Jon McClure

Jon McClure (born 22 December 1981), known as The Reverend, is an English musician. He is the lead singer and frontman of Reverend and The Makers, and ex-vocalist of 1984 and Judan Suki. He claims that the name "Reverend" became his moniker because "I'm a big mouth and always running on at people".

Early life

McClure was born in the Sheffield suburb Grenoside, and grew up there with his parents and brother Chris. He gained a first class honours degree in history and politics at the University of Sheffield, where he met many musical friends and colleagues, although he has known Ed Cosens since childhood and in Notre Dame High School. He then went on to become a poet, and began blogging on the internet.

Career

A close friendship developed with Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys, who McClure met on a bus and asked if Turner wanted to join his band at the time. Together, the two have co-written songs including "He Said He Loved Me", "The Machine", and "Old Yellow Bricks". McClure cites his key influences as being Bob Marley, Oasis and John Cooper Clarke. McClure was part of a collective that set up "Instigate Debate" in August 2008. He shared a flat with frontman of Arctic Monkeys, Alex Turner.