Pete Gofton

Pete Gofton
Birth name	Peter Gofton
Origin	Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England
Genres	Indie Folk Power pop
Occupation(s)	Musician, producer
Instruments	Guitar, drums, bass, vocals
Years active	1994–present
Associated acts	Kenickie J Xaverre Meet Eric Roberts George Washington Brown Frankie & The Heartstrings

Pete Gofton is a Sunderland-based musician and producer who is well known on the North East music scene and has been involved with many artists either playing with them or producing.

History

As Johnny X, Gofton was drummer with Sunderland punk band Kenickie, formed in 1994 and disbanded in 1998, best known for the singles "Punka" and "In Your Car".

After Kenickie, Gofton worked under the name J Xaverre,^[1] described as "pop with knobs on",^[2] releasing These Acid Stars in 2003 on Memphis Industries after much critical acclaim. Gofton also found time to produce work by former Kenickie bandmate and sibling Lauren Laverne and bands such as Spraydog and Woodchuck.

A brief but popular stint as Meet Eric Roberts,^[3] alongside Maximo Park's Paul Smith, Field Music's Peter Brewis, and Jennie and the Bets' John Egdell (Caw Records) in 2006, led to current project George Washington Brown. George Washington Brown released the album On the Night Plain^[4] in 2007 with further material in the works.

Gofton contributed to the album, and was a touring member of The Week That Was,^[5] the new project of Field Music member Peter Brewis.

Gofton is an ex-guitarist with Frankie & The Heartstrings.

In 2012, Gofton began working at the North East Surrey College of Technology (NESCOT) as a music technology teacher.

Personal life

Gofton is the brother of Lauren Laverne, presenter of The Culture Show and Transmission. He has had many pseudonyms, such as Johnny X (as drummer in Kenickie), and then Pete X (guitarist in Kenickie). The name J Xaverre stems from Kenickie's entry in the The Great Indie Discography, which listed his supposed full name as "Johnny Xaverre" and furthermore claimed him to be the band's chief songwriter.^[6] (It has been suggested that this error stemmed from a misreading of the surname "Laverne" in the handwriting-style songwriters' credits on the CD booklet of Kenickie's first album At The Club.)

Originally thought to be pronounced to rhyme with 'fair' (one Metro article came with the punning headline "All The Fun of Xaverre"), Gofton has since confirmed that it is to be pronounced 'Xavier'.

He appears on the cover of the Field Music album Tones of Town, as a café patron. He made an appearance in the 2006 film Confetti as a member of Snoopy's band.

Discography

Albums

At the Club (as part of Kenickie) (1997)
Get In (as part of Kenickie) (1998)
It's All True (as J Xaverre) (2002)
These Acid Stars (as J Xaverre) (2003)
On The Night Plain (as George Washington Brown) (2007)
Mini Album/title TBA (as George Washington Brown) (2009)

Singles

Catsuit City EP (as part of Kenickie) (1995)
Skillex EP (as part of Kenickie) (1995)
"Punka" (as part of Kenickie) (1996)
"Millionaire Sweeper" (as part of Kenickie) (1996)
"In Your Car" (as part of Kenickie) (1997)
"Nightlife" (as part of Kenickie) (1997)
"Punka" (re-release) (as part of Kenickie) (1997)
"I Would Fix You" (as part of Kenickie) (1998)
"Stay in the Sun" (as part of Kenickie) (1998)
"Wild Weekend"/"Nilsong" (as J Xaverre) (2000)
Bingo Wings EP (as J Xaverre) (2001)
Skaterdater EP (as J Xaverre) (2002)
"Saturday" (2003)
"Great All Great" (as J Xaverre) (2003)
"Skip's Love Theme"/"Puget Sound" (Split w/ Le Danger) (2004)
"Searching for the Now Volume 4" (Split w/ The School) (2009)

Compilations

Signal Vs Noise (Walrus (demo)) (1994)
Laugh Hard at the Absurdly Evil (Punka) (1995)
Elastic Jet Mission (Rebel Assault) (1995)
Camden Crawl (Gary II) (1995)
Phoenix The Album (Come Out 2Nite (live)) (1997)
Come Again ("It Started with a Kiss" (feat. Errol Brown)) (1997)
The John Peel Sessions (2000)
We Love You...So Love Us Too (Wild Weekend) (2001)
Beikoku Ongaku/Bambini Records (Saturday) (2002)
Estuary English (compilation)|Estuary English (Saturday) (2003)
We Got Monkeys; 5 Years of Moshi Moshi Records (Bingo Wings) (2004)
The Memphis Family Album (Bingo Wings) (2006)

As producer

"In Your Car" (single) (Kenickie) (1996)
At The Club (album) (Kenickie) (1997)
Beggars Banquet (random compilation) ("I'm An Agent") (Kenickie) (1997)
Get In (album) (Kenickie) (1998)
Nings And Roundabouts (compilation) ("Come Out 2Nite") (Kenickie) (1999)
Take These Flowers Away EP (Lauren Laverne) (2000)
"These Acid Stars" (J Xaverre) (2003)
"I Want You To Stay" (Field Music/J Xaverre Mix) (Maximo Park) (2006)
On The Night Plain (album) (George Washington Brown) (2007)

Mixing

"Criminals" (single) (Johnny Foreigner) (2009)
"Custom Scenes" (album track) (Johnny Foreigner) (2009)

Remixes

Ben Kweller – "Wasted And Ready" (2003)
Mellow – "Drifting Out of Sight" (2004)
Maxïmo Park – "I Want You To Stay" (with Field Music) (2006)
Los Campesinos – "Death to Los Campesinos!" (2008)
Sky Larkin – "Antibodies" (2009)
Gaggle – "Crows" (2009)

Filmography

Confetti (2006)^[7]

References

↑ "J Xaverre | Moshi Moshi Records". Moshimoshimusic.com. 3 December 2012. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
↑ "Collective – J Xaverre interview and session". BBC. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
↑ "Wear – Entertainment – Meet Eric Roberts @ Bar Pure". BBC. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
↑ "The Crack Magazine". The Crack Magazine. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
↑ "The Week That Was – The Week That Was :: Memphis Industries". Memphis.greedbag.com. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
↑ Kenickie entry, The Great Indie Discography, Martin C. Strong, Canongate Books, 2003 edition
↑ "Pete Gofton". IMDb.com. Retrieved 3 July 2014.