Black Vinyl White Powder: The Real Story of the British Music Industry

(Paperback)

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Bitchy, glib, fun and shrewd.Daily Telegraph

Black Vinyl White Powder is the definitive story of five decades of British Popnow in paperback

Whether penning hits for Dusty Springfield, discovering Marc Bolan or managing a series of stellar acts ranging from the Yardbirds to Wham! Simon Napier-Bell draws on his wealth of contacts and personal experience to give an enthralling account of a business that became like no other.

From the debauchery of rock megastars like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin to the ecstasy culture that shaped dance music in the 1980s, Napier-Bell charts the growth of a world in which bad behaviour is not only tolerated but encouraged; where drugs are as important as talent; and where artists are pushed to their mental and physical limits in the name of profit and ego.

Filled with the voices of artists, producers, managers and record company execs, Black Vinyl White Powder is a raucous, entertaining and revealing history of British pop.

Reviews

'The most authoritative, intelligent, diligently researched and unpretentious analysis of the British pop scene yet written' Sunday Telegraph

'Record producer Napier-Bell (The Business: A History of Popular Music from Sheet Music to Streaming) has been associated with the English popular music scene since 1956...Napier-Bells racy but shrewd look at the British music scene will fly off library shelves' David Keymer, Library Journal

Author Bio

Simon Napier-Bell has been a film composer, songwriter, record producer, and author, but he is best known for having managed such artists as The Yardbirds, Marc Bolan, Japan and Wham!. Under his management, Wham! became the first Western pop group ever to play in Communist China. He is the author of three other books about the music industry You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, I'm Coming to Take You to Lunch and The Business as well as the forthcoming memoir Sour Mouth, Sweet Bottom. He is CEO of the Pierbel Entertainment Group, and continues to consult, write and broadcast on the music industry.