Chris Gibson

In the 1990s Chris Gibson kicked around as a musician, swing dancer and record store tragic before settling into a career as Professor of Geography at the University of Wollongong, Australia. In an effort to combine a musical background with a "proper" academic job he wrote a PhD on the geography of the music industry, tracing links between urban and regional scenes and globalisation. With his supervisor, John Connell, he turned much of the PhD into his first book, Sound Tracks. Since then Chris and John have written books on music, tourism, and festivals. With Andrew Warren, he wrote a history of surfboard-making, and a book tracing guitars from factory to forest. His most recent book is The Church's Starfish, for Bloomsbury's 33 1/3 series.