You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

'A scurrilous memoir of the Sixties' music business - any aspiring star should read it.' Daily Mirror

An entertaining old-school romp through the Swinging Sixties...cracking anecdotes that leave you wondering how anyone who was at the heart of the sixties scene is still breathing...all good, irresponsible fun

Gossipy, camp and wise - the perfect guide to the decade they can't forget

The cold-print equivalent of a sparkling evening with a world-class raconteur

In the 1960s Simon Napier-Bell managed the Yardbirds and co-wrote Dusty Springfield's huge hit 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me' (also the title of his first book - 'the classic hidden history of Sixties pop' Jon Savage). He subsequently managed Marc Bolan, Japan, and Wham! as well as many other laughably less successful groups.

You probably know Simon Napier-Bell as the manager of the Yardbirds. Or you may know him as the man who managed Marc Bolan, or Japan. You should definitely know him as the man who managed Wham! And if none of these rings a bell, maybe you'll remember him as the man who co-wrote 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me' for Dusty Springfield. 
 
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is one of the funniest books you will read and equally provoking. From his revelation that the entire music industry was motivated by sex, to an embarrassing come-on from a suicidal Brian Epstein, it's all shocking stuff. But when you're on the run from the German police with Marc Bolan, brothel-hopping with Keith Moon and generally living the life of Riley at the music industry's expense, it would be a shame not to share those amazing experiences with the rest of the world, wouldn't it? 
 
Of all the great pop-music books written, it is worth savouring You Don't Have To Say You Love Me for its brilliant sideways insight into one of the most exciting cultural periods Britain has ever seen.

Black Vinyl White Powder

A lifetime's work and the best piece of music writing this year. The real inside story of the British music industry

"one of the most fascinating, revealing and enjoyable journeys through 50 years of the UK record business"

`Here you get a great autobiography of a very experienced man (he famously managed Wham!), who describes in great detail the advent of the pop industry and, of course, all the pitfalls that have become associated with it.

Simon Napier-Bell was manager of the Yardbirds, Marc Bolan, Japan and Wham! to name but a few. He still manages today. 
 
www.simonnapierbell.com

The most authoritative, intelligent, diligently researched and unpretentious analysis of the British pop scene yet written' Sunday Telegraph 
 
Black Vinyl White Powder charts the amazing fifty year history of the British music business in unparalleled scale and detail. As a key player across the decades, Napier-Bell - who discovered Marc Bolan and managed amongst others The Yardbirds and Wham! - uses his wealth of contacts and extraordinary personal experiences to tell the story of an industry that is like no other. Where bad behaviour is not only tolerated but encouraged, where drugs are sometimes as important as talent, where artists are pushed to their physical and mental limits in the name of profit and ego. 
 
'The Greatest Ever Book Written about English Pop-Breathtakingly Brilliant' Julie Burchill 
 
'The cold print equivalent of a sparkling evening with a world-class raconteur.' Charles Shaar Murray, Independent 
 
Bitchy, glib, fun and shrewd' Daily Telegraph

Simon Napier-Bell

Tells the story with a raconteur's relish and a cast of shady characters straight out of a Graham Greene novel

A riot of boys, booze and 80s excess...a great raconteur and his snide asides are a joy...Bitchier than an Elton John put down

Reading this is like sitting across a table groaning with foie gras, listening to a raconteur extraordinaire ramble through an alcoholic mist...tremendous fun

Richly funny and entertaining..some of it reads like a big, gay Bond thriller; other bits are pure, pungent travelogue

Given Napier-Bell's hedonistic life in Eighties London, his diverse circle of acquaintances and his pithy, lively writing style, this book could hardly fail to entertain

A fantastic tale of boys, booze and how Wham! were sold to China

Pop manager extraordinaire Simon Napier-Bell had had enough. He'd had enough of pop groups. He'd had enough of the constant grief at home with his two ex-boyfriends bickering and bleeding him dry; and most of all he'd had enough of the music biz. But then he fell in love with a new passion - the Far East; and a dynamic new duo - George and Andrew - jointly called Wham! Soon, in an audacious attempt to have the best of both worlds, he found himself offering to arrange for Wham! to be the first ever Western pop group to play in communist China - a masterstroke of PR which, in one swift stroke, would make them one of the biggest groups in the world. 
 
What follows is an exciting, unpredictable and hilarious romp around the more curious corners of the world as Napier-Bell dives into the unknown, attempting to achieve the unachievable. We soon find ourselves in the company of a wonderful cast of petulant pop stars, shady international 'businessmen', and a hilarious confusion of spies, students and institutionalised officials and ministers as he edges ever closer to inadvertently becoming one of the first Westerners to break down the walls of communist China.

Simon Napier-Bell

Praise for I'm Coming To Take You To Lunch

Tells the story with a raconteur's relish and a cast of shady characters straight out of a Graham Greene novel

A riot of boys, booze and 80s excess...a great raconteur and his snide asides are a joy...Bitchier than an Elton John put down

Reading this is like sitting across a table groaning with foie gras, listening to a raconteur extraordinaire ramble through an alcoholic mist...tremendous fun

Tells the story with a raconteur's relish and a cast of shady characters straight out of a Graham Greene novel

A riot of boys, booze and 80s excess...a great raconteur and his snide asides are a joy...Bitchier than an Elton John put down

Reading this is like sitting across a table groaning with foie gras, listening to a raconteur extraordinaire ramble through an alcoholic mist...tremendous fun

Tells the story with a raconteur's relish and a cast of shady characters straight out of a Graham Greene novel

A riot of boys, booze and 80s excess...a great raconteur and his snide asides are a joy...Bitchier than an Elton John put down

Reading this is like sitting across a table groaning with foie gras, listening to a raconteur extraordinaire ramble through an alcoholic mist...tremendous fun

Books by Simon Napier-Bell

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