Jim Shelley has been a music journalist, a film reviewer, travel writer and interviewer.

He is currently the TV critic for The Mirror, writing a weekly column, ShelleyVision and writes Soaphead for The Guide.

He started his journalistic career in 1983 when his review of The Smiths’ gig at the Hacienda in Manchester was published in the NME. His first words in print were therefore Morrissey’s opening pronouncement, “The only thing to be. In 1983. Is handsome.”

This was also the first review in the national press The Smiths had ever had.

He started writing for the music press and years later had the cover story of the 70th anniversary of the Melody Maker in 1996 with his interviews with Liam and Noel Gallagher.

After the NME review, having become friends with the Smiths in 1983 he interviewed Morrissey for Blitz magazine and for X years wrote profiles for Blitz, interviewing everyone from Cannon & Ball, Spike Milligan and darts player Eric Bristow to Anthony Burgess, Christopher Walken and Bernardo Bertolucci.

He started writing profiles for Weekend Guardian. His  pieces included interviews with Sean Penn, Abel Ferrara, John Malkovich, James Ellroy, serial killer Jack Unterweger and ‘Bambi’ murderer Jeremy Bamber.

Other male subjects he has interviewed over the years include:
Ice-T, Jeffrey Archer, Iggy Pop, Gore Vidal, Ayrton Senna, Jimmy White, Hugh Hefner, Roman Polanski, Al Green, John Waters, Samuel Jackson, Julian Schnabel,
Ken Livingstone, Jeff Goldblum, Matt Dillon, Peter Fonda, Laurence ‘Larry’ Fishburne, Kevin Bacon, James Lee Burke, Elmore Leonard, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Alan Whicker, David Sylvian, Clive James, Zalman King, Quentin Crisp, Steven Wright, Steve Coogan, Quentin Tarantino, Jim Jarmusch, Ryan Giggs, Peter Gabriel, Max Wall, Dave Allen, Tariq Ali, Russell Rush Simmonds, Boy George, Fish, John Lydon, James Ivory, Alan Parker, Nick Cave, Philip Noyce, Malcolm Maclaren, Steven Berkoff, Jonny Lee Miller, Craig David, Tony Blackburn, George Hamilton, Jimmy Boyle, Ewan MacGregor, Cuba Gooding jn, Bryan Ferry, Martin Scorsese, Andrew Ridgeley, Bernard Butler, Richard Butler, David Platt, Alfred Molina, Lemmy, John Lurie, Martin Kemp, Ross Kemp, Matthew Modine, Mike Leigh, David Cronenberg,
Duran Duran, Cameo, the Human League, Blur, Mantronix, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Aztec Camera, Cocteau Twins, Marc Almond.

Female interview subjects include:
Pamela Anderson, Charlotte Rampling, Catherine Deneuve, Lisa Minnelli, Grace Jones, Kylie, Jordan, Cicciolina, Sonia from EastEnders, Sophie Marceau, Renee Zellvegger, Mary J Blige, Ivana Trump, Shirley Manson, Kate Bush, her Highness Sheikha al Maktoum, Donna Air, Zadie Smith, Debbie Harry, Sandra Bullock, Kristin Scott Thomas, Sioxusie Sioux, Bjork, Maggie Cheung, Naomi Wolf, Pamella Bordes, Annie Lennox, Ingrid Chavez, Kathryn Bigelow, Siobhan Fahey, Jenny Holzer, Neneh Cherry, Ulrika Johnson, Jane Goldman, Joanna MacGregor, Mariella Frostrup, Bananarama, Liz Frazer.

Some of the highlights of his career include:

1. the time Tom Cruise left a message on his ansaphone when he discovered Shelley had got fed up waiting to conduct a phone interview and gone out to play snooker. (“Er, most avant-garde message Jim. This is Tom Cruise. Well Jim I don’t know what to tell ya. I am leaving town in twenty minutes. So look, I tried to call you. Call my agent would ya. Take care man.”)
2. An abusive ansaphone message from Richard E.Grant
3. (“I read your review last week and it was like being sprayed with hot shit….I’m just absolutely staggered. Shame on your head really. I hope you get some life-threatening disease very soon.”)
4. Singing with The Spice Girls in a kareoke bar in Tokyo the night they heard Wannabe had gone to number one.
5. securing, to Alex Ferguson’s displeasure, the first interview with Ryan Giggs

- getting paid to go on a date with Pamella Bordes at the height of her notoriety.

He has been on tour with the likes of Garbage, Bros, The Spice Girls, Radiohead, Tricky, Oasis, Fine Young Cannibals, ZZ Top, Meatloaf, and George Michael but only with the Spice Girls in a singing capacity.

He has written travel pieces about New Orleans, Reykjavik, Vietnam, Peru, Cuba, Milan, Naples, Arizona, Rome, Berlin, Madagascar, Florence, and Timbuktu.

He has also written for Arena, Esquire, GQ, Loaded, Details, Elle, Red, the Evening Standard, The Telegraph magazine and The Mail on Sunday’s Night & Day magazine.

He started writing his column, Tapehead, in The Guardian Guide on September 4th 1993.

Tapehead was unplugged seven years later.