Simon Price
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Simon Price is a music journalist, born on September 25, 1967 in the Welsh town of Barry. He is now best known for his weekly review section in The Independent on Sunday and his book on Manic Street Preachers [1].
He made his name at Melody Maker, where he worked from December 1988 to December 1997 - his first article being a review of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds live in Paris, his last being an interview with veteran rap act Salt-N-Pepa - and was heavily involved with the short-lived Romo scene in the mid-1990s. His journalism at Melody Maker was sometimes criticised by the more "laddish" readers for what they saw as an overtly intellectual style and for his criticism of bands such as Oasis. He also courted controversy with his view that the hippie/crusty scene of the time was covertly racist due to what he saw as an overtly romantic nostalgia for a bygone rural England.
Price is renowned for being passionate about music and his acerbic turn of phrase. He has also been interviewed on the subject of Manic Street Preachers and is known to hold strong views on the band and their fans.
"Famously, there are two types of Manics fans. I think everyone's got the old fan/new fan thing wrong. Everyone thinks the older fans are the ones who really understand the band and the younger ones are just bandwagon jumpers. I think it's the other way round. Anyone over the age of 25 at a Manics gig, probably only got into them with 'A Design For Life', whereas anyone under twenty is probably obsessed and knows everything Richey Edwards ever said. They've read all the books he ever quoted. They dress like him, they're totally hardcore." [2]
Price also runs a monthly glam-electro-alternative club night in Camden Town called Stay Beautiful. He is vegetarian, strongly left-wing politically, and lives in Holloway.
