Football League and Golden Pages (a Watford FC fanzine).
I was also featured in FourFourTwo and have written pieces on statues, the postwar era and football literature for Football Paradise.
My book A Modern Guide to Modern Football was released in 2020 in a revised edition, having initially come out in previous versions in both 2014 and 2016. From Kids to Champions, about the FA Youth Cup, came out in May 2022 on Pitch Publications. My novella Moz Winter, Albion Manager is out on The Stand Publishing. Banternalysis, an investigation into the art and science of punditry, came out at the end of 2023; it’s available as an eBook and a print-on-demand paperback.
My Football Literary Society project, which takes the form of conversations with other football writers, began in 2020. I have interviewed over 250 critics including broadsheet writers, fan media and the son of the influential critic Brian Glanville. The Retired Footballer Calendar was published as an ebook in 2024.
Simon ‘Al’ Alexander is a sitting Independent MP who, between September 2023 and the 2024 General Election, wrote a daily diary about his time at the Palace of Westminster, working in the House of Commons, also known as This Place. His aim was to demystify government, as well as outlining his work in his constituency.
A collection of his entries, edited by Jonny Brick, was published in July 2024 as This Place: A Diary. He writes about establishing relations with voters and with the media, reflecting on committee meetings, and offering penpics of hopeful MPs and hopeless ones who forever stood up to intervene in chamber debates.
Al outlines an impressive amount of parliamentary procedure: the King’s Speech and the Spring Budget, ministerial questions and Westminster Hall sessions, and debates on Bills going through Parliament. Plus there's Prime Minister’s Questions every Wednesday, which Al would watch from his office to avoid the pantomime and flimflam.
Then there was the constituency part of his job description: Saturday morning walks in the town centre, monthly door-knocking sessions, community events, school visits and fortnightly surgeries at Jana’s famous coffee shop.
Across the diary you, the reader, will also discover: Al’s three favourite acronyms that sum up British life; his rivalry with James Berrygrove, who was put up to challenge Al as the Conservative candidate; and a rollcall of the members of the Companion of Honour.
Al says that politics ‘is necessary, difficult, enriching, frustrating and the best job in Britain.’ Having read the 200,000 words of Al's diary, will you agree?
My interest in country music was facilitated by sites including Lyric Magazine and Your Life in a Song. See the Country Way of Life section for a full rundown.
On this site’s blog, the 2010s project lists the most important songs of the last decade. You can also read pieces on the blog from my ongoing 45 series, which compile playlists of 40 tunes based on a variety of common themes with accompanying songs penned by me.
I’m also talking on a semi-regular basis to 78 music critics for my Music Library, and I wrote a little book about the Beautiful South, which was modelled on the 33 1/3 series of essays. to celebrate the 60th birthday of the band’s guiding light, Paul Heaton. I gave it away to fans in May 2022.
To celebrate the 50th birthday of Robbie Williams, I wrote an essay and recorded 50 of his songs which I turned into a Watford Fringe show in July 2024. An Evening with The Gallaghers followed the same format in September, with an essay to provide context for recordings of 52 Oasis copyrights. A Watford Fringe show will follow in 2025.
A Dylan A Day, in celebration of the Nobel laureate and singer/songwriter, is available now. You can hear my series of recordings of Dylan’s music, and the script for the Watford Fringe show from 2021, in the Dylan at 80 series.
From a hobby to a possible vocation, I also love to write songs and have recorded several of my own. An acoustic album of original songs can be found on Soundcloud, where you can also find the soundtrack to How's Steve Tonight, a novel with an accompanying 10-track album of songs by rock'n'roll star Steve Wales, and The Three Mulleteers, the soundtrack to a rock'n'roll epic poem which you can read here.
In recent years, my Macca at 77 project took in songs written by Paul McCartney, Bruce at 70 looked at Bruce Springsteen for his 70th birthday (in five separate playlists) and both Gary Barlow at 50 and Max Martin at 50 did the same with Gary and Max’s catalogues. You can find covers of Bruce, Gary and Max's songbooks on Soundcloud.
