- Sylvie Simmons
Sylvie Simmons is a London-born
music journalist , named as a "principal player" inPaul Gorman 's book on the history of the rock music press"In Their Own Write" (Sanctuary Publishing , 2001). A widely regarded writer and rock historian, she is one of very few women to be included among the predominantly male rock elite.She is also the author of a number of books, includingbiography andcult fiction .Biography
1977-1984
In 1977 Simmons decamped to
Los Angeles and became US correspondent for "Sounds", one of the three major UK rock music weeklies of the period. She wrote a weekly column, 'Hollywood Highs', and interviewed a wide range of artists, includingRod Stewart ,Mick Jagger ,Johnny Rotten ,Steely Dan ,Adam Ant ,Black Sabbath ,The Clash andMichael Jackson .During the '80s, when Los Angeles witnessed an upsurge in
heavy metal andglam rock , Simmons wrote what are regarded as the definitive features on the movement, being the first journalist to bring then-unknown acts likeGuns N' Roses andMotley Crue to international attention. (She would go on to co-author the first book on Motley Crue with rock writerMalcolm Dome , "Lude, Crude And Rude ", 1994, out of print).When Sounds editor
Geoff Barton founded UK heavy metal magazine "Kerrang! ", he asked Simmons to be its L.A correspondent. She did so, under the pseudonym Laura Canyon, while continuing to write under her own name for "Sounds" (her photograph in "Sounds" showed her as a brunette, and in "Kerrang!" as a blonde). At this time she also wrote a weekly music column for theKnight-Ridder newspaper syndicate and a monthly column for the Japanese magazine "Music Life ", was a co-host of the syndicated US rock radio show London Wavelength, wrote for a number of European publications and was a regular and well-regarded contributor to cult US magazine "Creem ".1984-2008
She moved back to
North London in 1984, where, with the exception of three years spent living inFrance and her frequent travels in the United States she continues to live.Subsequently her work has appeared, and is still featured, in a number of major publications including among many others
Q magazine ,The Guardian ,The Times ,The Radio Times ,The Independent ,Rolling Stone ,Harp ,Blender ,San Francisco Chronicle , and chiefly,MOJO magazine for which she has written since its first issue and is Contributing Editor andAmericana columnist (Simmons curated a compilation of Americana music, "Rough Guide To Americana ", on theWorld Music Network , in 2001)She has also compiled and/or authored a number of liner notes for artists ranging from
David Bowie toEmmylou Harris ,Leonard Cohen to theRed Hot Chili Peppers . The best-known is the widely-regarded book she wrote, at the request ofJohnny Cash andRick Rubin , for aJohnny Cash box set "Unearthed " (American Recordings, 2003). This turned out to be Cash's first posthumous release, and their interview - conducted over a one-week period at Cash's home less than six weeks before he died - the last major interview Cash would give.In addition she is the author of several acclaimed books. These include the biographies of , the inaugural release in
MOJO Magazine's MOJO Heroes book series (published byCanongate, 2001 , ISBN-10: 184195084X), and the highly acclaimedSerge Gainsbourg : A Fistful Of Gitanes (JG Ballard chose it as his book of the year) which has been translated from the English original into five languages (various publishers, includingDa Capo , ISBN-10: 0306811839Helter Skelter andMondadori/Random House ).In 2004 Simmons' first book of fiction was published, "Too Weird For Ziggy", (Black Cat, ISBN-10: 0802141560) a collection of rock-related, interlinked short stories about the strangeness of celebrity, for which the US publishing house Grove/Atlantic resurrected its Black Cat imprint (previously home to
William Burroughs andHenry Miller ). The book bore testimonials fromSharon Osbourne ,Marianne Faithfull ,Slash ofGuns 'N Roses ,Lemmy ofMotörhead andTori Amos , and was widely praised.Another Simmons story, "I Hate His Fingers", appeared in the 2007 collection
London Noir , edited byCathi Unsworth ,Serpents Tail , ISBN-10: 1852429305).Her non-fiction work, including critiques and essays, has appeared in many books, among them "Girls Will Be Boys" by Liz Evans (1997), the various editions of "" (Canongate, 2001) and "Creem: America's Only Rock & Roll Magazine" (
Harper Collins , 2007).Simmons has made frequent appearances as an interviewee on the radio, on TV and in film and DVD documentaries. The most recent includes "
The Seven Ages of Rock " (BBC2 , 2007;VH1 2008) and the feature film and dvd "Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile" (directorDavid Leaf , 2004). She is a featured speaker at worldwide festivals and conferences, includingSpitLit , London; Serge Gainsbourg Een Hommage, Amsterdam;Litquake , San Francisco;South By SouthWest , Austin; andPorchlight , the American storytelling series, where Simmons is sometimes known to end her slot with aukulele performance.References
*Paul Gorman, "In Their Own Write: Adventures in the Rock Press", Sanctuary Publishing, 2001. ISBN: 1860743412
External links
* [http://www.sylviesimmons.com sylviesimmons.com]
*http://www.redroom.com/author/sylvie-simmons
*http://www.getreadytorock.com/bstage_heroes/sylvie_simmons.html
*http://www.pw.org/mag/is_blackcat.htm
*http://www.canongate.net/SylvieSimmons
*http://www.groveatlantic.com
*http://2006.sxsw.com/music/conference/panels/?action=bio&id=30984
*worldcat id|lccn-no98-75864
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