Book of The Year

Well it should be..another cracking read from music entrepreneur Simon Naper Bell who discovered some of the biggest names in rock music including WHAM and the late George Michael as well as penning a legendary hit for Dusty Springfeild and Elvis Prseley. Napier Bell in the 80s was also the first perosn to stage a rock concert in China when WHAM ! appeared there. Napier Bell also discovered Australia's Jean Paul Young and was responsible for his massive hiy "Love is in The Air. His latest book is full of fascinating anecdotes as many of his previous best-sellers : You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me, about the 60s; Black Vinyl White Powder, about the postwar British record industry; and I’m Coming To Take You To Lunch,and is a guaranteed rollicking look at the music busines along with his other numerous interests and escapades. Recently he's directed three major documentaries. 'To Be Frank', about Frank Sinatra (Netflix). '27 Club', investigating the psyche of creative music artists (Netflix). And '50 Years Legal', marking 50 years since the UK decriminalised homosexuality. To order the book go to Simon's FACEBOOK page.. https://www.facebook.com/simonnapierbell

A tale from the world of pop

 Legendary rock manager and author Simon Napier Bell (he's half Australian) writes a story about his involvement with a promising Aussie band WA WA NEE and the death this week of the singer of the group, Paul Gray (second left in the photo below).


WA WA NEE - PAUL GRAY
In April 1987 I got a call from Dennis Handlin at CBS in Australia telling me I ought to manage a band he’d signed - “Come to the CBS conference next month and hear them play. They’re bloody marvellous. They’re called Wa Wa Nee.”
Meanwhile he booked me a first-class ticket.
A month later on a Thursday, I was due to leave home for a 9pm flight
when I got a sudden lurch in my stomach. I’d clean forgotten that since I’d last been to Australia they’d introduced visas for UK citizens. And I didn’t have one.
A bit panicked because I had to leave for the airport in half-an-hour, I called the airline and asked if exceptions were ever made. “Absolutely never!” they said. “Not even for the bloody Prime Minister”
Which didn’t sound promising.
With some help from my very well-connected squash coach, I managed to get the home number of the Australian ambassador. By which time there was only a few minutes left to get things sorted out.
I told him who I was, that I’d managed Wham! and had taken them to China. But it turned out he wasn’t a pop fan and didn’t know who Wham! was. “What d’you want exactly?” he asked bluntly. He sounded put out to have been called at home by someone he didn’t know.

I said I’d been invited at very short notice to go to Sydney to sign an Australian pop group who, if I signed them for management, would undoubtedly become a substantial earner of foreign currency for Australia. But I needed a visa.
“No way,” he said. “You’ll have to go to the visa office tomorrow morning. It will take at least 48 hours, and we’re closed over the weekend. So that means Monday.”
I could tell he wanted to hang up but before he could I politely repeated the whole story again.. “They’re called Wa Wa Nee,” I said. And by a piece of good fortune he repeated the name out loud.
Immediately, from the other end of the phone came a cacophony of screams .
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“My two daughters.”
Two hours later I was on the plane with a handwritten visa. Thirty-six hours later I’d become the manager of Wa Wa Nee. They were a four-piece band who wrote their own songs. The singer was Paul Gray, blond and starry, and the musicians who played with him were Steve, Chris, and Mark.
I must say it went rather well. With unusual speed, I extracted a substantial budget from CBS and flew the group to London where we made a video of their latest single, Sugar Free. I then persuaded Epic in New York to give them the full monty promotion-wise.
In September Sugar Free went into the Billboard Hot 100 and by the time we arrived in New York to do promotion it had climbed to 35. I had discussions with the Epic marketing department re its onward progress. They planned to put it into the Top Twenty the following week, the Top Ten the week after, and if things still looked good the week after that, they’d go for a Number One.
In New York the group played a gig that went exceptionally well and we moved on to LA. After an equally good show at the Whiskey, I had to tell Paul he’d be having dinner with the wives of a couple of CBS executives. “They’ve rather taken a fancy to you,” I explained.
He didn’t like the idea at all. “I’m not a piece of meat,” he said. “I’m an artist.”
“It’s only a dinner. Be nice for a couple of hours, then you can go home to Australia knowing your record will be in the Top Ten.”
“N-O!”
It’s what everyone wants to say but in the end doesn't. But Paul did. And he refused to go to dinner.
By the following week Wa Wa Nee’s record had disappeared from the Billboard chart and the group’s career in America was over. You couldn’t really fault Paul. He was principled and stuck with what he believed in. His life was about music, not PR. He was a charming fellow, wrote amazingly good music, and sung brilliantly.
For me - for the rest of the band - for Paul too - it was just one more rock experience. Sometimes that’s how things work out.
Last week Paul died and everyone is very sad. Me too. For the musicians who were in Wa Wa Nee, he was for a while the focal point of their lives. He was funny, witty, and delightfully self-deprecatory. When Steve, the guitarist, learned he had cancer a couple of months back, Paul said, “Don’t worry. It’s nothing. Just a little setback. I’ll soon be over it.”
But unfortunately he wasn’t.
 The funeral is on Thursday. RIP Paul. You’re much missed.

