School of Music, University of Leeds

Simon Warner

Senior Teaching Fellow

s.r.warner@leeds.ac.uk

+44 (0)113 343 8235

BA, Modern History, Sheffield, 1977
MA, Popular Music Studies, Liverpool, 1993
NCTJ, National Council for the Training of Journalists, Certificate, 1980

Simon Warner has been a journalist, critic, broadcaster and academic. He was a live rock reviewer for the Guardian during the early 1990s. In 1990 he embarked on the world’s first MA in Popular Music Studies at the Institute of Popular Music, Liverpool University. In 1994 he became Senior Lecturer in Popular Music Studies at Bretton Hall College, before joining Leeds University on merger in 2001. He is Director of the PopuLUs, the Centre for the Study of the World's Popular Musics. He has also coordinated the PopuLUs Popular Music Seminar Series.
The Centre for the Study of the World's Popular Musics

Books (single authored)

Text and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: The Beats and Rock from Kerouac and Ginsberg to Dylan and Cobain (New York: Continuum, forthcoming)
Rockspeak: The Language of Rock and Pop (London and New York: Blandford, 1996)

Books (edited)

Summer of Love: The Beatles, Art and Culture in the Sixties, edited by Joerg Helbig and Simon Warner (Trier, Germany: WVT, 2008)
Howl for Now: A Celebration of Allen Ginsberg’s epic protest poem (Pontefract: Route, 2005)

Contributions to books and conference proceedings

‘You only sing when you’re winning: Footballing and musical rivalries in Liverpool and Manchester’, article in Soccer & Society, special music issue (forthcoming, 2010)
‘The banality of degradation: Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground and the trash aesthetic’, chapter in The Exploding Plastic Inevitable, ed. Ronald Nameth (forthcoming, 2010)
‘Genre and the aesthetics of popular music’, chapter in Popular Music in France and Britain: Comparative Perspectives, edited by Hugh Dauncey and Philippe LeGuern (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009 forthcoming)
‘The Sound of the Summer of Love? The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper, the hippies and Haight-Ashbury’, chapter in Summer of Love: The Beatles, Art and Culture in the Sixties, edited by Joerg Helbig and Simon Warner (Trier, Germany: WVT, 2008)
‘Genre et esthétique dans les musiques populaires', chapter in Stéréo: Sociologie comparée des musiques populaires: France/G-B, edited by Hugh Dauncey and Philippe LeGuern (Paris: IRMA, 2008)
‘All cut up? Unwrapping Genesis P-Orridge’s beatnik past’, ‘Making Music, Making Meaning’, IASPM Biennial Conference, Rome, Italy, July 25th-30th, 2005 (Proceedings, forthcoming 2009)
‘Raising the Consciousness? Re-visiting Allen Ginsberg’s 1965 trip to Liverpool’, chapter in Centre of the Creative Universe: Liverpool and the Avant Garde accompanying the Tate Liverpool exhibition, February-September 2007, edited by Christoph Grunenberg and Robert Knifton (Liverpool & Chicago: Liverpool University Press & Chicago University Press, 2007)
‘Sifting the shifting sands: ‘Howl’ and the American landscape in the 1950s’, chapter in Howl for Now: A celebration of Allen Ginsberg’s epic protest poem, edited by Simon Warner (Pontefract: Route, 2005)
'Reporting Woodstock: Some contemporary press reflections on the festival', chapter in Remembering Woodstock, edited by Andy Bennett (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004)

