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.

Rock'N'Roll Row

Famed music entrepreneur Simon Napier-Bell (pictured left) was in Sydney last month and Whispers popped along to the Newtown music club Leadbelly to hear him give a talk on the music industry.  Napier-Bell discovered such legends as Marc Bolan & T-Rex, Dusty Springfield and the late George Michael and Wham. He has managed numerous stars and steered their careers including The Yardbyrds in the 1960s up to Sinead O'Connor last year.

One of Napier-Bell's themes is the influence of gay managers on the emerging music business in Britain that included not just himself but Brian Epstein and The Beatles, Kit Lambert and The Who, Australian Robert Stigwood and The Bee Gees and Larry Parnes. Parnes discovered and launched numerous stars in the 1960s including Billy Fury and Marty Wilde. One tale told by the late Kit Lambert is that Robert Stigwood rang Parnes and said " I've just driven past your office and there is a blond Adonis working on the roadworks, look out your window". Parnes looked, spotted the handsome blond and the career of Tommy Steele was born. Napier-Bell reckons gay managers had a unique feel for what teenage girls wanted and acted upon it.

Top: Epstein & The Beatles* Jann Werner Bottom: Stigwood & the Bee Gees. Kit Lambert & The Who

Parnes & Tommy Steele

The New York Times just last week featured this theme (after speaking to Napier-Bell) in a feature written by journalist Jim Farber on the occasion of the pending launch of a biography of the famous Jann Werner who launched the music bible Rolling Stone magazine. Werner, now 70 only just came out the closet recently. But an almighty row is now brewing between Werner and his biographer which you can read all about. What fun!

The articles:

The Gay Architects of Rock

Who created that gorgeous 20th-century creature, the rock star? Consider

the gay image makers of the day, like Brian Epstein and Jann Wenner.

Rolling Stone founder falls out with biographer over candid life story

Another Simon Napier- Bell Discovery

British music legend and entrepreneur Simon Napier-Bell, due in Sydney in September to give one of his fascinating talks has many connections with Australia.

 Apart from his father, a documentary film-maker being born in Oz, he also discovered a diminutive Aussie singer John Paul Young whose career was languishing in the doldrums.

Napier-bell had a song he was shopping around and decided Young was the ideal singer to present it.

TheTruth about George Michael

On September 11th legendary British music entrepreneur Simon Napier-Bell will appear at Leadbelly in Newtown to give an after dinner talk.
Among Napier-Bell's many music discoveries are Dusty Springfield, The Yardbyrds, Marc Bolan & T-Rex and of course, George Michael and Wham who he turned into world superstars.
Simon remained a close friend of George Michael's and is threatening to tell the real story of Michael's life. Once when visiting Napier-Bell at his Thai villa where he now lives, Whispers found George Michael hiding from the world's media after yet another druggy car accident in the UK.
                                                            

Simon will have plenty to say about the Same Sex marriage issue having recently married his male partner in the UK and having recently directed a fascinating documentary "50 Years Legal" which is currently being screened in UK cinemas. In the film he interviews a host of famous British gays including Elton John, Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas, Sir Derek Jacobi, Sir Ian McKellan , David Hockney and many more.
He has now written 5 best-selling books about music which have received rave reviews. One "Black Vinyl White Powder" was included in the UK school curriculum. His current book Ta-Ra-Ra-BOOM De-Ay tells the history of commercial music from the 1700s onwards. Napier-Bell's last visit to Sydney was in 2016 when he accompanied Sinead O'Connor who he was then managing.

AN EVENING WITH SIMON NAPIER - BELL Monday 11th Sept Leadbelly 6-12pm

Below is the famous song Napier-Bell wrote for Dusty Springfield which was also a mega hit for Elvis Presley

Fifteen Minutes...

Have television producers been secretly scouring the pages of Whisper's contact book?. Yet another 'reality" TV show is to be launched that features long time pals of this website.
Following the success of Googlebox comes a new show called Common Sense which features "real life" people as they comment and give opinions on the main talking points of the week.