Death of a Superstar : George Michael

In the 1980s Whispers had quite a bit to do with George Michael.  Working for Wham's then manager Simon Napier-Bell (pictured above left) we filled the UK media with endless tales, sometimes they were true and often concocted but always, always harmless. In fact we named this column in honour of Michael's much loved song Careless Whispers.
In 1985 Whispers traveled to China when Napier-Nell pulled off the most extraordinary feat and convinced the Politburo that Wham should be the first foreign pop/rock band to perform there. It was a surreal experience after European concerts where fans went berserk over any Wham song while in China, each song was accompanied by polite claps from  the audience who were made up of youngsters from the emerging middle-class.
Simon later recorded his efforts in getting Wham to China in a fascinating book I'm Coming To Take You to Lunch.

George was the intellectual of the duo while Andrew Ridgley was the fun guy and together they were a perfect compliment for each other. When Wham finally split the pair remained firm friends as did both with Simon Napier-Bell. Indeed the last time we say George Michael was when he was staying at Napier-Bell's Thailand villa a few years ago while yet another media controversy raged over a London car incident.
George  Michael was a superstar in the true sense and probably one of the world's greatest writers of pop songs. In person he was self effacing, friendly and shy but underneath, a troubled soul who was just pulling his life together following the death of his long-time partner and various bouts of drug abuse. He will be missed.

Tidbits

The Hairstyle of The Month award in September goes to New York businessman Richard Feldman who was spotted at the annual Quest 400 party in NYC.

 Perhaps he shares a hairdresser with our favorite ex-Prime Minister Bob Hawke. The two could be long lost cousins!

Spotted on the Blue Carpet for the premier in London of the new Beatles film Eight Days A Week last Thursday, music personality Simon Napier Bell who these days spends his time touring the world and lecturing on music as seen in our snap taken in India.
Simon wrote a song we all love :"You Don't Have to say You Love Me" made famous by Dusty Springfield and Elvis Presley. Napier-Bell attended the film along with Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

Not long ago Simon hosted a BBC series on rock'n'roll managers and he is currently filming a documentary on British gay life (in our snap he is interviewing actor Simon Callow) . OK we are a bit prejudiced here- Simon who is half Australian is also a business partner of Whispers in a film project among other things. But you really should read some of his books including the fascinating "I'm Coming to Take You To Lunch" of how he managed to get the pop duo Wham to be the first pop act to appear in Communist China ( Whispers was there!)


Coming shortly : all the news on the 80th Anniversary of the Black & White Ball at the Sydney Town Hall.

















Here is Dusty singing Simon Napier Bell's You Don't Have To Say You Love Me.

Slipping Standards ?

One aspect overlooked in the reporting of the glamorous fundraising event  to aid The Costume Institute in New York, the 2015 Met Ball which is chaired by the Queen of New York Society Vogue high priestess Anna Wintour, was the inclusion of guests who normally wouldn't get a look-in at the snooty end of New York society.
Whispers has attended a few of these events and even at a ticket price of $25,000 a head, there is a waiting list of the well heeled anxious to crash into Big Apple society. Two celebrities that have been denied a seat in the past were finally allowed to put their ample assets on show : Kim Kardashian and Beyonce were first-timers at the gala with it's Chinese theme to reflect a current costume exhibition on show. Also there was Wendi Murdoch and her daughter Grace.