Periodical articles

‘Jim Carroll: Poetry prodigy, post-Beat and punk rocker’, obituary, Beat Scene, No. 61, 2009 (forthcoming)
One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur, CD review, Beat Scene, No. 61, 2009 (forthcoming)
‘Return to Lowell: A visit to the Commemorative and Kerouac’s grave’, Beat Scene, No. 60, 2009 (forthcoming)
One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur, DVD review, Beat Scene, No. 60, 2009 (forthcoming)
‘Jim Carroll’, obituary, The Guardian, September 22nd, 2009,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/22/jim-carroll-obituary [Accessed October 6th, 2009]
‘Words on the arrival of the Kerouac Scroll at Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, December 5th, 2008’, poem, Beatdom, Issue 3, 2009, http://tinyurl.com/yah8p6d [Accessed October 6th, 2009]
‘Steven Taylor: A Beat Englishman in New York’, Beat Scene, No 58, Spring 2009
'Whatever next? How the Who made Leeds come alive again' in Live at Leeds 14/02/70-17/06/06, Souvenir publication on the Who’s return to Leeds University, published by the University of Leeds, June 17th, 2006 (Also at www.leeds.ac.uk/home/warner_essay.doc)
‘Regrets? Too few to mention’, Cent magazine, Spring 2006
‘He may not rock, but he sure do ron ron’, Jacques Derrida and popular music, Feature on Derrida’s legacy in The Times Higher Education Supplement, November 11th, 2004
'The Record as Record: The life of the popular song and the role of the sound carrier' in 'Recording the Ephemeral', The National Arts Education Archive Occasional Papers in the Arts and Education, Vol 9, edited by Philip Butterworth, pp. 21-30, 2000
'Behind the Print: Reading the Rock Press', The National Arts Education Archive Occasional Papers in the Arts and Education, Vol 8, edited by Tim Stephenson, pp. 111-117, 2000
'Beat Generation/Rock Generation: A cultural continuum' in Route, Vol 1/3, May 2000
'David Meltzer' in Beat Scene, No 30, 1998
'The Adorno Hangover' in Versus, Vol 1/2, 1994

Contributions to encyclopaedias

Twelve entries in Baker's Biographical Encyclopedia of Popular Music since 1990, introduced by David Freeland (New York: Schirmer, 2003). Original entries: 'Costello, Elvis'; 'Daft Punk'; 'The Isley Brothers'; 'Mitchell, Joni'; 'Oasis'; 'Radiohead'; 'Simply Red'; 'Smith, Patti'; 'The Spice Girls'; 'Steely Dan'; 'The Who'.

Reviews

James E. Perone, 2008, The Words and Music of Prince, review for Popular Music (forthcoming)
Matthew Bannister, 2006 White Boys, White Noise: Masculinities and 1980s Indie Rock (Aldershot: Ashgate), reviewed in Popular Music, 27/1, January 2008, pp. 181-182
Timothy Warner, 2003 Pop Music – Technology and Creativity: Trevor Horn and the Digital Revolution (Aldershot: Ashgate), reviewed in the website of the International Association of for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM Summer 2004) http://www.iaspm.net/review/warner.htm
Steven Taylor, 2004 False Prophet: Field Notes from the Punk Underground (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press), reviewed in Ethnomusicology Forum, Vol 13/2, pp. 306-309, November 2004
David Meltzer, 2004, Beat Thing (New Mexico: La Alameda Press), reviewed in Chapter&Verse, Autumn 2004
http://www.popmatters.com/chapter/04Autumn/warner1.html
Tony Mitchell (ed), 2002 Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press), reviewed in Ethnomusicology Forum, Vol 13/1, pp. 162-166, June 2004
Bernard Gendron, 2002 Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant Garde (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), reviewed in Chapter&Verse, Issue One, Spring 2004 http://www.popmatters.com/chapter/04win/warner.html
Barney Hoskyns (ed), 2003 The Sound and the Fury: 40 Years of Classic Rock Journalism (London: Bloomsbury, 2003) reviewed in Rock Critics, June 6th, 2003 http://rockcriticsarchives.com/features/warner/soundandfury.html
Steve Jones (ed), 2002 Pop Music and the Press (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002) reviewed in Rock’s Backpages, November 2002 http://www.rocksbackpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=3496

Live rock critic for The Guardian, 1992-1995, 50 reviews - a selection

Recordings / DVD

Howl for Now, DVD recording, 2007 (University of Leeds)

Radio / TV broadcasts

BBC Radio 4, A Good Read, March 17th, 2009
BBC Radio 2, Turn Your Radio On - Ray Stevens, January 8th, 2008
BBC Radio 4 Adventures in Poetry, Allen Ginsberg’s ‘First Party at Ken Kesey’s with Hell’s Angels’, October 14th, 2007
BBC Radio 4, Red Elvis, drama documentary on 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death, August 16th, 2007
BBC Radio 4, Word of Mouth, 25th anniversary of John Lennon’s death, December 9th, 2005
Channel 4 TV, The Best-Selling Artists of the 21st Century, September 7th, 2005
ITV, Frock'n'Roll, two part series, May 21st and 28th, 2004
BBC Radio 2, The Music Box, two part series, November 29th and December 6th, 2003
Channel 4 TV, The Top 10 Football Songs, June 8th, 2002
BBC Radio 2, The True Story of British Pop, six part series, November 6th to December 11th, 2001
BBC Radio 4, The Archive Hour, 'Nonsense Verse', April 1st, 2000
In addition, regular contributions on popular music topics for news programmes on BBC Radio and at BBC Online.

