Faculty Member, Brighton Institute of Modern Music
University of Southampton, Depatment of Humanities
About
Jon Stewart formed what became the platinum-selling Britpop band Sleeper as an undergraduate at the University of Manchester in the late 1980s. He was guitarist and co-song writer in the band, who produced three UK Top 5 albums and nine UK Top 40 singles for RCA/BMG Records from 1993-1998.
His extensive live music experience include British, European and world tours; plus one-off performances at Wembley Arena, Milton Keynes Bowl, Glastonbury Festival and Reading Festival main stages. During this time Sleeper performed as opening act for REM, Elvis Costello, Radiohead, Blur and Manic Street Preachers.
In 1998 Jon moved to Los Angeles and worked as session guitarist for country legend K D Lang and ex-Spice Girl Mel C.
In 2002 he joined Brighton Institute of Modern Music (BIMM), where he designed and delivered the music history and music business modules on a BA (Hons) Professional Musicianship validated and awarded by University of Sussex. As Senior Academic Lecturer and Head of Music Business Studies, Jon has helped to develop a number of successful young musicians (including The Kooks). He has also co-managed BIMM alumni and assisted them in securing major label record deals (Universal Music), independent deals, and other positions in the industry - including one graduate whom he managed as bass player for Nine Inch Nails.
Jon wrote a long-running monthly feature column (“Rock Climbing”) for Guitarist Magazine 2002-2011. His research interests include John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Delta Blues, and HBO TV’s The Wire. Jon is currently an MPhil/PhD student at the University of Southampton where he is researching celebrity and popular music in the 1960s.
Jon has contributed book chapters and articles for several academic publications, including reviews for The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture (Taylor & Francis), '"Oh Blessed Holy Caffeine Tree": Coffee in Popular Music' for M/C Journal (15/2, May 2012), and ‘What’s Going On? Anti-War Music from Vietnam to the War on Terror’, in Gibson, S (Ed) "Repertoires of Violence" (Palgrave). He has delivered conference papers at the Screen Conference, Society for Research into Higher Education (UK), ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (University of Manchester), York St John University, Loughborough University, Manchester University, London Met, and others. He has appeared on local and national media (including the BBC) as an authority on popular music and is on the committee of MusicDoc11 (University of Sussex), an annual conference that explores and celebrates rockumentary film.
As partner in film music company Music4Movies.org (with Ann Marie Shields, sister of Kevin Shields and former manager of My Bloody Valentine) Jon has worked as music supervisor, music consultant and OST contributor on several feature and documentary projects, including "Telstar: The True Story of Joe Meek" and "Trainspotting".
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