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A freelance magazine editor, journalist and author, Chris Hunt has written about music, football and film for over 30 years. Starting his journalistic career while at college, he published his own mod fanzine, Shadows & Reflections, turning it into a sought-after cult read around the world. After contributing regular freelance music features and reviews to magazines such as Record Mirror, Underground and Scootering, his work in pushing the boundaries of fanzine publishing earned him the editorship of his first national magazine. In 1987, at just 24 years of age, he took charge of heavy metal title Solid Rock. When offered the opportunity, he said: “As a mod it’s my ultimate ambition to be the Editor of a heavy metal magazine”. The publisher missed the joke and soon Chris Hunt was interviewing Motorhead and Kiss.
In 1988 he became the launch editor of rap magazine Hip-Hop Connection, turning it into the world’s best loved title in its field and hanging out with the likes of Public Enemy and Queen Latifah. Leaving the world of rap in 1991, he launched teenage lifestyle title Rage for Robert Maxwell and ran a talented team that included TV presenter Gary Crowley. The magazine sold 98,000 copies of its launch issue but failed to outlive either the recession or the fall-out surrounding the death of its owner, Robert Maxwell. He returned to Hip-Hop Connection for a second stint in charge of the magazine in 1992, rebranding it as HHC and doubling its circulation in 18 months.
Having been one of the original contributors to football magazine 90 Minutes in 1990, he launched Mega Sports in 1993, before moving into the football market full-time later the same year. Spending eight years at Emap as the Managing Editor of Match, he transformed the title into the UK’s biggest selling football magazine, with weekly sales peaking at 242,000 copies. During his editorship he also launched fortnightly sister title Sported and was voted Emap’s Editor Of The Year.
Setting up his own editorial consultancy in 2001, in has subsequently been the Editor of many of the acclaimed special editions of leading music magazines Mojo, Q, Uncut and NME, covering subjects as diverse as The Beatles, U2, Kurt Cobain, Oasis, punk rock and mod. He has also produced Premiership preview supplements for The Sun newspaper and was the editor of The Official Wayne Rooney Annual 2007. For three years he was also the Editor of The Match Of The Day Annual, and for 18 months he had a contract to run the official Tottenham Hotspur club magazine. In 2009 he worked with Umbro, helping the British sportswear company by officially documenting the development of the new England football kit.
He moved into the soccer coaching market with Soccer Coach Weekly in 2012, editing the title for 90 issues, and later taking on the editorship of its sister title, Elite Soccer. He returned to the children's football market in 2017, when he launched Football Krazy, a monthly spin off of Match.
His travels around Japan for the World Cup in 2002 were documented in the BBC TV programme Beckham For Breakfast, while his book, World Cup Stories: The History Of The FIFA World Cup, was published in April 2006 to accompany a BBC television series and reached the hardback bestsellers list. The first edition of his football encyclopedia The Complete Book Of Football has sold 60,000 copies since its publication in 2003 and the second edition was recently published in various foreign language editions around the world, including Hungarian, German, Russian, Romanian and Czech. It was also published in the USA as The Complete Book Of Soccer and the third edition appeared in Australia as The SBS Complete Book Of Football.
He has worked as a freelance broadcast journalist for BBC Radio 5 and has contributed to many magazines, newspapers and websites, including Four Four Two, The Times, Mojo, eMusic, Total Sport, Sports Quarterly, Uncut, Guitarist, Rhythm, The Sportsman, More, Well Red, Outlook, Phaze 1, Cut and he is a regular contributor to the England match day programme for home games at Wembley.
He has also been a regular byline columnist for Ice, Sport First, Football First and Your Cat, where he wrote a monthly column titled ‘My Life With Stalin - An Everyday Tale Of One Bloke And His Cat’.
He has been asked to write CD and DVD sleeve-notes for many bands, such as The Charlatans, Secret Affair, Corduroy, the Purple Hearts and The Chords. He also penned the liner notes for an album of easy listening cover versions of songs by The Beatles.
In the past he has also run arecord label called Tangerine Records, specialising in CD re-issues.
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