Pete Dale

Pete Dale studied Communication Studies at Sunderland Polytechnic in the late 1980s/early 1990s. On graduating, he remained in the North East playing in several indie/punk underground bands and running the cult DIY record label/distributor Slampt until 2000. Although he remains an active performer up to the present day, Pete took up school teaching as his main occupation in 2001, leading the music department of a Gateshead secondary school for many years. Simultaneous with his teaching career, he completed an MA in Music and PhD at Newcastle, under the supervision of Professor Richard Middleton. This study, now adapted as a book, explores the politics and music of the punk underground in which Pete has himself been a notable player. Taking up an early career fellowship at Oxford Brookes in 2012, Pete’s research interests turned towards the use of DJ decks and ‘urban’ music to re-engage disaffected children and adults within socio-economically deprived communities (something he had done with some success in Gateshead). In 2013, Pete has become Senior Lecturer in Popular Music at Manchester Metropolitan University.