Lloyd Bradley is one of the UK’s foremost black music experts and a seasoned cultural commentator both in print and in person.

 

His book Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King (Penguin) remains the world’s best-selling book on Jamaican music and culture; the internationally acclaimed Sounds Like London: 100 Years of Black Music in the Capital (Serpents Tail) is the first and only to explore Britain’s modern black music as one continuous thread; he co-authored Ian Wright: A Life In Football (LittleBrown), positioning the Arsenal legend firmly in context as a contemporary black icon.

​

Lloyd is co-curator of the Black Cultural Archive’s best-attended exhibition, Black Sound: Black British Music’s Journey of Creative Independence, was organiser and co-curator of 2015’s Sounds Like London Film Festival – two days of films and talks about London’s black music history; and was Associate Producer of BBC2’s award winning series Reggae: The Story of Jamaican Music. He was among the UK’s first black pirate radio crew on the iconic Dread Broadcast Corporation; has compiled and written sleevenotes for numerous soul, funk and reggae albums; and has spoken and lectured the UK, the US and Jamaica black music and its socio-cultural resonance.

​

A veteran marathon runner, Lloyd contributed to Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness and Runner’s World, and was Health & Fitness Editor at GQ, before becoming Editorial Consultant with Men’s Health International in the US and Men’s Health and Runner’s World in the UK. He has written The Rough Guide to Men’s Health and The Rough Guide to Running, both best sellers in their fields, and The Rough Guide to Cult Sport.

​

With a background of over 30 years as a music journalist – alongside the health & fitness title his CV includes Mojo, Blues & Soul, the Independent, the Observer, Q Magazine, Esquire, Smash Hits, Music Week and the NME, Lloyd has lectured in journalism and magazine theory & presentation in the UK and the US, devising and delivering courses for media studies and journalism students.

​

Forward, the autobiography of Marcia Barrett, co-authored by Lloyd – will be published by LittleBrown in February 2018, and he is currently writing Funk Is Its Own Reward, the story of 1970s soul music, which should hit the streets some time in the same year.

​

Lloyd is a classically trained chef, who splits his time between London and Florida.