 
Right : Wendi & Grace Murdoch

Pictures by Nicholas Hunt & Clint Spaulding for 
Patrick McMullan.com

www.patrickmcmullan.com
www.pmc-mag.com

Photography by Nicholas Hunt and Clint Spaulding for PatrickMcMullan.com - See more at: http://pmc-mag.com/category/out-and-about/#sthash.x3sgLaSL.dpuf

Missing the Party

He was hoping to be in Sydney for tomorrow's Mardi Gras but alas business has delayed his visit. British music entrepreneur Simon Napier-Bell says he is disappointed to be missing his first Mardi Gras particularly as he was named as the UK LGBT (gay) Personality of The Year in 2009. .
Napier-Bell has discovered and managed some of the biggest names in pop music from the Yardbirds, Marc Bolan & T-Rex, Dusty Springfield and Wham and George Michael.

#In 1985 Whispers was a guest at the very first pop/rock concert in China- Wham- a ground  breaking event that had taken Simon two years of schmoozing Politburo members to pull off. It was a surreal occasion as several thousand Chinese audience, mainly party bigwigs and their families politely clapped after every song including Wake Me Up Before You Go Go.
Napier-Bell has now written several best-selling books about the music business and his 2003 book Black Vinyl White Powder is regarded as the definitive book on the pop music business. But he has now gone back even further with his latest book Ta- Ra -Ra- Boom- De Ay-the dirty business of popular music which charts the history of music from the 18th century.
(left : Simon with Sinead O'Connor)
Napier-Bell will be in Sydney on the 19th of this month with Irish singer Sinead O'Connor who he manages, for her one and only Australian concert at the Sydney Opera House.
Below is the song Simon penned with Vicki Wikham for Dusty Springfield and which was a hit for Elvis Presley also :  You Don't Have To Say You Love Me.
 Says Simon wistfully :"if I only had $1 for every time around the world I see drag queens miming to that song"!

The Oracle Speaks

Our favourite Richest Woman In The World, Gina Rinehart takes to the social media with a Youtube speech on how to get Australia moving.

Sadly not a word on her recent column telling Aussies whingers  "jealous of the wealthy: start working harder and cut down on drinking, smoking and socialising" or her desire to use nuclear bombs to create new harbours in West Australia.
nb: note the odd change of tone in her voice at 9.40mins, Spooky.

The outrageous Mr Simon Napier-Bell

A Shuttle staffer has drawn our attention to an interview in the UK Sunday Express with Simon Napier-Bell published in February. The same staff member introduced our team to Simon when he visited Sydney in 2007 for a series of radio and TV interviews.

It seems the bon viveur, pop impresario and songwriter and lately, best-selling author has verbally seduced another journalist over a fine dinner. Our colleague reckons that is Napier-Bell's stock in trade and it works extremely well. He dazzles and hypnotizes over the dinner table with words and a fine bottle of vintage red.

Simon's website is a must to visit and full of anecdotes and the history of his musical successes from the Yardbyrds, Dusty Springfield, Marc Bolan and T-Rex to Wham with a few of the biggest chart topping songs penned along the way. He lives most of his  time in Thailand now and is writing another book-the last 3 having been best-sellers with 'Black Vinyl White Powder' regarded by critics as possibly one of the best books ever written on the music industry. I recommend "I'm Coming To Take You To Lunch" about Napier-Bell's  successful scheme to get Wham to be the first western band to ever appear in China. At times it reads like a thriller and is one of those books you find difficult to put down.

Our Shuttler says he went on a few adventures with Mr Napier-Bell to foreign parts and has some very saucy tales to tell but is keeping them for his own tome. He did let us in on one episode though when the pair visited Rome for a weekend.
Being our Shuttlers first and only ever visit to the glorious city, the 2 set out for a stroll along the beautiful Villa Borghese gardens on a perfect Roman spring day. 

Within minutes they spotted an extremely handsome young Italian stud who sent all the right  gaydar signals. Our Shuttler wheeled around and insisted upon following the young Italian. He says it was like a scene out of Death in Venice - the young man would stop occasionally to allow them to gain traction and then speed off again. All that was missing was the black hair dye running down our Shuttler's face in the heat.

