Simon Napier-Bell will tell his side of the story of the music industry in his next book ‘Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay’.
A legendary music industry icon, Simon Napier-Bell is the former manager of Marc Bolan and T. Rex, The Yardbirds, Asia, Japan, Untravox and Wham.
Together with another icon Vicky Wickham, Napier-Bell wrote ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’. The song became a classic hit for Dusty Springfield (who Wickham managed) and was later covered by Elvis Presley.
Simon also has an Australian connection. He discovered John Paul Young and had him signed to Albert Records.
Simon’s first book about his experiences in 60s in the music industry was ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’ in 1998. He then wrote ‘Black Vinyl, White Powder’ in 2001 after finishing work with Ultravox and Asia. His last book was ‘I’m Coming To Take You To Lunch’ in 2006. It was the story of how he sold Wham into China.
In an excerpt from the book, Simon explains how the business has operated for decades. “Would you, if you’d written a novel, sign the rights to a publisher who agreed to neither print your book nor market it yet demanded half of any money you might make from it if someone else did? Well, that’s music publishing.
“And would you, if you’d finished making mortgage payments on your house, be happy for it to remain the property of the building society? Because that’s what happens when artists finish paying off the cost of making their records.
“These things seem so foolish, so outrageous, so utterly without logic that there simply has to be a reason for them to be like that. And there is…
History”.
‘Ta-Ra-Ra-Bm-De-Ay’ was financed through crowd-funding. “Yesterday the advance sales of Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay reached 100% of the funding needed for publication,” he said. “Brilliant! Thanks very much to everyone who has bought a copy. I really appreciate it. You’ll be rewarded with a great book”.
“For those of you who haven’t yet pledged to buy a copy, you have two alternatives. Either hang your heads in shame, or go now to the Unbound Books website and buy a copy – £10 for a digital one, £20 for a hardback. (If you buy one before it goes to the printers in six weeks time you’ll get your name printed in the book as one of its ‘supporters’.)”
“For those of you who’ve already bought it, there’s an upgrade available for the launch party. It will be on April 22nd next year, which just happens to be my 75th birthday, so I’m planning to make it an amazing event. It would be great to see you there”.
http://unbound.co.uk/books/ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay
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