{"title":"Books by Simon Napier-Bell","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781800181892","title":"Sour Mouth, Sweet Bottom","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe legendary music impresario (and producer of bands like The Yardbirds and Wham!) tells his life story in a series of mesmerizingly candid vignettes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSour Mouth, Sweet Bottom: Lessons from a Dissolute Life is the book Simon Napier-Bell’s fans have always hoped he’d write.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom 1940s London where he listened to wartime hits like 'Mairzy doats and dozy doats' in the air-raid shelter; to talking about Wham! with Deng Xiaoping, head of Communist China, or getting stoned with Elaine May and Jack Lemmon by the pool in 60s Beverly Hills, Sour Mouth, Sweet Bottom makes most memoirs look like thin gruel by comparison. This is a high-octane explosion of a book, a kaleidoscopic sequence of more than sixty ‘lessons’ drawn from a life lived to the full: frank, funny, freewheeling and honest.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere are anecdotes of the acts he managed (the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Marc Bolan, Japan, Sinitta, Boney M, Candi Staton, Ultravox, Asia, Wham!, George Michael and Sinead O’Connor) but there’s also the wisdom gathered from a louche life of clubs, restaurants, gigs, arrests, awards, bankruptcies, bereavements, booze, coups and sex, both gay and straight.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43206255673522,"sku":"9781800181892","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781800181892_78c4d3a4-b007-4890-bfc4-0fea7f3bf9c3.jpg?v=1786026891"},{"product_id":"9780091897628","title":"I'm Coming To Take You To Lunch","description":"\u003cp\u003ePop manager extraordinaire Simon Napier-Bell had had enough. He'd had enough of pop groups. He'd had enough of the constant grief at home with his two ex-boyfriends bickering and bleeding him dry; and most of all he'd had enough of the music biz. But then he fell in love with a new passion - the Far East; and a dynamic new duo - George and Andrew - jointly called Wham! Soon, in an audacious attempt to have the best of both worlds, he found himself offering to arrange for Wham! to be the first ever Western pop group to play in communist China - a masterstroke of PR which, in one swift stroke, would make them one of the biggest groups in the world. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat follows is an exciting, unpredictable and hilarious romp around the more curious corners of the world as Napier-Bell dives into the unknown, attempting to achieve the unachievable. We soon find ourselves in the company of a wonderful cast of petulant pop stars, shady international 'businessmen', and a hilarious confusion of spies, students and institutionalised officials and ministers as he edges ever closer to inadvertently becoming one of the first Westerners to break down the walls of communist China.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56222841504117,"sku":"9780091897628","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780091897628_24c17f2a-5837-4648-aa6b-113f812649ab.jpg?v=1786033265"},{"product_id":"9780091880927","title":"Black Vinyl White Powder","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe most authoritative, intelligent, diligently researched and unpretentious analysis of the British pop scene yet written' \u003ci\u003eSunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBlack Vinyl White Powder charts the amazing fifty year history of the British music business in unparalleled scale and detail. As a key player across the decades, Napier-Bell - who discovered Marc Bolan and managed amongst others The Yardbirds and Wham! - uses his wealth of contacts and extraordinary personal experiences to tell the story of an industry that is like no other. Where bad behaviour is not only tolerated but encouraged, where drugs are sometimes as important as talent, where artists are pushed to their physical and mental limits in the name of profit and ego. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'The Greatest Ever Book Written about English Pop-Breathtakingly Brilliant' Julie Burchill\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'The cold print equivalent of a sparkling evening with a world-class raconteur.' Charles Shaar Murray, \u003ci\u003eIndependent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBitchy, glib, fun and shrewd' \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56223622234485,"sku":"9780091880927","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780091880927_b93bbbdf-8155-4374-8638-4397a68a8203.jpg?v=1786011519"},{"product_id":"9781911346203","title":"50 Years Legal","description":"This is both the story of the 50-year battle for equal rights and deeply personal accounts from high profile politicians, comedians, actors and others in the public arena. The book features contributions from David Hockney, Stephen Fry, Julian Clary, Matt Lucas, Matthew Parrish, Simon Callow, Will Young, Sir Derek Jacobi, Tom Robinson, Marc Almond, Sir Elton John, Alain Judd, Simon Callow, Angela Eagle, Baroness Barker, Dan Gillespie Sells, Evan Davis, Jake Graf, Jason Prince, Jon Savage, Lee Tracy, Lord Browne, Lord Cashman, Lord Paddick, Lord Smith, Manny, Mark Mcadam, Mark Wardell, Mathew Todd, Olly Alexander, Paris Lee, Paul Gambaccini, Peter Tachell, QBoy, Shon Faye, Stephanie Hirst, Stephen Amos, Steve Blame, The Reverend Andrew Foreshew-Cain, Tris Penna, Yotan Ottolenhgi and Zoe Lyons and more.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309035073909,"sku":"9781911346203","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781911346203_24716a36-72c7-472f-9ffa-a6104d1c5888.jpg?v=1786029528"},{"product_id":"the-business","title":"The Business","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“The only history of pop music you’ll ever have to read.”— Huffington Post\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLet legendary rock manager Simon Napier-Bell take you inside the (dodgy) world of popular music – not just a creative industry, but a business that has made people rich beyond their wildest dreams.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book describes the evolution of the music industry from 1713 – the year parliament granted writers ownership over what they wrote – to today, when a global, 100 billion pound industry is controlled by just three major players: Sony, Universal and Warner. Inside you will uncover some little-known facts about the industry, including: how a formula for writing hit songs in the 1900s helped create 50,000 of the best-known songs of all time; how Jewish immigrants and black jazz musicians dancing cheek-to-cheek created a template for all popular music that followed; and how rock tours became the biggest, quickest, sleaziest and most profitable ventures the music industry has ever seen.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough it all, Napier-Bell balances seductive anecdotes – pulling back the curtain on the gritty and absurd side of the industry – with an insightful exploration of the relationship between creativity and money.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57487951069557,"sku":"9781783529377","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781783529377.jpg?v=1786355174"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-simon-napier-bell.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}