St Albans music teacher's sudden media role (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

St Albans music teacher's sudden media role

5:08pm Friday 3rd July 2009 in

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A UNIVERSITY lecturer from St Albans was thrown into the media spotlight by the sudden death of Michael Jackson, as he is an expert on the pop superstar.

Christopher Wiley, who has lived in St Albans all his life and was the first organ scholar at St George's School, Harpenden, teaches a module on the singer at City University, London to music students.

Since the singer's mysterious death last Thursday night, his contributions have been used on BBC News, BBC Breakfast, LBC Radio and BBC Radio Jersey, while his comments received coverage in the Daily Record, the Eastern Daily Press, and Thelondonpaper.

Mr Whiley, who describes Jackson as “one of those rare geniuses who can transcend boundaries", argues that the star's musical achievements far eclipse the eccentricities and accusations which dominated the headlines after his commercial peak in the 1980s.