Unbound Publishing
In the 1980’s Paul Simper was forging a career writing about 1980s pop music and the vibrant London dance scene. He worked for a never-ending array of magazines at that time, writing about such bands as Spandau Ballet, Wham, and Banarama, and many of those people became friends, giving him an insight into the world of pop from both sides. He saw the frivolity and success of it, the trips from club to club, the recording studio, but he also saw the negative sides of it, knowing that as a writer, he would never truly be allowed into the inner circle of Pop music and popular culture.
It is the work of a talented writer who seemingly had a knack for finding the right story at the right time, and the right angle to write from, that would earn him both a reputation and a wariness. Throughout the book we are shown the inner sanctum of pop life, but also the tedium of waiting around for nothing to happen. Although we see what things were like hanging around with Madonna, Paul Weller, Sade and Boy George, many other people didn’t have the luck of a long and influential career, and it would have been interesting to have seen some of their stories as well.
Although successful people with their hit songs are what would help to sell a book like this, there is more to a musical career than a hit song, and Pop Stars in My Pantry mentions very little about the other people Simper would have met along the way. The many other writers don’t get much of a mention, and although it is a job with many perks, the many deadlines, and the competition between magazines and other writers are barely touched upon, neither is the conundrum of being close to people personally, but knowing that a story you write could make or break their career.
As a break-neck rip-roaring trip down pop’s storied memory lane, Pop Stars in My Pantry has a lot to recommend it. It has style, humour and humanity by the bucket load. There is also another book here, a look at pop music writing as a historical, factual record of a time before social media, curated life being displayed on Facebook and Instagram, and palatable opinions being held on X (or Twitter), and it is perhaps as the second book of this type that might have found a space on bookshelves as well, but as a first-hand account featuring cameo roles for some of today’s most long-serving, and influential figures, the book is hard to fault.
benmacnair 