Biography
Rob McGibbon began his journalistic career on the Wimbledon News in August 1985. Little more than a year later, he became a news reporter on The Sun. Then only 21, he quickly established himself and worked on some of the biggest stories of the late ‘80s.
Rob freelanced for The Sun and other national papers before accepting a staff job on the Daily Star, where he eventually branched into showbusiness journalism and began interviewing celebrities from television, film, sport and music. He returned briefly to The Sun in 1989, but had set his sights on a book writing career and left in February 1990 to go freelance.
Rob's first book was ‘New Kids on the Block — The Whole Story By Their Friends’, a biography of the America pop phenomenon. The book was co-written with his father, Robin, also a journalist, and self-published in March 1990. It became a worldwide sensation and reached No.10 on the New York Times bestseller list and remained on the WH Smith’s bestsellers for many months.
Rob and his father co-wrote three more books together during their brief working partnership: ‘Gazza!’, the first biography of England footballer Paul Gascoigne; ‘Phillip Schofield — The Whole Amazing Story’, which charted the career of the popular TV presenter; ‘Simply Mick’, the definitive biography of Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall, which reached No.7 on the Sunday Times bestsellers in May 1993.
During the ’90s, Rob also wrote a series of successful biographies of the biggest pop stars of that decade, including Take That, Boyzone, Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, Westlife and, lastly, the American rap star Eminem. Rob has continued freelancing for various newspapers and magazines alongside these writing projects.
NEWSPAPERS
After a NCTJ course in Cardiff, Rob’s career began as a news reporter on the Wimbledon News in August 1985 on a salary of £6,000 a year.
While at the Wimbledon News, Rob moonlighted on night shifts at The Sun. Thanks to high profile exclusives on two big stories of the day – one with Boy George and the other with Noel Edmonds - his national newspaper career took off quickly. He had to leave the News in November 1986 to freelance full time at The Sun, Daily Star and News of the World.
In 1988, Rob became a staff reporter on The Daily Star and began specialising in showbusiness writing. He developed a reputation as a trusted interviewer in a notoriously tricky market – the red top tabloids. In late 1989, he moved back to The Sun as a showbiz writer. While there, he had an idea for a fast book on the hot American boy band, New Kids on the Block, who had yet to break in the UK. The Editor at the time refused to allow him time to write the book, so he left in February 1990.
Since then, Rob has freelanced and has written numerous articles on a breadth of subjects for a range of publications - from broadsheet newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph to the News of the World. He has generally concentrated on celebrity interviews, but has also gained widespread coverage for various human interest stories.
CELEBRITY BOOKS
Between 1990 and 2000 Rob McGibbon wrote a series of 12 celebrity biographies. During this time, he earnt a reputation within the publishing world for an ability to predict the success of many personalities and, in particular, pop groups. Many of these titles became bestsellers and were translated into numerous different languages worldwide.