Paul Simon-Geddis, I believe, once wrote for Vanguard Online. He wrote the best stuff I ever read.
He only submitted a handful of pieces in the early 2000s, I never met him, I don’t recall any emails interchanged between us and he disappeared.
In the years following his writing for us, I would occasionally recall his pieces and writing, though never remembered him or his name, because I didn’t know what he looked like and could never remember what he called himself.
More recently, I started trawling through the archives, and found that he had contributed five pieces in total, each piece an absolute dream to read.
- Vector, The Process Rooms, Leeds, 1st March 2003
- Laurels’ album review, 1st May 2003
- Towers of London gig review, APU Bar, Cambridge, 10th February 2005
- Interview with Crash Convention, 21st April 2005
- Broadcast, The Boat Race, Cambridge, 29th May 2005
None of these albums, gigs and bands interviewed, were big shots. But Paul Simon-Geddis had this fantastic ability to link the most mundane moments to the musical cosmos, and in this way he made everything that came his way, seem extraordinarily important, meaningful and fascinating.
Having delved into the archive I became fascinated by what might have happened to him. I couldn’t help wonder where someone with such talent, manifest in those few pieces that he’d published with us, whose orbit bought him briefly into my own plane of existence, had zoomed off to?
I did my homework, though its not hard to find someone these days. And its no surprise, I think, that he went on to write for Vice, Editor in Chief at Vice Spain. And now he appears to be Head of Content at Sonar Festival in Spain.
When you look at the line up for Sonar this year (2022), you can feel the magic of the guy’s writing and insight all over Sonar festival. I don’t really have time to look up all the acts, but they do look fascinating. I could spend a good day binging on his selections.
Nathy Peluso, and the image of her muscular frame bounding across the picture, immediately grabbed my attention.
I had to look her up. And found this:
She sings about having enough strength to break the ‘Coco’. I don’t know what the ‘Coco’ is supposed to refer to, or what it involves, but it sounds potentially, quite painful.
And this.
I haven’t had time to go further into this Paul Simon-Geddis, Sonar, inspired foray into music. But I ought to. This is just a reminder note.