14 Facts About Karl Dallas

Karl Frederick Dallas was a British journalist, musician, author, playwright, peace campaigner, record producer, and broadcaster.

Karl Dallas was described as "the most vigorous, influential, and informed folk music journalist in Britain".

Karl Dallas's father Jack Dallas was an ex Scots Guardsman and a founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Karl Dallas had a half sister Kathleen and like her joined the CPGB.

Karl Dallas started writing poetry, and writing and performing songs in London in his teens, using the name Fred Dallas.

Karl Dallas contributed music reviews to the St Marylebone Record and Musical Opinion magazine.

Karl Dallas published his own magazines, including Folk Music, Folk News, and Jazz Music News, and in 1967 wrote his first book, Swinging London: a guide to where the action is.

Karl Dallas worked as a record producer for the Transatlantic, Island and Sonet labels, and as a concert promoter.

Karl Dallas was a lifelong atheist until converting to Anglican Christianity in 1983.

Karl Dallas moved with his wife to live in Bradford in 1989, and retired from full-time journalism in 1999.

Karl Dallas became chairman of Bradford Community Health Council, and, in 2003, travelled to Iraq in a double-decker bus as part of the group of campaigners intending to act as human shields in the event of invasion.

Karl Dallas wrote several other plays, including a seven-hour play on the life of Stalin, as well as several books, including The Fourth Step, described as "a thriller of the international drugs trade", and Good News for the Last Times, a "prophetic vision for the 21st century" based on his religious experiences.

Karl Dallas died at the age of 85 on 21 June 2016, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer four months earlier.

Karl Dallas was then buried at a woodland site in the city.