Simon Price


Simon Price is a British music journalist and author. He is known for his weekly review section in The Independent on Sunday and his book Everything .

Life

The son of a radio presenter, he attended Barry Comprehensive in Wales and studied French and philosophy at University College London.
He began his career on the Barry & District News, where he wrote a music column from 1984–1986. He wrote for Melody Maker for nine years.
He was heavily involved with the Romo scene in the mid-1990s, about which he wrote extensively for Melody Maker, co-promoted the Arcadia clubnight and acted as DJ and tour manager for the Fiddling While Romo Burns Romo package tour.
Everything, a biography of the Manic Street Preachers, was claimed by Caroline Sullivan in The Guardian in 1999 to be the "fastest selling rock book of all time". It was later listed by The Guardian in a Top Ten books about rock. Ben Myers, who wrote Richard, a novel about Manics guitarist Richey Edwards, called it "one of the most exhaustively researched and passionately written band biographies in existence". Price disowned a 2002 reissue of the book following a dispute over edits by the publisher, who cut criticisms of the police search for Richey Edwards.
Alongside 54 other signatories, Price put his name to an open letter published in The Guardian on the 15 September 2010, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK. He is also listed as a distinguished supporter of Humanists UK.
He won the Record of the Day Live Reviews: Writer of the Year awards in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
He co-created alternative "glam/rock/trash" nightclub Stay Beautiful. Named after the Manic Street Preachers song, it draws heavily on the ethos and attitudes of the band. Having run for over ten years in London the club relocated to Brighton in 2011, where it continued until 2016.