My favorite (and closest) Bookazine is where I get many of the books for
review. However, when I boldly turned the corner into the store this week, I
was met with a blank wall. Renovations or similar, I suppose. And no book
for the Pattaya Mail’s book reviewer!
It was then I remembered that quite some time ago, I was presented with a
book by its author, a chap living in Pattaya, and a chap with an interesting
history. This was Simon Napier-Bell and the book was entitled “I’m coming to
take you to lunch”. It was sitting, buried under papers, in the In-Tray on
my desk. Forgive me Simon, I have certainly sinned! However, I am atoning
for my sins in a small way by reading and reviewing your book.
Published in 2005 (Wenner Books) ISBN 1-932958-56-8, the front cover of “I’m
coming to take you to lunch” proclaims that it is a “fantastic tale of boys,
booze, and how Wham! were sold to China.”
It seems the fashionable thing to do today, this jumping onto the Chinese
(high speed) train wagon, but Simon Napier-Bell was there with his
belly-laugh and a band called Wham! while they were still laying the tracks,
when Simon’s entourage reached China in the nineteen eighties!
Right from the outset, Napier-Bell lets you know that he is gay. It is part
of him and his story, so is treated factually, as it should be. What does
differentiate Napier-Bell is that he was living with his ex-boyfriend and
his current boyfriend in the same house at the same time! What really
interested me was the fact that the ex-BF, a society hairdresser, employing
a publicist and to all appearances very successful, was in actual fact being
supported financially by Napier-Bell.
There are 43 chapters, spanning from 1983 to 1986, and the author flits
merrily from East to West and vice versa, seemingly at the drop of a credit
card.
The main theme of the book (other than Napier-Bells peregrinations), is the
machinations involved in getting the inscrutable Chinese to allow the group
Wham! to stage a concert in mainland China, an event which would give the
group world-wide publicity. How he made that happen is inscrutably amazing!
Napier-Bell’s book reminds me of Keith Richards’ “Life”, itself an
interesting tale of life in the music industry (especially rock ‘n roll)
from the performer’s viewpoint. However, “I’m coming to take you to lunch”
deals with the same industry, but from the management viewpoint. There are
decided similarities (though Napier-Bell wrote his long before Richards) and
the quest for hedonism (for either) was not too hard! And “I’m coming to
take you to lunch” was how much of the business was done, with Dom Perignon
as the lubricant.
This book is obviously not on display in the book shops (a fickle lot at the
best of times), so you may have to go via the amazon.com exploration route.
If you have had even the slightest passing interest in the commercial music
business, the search for this book will be worth it.
