Pete Chambers
Pro-Chancellor, distinguished friends, colleagues, graduands and guests.
As we put Coventry forward for the next City of Culture to celebrate a rich cultural heritage, it is fitting for writer, historian and city ambassador - Pete Chambers to be recognised for promoting our cultural achievements with an honorary doctorate of arts.
Pete is a true Coventry Kid. Born and brought up in the city, his father worked as a gear cutter at Morris Engines while his mother looked after the family. It was very much a local upbringing with Pete, a pupil at Stoke Briton Road School and Henley College, and later Stoke Park Community College before he embarked upon a career with his childhood love – music.
Pete grew up watching many local bands play at the Lanch Main Hall in the 70s and 80s, and was a keen musician and artist. He started his writing career in 1981, writing music reviews and promotion through the Alternative Sounds in local newspapers The Coventry Weekly News, Brum Beat and the Coventry Telegraph.
He went on to be the Telegraph’s music correspondent for 12 years, and regularly guest presented for BBC radio Coventry and Warwickshire to highlight new talent. When ska music arrived, he found his musical calling that took him to his work promoting the rich heritage of Coventry and the university as the then Lanchester Polytechnic as the birthplace of 2-Tone,
Pete later launched a series of projects to raise the profile of the Coventry artists and their contributions to music. He initiated and delivered the 2-Tone Trail series of plaques around Coventry to honour their achievements, and pay tribute to some of Coventry's well-known citizens who have made a positive and lasting contribution.
Working with the university, Pete established the ‘2-tone Central’ facility in the old Students Union building for a museum style show to bring live music back to the venue and revive links to the musicians who studied there.
In 2009 Pete also launched a music exhibition at the Herbert Art Gallery highlighting the rise of 2-tone in the city, and he set up the Coventry Walk of Fame in Priory Place. One of his major projects was the opening of the Coventry Music Museum in 2013 which has gone on to tell the story of Coventry’s place in musical history to over 15,000 people from almost 80 countries.
For a number of years Pete Chambers, supported by his wife Julie and stepson Kevin, has done much valuable work to celebrate and promote cultural achievement in Coventry and the valuable contribution made by the university as the Lanchester Polytechnic. He is now on the advisory board to contribute to a musical memoir covering the history of the ‘Lanch’ and the artists who performed there in the formative days of 2-tone.
Pete and his family enjoy travelling and writing – something which has spurred Pete on to another of his achievements to write the first book on the history of Coventry’s musical importance. It was such a success that he went on to write seven more documenting the emergence of 2-Tone and the Beatles Coventry, and is still the only person to write on the subject.
But Pete’s work is not confined to 2-Tone. In 1985 he was on the organising committee for CovAid, a charity concert in the Lanchester Polytechnic which raised more than £4,000 for East Africa.
He has been instrumental in launching the City of Culture bid, and has always made time to encourage young talent by backing local bands.
In 2014 Pete became one of only 80 people to be awarded the Coventry Good Citizen Award, in recognition of his work in music. And in 2016, he was awarded Coventry Citizen of the Month by the city council. In September 2016 Pete was awarded a British Empire Medal by Her Majesty the Queen in recognition of all his efforts in the city. The following year, along with his wife, he was honored by the Prime Minister for outstanding volunteering work with the Coventry Music Museum.
In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the heritage, culture and history of the university and the city, Coventry University, by decision of the Academic Board, has the privilege of conferring the Degree of Arts, honoris causa, on Pete Chambers.