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"!