Talk:John Boyden

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Theleekycauldron (talk) 06:47, 16 November 2021 (UTC)

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• Comment or view
• Article history

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• ... that after his September 2021 death John Boyden was revealed to be the first music correspondent of Private Eye, writing under the pseudonym "Lunchtime O'Boulez"? "We report with regret the death at the age of 85 of John Boyden, the Eye's original musical correspondent Lunchtime O'Boulez" from: "John Boyden". Private Eye. No. 1559, page 19. Pressdram. 29 October 2021.
  • ALT1: ... that John Boyden established his own orchestra after becoming dismayed by the level of post-recording editing employed in the industry? "John Boyden had tired of orchestras all sounding the same. Similarly, he noticed that every minor error, cough and slipped note was being edited out of their recordings. By reviving the New Queen's Hall Orchestra (NQHO), an ensemble that had existed in the early 20th century, he set out to reverse what he felt was an undue emphasis on technical precision at the expense of musical expression." from: "John Boyden; Maverick orchestral director who believed in spontaneity above precision and joined the LSO during a turbulent period". The Times. 27 October 2021.

• Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Walnut Creek (Raccoon River tributary)

Moved to mainspace by Dumelow (talk). Self-nominated at 12:08, 1 November 2021 (UTC).

• Starting the review shortly. Ktin (talk) 01:42, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook eligibility:

• Cited: - Offline/paywalled citation accepted in good faith
• Interesting:
• Other problems: - Feedback on ALT1 added in notes section.

QPQ: Done.

Overall: Article meets eligibility criteria - newness and length. Assuming WP:AGF on the sources. The entire article is sourced to three references of which one is available online. Dumelow, I will WP:AGF. If you have a way to share the sources I can have a look as well. Earwig's Copyvio is turning up 0%. ALT0 looks good. ALT1 however, might be a tad misleading. Happy to hear the article author's view on this one. The source as quoted says Boyden revived the NQHO, while the hook says established their own orchestra. QPQ is done. Passing this back to the nominator. Ktin (talk) 01:51, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Hi Ktin, thanks for the review. Do you have access to the WP:LIBRARY? If so the Times article is available via Gale. If not, drop me an email and I will reply with the text of the article. I can also send you a photo of the article from Private Eye. The NQHO dissolved in the 1940s and Boyden refounded it in the 1990s, in that sense it is effectively a "new" orchestra but happy to consider alternative suggestions for ALT1, or for ALT0 to run instead - Dumelow (talk) 06:42, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

@Dumelow:, thanks. I will check this one out later this evening. Ktin (talk) 15:41, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

@Dumelow:, managed to access The Times via WP:LIBRARY Gale. Thanks. If it is alright with you, I will mark ALT0 as approved. I am on the fence re: ALT1's reviving vs establishing his own opera. Everything else looks good. Let me know. Cheers. Ktin (talk) 02:09, 4 November 2021 (UTC)

Hi Ktin, yes I am fine with alt0. I think rewording alt1 to include "refounding" or similar will be too awkward - Dumelow (talk) 05:52, 4 November 2021 (UTC)

Approving ALT0. Ktin (talk) 14:37, 4 November 2021 (UTC)

ALT0 to T:DYK/P1

GA review

This review is transcluded from Talk:John Boyden/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Dumelow (talk · contribs) 18:19, 28 October 2025 (UTC)

Reviewer: Tim riley (talk · contribs) 12:25, 29 October 2025 (UTC)

Starting revew

Comments to follow after I have completed a close read-through. Tim riley talk 12:25, 29 October 2025 (UTC)

Comments

• "and re-founded the New Queen's Hall Orchestra" – did he? Had there been a previous " New Queen's Hall Orchestra"?

Removed "re-" - Dumelow (talk)

• I am concerned about your calling Boyden "first managing director of the London Symphony Orchestra" – he may have been the first with that specific title but his role was the same as that of predecessors such as Harold Lawrence, and think the description as it stands is likely to mislead the reader.

I was following the source, but have removed "first" in both instances it was used - Dumelow (talk) 19:07, 29 October 2025 (UTC)

• Private Eye:

• I think you should explain Boyden's pen-name: Private Eye had a long-standing fictitious contributor – an old-fashioned Fleet Street hack – called "Lunchtime O'Booze"

Thanks, have expanded on this - Dumelow (talk) 19:07, 29 October 2025 (UTC)

• It seems to me unacceptable to suppress the fact that Lunchtime O'Boulez's contributions were untrue, defamatory and cost the magazine a lot of money in damages.

Do you have any sources I could use. I searched "Lunchtime O'Boulez" with "libel" (And just "O'Boulez" and "libel") and found no results - Dumelow (talk) 19:07, 29 October 2025 (UTC)

See the LSO article, where I cited James, Brian. "The orchestra that opened up", The Times, 28 February 1987, p. 37

Thanks, found it through WP:TWL and added a couple of sentences - Dumelow (talk) 19:32, 29 October 2025 (UTC)

• "The original orchestra had been active at Queen's Hall" – any reason for denying the Queen's Hall its customary definite article?

Added "the" - Dumelow (talk) 19:07, 29 October 2025 (UTC)

• "Another piece was Schubert's "Trout Quintet" performed by the NQHO" – I think you need to explain how a symphony orchestra could play a piano quintet.

Good point. I perhaps over-paraphrased the source here ("A third item, Schubert's Piano Quintet The Trout, was recorded by musicians associated with the ensemble Boyden founded, or re-founded, in 1992, the New Queen's Hall Orchestra"). I have changed our article to read "performed by musicians associated with NQHO" - Dumelow (talk) 19:07, 29 October 2025 (UTC)

Over to you. Tim riley talk 14:15, 29 October 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for picking this up so speedily. I have responded above - Dumelow (talk) 19:07, 29 October 2025 (UTC)

I don't think I've ever taken part in a GAN that moved so swiftly. All OK now, I think, so:

Overall summary

GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria

1. Is it reasonably well written?

   A. Prose quality:

   B. MoS compliance for lead, layout, words to watch, fiction, and lists:

2. Is it factually accurate and verifiable?

   A. References to sources:

   Well referenced.

   B. Citation of reliable sources where necessary:

   Well referenced.

   C. No original research:

3. Is it broad in its coverage?

   A. Major aspects:

   B. Focused:

4. Is it neutral?

   Fair representation without bias:

5. Is it stable?

   No edit wars, etc:

6. Does it contain images to illustrate the topic?

   A. Images are copyright tagged, and non-free images have fair use rationales:

   Well illustrated.

   B. Images are provided where possible and appropriate, with suitable captions:

   Well illustrated.

7. Overall:

   Pass or Fail: