Simon Warner Forum

Simon Warner

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I think he is a incredible .. was bought in via Scott Walker, Brel, and Neil Hannon.. saw him at Water Rats, Kings Cross. Blown away

>>By Diggy (Monday, 10 Feb 2003 02:38)

where is he??

>>By manners (Saturday, 5 Jul 2003 14:10)

I heard he made an even more ambitious orchestral album then got dropped by his record company. Apparently, this was the trigger for him losing the plot and according to my source (one of the orchestra on 'Waiting Rooms') he became homeless then ended up in some sort of institution. I then met an another musician who claims to have seen him recently playing bass guitar in a flamenco band. Can anyone confirm any of this?

>>By debucket (Tuesday, 9 Dec 2003 03:10)

wow. I have not listened to Waiting Rooms forever,

>>By Clodia (Tuesday, 9 Dec 2003 12:38)

i wonder how recent this info is ... and where the flamenco band was playing (UK/Spain?), how reliable a person saw him doing what seems an odd thing, but then trust Simon .... fabulously talented geezer, yeah.

>>By suzukibeane (Tuesday, 30 Dec 2003 11:18)

hey...im sure how old this thread is.but i'm track simon down...........i used to work with him and Making Angels in the mid 90's and have since lost track of him..............if anyone knows if he's giging or any form of contact for him..........please drop me a mail...........Ta ; )

>>By pete_P (Thursday, 11 Mar 2004 19:00)

I wish to dispell a few myths about Simon.

Simon did move out of his flat, becoming officially homeless and ended up staying at mine and his aunt's before moving in with his partner Wendy. They now have a beautiful daughter called Sophie Sunday and live togther very happily.

He never ended up in an institution.

He scrapped his second album himnself to concentrate on his third album,still unreleased, which features the masterpiece 'Catacomb South', and has spent quite a lot of time working as an arranger for other musicians as well as working with Liam from the Sneaker PImps.

He never joined a flamenco band but played bass with his and my good friend Ben Ellis, who is a singer songwriter and also a flamenco player of international repute.

Simon is finishing off at least two albums and is as talented and breath-takinly original as ever

Siarl Davies (Saarlos)

>>By siarl (Monday, 11 Dec 2006 17:42)

It's nice to hear people talking about Simon. I was his bassist for 6 years nearly and his flat mate for about 10 months. Yes you are right he is one of the most tallented people I have ever come accross. The real deal to use a dreadful term.
I see Pete Parsons has tried to track him also, he went through the endurance tests with him in the recording studio like all of us. (Hello Pete)
Simon was rarely ever happy with any of his finished music, he would continualy re mix, redo, re edit until the tape wore thin, literally!
It was frustrating for us all and pretty much shot us in the foot for years, but hell you can't stop a genius and he definately is that, but what a pain in the bottom that could be.
The probelm was when I was playing in his band 1990-96 is that you either loved his voice or you hated it. Liked him as a person or hated him. Found him selfish and obssesive, or liked him for the very different person he is. I thought it was incredible and we always got on really well. He was murder to live with though because he never went out!
He was the only person that had a better musical knowledge than mine at the time. (I thought I was clever with my musical history, but not compared to him.)

The music then was brilliant too. We went from a bubblegum pop band like a brilliantly fantastic Monkees, I mean phoenominal 3 minute songs! to a Coldplay/Talk Talk type thing (to cheapen the style we had). This for me was easily the best music and line up we had...... but we couldn't get arrested. The record companies would come down and leave saying great stuff but we are not signing anything. Then Oasis came along and grunge was still going on and Dinosaur Jnr /Sonic Youth were going to chage the world..... and all that stuff which didn't really interest us.

Simon meanwhile, had had enough and after listening to Jack Jones, (yep honest) Anthony Newley and lastly good old Scott with hime late into the night in Battersea. He said this is wanted he wanted to do and for 6 months months I played the craziest bass lines for him not really knowing what the hell was going on or if I liked the stuff anymore.
We did, Waiting rooms, Wake up the street and about 40 other songs rapidly....... then the guitarist left, then the drummer .....no one was sure if they liked this stuff and then the Divine Comedy came in with a Mickey Mouse version of it. (Actually I don't mean that, they are very good really)

Simon thought I left he said later, but really what happend was he said he wanted a break for a while until the New year (96) I then went traveling for 2 years and when I got back I joined him in the studio to sing backing vocals with his studio band, took some photos for his Cd single cover and stuff and hey presto he was off. The album wasn't bad, I liked it a lot..... but he did over produce it a bit again in my opinion and that is strictly my opinion!

The last time I spoke to Simon was a few years back he wanted some more backing Vocals doing for the next album. I guess he didn't like my bass playing anymore! (Boo Hoo) But he never got back to me. I hear he's well and has a baby Girl, still with Wendy in London. I hope to god he's doing music because he really can't do anything else!

Meanwhile I did my own little album which you can hear bits of if you are interested at www.sevenoclockjunkies.co.uk

Simon I think may approve but I don't believe he would like it too much...not enough Cello's...Oboe's he'd like the harmonies though although he would tell me instantly which ones were wrong, or could be better, or you could have done somthing there......

I hope this hasn't bored anyone too much.....

The drummer works in the Mucky Pup pub in Islington.

>>By Darryl (Monday, 18 Dec 2006 23:01)

Darryl, brilliant to hear from you, I've seen a posting or 2 from Rick floating around, but nothing for the last few years I think. Great to see u talk about those days, I still play the old tunes!
Hope alls good mate.

>>By pete_P (Wednesday, 16 Feb 2011 02:41)

Hello,

I'm not sure if people receive notifications about new posts being made on this page, but...

There's a new Simon Warner fanpage, here - https://www.facebook.com/simonwarnerfans
Rick Benbow is involved in this page, and if he hears any new then it will be posted there.

Cheers,
Pete.

>>By PeteMurphy (Wednesday, 2 Jul 2014 14:42)

P.S. I'm sure you all saw the article on Simon in last month's Mojo magazine. If not, there are scans of it on the fan page.

Hopefully one day we will all get to hear the 2nd album in its entirety, and there songs I've seen mentioned (Catacomb South, etc...)

>>By PeteMurphy (Wednesday, 2 Jul 2014 15:04)

The discussion board is currently closed.