Simon Matthews
 Simon Matthews  (singer, author) | |
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Simon Matthews has had a varied career including a spell running the British Transport Films documentary film library and several years singing in semi-professional rock groups.[1] He has contributed articles on music, film and cultural history to Record Collector, Shindig! and Lobster Magazine.[2]
Publications
"Psychedelic Celluloid" is Simon Matthews' first book:
- The definitive guide to the decade when swinging London was the film capital of the world. Illustrated throughout with colour images, "Psychedelic Celluloid" covers over 300 British and European films and TV shows from the Beatles via Bond spin offs to crazy personal follies de grandeur, Blow Up and its imitators, concert movies, documentaries, stylish horror films and many more. Carefully researched and drawing on interviews with some of the survivors of the era, it provides a witty and detailed account of each major production, listing its stars, directors, producers and music and showing how they were linked to the fashion and trends of the period.[3]
Reviews
- "Richly illustrated guide" The Bookseller.[4]
- "Matthews proves once and for all that, far from being a fleeting trend, this period still influences notable directors such as Wes Anderson, Nicolas Winding Refin, Roman et Sofia Coppola right up to the mainstream work of Mike Myers’ Austin Powers" - Jean-Emmanuel Dubois, Transfuge Magazine.[5]
- Although published in paperback, this title is an engaging coffee table–type book. Matthews (Record Collector, Shindig!, and Lobster Magazine) dedicates a page or two to each significant British film or television series that incorporated British pop music over what might be called the decade of Swinging London. Some of the films (e.g., Help!, A Clockwork Orange, and To Sir, with Love) were widely known back in the day and remain available today. Others are considerably more obscure, while a handful were never actually commercially released. Because of the wide diversity of popularity and availability of these works, this book will be more of a must-purchase for fans of British films and pop music than for general readers. However, the author does provides several genre-based profiles, as well as studies of influential individuals in British filmmaking, which help to contextualize the more obscure titles for readers who might not be familiar. VERDICT For hard-core fans of 1965–74 British films, this volume is a worthy purchase; for other readers, it’s optional - James E. Perone, Library Journal.[6]
A Document by Simon Matthews
| Title | Document type | Publication date | Subject(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Olof Palme - The Man Who Played With Fire | book review | 2020 | Olof Palme Olof Palme/Assassination "Iran-Contra" Bernt Carlsson Stieg Larsson Jan Stocklassa Bertil Wedin Peter Caselton African National Congress Pan Africanist Congress | Bernt Carlsson, a colleague of Olof Palme’s and UN Commissioner for Namibia 1987-1988, died in the Lockerbie bombing on 21 December 1988. Carlsson's presence on Pan Am Flight 103 has been cited as the reason it was bombed. |
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