CP Lee

Biography

Christopher Paul "CP" Lee (born 19 January 1950) is a writer, broadcaster, lecturer and performer who started playing in the North West folk and beat clubs of the 1960s with his band Greasy Bear and became a lynchpin of the punk rock explosion with his next band Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias (other members included Jimmy Hibbert, Bruce Mitchell, Les Prior, Bob Harding, Simon White, Ray "Mongo" Hughes, Tony Bowers, John Scott and Captain Mog). In 1977 Lee wrote the "snuff-rock" musical Sleak, which ran for several months in London's Royal Court Theatre and the Roundhouse. It subsequently had a run at Privates in New York City in 1980. Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias split up in 1982 after releasing three albums. Lee then wrote and performed a tribute show of routines by Lord Buckley, first in Manchester and later in other places including Amsterdam, New York and London. He also worked as a music journalist.

When We Were Thin (published October 2007) is a personal memoir in which Lee recounts how he produced one side of the first Factory Records release, ate muffins with Andy Warhol, drove a table with Wreckless Eric and was Elvis Costello for a day.

His other works include books about Bob Dylan, one of which, Like The Night (Revisited), focuses on the shout of 'Judas' aimed at Dylan at his Manchester Free Trade Hall performance in 1966, which was the climax of Martin Scorsese's documentary of Dylan, No Direction Home. Another book, Shake, Rattle & Rain, is adapted from his PhD thesis on Manchester music-making.

CP Lee is now retired after being a course leader in film studies and senior lecturer at the University of Salford and successfully continues writing and presenting talks as well as documentaries for BBC radio and TV. Since 2004 he has also been a co-trustee of the Manchester District Music Archive