Simon Williams of Fierce Panda on rebooting Suffolk's live music scene
You may not know his name, but it’s likely Simon Williams has put some of your favourite bands on the way to stardom.
Now the music industry veteran is on a mission to breathe life into East Anglia’s live scene - and has also become an unlikely advocate for men’s mental health.
It feels fitting that I’m meeting Simon Williams in The Nutshell; certainly the smallest pub in Bury St Edmunds and possibly the whole of the UK.
Sitting in the shadow of the neighbouring Wetherspoons, the pub does a fine line in mummified cats, real ale and a rolling cast of some of Suffolk’s more entertaining characters.
It’s the equivalent of a grass-roots music venue - a Shacklewell Arms nestling alongside the o2-sized Corn Exchange and serving a far smaller but more discerning crowd.
Simon, a one-time NME journalist and radio presenter, is the driving force behind Fierce Panda, an indie record label approaching its 30th year.
Over those three decades, it has acted as a launch pad for some of the UK’s most successful bands; Coldplay, Keane and Placebo all released some of their earliest music under the Fierce Panda umbrella.
Simon is the man who can justifiably claim to have set them all on the road to success and takes evident pride in seeing Chris Martin and co headlining stadiums across the world.
It’s one hell of a legacy and one hell of a life - which makes it all the more startling that it’s one he tried to bring to an end a few short years ago.
On December 30 2019 Simon left his home in Stowmarket, made the short walk to the station, took a train to London and let himself into the Fierce Panda office, where he attempted to kill himself.
The suicide attempt is relayed in unflinching detail in Simon’s book Pandamonium - How Not To Run a Record Label.
The chapters detailing his attempts - there were more than one that night - to end his life make for an uneasy juxtaposition with those reminiscing over the knock-about antics involved in writing for the NME or running Fierce Panda, but it’s all the more effective for it.
The book makes no attempt to simplify the reasons behind Simon’s actions and it is not until the concluding pages that Simon gives a clearer insight into his state of mind.
“For all its self-proclaimed worthiness, the music industry has an incredible capacity for making people feel utterly worthless. Are you the kind of person who cringes at compliments, who flinches from praise like it’s a prize punch hurled your way, who simply can’t bear to see what everyone else sees?’
It would be too simple, too reductive, to say that Simon - or Si as he rebranded himself after the suicide attempt - is now ‘better’ a few years on.
It has clearly changed the way he looks at life - a brief aside with the lifelong Spurs fan about Chelsea’s underwhelming season is quickly tempered with concern for how it might be affecting manager Graham Potter’s mental health.
He is, though, in a place where he is happy talking about the future as well as reminiscing about the past.
Did he, though, have any concerns about raking over the trauma of 2019 in the book?
“No, I decided I wanted to put it all in there. I had a conversation with some of the nurses while I was writing it and told them I was going to include the details. They said ‘what, ALL of them?’
“Although the book doesn’t give a specific, single reason, the clues are there if you look for them. The music industry wasn’t in a good place during Covid, it was a miserable time.
“You start having crazy ideas - if I kill myself, Coldplay will do that benefit gig for Fierce Panda at Brixton Academy and that will save the label - that’s the sort of stuff that was really going through my head.
“If putting it all out there in the book stops one other person from trying to do the same thing, then it’s worth it.”
Despite being synonymous with the London gig circuit, Simon is now settled with his family in Lowestoft and doing all he can to breathe life into the East Anglia music scene.
Now in his 50s, he maintains the enthusiasm for discovering the new that you would expect to find in someone decades younger - he has a target of seeing 365 acts live this year.
“How do I find the energy? Well, it’s not really hard is it? I’m not running a marathon. I’m leaning against a pillar with a beer watching a band.”
It’s an energy that’s having a galvanising effect on the local scene, despite his frustration that the area does not make more of its association with the late DJ John Peel.
The Hunter Club in Bury, Portland Arms in Cambridge and Three Wise Monkeys in Colchester are playing host to Fierce Panda labelmates Bag of Cans and China Bears in the coming weeks.
Fierce Panda fact file
Fierce Panda was founded in 1994 following a pub discussion involving Simon Williams and NME colleagues John Harris and Paul Moody.
In its first year, the label put out releases by Ash, The Bluetones, Supergrass and Baby Bird, but it was four years later that Fierce Panda made its greatest discovery, stumbling across Coldplay playing the tiny Camden Falcon.
Simon described himself as ‘instantly smitten’, with his label putting out their Brothers & Sisters EP.
His attempts to persuade the band to sign full time to Fierce Panda are detailed in Pandamonium, along with his disappointment when they opted to sign for major Parlophone instead and swiftly ascend to superstardom.
“On a personal level, it was a tremendous blow to my professional pride to miss out on something unfolding in front of my bloodshot eyes,” he recalls.
Coldplay aside, Fierce Panda’s most famous release is not a song at all. A recording of Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher tearing lumps out of each other during an interview was released under the name Wibbling Rivalry. It became the highest-charting interview single in chart history.
Fierce Panda’s current roster includes Norwich’s Bag of Cans, Suffolk-born songwriter Oli Swan, Swedish quartet The Shatterheads and post-punk outfit Desperate Journalist, who have just completed a tour with Suede.
Pandemonium! How Not To Run A Record Label is out now on Nine Eight Books.
