The Post-Punk Exorcism of The Wild Swans' Paul Simpson [Episode 179]

Paul Simpson's story is one wild ride and it's all revealed in his memoir titled Revolutionary Spirit: A Post-Punk Exorcism.

Part memoir, part social history, Revolutionary Spirit is the poignant, often hilarious story of a cult Liverpool musician’s scenic route to fame and artistic validation. If Morrissey was the Oscar Wilde of the 1980s indie scene, Simpson was its William Blake, a self destructive genius so lost in mystical visions of a new Arcadia that he couldn’t meet the rent.

Simpson’s career goes back to 1976, when he finds himself at the birth of Liverpool’s second great musical explosion. Along the way, he co-founds and christens the neo-psychedelic pop group The Teardrop Explodes, shares a flat with a teenage Courtney Love, and forms The Wild Swans, who burn bright and brief, in the process recording one of the all-time great cult hit singles, ‘Revolutionary Spirit’.

Marriage, fatherhood, and tropical illness follow, interspersed with artistic collaborations with Bill Drummond and members of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, among others. Eventually Simpson discovers that seven thousand miles away, in the Philippines, he is considered a musical god. Presidential suites, armed guards, police escorts—you couldn’t make it up, and, incredibly, he doesn’t need to. Here’s here today to tell his story.


Purchase a copy of Revolutionary Spirit: A Post-Punk Exorcism

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