Саймон Напер-Белл: Продюсер, менеджер и летописец музыкальной индустрии

English record producer, music manager, author and journalist

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.

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.

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.

A friend, Vicki Wickham, who booked all the acts for the TV show Ready Steady Go!, persuaded him to move into music management. He began by putting together an act himself; Nicky Scott & Diane Ferraz; a boy from London and a girl from the West Indies. a music consultancy company offering advice to artist managers. Napier Bell terminated his directorship of the company in 2016 but remains a consultant.

When Japan broke up, Napier Bell wrote his first memoir, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, about his experiences in the music business in the 1960s. When he ceased managing Asia and Ultravox, he wrote Black Vinyl White Powder; originally conceived as a history of the British post war music industry, it developed during the writing process into an exploration of "the centrality of drugs and drug culture to the development of the British music business" In March 2005, he published another memoir, I'm Coming To Take You To Lunch, the story of how he took Wham! to China. In 2015, Unbound Books published his fourth book, Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay, which is a complete history of the music industry since the early 18th century until today. All four books have received multiple reviews.

In recent years he has turned to film making and directed three full length documentary films. To Be Frank, about Frank Sinatra, and 27: Gone Too Soon, about the 27 Club, were both made for Netflix. 50 Years Legal, marking 50 years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK, was produced for Sky Arts. Napier Bell is CEO of the Pierbel Group, which offers music management and consultancy, and is originating producer of Raiding the Rock Vault, the No 1 rated music show in Las Vegas, and Raiding the Country Vault, in Branson, Missouri.

Napier Bell is an atheist and openly gay.