The James McMahon Music Podcast
Episode 90: Simon Williams on the rise, fall, and rise again of Fierce Panda records
Few labels informed my taste in music like Fierce Panda did as a teenager. Without them I’d have never heard Ash, 60ft Dolls, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, The Bluetones, China Drum, Supergrass, Jimmy Eat World, Hundred Reasons, Coldplay, Art Brut, Embrace, Ultrasound, Kenickie, Bis, Idlewild, Placebo… I could go on… and on…
While I can take or leave some of those bands now, as a teenager, all of them, without exception, were acts I cherished with all my indie kid heart. Fierce Panda was, and indeed is, ran by Simon Williams, who as an NME journalist during the period I fell in love with the paper, became something of a hero of mine. He was certainly very kind to me when I first moved to London some 17 years ago, making me cups of tea in the Fierce Panda office and even sorting out a few gigs for my then band Mavis. And so I was devastated to hear that Simon had hit some rough times – regular listeners will know about my own struggles with OCD, and the music industry isn’t always the kindest for people with complicated brains.
Simon appears to be on the mend and Fierce Panda remains an active concern. He’s written a book about it all – the good times and the very, very bad. It’s called Pandamonium! How Not to Run a Record Label and it’s out now on Nine Eight books. We don’t get into the blood and the guts on this episode, not literally, the book exists to tell that story. But I think what follows is an entertaining and insightful conversation with one of British music’s most valued men.
And if nothing else, the story about 'Wibbling Rivalry' is worth the entry fee.
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Watch this episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RjswOCt-bw&t=31s
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