Public Performances

Howl for Now, director, School of Music, University of Leeds, October 7th, 2005

Keynote & invited lectures

‘Mapping the Beat: Rock, Literature and the British Counterculture’, Contextual Lecture Series, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, January 12th, 2010 (forthcoming)
‘Post-Punk Performance: The Alternative 80s’, closing plenary panel member. University of Leeds, September 9th, 2009
‘Versions of Cody: Jack Kerouac, Tom Waits and the song “On the Road”’, Research Seminar Series, School of Music Hull University, February 24th, 2009
‘Jazz Journey: Jack Kerouac’s musical soundtrack’, Talk accompanying exhibition of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road Scroll manuscript, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, January 15th, 2009
‘Talking the Beat’, Discussion, Panel Member, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, January 8th, 2009
‘Cover Versions: How Pop Art shaped the album sleeve’, ‘The Art School Dance: Art into Pop, Pop into Art’, Liverpool John Moores/Tate Liverpool, September 21st-22nd, 2007

Conference papers

‘Versions of Cody: Jack Kerouac, Tom Waits and the song “On the Road”’, Literature Without Borders, Research Seminar Series, Schools of Modern Languages/English, Leeds Humanities Research Institute, University of Leeds, February 10th, 2010 (forthcoming)
‘You only sing when you’re winning: Rock rivalries in Manchester and Liverpool’, IASPM biennial international conference, University of Liverpool, July 13th-17th, 2009
‘Crashing on the shore: Notions of a new wave’, paper, ‘New Wave, New Views: Re-visiting the Post-Punk moment’, Popular Cultures Research Network, University of Leeds, June 26th, 2009
‘Rock’n’roll Road: Rock culture and its homage to the Kerouac legacy’, ‘Back on the Road’, conference celebrating 50th anniversary of UK publication of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Birmingham University, December 12th-13th, 2008
‘You only sing when you’re winning: Rock rivalries in Manchester and Liverpool’, ‘Music and the Idea of the North’, Leeds University/Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds Town Hall, September 5th-7th, 2008
‘You only sing when you’re winning: Rock rivalries in Manchester and Liverpool’, ‘Locating Popular Cultures’, Popular Cultures Research Network, Leeds University, September 10th, 2008
‘From popular to pop: The fluctuating function of a musical prefix’ ‘New Directions in Popular Culture: Discourse and Pleasure’, University of Leeds, March 21st, 2007
‘Cover Versions: How Pop Art shaped the album sleeve’, RMA Annual Conference, University of Nottingham, July 11th-14th, 2006
‘Cover Versions: How Pop Art shaped the album sleeve’, School of Modern Languages and Cultures Research Group, Leeds Humanities Research Institute, University of Leeds, February 15th, 2006
‘All cut up? Unwrapping Genesis P-Orridge’s beatnik past’, ‘Making Music, Making Meaning’, IASPM Biennial Conference, Rome, Italy, July 25th-30th, 2005
