From Lizard King lover to professor of pop

Former flower-power devotee Sheila Whitely joined Salford University in 1991 as a music lecturer and has stayed on to fill its first chair in popular music.

Britain's first professor of pop, who is also a grandmother, author and jazz fan, admits to having spent much of her youth "trailing around Jim Morrison", the late lead singer of The Doors.

Professor Whitely, an expert on women in pop music, began her academic career at the Open University while in her early 30s.