Simon Strong (born 1964) is a North English writer, musician andfilm-maker currently resident in Melbourne, Australia. He is best knownas author of "A259 Multiplex Bomb 'Outrage'" and as front-man for thepsychedelic new-wave group Pink Stainless Tail.
Strong was raised in Ecclesfield, South Yorkshire, and attended localcomprehensive schools. Family connections allowed him to pursue aninterest in electronics and computing, and from the mid-seventies he wasactive in local computer clubs and his programs and articles werepublished in home computer magazines. In 1982, Strong left Sheffield toattend Brighton Polytechnic and went on to work programming forartificial intelligence projects, specialising in the then new field ofinterface design. Increasingly politicised by the rise of Thatcherism,Strong dropped out of computing and took a succession of menial jobs(including toilet cleaner, bouncer and bookseller) and concentrated oncreative writing. During a tenure at Hatchards Booksellers, Stronghelped organise literary events by authors including Nick Cave andBilly Childish.
By 1989 Strong was residing above an Indian take-away in the red-lightdistrict with Palmer and Taylor of beat group The Fire Dept. They wereoften visited by experimental novelist Stewart Home, who exerted aprofound influence on Strong's writing. Around this time, Strong wasalso performing with his own outfit, the Barry Jeffries.
From 1993-97 Strong worked for Overground Records, based at theirproduction and distribution centre in Hove. He co-ordinated and designedcovers for artists including The Television Personalities, AlternativeTV, Richard Hell, Alex Fergusson, The Undead (ex-Misfits), TheeHeadcoats, Man or Astroman?, Subway Sect, GG Allin. Strong wasinstrumental in the re-issuing the oeuvre of Jon the Postman.
In 1996, inspired by small presses such as Atlas Press, Temple Press andCreation Books, Strong founded CodeX Books and Records as a branch ofOverground. Over the next 12 months he issued Stewart Home's 'CrankedUp Really High', Richard Hell's 'The Voidoid', Billy Childish's 'MyFault' and Kathy Acker's 'Pussy' on CD. Creation Books had previouslyaccepted Strong's novel "A259 Multiplex Bomb 'Outrage'" but delays inits publication led to Strong issuing the book on the CodeX imprint. Thebook was enthusiastically received, selling out two printings in sixmonths, but momentum was lost when Strong suddenly emigrated toAustralia in early 1997, although a Russian translation of the bookappeared in 2006.
After a hiatus, Strong joined Harry Howard, Sonke Rickertsen and NickBoddington to form The Pink Stainless Tail in 2001, and went on torelease three records. The group was popular with a small but fanatical group of fans with Strong's stage persona memorably (and consistently)described as "a flailing scarecrow amalgam of William Burroughs and Mark E Smith".
In February 2004, the Victorian College of the Arts invited Stewart Homeas writer in residence and commissioned Strong to run a course tointroduce students to Home's themes and praxis. Around this time, Strongset up his netlabel, The LedaTape Organisation, as an outlet for hiswork and others.
Over the next few years Strong finalised two books (in collaborationwith Jason Crest) that had been in development since the publication of'A259'. 'Rape vs. Murder' was produced entirely (in one run) by acomputer program from a corpus of books published by [The Paris Olympia Press], whilst '66mindfuck99' was a fictionalised account of thecreation of the former. Both of these publications were privatelyprinted and circulated samizdat, not because their content wascontentious, but rather due to Strong's vehement rejection of theconventional publishing paradigm. Despite their limited availability,the books were well received and in 2010 were taught at the Universityof Pennsylvania by Kenneth Goldsmith, curator of ubu.com.
Internet Book List - Simon Strong[1]
Senses of Cinema - 'Lesbian Vampires vs Situationist International', 2004[2]
Simon's staff page at VCA (archived)[3]
Pink Stainless Tail interview at Perfect Sound Forever[4]