Simon napier bell biography of michael

English record producer, music manager, author and journalist

Not to be confused with Simon Napier.

Simon Robert Napier-Bell (born 22 April 1939) is an English record producer, music manager, author and journalist. At different times, he has managed artists as diverse as the Yardbirds, John's Children, Marc Bolan, Japan, London, Sinéad O'Connor, Ultravox, Boney M, Sinitta, Wham!, Blue Mercedes, Alsou and Candi Staton, among others.

Napier-Bell has written two volumes of music history, focusing on the history of the music industry since the 18th century. He has also written two memoirs about his own experiences in the music industry.

Early years

Napier-Bell attended Durston House in Ealing, and then later a primary school at Perivale. He then attended Harrow County School for Boys and Bryanston School in Dorset. Whilst at Bryanston, he formed the school's first jazz band. When he left school at the age of 17, it was with the idea of becoming a professional musician, preferably in America. A year later, unable to get a visa to the United States, he emigrated to Canada.

Career

Songwriter

When he returned to England he worked as an assistant film editor. With a thorough knowledge of music, he soon progressed to being a music editor and landed the job of working with Burt Bacharach on What's New Pussycat, re-editing the score Bacharach had written for it. Later, he also scored, wrote and edited music for Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1967), a film directed by Clive Donner.

In 1966, Dusty Springfield approached Napier-Bell and Vicki Wickham to write an English lyric to an Italian song she had heard at the Sanremo Festival, composed by Pino Donaggio. The result was "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me", which became Springfield's only number one hit in the UK Singles Chart.

Manager

A friend, Vicki Wickham, who booked all the acts for th

12 December 2023, 13:52

George Michael's old manager says that no-one really disliked the pop superstar.

George Michael has been the subject of several vital documentaries about his life and work, including the recent Wham! film on Netflix and 2022's stunning George Michael Freedom Uncut.

Another indispensable movie was released earlier this year, George Michael: Portrait of an Artist, which had the distinction of being directed by Simon Napier-Bell, who managed Wham in their 1980s heyday.

While some music documentaries shy away from exploring the less savoury side of their subjects, Napier-Bell revealed that he absolutely tried to get some of Michael's contemporaries on the record with any issues they had with him.

But George Michael was as known for his kindness and generosity of spirit almost as much as his talent, and the director came up short despite his digging.

"I interviewed people who he had big quarrels with, but none of them disliked him," Napier-Bell told Yahoo! Movies.

"He'd get furious because something wasn't ready at a gig or something wasn't done right, but that was his job.

"If he played a gig and the sound wasn’t right, or a musician played a bad note, it was George who looked bad, not the musician.

"He could be short and sharp and bad tempered but hey, we all are. I couldn't find anyone to say anything bad about him."

Asked what George would think of the film, which is out now on Blu-ray and DVD, Napier-Bell said: “I think he'd be happy with it. He might feel that there weren’t enough bad points, though."

Born in 1963, George Michael sold over 100 million records around the world, scoring success first as half of Wham with Andrew Ridgley, and then as a solo singer-songwriter.

He died on Christmas Day in 2

CAR CHASES WITH WHAM! FLEEING THE RIOT POLICE WITH MARC BOLAN - MANAGER AND SONGWRITER SIMON NAPIER-BELL TELLS MARK ELLEN ABOUT SIX DECADES OF EXCESS

Simon Napier-Bell tends to start sentences with "On our third, fourth - maybe fifth - bottle of red wine ..." or "I was in a nightclub in Bangalore drinking cocktails at three in the morning ..." On this occasion he begins as follows: "One night with Andrew Ridgeley we drank eight bottles of champagne and ended up in an Egyptian belly-dancing club in Queensway, as one does, where we poured the last bottle over our heads in a sort of bonding situation. And we had to get home, which was difficult because we were falling over and covered in drink and I said, 'Let's sleep in my Bentley till we're sober', me in the front, him in the back. But the car somehow started itself and set off - as cars do when you're drunk at four in the morning - so I said to Andrew, 'I think it'd be safer if we went on the pavement. So I drove from Queensway to Marylebone on the pavement and it was only when I was crossing the zebra crossing at Bryanston Square, only then did the police turn up. Andrew ran away and I was arrested. My lawyer said, 'Don't plead guilty; they've made a mistake with the paperwork,' and he got me off, case dismissed. I asked him what I should have got and he said a £40 fine and forbidden to drive for two years so I gave 40 quid to Oxfam, sold my car and didn't drive for two years.

"I told George Michael this story and he said, 'That's disgraceful. You should have been punished and sent to jail!' George always lectures people," he says, laughing to himself.

"He's terribly moral."

What would George have said now, I wonder, after being so stoned in 2010 that he famously drove his Range Rover into the window of Snappy Snaps in Hampstead?

"Ha! He'd go, 'Naughty George!'" Napier-Bell, who managed Wham! in the Eighties, slaps his wrist theatrically. "He's incredibly sensibl