‘Too many drugs? Perfect for us!’ Front and centre with Backstage Books.
Stockport-based author Simon Spence has written Manc-centric books about The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and the Bee Gees. Now, in a literary poacher-turned-gamekeeper scenario, he’s a publisher, co-running Backstage Books. He talks to Cult Manchester’s David Nolan about their extremely well-timed Oasis biography Feeling Supersonic, stories that contain a lot of heroin, and how they’re going to get away with a book called Mad Fuckers!
Cult Manchester: So, what is Backstage Books?
Simon Spence: Backstage Books is an independent publisher, based in Manchester. We publish pocket paperback books - generally 60,000 words in length - with exclusive photographs inside. Because of our pasts, myself and my co-founder (Anthony Donnelly of fashion brand GioGoi) tend to have good contacts in the business. We've been publishing books now for three years and we've done about eight books. We focus on music, art and fashion. They’re pocket paperbacks. The idea is they’re street reads. You know… (grabs two copies of the Oasis book and puts them in each pocket). There’s a big Oasis coffee table book about… you're not carrying that around and I don't think a lot of people have even got shelves these days. Or a coffee table. So, the idea was you could put them in your pocket.
CM: And what ISN’T Backstage Books...?
Simon: We aren’t Bloomsbury! We published a book by Den Browne called Padlocks and Bloomsbury were interested in that book. But they decided there were too many drugs in it. That was obviously perfect for us! Padlocks was about Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen coming to live with Den - who was a heroin dealer - and it’s endless, daily heroin. A lot of heroin. As soon as it was published, (American music writer) Greil Marcus said how fantastic it was. It got of loads of good reviews. So, we were kind of off and running as a literary, independent publisher. Den Browne… they called him the rock ‘n’ roll Samuel Beckett.
CM: If you were a record company, which record company would Backstage be?
Simon: My co-founder, Anthony Donnelly used to work with Factory Records. So, that’s the obvious answer. We try and do things that look good, read well, and we're not so focussed on money. I think Factory Records did think a lot of things on impulse… what felt right in the gut. And really, that's the way we proceed. Which is quite difficult in the publishing industry, as I imagine Factory eventually found out in the more corporate record industry.
CM: How much is riding on your Oasis book, Feeling Supersonic?
Simon: We're really stepping up for the Oasis comeback. We're producing promos for shops - special editions with postcards and posters. We’re following the Oasis tour around Europe and around the world. Feeling Supersonic is not precisely about Oasis, although we've got the best Oasis images in the book. It's a broader look at where Oasis came from - the bands and the scenes that influenced them and the clothes. Anthony got an exclusive interview with Noel Gallagher about the influence of acid house in Manchester. We’ve got some exclusive material about Liam. And we've got two different covers, which is also a bit like Factory Records. Like that album they did with the sandpaper cover (The Return of the Durutti Column). They’d think… this is a great idea! Then later on they’d think… wait a minute… if we'd put our business heads on, perhaps it wasn't such a good idea.
CM: Give us a little flavour of what you’ve got coming up…
Simon: Well, we're moving into slimline editions. We're keeping the same size and slimming it down. So, rather than 60,000 words, they're 10 to 20,000 words. We've got a schedule of 10 books, all slimline. The first one is Mad Fuckers! It's the story of the lost Factory Records film. We've got the Tony Wilson-commissioned storyboard that’s never been seen. We've got the script that’s never being seen. And we've got the Bailey Brothers who wrote the film, Keith and Phil - they’re involved. So, Mad Fuckers! Is the first one. I don't know if you have to asterisk these things on the cover…
CM: I suspect you’re going to find out, don't you?
Simon: We gonna find out… yeah. We’ve got Neu! Manchester. Again, with an exclamation mark. It’s a story I’ve long wanted to tell, about my pal Dan Dwayre, who was known as Black Lodge. He was pretty big on the electronic music scene. He died young, having drank himself to death in Covid times. He was an odd fella. He used to walk around with a skull, a human skull. He sold all his records and bought a gong. [Manchester singer and actor] Stella Grundy said he was the most evil man in the world. Rough Trade say they want exclusives on both Neu! Manchester and Mad Fuckers!
CM: The exclamation marks worked! What else?
Simon: We're also going with a collection of Den Browne short stories. When he first went to New York in 1973, he was hanging around with the New York Dolls. He was also very good friends with Tony Wilson - he went to Cambridge with Tony. They were tight, and Den turned Tony on to punk rock. Tony said that in his book (a 24 Hour Party People novelisation published in 2002). Den is in his 70s. He’s clean and has been for a long time. We've got enough short stories for a slim volume. We like the look of these slim volumes. There's a lot of potential with the typography and the design and the artwork to make something really nice.
CM: What’s the future like for independent publishers?
Simon: There are independent publishers dotted around all over the UK. Maybe you’ve never heard of some of them. But when you're in the business, you come across them and you think, wow… you've been going 25 years? So yeah, we're here to stay, I think that’s the message.
