Jim Irvin is an English singer, songwriter and music journalist.
Irvin was born and raised in West London. He was the singer in the British indie-band Furniture, who released singles and albums with Survival, Stiff and Arista Records between 1982 and 1990. He co-wrote their 1986 UK hit single, "Brilliant Mind", taken from the album, The Wrong People. The song also appeared in the John Hughes movie, Some Kind of Wonderful and was re-recorded for the soundtrack. Furniture made one further album, Food, Sex and Paranoia, for Arista (1989), and disbanded in 1990.[1]
Irvin then began contributing to Melody Maker magazine, where his work appeared under the name Jim Arundel. He was later made reviews editor. In 1994, reverting to Jim Irvin, he became the founding features editor of Mojo magazine. He was on the staff for seven years and left as its Senior Editor. One of his most notable pieces for Mojo was 'Angel Of Avalon', a major profile of the late Sandy Denny, published in 1998.[2] He also edited an acclaimed book, The Mojo Collection.[3] He continues to write a reissues column for Mojo, and also contributes a regular music DVD column to The Word.
In 1995, Irvin produced the first demos by the band Gay Dad, and co-write some of the songs on their debut album, Leisure Noise. Their single, "Oh Jim", was supposedly dedicated to him.
In 1999, he produced Lido, the debut album by Clearlake, released in 2000 on his own label, Dusty Company, an offshoot of Domino Records.
Irvin returned to full-time songwriting in 2001, concentrating initially on dance music. He co-wrote the 2004 hit "The Weekend" by Michael Gray, and has had work recorded by Groove Armada, Miami Ice, Full Intention and David Guetta.[4]
More recently, Irvin has been working across all genres with Lissie,[5] Michelle Branch,[6] Cady Groves, Halestorm, Alex Hepburn, Boyzone,[7] Jack McManus, Murray James, Simple Plan,[8] Audra Mae, Twenty Twenty, Zucchero, Various Cruelties and David Cook;[9] most of these in collaboration with musician and producer Julian Emery.[4] Their song written with Lissie, "When I'm Alone", was selected by ITunes UK as the Song of the Year 2010.