I'm Coming To Take You To Lunch

I'm Coming To Take You To Lunch

A fantastic tale of boys, booze and how Wham! were sold to China

Summary

Pop manager extraordinaire Simon Napier-Bell had had enough. He'd had enough of pop groups. He'd had enough of the constant grief at home with his two ex-boyfriends bickering and bleeding him dry; and most of all he'd had enough of the music biz. But then he fell in love with a new passion - the Far East; and a dynamic new duo - George and Andrew - jointly called Wham! Soon, in an audacious attempt to have the best of both worlds, he found himself offering to arrange for Wham! to be the first ever Western pop group to play in communist China - a masterstroke of PR which, in one swift stroke, would make them one of the biggest groups in the world.

What follows is an exciting, unpredictable and hilarious romp around the more curious corners of the world as Napier-Bell dives into the unknown, attempting to achieve the unachievable. We soon find ourselves in the company of a wonderful cast of petulant pop stars, shady international 'businessmen', and a hilarious confusion of spies, students and institutionalised officials and ministers as he edges ever closer to inadvertently becoming one of the first Westerners to break down the walls of communist China.

Reviews

  • Tells the story with a raconteur's relish and a cast of shady characters straight out of a Graham Greene novel
    Q magazine

About the author

Simon Napier-Bell

Simon Napier-Bell has been a film composer, songwriter, record producer, and author, but he is perhaps best known for having managed such artists as The Yardbirds, Marc Bolan, T Rex, Japan and Wham! Under his management, Wham! became the first Western pop group to ever play in Communist China in the 80s.

He is the author of three other books about the music industry: You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, Black Vinyl White Powder, and I'm Coming to Take You to Lunch. He is a director of Papa Entertainments PLC and of Snap-B Music, and continues to consult, write and broadcast on the music industry.
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