Some music stories you don’t want to write. The last time I felt sickened by a music item was when York Calling’s Editor-in-chief Graeme and I covered the death of Phil Spector in 2021.
By Miles Salter
Photo by South Wales Police
The genius ‘60s music producer who was also messed up, with a controlling personality and enthusiasm for guns that eventually led him to be convicted for the murder of Lana Clarkson. It was a sordid tale.
Similarly detestable is the story of Ian Watkins. The Lostprophets singer enjoyed all the trappings of music success: tours, hotel rooms, money (and the rest), but took a dive into something very dark indeed: paedophilia. Watkins pleaded guilty to the attempted rape and sexual assault of children under the age of 13 and was sentenced in 2013. One of the infants was just 10 months old.
In his sentencing remarks at Cardiff Crown Court, the Honourable Mr Justice Royce noted that the defendant, who was addicted to cocaine and methamphetamine, had spoken of “not knowing to what extremes [he] would have gone were it not for [his] arrest.”
Lostprophets ended in ignominy, unable to extract themselves from the association with Watkins, although some of the band went on to form a new group called No Devotion. They felt their former band was forever tainted by Watkins’ behaviour. ‘We will never play Lostprophets songs again,’ guitarist Lee Gaze said in 2014.
Watkins, 48, was attacked with a knife at Wakefield prison last Saturday, 11 October 2025 and subsequently died. Two men, Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, have been charged, appearing before Judge Dunne at Leeds magistrates court on Monday 13 October.
When I worked at HMP Hull in the ’90s, special prisoners (including those found guilty of paedophilia) were kept ‘on the threes’ (the higher of the three landings) and were only let out at particular times. The reason? To keep them away from other offenders, who might attack them. As such, Watkins was vulnerable to judgment from his fellow inmates. He’d already encountered issues: in 2023, Watkins was hospitalised after knife wounds and being taken hostage for six hours by three fellow inmates.
There’s nothing nice about this tale. It’s about as sordid as you can get. Music journalist Ian Winwood, who knew Lostprophets well, was warned years ago to keep away from Watkins. Guitarist Mike Lewis warned Winwood to avoid Watkins. The upshot of what Lewis said was: “stay away from him; he’s succumbed to darkness.”
Winwood, who York Calling interviewed in 2023, wrote an intriguing book called Bodies, which explored the dark side of rock ‘n’ roll. Winwood ventured that the reason Watkins’ behaviour went unchecked for so long was that ‘its dysfunction blended in with the everyday bomb-damage of rock and roll. It was drugs that were doing for him; it was chaotic living, the usual stuff. Case closed.’ Winwood went on, ‘the reason the Lostprophets failed to spot the presence of something uniquely vile within their ranks, was because Ian Watkins could take his pick of routine ruinations behind which he could so easily hide.’
Boundaries are important in life. You need to maintain balance. Rock bands – successful ones – can be given everything they want, as former Joy Division bassist Peter Hook recently told York Calling. But getting everything you want is not good for you. An unharnessed life, without boundaries or discipline, can lead to very dark places. There is nothing nice about the story of Watkins’ corruption and his death. His family, particularly his parents, raising a once innocent boy, must be distraught at the magnitude of Watkins’ corruption. It’s a grim tale. I hope not to write it again.
Miles Salter is a writer and musician based in York. He fronts the band Miles and The Chain Gang.
