In 1982, he went to a gig by The Laughing Apple and met the group's lead singer
Alan McGee. According to McGee: "there used to be this guy who'd stand at the front of all the gigs and dance disjointedly". They became friends and when McGee started the Communication Blur club, he offered Thackray the role of
compėre, stating that Thackray "was the most un-enigmatic, boring, kindest, shyest person you could ever meet – and it just appealed to my sense of humour to make him compère." He was originally billed as "the legendary Jerry Thackray", eventually shortened to simply "The Legend". In 1984, he released a second single, "Legend Destroys the Blues", but his performing career did not take off. He puts this down to that he "didn't like to perform a song more than once", although he has continued to make occasional appearances. In 1983, Thackray began working at the
New Musical Express. In 1988, he was sacked from the paper, and instead took a job at its rival,
Melody Maker. He was told to adopt a new pseudonym, as the "Legend!" name was too closely associated with the
NME. He chose "Everett True", from the early twentieth century cartoon
The Outbursts of Everett True. Within months, he was sent to
Seattle to cover the emerging
grunge scene. In 1989, as The Legend!, he performed guest vocals on a single with
Calvin Johnson and
Tobi Vail's band
The Go Team. In 1991, he introduced
Kurt Cobain to
Courtney Love at a
Butthole Surfers and
L7 gig. The three became close friends, and, in 1992, True wheeled Cobain on stage at the
Reading Festival. In the early 1990s, True lived in
Brighton, East Sussex, with members of the band
Huggy Bear. Leaving MM in the late 1990s, he became editor of
Vox, reverting on this occasion to his real name. It has been claimed that the band
theaudience were formed after founder member
Billy Reeves bet True £100 that he could form a band and get it signed. In 1998, True returned to Seattle, where he worked for a year as music editor for
The Stranger, before heading for Australia, where he freelanced at Melbourne broadsheet,
The Age. He also recorded an album under the name The Legend!. Back again in the United Kingdom, he set up the magazine
Careless Talk Costs Lives in 2002. Issues of this publication began at No. 12 and counted down, claiming that "we have set out to replace the decaying music press in Britain, so by issue zero we will either have achieved our objectives or given up trying". By the twelfth issue (#1), it was clear that it would not achieve its ambitions, and True instead founded
Plan B. Between 2004 and 2009, True has also written books, including ones on the
Ramones,
The White Stripes, as well as an account of his time with Nirvana. In 2008, he relocated with his family to
Brisbane in Australia. Up until the start of 2009, he wrote a weekly column for VillageVoice.com, and
The Guardian – with the latter, entering into conflict with Australia's music street press. There was also a fair amount of controversy over some unguarded remarks True made on Twitter with regard to the usage of Kurt Cobain's image in
Guitar Hero 5. These led to immediate furious denials from
Dave Grohl and
Krist Novoselic. Later, Courtney Love denied that she had anything to do with the matter, but it was then revealed that Love had worked with
Activision on crafting Cobain's look for the game. The family subsequently returned to the United Kingdom. True currently contributes columns to Sweden's Go Magazine, New York City's Bust magazine, the Something Awful website and writes for various Australian online publications including Mess And Noise and The Vine. True also fronts two Brisbane bands: The Deadnotes and
The Thin Kids, the latter of which caused some controversy when they picked up a plum support to
Kate Nash midway through 2010. For several years, he was the main editor and writer for the Brisbane-based online magazine, Collapse Board. His most recent project is Rejected Unknown, a media/publishing company set up in response to the
33 1/3 series of music books; it takes its name from the album by
Daniel Johnston. The first book came out in 2016, and is entitled
101 Albums You Should Die Before You Hear, a critique of the sacred cows of the rock music canon. This was followed in 2017 by his biography
The Electrical Storm: Grunge, my Part In Its Downfall, and in 2018 by the short story collection
Ed Sheeran Is Shit. As Jerry Thackray, he is Course Leader in BA (Hons) Music Journalism at BIMM London. He still performs on stage as The Legend!. ==Discography==