‘All cut up? The pandrogynous transformation of Genesis P--Orridge’, ‘Music as Masquerade: Poseurs, Playas and Beyond’, Experience Music Project, Seattle, US, April 14th- 17th, 2005
‘Dig that Crazy Rhythm? The Beat Generation writers and the rise of rock’n’roll’, Postgraduate Seminar, Leeds University School of Music, March 3rd, 2005
‘Dig that Crazy Rhythm? The Beat Generation writers and the rise of rock’n’roll’, Post-graduate seminar, Leeds College of Music, November 11th, 2004
'Cover versions: Pop Art and the rock album sleeve', 'Analysing Text and Inter-Text', Leeds College of Music, October 25th, 2003
'Beat matters: Exploring rock's bohemian traces', 'Scenes, Subcultures and Tribes', University College Northampton, September 13th, 2003
'Absolute Amnesia: Colin MacInnes and the question of the missing skiffle', 'Here's the Way We Play It', National Skiffle Conference and Concert, Liverpool John Moores University, September 6th, 2003
'Where to now? Popular music education and career destinations', Conference: IASPM UK, University of Newcastle, July 17th, 2002
'Beat Generation/Rock Generation: Observations on a cultural continuum', Conference: 'Literature and Music in the Study of Culture', Open University event at Worcester College, Oxford, May 11th, 2002
'Beat Generation/Rock Generation: Observations on a cultural continuum', Conference: 'Crafting Sounds, Creating Meaning: Popular Music in the US', Experience Music Project, Seattle, US, April 12th, 2002
‘Rock and Literature: A very modern marriage?', 'Critical Musicology and High Modernism', Critical Musicology Forum, Nottingham University, January 21st, 2002
'So Bored with the USA?: Reflections on a transatlantic divide', 'No Future', 25th anniversary punk conference, University of Wolverhampton, September 22nd, 2001
'Offbeat: How the national press reports rock in the regions', Conference: The Robert Shelton Memorial Conference, The Bluecoat, Liverpool, May 19th, 2001
‘Beat Generation/Rock Generation: A cultural continuum’, Conference: IASPM UK, University of Surrey, July 8th, 2000
‘Rock and Literature: Observations on Inter-Textuality‘, Bretton Hall Music School research seminars, June 9th, 2000
‘Popular Music and Higher Education’, presentation to Conference: ‘Teaching Popular Music’, Institute of Education, University of London, May 11th, 2000
‘Songs of War and Peace’, 'Raise Your Banners' Festival of political music and song, Sheffield Hallam University, November 13th, 1999
‘Text and Drugs and Rock’n’Roll’, 'Off the Shelf', Sheffield Literature Festival, National Centre for Popular Music, Sheffield, October 27th, 1999
‘Britprint revisited’, Conference: ‘Soundtracking: Popular Music and the Media’, Sheffield Hallam University, July 10th, 1999
'Dylan and the Beats: The Meltzer connection', from The Robert Shelton Memorial Conference, Institute of Popular Music, Liverpool University, May 1st, 1999
‘Popular Music and Politics’, 'Raise Your Banners' Festival of political music and song, Sheffield Hallam University, November 1st, 1997
‘Britprint: Liking and Loathing on the News-stand‘, Conference: ‘Britpop: Towards a Musicological Interpretation’, Leeds University, May 8th, 1997

