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Simon Coates on Muck Rack

Simon Coates

London
As seen in: Observer, Medium, MSN UK, Discogs, SAGE Publishing, Stuff.co.nz, Substack, Paste, The Grammy Awards, City A.M., The National (Scotland) and
Covers:  art, music, film, theatre, books, human rights, censorship, the Middle East, geopolitics
writer @discogs @observer @thewiremagazine & more | producer | artist "utterly cretinous" - man on Facebook "brilliant work" - Amnesty "finally..." - Dua Lipa

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Simon Coates’s Biography

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Based in London, UK, Simon Coates writes on art, music, culture, civil rights and geopolitics, and is a member of the writing team for Dua Lipa's Service95 site, an art critic for the New York Observer and has bylines in Discogs, The New World and more.

Simon Coates’s Journalist Portfolio

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Service 95: Who Gets To Decide What We Read?

Service 95: Who Gets To Decide What We Read?

With an insidious recent increase in books stripped from shelves, Service95 explores the concept of book cens…

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The Art Journal: Biennale Finds Politics on the Dancefloor

The Art Journal: Biennale Finds Politics on the Dancefloor

From deserted nightclubs to former military barracks, Nimu Dormi examines how celebration has shaped the isla…

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The Art Journal: The Forgotten Origins of AI Artworks

The Art Journal: The Forgotten Origins of AI Artworks

A little-seen show at London's ICA introduced many of the ideas now driving a multibillion-dollar market

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Live DMA: How can small and medium-sized music venues harness AI?

Live DMA: How can small and medium-sized music venues harness AI?

Independent music spaces often lack the budget and manpower to spend time working out ways to use AI. How can…

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Observer: Can Rock Royalty Really Make Art Worth Owning?

Observer: Can Rock Royalty Really Make Art Worth Owning?

With demand for works by Bob Dylan to Bowie and Thom Yorke, the market for musician-made art is more serious …

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Hyper Culture: Rough Trade at 50

Hyper Culture: Rough Trade at 50

London, February 1976. Former drama teacher Geoff Travis had left his job, weary of a life spent encouraging …

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Articles

Can Rock Royalty Really Make Art Worth Owning?

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By Simon Coates
| Observer Verified
The Beatles, Images of a Woman. Courtesy BNPS Last year, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, staged “This Is What You Get,” an exhibition of artwork by artist Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke, the lead singer of Radiohead. Critics’ reactions were mixed. The Guardian said of the artwork, “Does it stand up to scrutiny when removed from the context of the records and merchandise it was designed for?
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Rough Trade at 50

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By Simon Coates
London, February 1976. Former drama teacher Geoff Travis had left his job, weary of a life spent encouraging students to pretend they were trees and speak from the diaphragm. The UK music charts were boring. Country and western yodeller Slim Whitman’s collection, ‘The Very Best of Slim Whitman’, was number one in the album charts. The Four Seasons had the number one single, with ‘December ’63 (Oh What A Night)’. But there was hope.
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The strange drama of corporate mascots

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By Simon Coates
| MSN UK Verified
; ; ; Continue reading More for You ; ; Continue reading More for You
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Interview

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Have you ever used a typewriter?

No

How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?

By email

Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?

No