Two of the stars will be (as seen above) man-about-town Frank Elgar and designer Robert Burton (on the right). Frank is a man of many talents although we've never quite pinned down what they are in the decades Whispers has known him- he has so many. But he always seems to be at the centre of the action.
Burton is a talented designer and has boutique in uber smart Queen Street Woollhara selling fashion and luxury goods designed by himself.
Whispers is still reeling from the fact two very long time pals, Mick & Di Kershaw ( left) are part of the crew on the hugely successful show Googlebox which is produced by the same producers as Common Sense.
Just last week we attended a party at the gallery of artist Charles Billich and chatted to his Italian wife Christa, another pal, who features in the controversial Real Housewives of Sydney.
When will be Whispers time to shine?. Perhaps when the feature film being produced in Hollywood on the life of legendary British rock manger of The Who, Kit Lambert - pictured with Keith Moon -based on script authored by Whispers, rock impresario Simon Napier Bell and journalist Pat Gilbert. It's being produced by top film-maker Cassian Elwes.

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.

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"!

Good Reads

Dean Dudley & Marie Sutton

DIANA-SURVIVOR. This book was brought to out attention by Princess Diana's Aussie pal Marie Sutton who organised Diana's last official function before she was to retire- the Victor Chang Institute fundraiser in Sydney in 1996. It's the debut book by British writer Dean Dudley and is available in paperback or Kindle version.                         
Diana-Survivor tells the story of Diana surviving the car crash and giving birth to Dodi Fayed's Muslim son. Some years later, in the wake of 9/11, her child is kidnapped.
 "I can almost imagine this happening " says Marie. "it's a completely believable tale with twists and turns.I loved it". Along with Marie's endorsement it also gets a seal of approval from the Scottish Herald. Buy it here

Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay: The dodgy business of popular music  by music figure Simon Napier Bell is a complete history of popular music from the late  1700s- when composers first obtained legal copyright - to the present day. Simon is the best selling author of Black Vinyl White Powder which is described as the definitive history of pop and was included in the UK school curriculum in 2013. 

Simon's books are never boring. His I'm Coming To Take You To Lunch which charts his successful endeavours to get the band he managed WHAM ! as the first Western pop music band to give a concert in China is fascinating. Napier-Bell is also a writer of huge hits for Dusty Springfield & Elvis Presley. Buy it here.

 As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by actor Cary Elwes who starred in the Princess Bride and Robin Hood Men in Tights, Glory, Days of Thunder, Twister, and Saw and dozens of movies since. Elwes is to direct his first film about the late Kit Lambert the discoverer of The Who & Jimi Hendrix who died in mysterious circumstances in 1983. Cary's book takes you behind the scenes of the making of a Hollywood film and has received rave reviews from the New York Times and US Weekly. Buy it here.

 

Lifesurfing : Your Horoscope Forecast Guide 2015 by noted Astrologer Victor Olliver is an invaluable guide for the coming year. We at the Shuttle still consult our 2014 guide and swear by Olliver's accuracy. Buy it here.

'Everything Old Is New Again'

Peter Allen

The line above is from a song by the late Peter Allen, about fads and fashions that re-cycle every few decades. For Allen, an old style showman who was praised as one the USA's greatest live performers, his song was a joyous celebration.

During October and November Australia is to be treated for the first time to another legend and some old style music, the Glen Miller Band on the  75th anniversary of Miller's death. Miller vanished in 1944 when the flight he was on disappeared over the English Channel but his band lives on.
Meanwhile in the UK The Bugle Boy, a musical based on the life of Miller has been drawing huge foot tapping crowds and great praise from critics.The show features a 16 piece band that plays all of Miller's hits.

The Glen Miller Band will premiere at The State Theatre on Thursday 11th October. For tour dates and tickets go to the official website. Below is an exert from The Bugle Boy: