Karl Frederick Dallas (29 January 1931 – 21 June 2016)^[2] was a British journalist, musician, author, playwright, peace campaigner, record producer, and broadcaster. He was described as "the most vigorous, influential, and informed folk music journalist in Britain".^[3]

Dallas was brought up in a communist household, and was named after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.^[4] His father Jack Dallas was an ex Scots Guardsman and a founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). Karl lived as a child in Whitley Bay, Northumberland,^[5] and later attended Bec School in Tooting, London.^[6] He had a half sister Kathleen and like her joined the CPGB. He started writing poetry, and writing and performing songs in London in his teens, using the name Fred Dallas.^[3] His songs have been recorded by The Spinners (The Family of Man, written in 1955, after Dallas saw the exhibition of the same name^[7]), Ewan MacColl, June Tabor and others.^[6] He also contributed music reviews to the St Marylebone Record and Musical Opinion magazine.^[8]

In 1957 Dallas began working as a full-time reporter, later becoming a freelance writer on music – including pop, jazz, classical and folk music – and fashion.^[6] Many of his articles were published in the Melody Maker; he also wrote for The Times, The Independent, and many magazines. He published his own magazines, including Folk Music, Folk News, and Jazz Music News,^[9] and in 1967 wrote his first book, Swinging London: a guide to where the action is.^[10] His other books included Singers of an Empty Day: last sacraments for the superstars (1972), The Cruel Wars: 100 soldiers' songs from Agincourt to Ulster (1972), One Hundred Songs of Toil: 450 Years of Workers' Songs (1974) and The Electric Muse: The Story of Folk into Rock (with Dave Laing, Robin Denselow and Robert Shelton, 1975). For a time he ran his own public relations agency, with clients including Pan Books, Topic Records, and Billy Smart's Circus. He worked as a record producer for the Transatlantic, Island and Sonet labels, and as a concert promoter.^[6] From the late 1970s he also wrote on information technology, and contributed articles to most British computer magazines.^[11]

He was a lifelong atheist until converting to Anglican Christianity in 1983.^{[12] [4][13]} He moved with his wife to live in Bradford in 1989,^[6] and retired from full-time journalism in 1999.^[14] He became chairman of Bradford Community Health Council,^[14] 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.^[15][16] Following his return, he wrote Into the War Zone, which he described as a "musical tragicomedy" satirising his experiences as a human shield in Iraq. The play was performed by the Writers Company in Bradford in 2005.^[17]

He wrote several other plays, including a seven-hour play on the life of Stalin,^[6] as well as several books, including The Fourth Step, described as "a thriller of the international drugs trade",^[6] and Good News for the Last Times (2010), a "prophetic vision for the 21st century" based on his religious experiences.^[18] A book of his critical writings, The Lie That Tells The Truth, was published in 2012.^[19] In later life he continued to broadcast regularly for Bradford Community Broadcasting, and reviewed books, music and films for the Morning Star daily newspaper.^[11]

He died at the age of 85 on 21 June 2016, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer four months earlier.^[14] His funeral was held in the parish church of St Paul in Manningham, Bradford on 30 June.^[20] He was then buried at a woodland site in the city.^[20]

Obituaries were published by The Guardian^[1] and the Morning Star,^[21] the latter including a fond reminiscence from Arlo Guthrie.^[21]

• Karl Dallas homepage
• Karl Dallas blog page
• Karl Dallas Rockopedia
• Karl Dallas at Bandcamp
• The Karl Dallas Archive of Contemporary and Popular Music
• Karl Dallas at Rock's Back Pages