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Simon Warner

Simon Warner

Simon Warner is a writer, broadcaster and researcher in popular music at the University of Leeds. A live rock reviewer with The Guardian from 1992-95, he was a featured contributor to the webzine Pop Matters, penning the "Anglo Visions" column from 2001-2006, and makes frequent contributions to BBC radio and online.

Warner takes a particular interest in the ways the Beat Generation writers – Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and others – helped to shape subsequent rock culture. His 2013 book Text and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll: The Beats and Rock Culture (Bloomsbury) was followed by a co-edited collection, with Jim Sampas, entitled Kerouac on Record: A Literary Soundtrack, also issued by Bloomsbury, in 2018.

In 2005, he staged Howl for Now, a 50th anniversary commemoration of the first reading of Ginsberg's poem ‘Howl', in Leeds, an event which also spawned a book of the same name. In 2015, a 60th anniversary performance, Still Howling, was presented in Manchester. In 2013 and 2014, Warner was a founding curator of the inaugural festival of popular music writing, Louder than Words. Recent media appearances include an interview for BBC Four’s Rhymes, Rock & Revolution: The Story of Performance Poetry, first broadcast in 2015.

Books

Rockspeak: The Language of Rock and Pop (Blandford, 1996)

Howl for Now: A Celebration of Allen Ginsberg’s Epic Protest Poem (Route, 2005)

Text Drugs and Rock'n'Roll: The Beats and Rock Culture (Bloomsbury, 2013)

Kerouac on Record: A Literary Soundtrack, co-edited with Jim Sampas (Bloomsbury, 2018)

University of Leeds

43 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Rory Gallagher: Town & Country Club, Leeds

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 2 November 1992

IT WAS ALWAYS likely to be a heavy onus for the guitarist Rory Gallagher to bear when it was confirmed that he would be the ...

The Stranglers: Leeds University

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 8 February 1993

IN THE SUB-CULTURAL flow, punk rushed headlong in a bid to create the spontaneous, ephemeral and disposable. Some irony then, that 15 years on, the ...

Tasmin Archer: St George's Hall, Bradford

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 9 March 1993

A BLACK WOMAN based in Yorkshire, singer-songwriter Tasmin Archer might be seen as a figure on the margins in almost every sense. Add to that ...

Kingmaker, Pulp, The Wedding Present: Wedding Present/Pulp/Kingmaker: The Leadmill, Sheffield

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 7 April 1993

THE STEEL CITY, commemorating its centenary and celebrating soccer success, turned rock capital as a week of music events, including concerts, seminars and workshops, got ...

John Shuttleworth: Buzz Club,  Manchester

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 28 April 1993

ONE-TIME PUNK parodist in the guise of Jilted John, actor Graham Fellows has emerged in a new incarnation – a singer-songwriter of dubious pedigree by ...

Stereo MCs: Academy, Manchester

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 24 May 1993

WITH THE ticket touts in the Manchester streets peddling their wares at up to £40 apiece, the Stereo MCs were unquestionably the hottest ticket in ...

Shabba Ranks: Ragga Bragger — Shabba Ranks: Maestro Club, Bradford

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 28 May 1993

Shabba Ranks, the bad boy of ragga, in Bradford ...

Saint Etienne: St Etienne: Hacienda, Manchester

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 14 September 1993

BRITAIN'S NATIONAL popular music convention In the City, Manchester's five-day jamboree of industry chatter and on-stage over-drive, adds weight to the argument that the place, ...

Wet Wet Wet: Sheffield Arena

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 29 November 1993

THERE IS an honourable tradition of blue-eyed soul stretching from the Righteous Brothers to Hall & Oates and Stevie Winwood, yet if Wet Wet Wet ...

D:Ream: Metropolitan University, Leeds

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 5 February 1994

THE EARLY weeks of this year have seen D:Ream catapulted from the lower reaches of the Top 30 to the pinnacle of the charts with ...

Cocteau Twins: The Cocteau Twins: Manchester Academy

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 15 February 1994

THE CORE TRIO, more triplets than twins, have become weary of the media tag locating them as other-worldly beings, cult objects disconnected from the realities ...

Chaka Demus and Pliers: Chaka Demus & Pliers: Maestro's, Bradford

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 10 March 1994

AFTER THE brooding intensity of Shabba Ranks and the controversies engulfing ragga and dancehall generally, it is easy to forget that while reggae has frequently ...

Soul Asylum: Town & Country Club, Leeds

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 22 March 1994

A MERE six years ago, rock records accounted for half the world's popular music sales. Today the white, Anglo-American alliance has seen its market share ...

Pulp: Metropolitan University, Leeds

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 29 April 1994

IN A MORE just world it would now be time to set aside the macho posturings of the rock burn-out and the dead-ends of the ...

Radiohead: Manchester University

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 27 May 1994

"THERE ARE A LOT of people out there who want to tear us to pieces," Radiohead's vocalist Thom E. Yorke told the churning, cheering hordes ...

Lush: Manchester University

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 8 June 1994

CHALLENGED TO a drinking contest by their support band, noise merchants Blessed Ethel, Lush claimed they had chosen the easier option by returning to the ...

Manic Street Preachers: Manchester Academy

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 18 October 1994

IF EMPTY intellectualism has been etched on pop's calling card, there has always been the odd renegade determined to transform rock into an intelligent medium. ...

Beck: Manchester University

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 28 November 1994

IS THIS the age of the neurotic self-obsessive? Sold out signs at Beck's debut UK gig suggest that his curious blend of twitchy unease and ...

Simple Minds: Sheffield Arena

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 23 March 1995

IT'S OFFICIAL. Rock, that huge, lumbering beast we thought had been exiled to the sports stadiums of the American Midwest, is alive and almost kicking, ...

