Described by Alan McGee as the ‘rock’n’roll doctor’, Simon Mason was the man who can to a list of Britpop groups and artists.
Bang in the middle of the scene, side-stage at Glastonbury and witness to the rise of Oasis, Simon’s recently released autobiography Too High, Too Far, Too Soon is a dark, exciting, honest and at times emotional look back on the role he played as dealer to the some of the biggest and best groups and artists of the era.
But just as important is the story of turning your life around, and it’s that will that has pushed Mason to write about his former crazy lifestyle. Live4ever contributor Carl Stanley put a few questions to the author on both looking back and putting his new book together:
Congratulations on a fantastic book. ‘Too High, Too Far Too Soon’ has already received some pretty good comments and reviews, can you give L4E a brief run through on what the book is about?
Well it’s my memoir – the most consistent themes being drugs, addiction and music. My story starts in a small town in England and ends up, more or less, with me heavily addicted to heroin and crack, dying in a camper-van in Spain. Along the way I became a junkie, drug dealer within the music business, petty criminal associate of some massive bands and a world famous graffiti artist.
…With the famous graffiti artist being the one and only Banksy. You lived with him didn’t you, what was the guy like?
He was possibly the hardest working person I’ve ever met and had a vision for what he wanted to do with his art. Wonderful company, very well read, and aside from having a soft spot for Man Utd there is nothing bad I can say about the guy; generous non-judgemental, interested in people and a socialist.
Though you mention a couple of artists you don’t actually ‘go all the way’ in terms of who and what, but it’s the stories themselves which are the stars of the book.
I’ve tried to be entertaining. I’m sure nobody wants to read 300 pages of ex-drug-monkey self pity and name dropping!
Tell me how you first met Liam and Oasis?
Saw them play their first gig London at the Water Rats in Kings Cross, didn’t meet them that night but bumped into Liam a short while later in the toilets at a Creation Records party, we bonded so to speak!
Best thing and worst thing about ‘dealing’ to the stars?
Best thing? Getting to see some life changing gigs from the side of the stage. Worst thing? As I had dreams of being a famous rock ‘n’ roll star myself, the side of the stage was never going to be enough. You don’t get ‘respect’ for selling drugs. Most people thought I was a fucking idiot, which I often was.
Particularly like the paragraphs detailing your random, mad moments like ‘having a quick dance’ on the Buckingham Palace street, on acid, only to be taken away by the police. What was it like to recall such crazy times for the book?
I think it’s only now that it’s out in print that I’m really feeling the effects of getting in touch with all the events of my past. Some days I feel a huge sense of pride, other times sadness, guilt, regret, particularly when I think how worried my mum, sister and girlfriends must have been when my addiction really took hold.
Throughout the book you’re constantly making references to music – from your own groups and singing ventures to LPs, events, and Glastonbury.
To be honest, thinking about the bands I was into throughout my life was really the only way I could remember much of what has happened. When I was a kid and in love with The Jam I pretty much wore what they wore, listened to the artists they name checked; there’s a poem by Shelly on the sleeve of ‘Sound Affects’, as soon as I bought my copy of the LP I went out and bought a book of his poems. So to soundtrack the book seemed to be the easiest way of piecing it all together.
Photo: John A Gladoly
Describe the Britpop London/mid 90’s music scene. It was our generation’s 60’s wasn’t it? What was it like to be right in the middle of it all?
It seemed like everyone knew everybody else, I can only speak from a London perspective but it looked, as far as I can see anyway, that we were all having the best fucking time you could possibly have. We all used to frequent a club in London called ‘Smashing’ on Friday nights. Pretty much everybody in there – and it only seemed to hold a couple of hundred people – seemed to be in a band, work for a record label or having sex with someone in a band, and in my case provide the necessary ‘bits and pieces’ to keep us all awake for days on end.
I’m sure, just like people did in the 60’s, few of us thought about the future, it was all very much about the ‘now’. We were all gonna live forever right? Magic times, memories I’ll cherish ’till the day I die.
Being close up and around the many Britpop groups of the mid 90’s, who were your own personal favourite groups and artists from that period?
Oasis, of course, but I spent a lot of time with Paul Weller who was/is a legend. Pulp were good friends of mine, as were Elastica. My own band Limousine did a tour with Menswear – mental, really bonkers three weeks.
Limousine, the band you tried breaking through with, managed to get on the first rung of the ladder. What did you sound like and describe yourself singing/frontman wise.
Credit really goes to the three guys who created the music. We were shaping up to sound like a cross between The Who and The Smiths, if that makes any sense whatsoever. As a frontman I was poor – off my tits on coke and booze and heroin most of the time. I wasn’t talented enough to get away with performing/singing while in that state. I really let everybody down massively.
N.A and your journey to getting clean brings much needed sense and a positive ending to the book. After all the craziness you’re offered a solution with N.A.
12-step recovery has changed my life. It ain’t for everybody, I know and respect anyone who finds a method of any kind that helps restore them to a happier place. My life is fine, I’m a daddy to a beautiful five-year-old daughter who makes me feel better than the drugs ever did, and that’s really the truth, for me at least.
And you still sing in a band, The Should Be Deads’, but what’s next for you Simon? I’d have thought you have many more Brit-rock memoirs,any chance of writing again?
Still singing, have to say pretty well these days now I know what day of the week it is (most of the time anyway)! I’m writing another book, not in the same vein (excuse the pun) as this one. But also not a complete departure, I’m always happy to comment/talk about that period of my life. When it was good it was unbelievable, sadly heroin/crack etc really fucked me and a lot of other people I know up.
The fall out from those days is still going on, trust me on that.