Other

Web articles/interviews
- Blog: ‘Words of Warner’ - http://simonwarner.wordpress.com 2009 -
- PopMatters
- 'Anglo Visions', 2001-2006
- Fifty album reviews 2000-2001
- Best Music of 2001 http://www.PopMatters.com/music/features/bestof2001-warner.html
- Best Music of 2003 http://www.PopMatters.com/music/best2003/best2003-warner.shtml
- Best Music of 2004 http://popmatters.com/music/best2004/041228-warner.shtml
- 'Forever older, forever wiser: Dylan hits 60' - Bob Dylan birthday tribute, May 2001
- 'Beatniks and folk chicks' - Review of Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mimi Farina Baez and Richard Farina by David Hajdu, June 2001
- 'A king, a queen and two knaves?' - Interview with David Hajdu, June 2001
- 'So bored with the USA?: Reflections on a transatlantic divide' - part of special feature, '25 Up: Punk's silver jubilee', October 2001
- Michael Franti interview, July 29th, 2002
- 'Less Rotten than reasonable: Joe Strummer and my punk Damascus' - tribute on Joe Strummer's death, December 27th, 2002
- 'United we stand? Dividing lines in the land of Albion', article in the "These Times, This Place" series, September 27th, 2004 http://www.popmatters.com/features/tttp/2warner.shtml
- Music Press Report
- Review of Pop and the Press, ed Steve Jones - November 9th, 2002
- Rock Critics
- 'Out of his pen' - Interview with Richard Williams, September 22nd, 2002
- 'Critiquing the critics: On the value of rock journalism' - Interview with Steve Jones, editor of Pop and the Press, February 18th, 2003
- Rock's Backpages
- 'Birthdays of the Cool?: Dazed and Confused at 10 and The Wire at 20' - December 2002
- Review of Lloyd Cole Knew My Father, BBC Radio 2 - February 2003
- 'Rock's future pages: Why music titles keep coming despite uncertain times', March 2003
Public interviews
- Jon King and Andy Gill, Gang of Four, Leeds University, June 26th, 2009
- Clinton Heylin, rock biographer, Leeds University, June 26th, 2009
- Bill Nelson, rock musician, Memories, Dreams and Gleaming Guitars, pre-film screening, School of Music, University of Leeds, April 28th, 2007
- Bill Nelson, rock musician, ‘Nelsonica’ convention, Duke of Cumberland, North Ferriby, nr Hull, October 22nd, 2005
- Jeff Wayne, composer, School of Music, University of Leeds, May 19th, 2005
- Peter Blake, artist, School of Music, University of Leeds, February 10th, 2005
- Bill Nelson, rock musician, Be-Bop Deluxe, School of Music, University of Leeds November 27th, 2004
- Tony Wilson, broadcaster/label owner, Bretton Campus, University of Leeds, March 18th, 2002
- Jay Greenwood, A&R man, Bretton Campus, University of Leeds, March 11th, 2002
- Dave Haslam, DJ/author, Bretton Campus, University of Leeds, March 4th, 2002
- Mark Pearman, rock musician, The Sisters of Mercy, Bretton Campus, University of Leeds, January 28th, 2002
- Faith Petric, folk singer, Sheffield Hallam University, November 17th, 2001
- Chris T-T, singer-songwriter, Bretton Campus, University of Leeds, November 30th, 2001
- David Toop, musician/author, Unity House, Wakefield, January 25th, 2001
- Roy Bailey, folk singer, Unity House, Wakefield, November 21st, 2000
- Simon Humphrey, record producer, Unity House, Wakefield, November 18th, 2000
- Billy Bragg, singer-songwriter, Sheffield Hallam University, November 13th, 1999
- Bill Nelson, rock musician, Be-Bop Deluxe, Bretton Hall College, West Bretton, November 4th, 1997
- Jeff Noon, author, Bretton Hall College, West Bretton, October 28th, 1997

Co-organiser, ‘New wave, new views: Re-visiting the post-punk moment’, day seminar, Popular Cultures Research Network, Leeds University, June 26th, 2009
Co-organiser, ‘Back On the Road’, conference celebrating 50th anniversary of UK publication of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Birmingham University, December 12th-13th, 2008
Directed the Study Day ‘A Day in the Life – Sgt Pepper at 40’, presented by PopuLUs, School of Music, University of Leeds, June 19th, 2007
Directed the two-day conference ‘The Sounds of the Guitar: A Global Crossroads’, presented by PopuLUs, the Centre for the Study of the World's Popular Musics, School of Music, University of Leeds, November 26th and 27th, 2004 http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/research/PopuLUs/events/
In Spring 2004 launched, as editor, a new web journal, Chapter&Verse, A Journal of Popular Music and Literature Studies, considering the intersection and interaction of popular music, the novel and poetry (http://www.PopMatters.com/chapter). To contact C&V write to journal@chapterandverse.org.uk

Committee member
- Member and committee member, Popular Cultures Research Network, Leeds University 2006-
Jury member
- Judge, Annual Music Criticism Award, Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (US) 2004-2008
Curator
- Co-conceived and co-directed the Sir Peter Blake Music Art Gallery, a permanent exhibition of the artist’s collaborations with popular musicians. The gallery, sited in the School of Music and opened in February 2005, features the world’s only public display of the artwork from the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, signed by the painter. Other signed and counter-signed items include album sleeves for Eric Clapton, the Who, Brian Wilson, Ian Dury, Paul Weller, Oasis, Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8.
Publishers’ reviewer
- Book proposals reviewer, Open University Press, Manchester University Press and Polity Press
Professional
- Member of the BRITs Voting Academy 2008-
- Member of the Association of Music Writers and Photographers 2005-
- Member of IASPM (International Association for the Study of Popular Music) 1995-
- Member of the Higher Education Academy 2004-
- Member of the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education 2001-2004
- Member of the UCU (University and College Union) 2006-
- Member of the AUT (Association of University Teachers) 2001-2006
- Member of NATFHE (National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education) 1994-2001
- Member of the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) 1978-1990