William John Gilmour Pidgeon (1 March 1947 – 19 July 2016) was a British journalist, author, music historian, radio producer, comedy executive and crossword compiler.
[3] Around the same time he was invited to join the team about to launch Let It Rock magazine by Charlie Gillett,[1] who subsequently recommended him as a scriptwriter for BBC Radio 1's The Story of Pop.
In December 1972, he joined The Faces' road crew for the band's UK tour in order to write a roadie's diary, which appeared in Let It Rock[4] and America's Creem magazine.
He wrote a "savagely readable"[8] novelisation of Slade in Flame,[9] which paid scant attention to the screenplay and was withdrawn from sale at cinemas where the film was shown in 1975 for its bad language and explicit violence.
[11] An occasional contributor to Time Out, for whom he interviewed his football hero Stan Bowles,[12] Pidgeon followed editor Richard Williams to Melody Maker, where he championed The Police,[1] [13] accompanying the trio on their first US tour,[14] as he did almost 30 years later during their reunion.
[2] In 1999, Pidgeon was approached by the BBC to run Radio Entertainment, which he did for six years,[1] nurturing Dead Ringers, Flight of The Conchords, Little Britain and The Mighty Boosh during his time in charge.