Simon Napier-Bell joins the Rockonteurs
Rockonteurs with Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt
Rhino UK
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2026
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on the Rockonteurs podcast, we are joined by the producer, manager, songwriter, and impresario Simon Napier-Bell. Simon talks about getting his foot in the door in the 60s, working and writing for Dusty Springfield, managing the Yardbirds and taking Wham to China in the 80s. Simon’s is a remarkable career that hasn't slowed down one bit as he explains in this fascinating conversation with Gary and Guy.
Find out ore at simonnapierbell.com
Instagram @rockonteurs @guyprattofficial @garyjkemp @simon.napier.bell @gimmesugarproductions
Listen to the podcast and watch some of our latest episodes on our Rockonteurs YouTube channel.
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Produced for WMG UK by Ben Jones at Gimme Sugar Productions
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you like listening to Rockonteurs, then we would love you to subscribe to us permanently. |
| 0:05.7 | So hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts from. |
| 0:09.7 | Hello, Gary. |
| 0:11.0 | Hello, Guy. |
| 0:11.8 | I saw the Elvis film. |
| 0:13.3 | Epic. |
| 0:13.7 | Have you seen that? |
| 0:15.4 | Yes. |
| 0:16.0 | So you've seen that, but you haven't seen the McCartney film. |
| 0:18.4 | I've seen the McCartney film. |
| 0:19.5 | So we can either be competitive here and talk about the two films that the other one hasn't seen. |
| 0:25.2 | Talk about both. So I, first of all, I went to see Epic and I was utterly blown away by the whole |
| 0:31.3 | thing. I kind of missed Elvis, as a lot of my generation may well have done, you know, that early 70s thing of where he's stuck |
| 0:39.5 | in Vegas and he's playing endlessly and he's growing fat. And I sort of ignored it, to be honest, |
| 0:45.1 | you know, I got the kind of early stuff, you know, obviously, but I never bought the records. I |
| 0:49.7 | never bought into it. But, you know, I was doing Bowie and I was doing all the other things he'd |
| 0:54.0 | do in the early 70s. But the band know, I was doing Bowie and I was doing all the other things he'd do in the early |
| 0:54.5 | 70s. But the band that he has, he is so beautiful, he is so handsome, he is so charismatic, |
| 1:01.5 | his voices out of this world. The rehearsal shots of him and playing, you know, with James |
| 1:07.1 | Bert and Jerry Sheff and Ronnie Tut, you know, are just some of the best musicianship I've ever heard. |
| 1:13.4 | The choice of songs he uses, you know, I mean, you know, there's great big ballads that he sings and how he presents that at the, |
| 1:21.6 | basically, Baz Luhrman has found all the footage from the International Hotel 1970 and a bit more. And he's, he's, he's, |
... |
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