To celebrate what would have been his big birthday in 2023, I put together George Michael at 60, a radio show combining insights and music. I also marked the 50th birthday of Robbie Williams in 2024 with a 50-song playlist and an essay available as an eBook. To anticipate the Oasis reunion, I put together a similar project called An Evening with The Gallaghers, with a 52-song playlist and an essay available as an eBook.
You can find plenty of pieces on country music, from the Sunday Hymn Sheet and Festive 50 chart rundowns to artist profiles and topical essays, at CountryWOL.com. The live show has been to Edinburgh (2018) and Islington (2019). You can also follow the Facebook page at A Country Way of Life, which throughout 2024 is running a Country Music Calendar which will be published as an eBook at the end of the year.
In 2021 and 2022 I presented In The Red Dirt, an hour of music from Texas and Oklahoma, on Arc Radio (which has since stopped transmitting). I interviewed songwriters and performers such as Terry McBride, Jess Clemmons from Jess and the Bandits, Jon Randall, Jesse Daniel, Ray Benson (from Asleep at the Wheel) and Jaret Ray Reddick.
Across Summer and Autumn 2023 I presented The UK Country Top 10 on behalf of The Bridge Country, compiling programmes which introduce fans to UK country artists, as well as dealing with themes found across many of their songs, from Opening Lines to Road Songs to Story Songs. In 2024, for the same channel, I host a monthly UK Country Songbook series which compiles 50 songs by British artists in 12 shows. Find the programmes in a playlist here.
Throughout 2024 I am also writing a weekly series for Nashville Worldwide called Figures From The Backroom, which profiles many of country music’s unsung heroes, including songwriters, producers and players. I also contribute to Country Music People magazine, with album reviews and a monthly version of my Sunday Hymn Sheet. I have just launched two new weekly series on the site: Any Given Songday, which celebrates country number ones; and Stuck at Two, which shines a light on the runners-up.
I spent a year working on a series for The British Country Music Festival on the journey of country music from the UK and back to it. The first part deals with the Scots-Irish migration which took the music with them. The next part concerns the era where country returned to the UK via concerts and recordings, before taking over Wembley Arena for weekend festivals in the 1970s and 1980s. There was a lull in the 1990s and 2000s, although line-dancing grew in popularity and country still hit the charts via acts like Shania Twain and Boyzone(!)
Then came the renaissance in the 2010s thanks to radio stations, print coverage and festivals like Nashville Meets London and Country2Country.
In 2018, to celebrate the 100th edition of the NOW music compilation, I wrote 100 essays and recorded 100 songs for a NOW playlist.
I have continued the project into the 2020s and will compile the essays into a Now That’s What I Call NOW eBook in 2025.
You can find the essays at nowthatswhaticallnow.com, with links to all of them in one place here.
The songs were chosen according to which was the most musically, lyrically and culturally significant on each NOW compilation. You can find them on Soundcloud in five playlists: NOW 1-25, NOW 26-50, NOW 51-75, NOW 76-100 and NOW 101 Onwards.
My love of radio has led me to produce several podcasts: the Watford FC-centric Ronny & Ramage pod (2016-20); the music discussion pod Opportunity Inbox; Sounds of the 90s, about music from 1990-99 (2017-18); and a monthly digest of country music in the UK, the UK Country Top 40 Chart Countdown.
In 2020-21 I presented Country Jukebox Jury, an online show where I recommended great country music, and in 2022 I hosted the Bohemian Vodkast, which featured conversation and a fun quiz with football fans, on behalf of Bohemian Brands.
I was involved with The Pulse Hospital Radio between 2016-17 and again 2019-20. In autumn 2022 I also spent three months broadcasting mid-mornings Wednesday to Friday on local radio station Vibe 107.6, where my voice could be heard on FM around South Hertfordshire. I spoke to several comic performers to promote their Watford Fringe shows, including Ashley Haden, The Electric Head, Mel Byron, Louise Atkinson and Adele Cliff.