Rare Earth: The Best of Rare Earth (Motown)

Review by Simon Warner, PopMatters, 6 February 2001

MOTOWN'S GOLDEN decade – over 100 US Top Ten hits in the Sixties – was as steady and profitable as the Detroit auto plant conveyor ...

Jeff Beck: Blow by Blow/Wired

Review by Simon Warner, PopMatters, 26 March 2001

IN THE ANNALS of British rock guitarists it is hard to escape the spectre of Clapton, Page and Beck, a great triumvirate, linked not just ...

Destiny's Child: Survivor (Columbia)

Review by Simon Warner, PopMatters, May 2001

POP HISTORY IS as slippery as a Tom Parker, as mysterious as a Brian Epstein, as mercurial as a Malcolm McLaren. Like its great managerial ...

Out of His Pen: The Words of Richard Williams

Interview by Simon Warner, rockcritics.com, September 2002

IN U.S. CULTURE, the rock critic is valued, even venerated. From Lester Bangs to Dave Marsh, from Ben Fong-Torres to Greil Marcus, the voices that ...

Pop and the Press

Book Review by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, November 2002

Simon Warner peruses a fresh academic take on rock journalism ...

Birthdays of the Cool?

Essay by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, December 2002

Simon Warner on Dazed & Confused at 10 – and The Wire at 20! ...

The Clash, Joe Strummer: Less Rotten Than Reasonable: Joe Strummer and My Punk Damascus

Memoir by Simon Warner, PopMatters, 27 December 2002

ALTHOUGH I saw Joe Strummer in action many times, I only met him once and, embarrassingly, confused him with someone else. ...

On Lloyd Cole Knew My Father

Review by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, February 2003

"WHAT WOULD entice social misfits from provincial hellholes like, say, Northampton, Wigan and Exmouth to join the world of sex, drugs, travel and free records ...

Rock's Future Pages

Overview by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, March 2003

Why new music titles keep coming despite uncertain times. ...

Rufus Wainwright: Prima Donna: The Palace Theatre, Manchester

Live Review by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, July 2009

Wainwright or wrong? No rock in Rufus opera ...

The Jackson 5: I Want You Black: How Jacko's debut still has the power to thrill

Memoir by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, 1 July 2009

OVER A LIFE-TIME, there are a number of those stop-you-in-your-tracks musical moments that seem to tattoo your soul. And, in a sense, those ear-turning songs ...

Journey's trend: Why this band don't stop believin'

Comment by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, 16 December 2009

IN THE CLOSING moments of Glee, the newest US smash to creep on to our TV screens, an ensemble of high school singers and musicians ...

Lady Gaga: Transvision Vamp: Lady Gaga

Comment by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, January 2010

THE POWER OF Lady Gaga has been one of the most scintillating features of 2009: three number one UK singles, a sprawling debut album and ...

Wendy And Lisa: Wendy & Lisa's impressive post-Prince parade

Comment by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, 8 January 2010

TWO US TELEVISION shows with little in common beyond the fact that they have made their mark on the viewing public and garnered critical warmth, ...

Patti Smith, Television: The Mapplethorpe Effect: Patti, Polaroids and Punk

Retrospective by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, 15 January 2010

IT WOULD NOT BE outrageous to propose that the two greatest albums of the punk tsunami featured cover images by arguably the most important post-war ...

Crosby Stills Nash & Young: CSN&Y '74: A Long Long Time Ago

Film/DVD/TV Review by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, 12 February 2010

TO USE THE phrase deja vu in the opening sentence of a reflection on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young runs the serious risk of incarceration ...

Joni Mitchell: Martyn Atkins (dir.): Joni 75 – A Birthday Celebration

Review by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, March 2019

IT WAS A little ironic that the only live breath that Joni Mitchell exuded at her own 75th birthday celebration extinguished a single candle on ...

The Beatles: From Beetles to Beatles: It was 60 years ago today

Essay by Simon Warner, Kerouac.com, 1 June 2020

How Beat and a British poet changed the history of rock music ...

Tina Turner: Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin (directors): Tina (Sky/HBO)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Simon Warner, unpublished, April 2021

IF THEY fictionalised the Tina Turner story, it would be so implausible that not even Hollywood's most starry-eyed director would take it on. No one, ...

Bob Dylan, Jack Kerouac: The Legend of Zimmerman

Retrospective by Simon Warner, Rock and the Beat Generation, 24 September 2021

Bob Dylan delighted in the tales he could spin to embroider his early biography and Jack Kerouac adapted his own life for fictional purposes. ...

Jack Kerouac: Still Rockin' in the Beat world

Essay by Simon Warner, Perfect Sound Forever, October 2021

How Kerouac cool continues to fuel popular music passions as the writer's Centenary nears in 2022 ...

Jack Kerouac: The many sounds of Kerouac's On the Road

Retrospective by Simon Warner, Rock and the Beat Generation, 2 February 2022

Kerouac's most famous book is obviously first and foremost a written text. But the refrains of music ripple through its rolling adventures and there are ...

Tom Waits: Alex Harvey: Song Noir – Tom Waits and the Spirit of Los Angeles (Reaktion Books)

Book Review by Simon Warner, Rock and the Beat Generation, July 2022

I REVIEWED Rickie Lee Jones' vividly illuminating autobiography Last Chance Texaco in these pages earlier this year, applying a Beat microscope to her always energetic, ...

Pete Brown and His Battered Ornaments, Pete Brown's Piblokto, Cream: Pete Brown: Superstar poet and Cream of the crop

Obituary by Simon Warner, Rock and the Beat Generation, 20 May 2023

BACK IN 2010, in the heart of the most bitter January I can recall, I visited the home of Pete Brown with a BBC radio ...

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