In a two hour trek at lightening speed our Shuttler whisked past sights he had dreamed of one day visiting, seen only out of the corner of his eye in a blur. Down the Spanish Steps, along the Via Veneto, past the Trevi Fountain, the Vatican City, the Coliseum and so on.  Ten yards behind Mr Napier-Bell did his best to keep up pleading for a cultural  interlude but ignored.

On a hill high above Rome with our Shuttle staffer believing success was soon to be his and his own Roman Spring of Mrs Stone was about to blossom, the young Italian turned around, laughed, gave a sporty wave and sped off to disappear forever into a labyrinth of alleyways.

He remembers little of Rome from that weekend except a later visit to a disco to drown his sorrows whereupon  he rounded on Napier-Bell and accused him of wrecking what was destined to be a romantic love tryst, by lagging so far behind.

In a huff he walked off in high dungeon and out the door to return to their hotel - and straight into a broom closet. Where he waited a full hour before he emerged in embarrassment.

Ever the perfect host, Mr Napier-Bell was patiently waiting with  a fine bottle of white wine on ice.

Years later our Shuttler was dining with mutual acquaintances who had recently  met with Mr Napier Bell in Singapore and they commented on how entertaining he had been. Which included recounting the tale of the race through Rome !

exclusive: a Prince & Count to the rescue

Rural news:

 Long gone are the days when Oz lived off the sheep's back but HRH Prince Charles is coming to the rescue and will attend the 9th Rosehill and Wool Congress in April at the Rosehill Racecourse and Convention Centre in Sydney's west in April.

There will be all manner of exciting social events, including a welcome reception, cocktail party with The Australian Wool Fashion Awards and a dinner harbour cruise on picturesque Sydney Harbour, as well as tours, field trips and visits to the Sydney Royal Easter Show to watch sheep judging and other arena events.

The Congress presents a forum for active discussion and debate on the future and opportunities of the sheep, meat and wool industries.

And clocking in after giving the country a miss last year over the sheep mulesing controversy is Count Paolo Zegna, one of the largest buyers of the best quality wool which is shipped to Italy and turned into suits to be sold throughout the world. The Count was last here in 2008 when his Zegna Wool Awards were held in great secrecy at the Sir Standford Hotel with organizers fearful of a full on protest that was rumored would include visiting pop star and PETA advocate Pink !. Zegna flew in via Melbourne, arrived at the dinner, gave out a dozen plaques to the crusty faced sheep farmers and scampered. Pink and protest placards never materialized.

Fashion designer Liz Davenport, one of only five Australian designers bestowed with the nation’s top fashion honour - the Grand Award from the Fashion Industry of Australia and whose designs are sold in more than 300 boutiques and department stores throughout the world, is researching the wool industry for the Congress.

Currently in China Liz is quoted in The Land Newspaper saying "“You would never find a king, prince, premier, Prime minister, or a president wearing anything but a pure wool suit but this alone can’t keep farmers producing wool.” She also says : "“I asked a Chinese supplier where his wool came from and he said an animal. I asked what animal and he said he didn’t know – this is a problem.”. As for Charles-he says "Wool is a fibre even the most brilliant boffin in the most high-tech laboratory could never create.”

Liz should be pleased to know that Charles will be coming to her rescue. Not even the Congress organizers or her have been told of the Prince's visit yet.

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Meanwhile Russell Crowe's Museum of Interesting Things has finally opened at the Nymboida Coaching Station Inn . The old barn in the small NSW country town now houses a ton of Crowe memorabilia including his Romper Stomper boots, Gladiator costume, wild west outfits from 3.10 to Yuma, a dozen Johnny Cash gold albums and dozen cricket caps from famous batmen over the decades including Don Bradman.

No. we have no idea where Nymbodia is either .
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Wishing you were there:

    At Sugarmill in Kings Cross on Tuesday comedian Gary Eck was upstaged by Robin Williams who was dining with Happy Feet 2 co-star Elijah Wood. Williams gave an impromptu 30 minute hilarious dissertation about his Sydney visit. Anyone who has been to a William's press conference will know just how side-splittingly funny Williams can be.

     tSS began to film part of the routine with our snap happy but a tap on the shoulder from a large gent changed our minds.

    Williams and Wood are recording voices for the cartoon penguin fantasy at George Miller's Kings Cross studios.