Sampson, Kevin
Sampson, Kevin
PERSONAL:
Born in Liverpool, England.
ADDRESSES:
Agent—Jago Irwin, PFD, Drury House, 34-43 Russell St., London WC2B 5HA, England.
CAREER:
Author. Mail on Sunday, London, England, features writer; Channel Four, London, assistant youth editor, 1987-88; Kinesis Films (production company), founder, 1988-90; The Farm (band), Liverpool, England, manager, 1990-95.
AWARDS, HONORS:
Named young writer of the year, Cosmopolitan, 1986.
WRITINGS:
NOVELS
Awaydays, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 1998.
Powder: A Rock 'n' Roll Novel, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 1999.
Leisure, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 2000.
Outlaws, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 2001.
Clubland, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 2002.
Freshers, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 2003.
Stars Are Stars, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 2006.
OTHER
Extra Time: A Season in the Life of a Football Fan, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 1998.
Author of the screenplays Clubland, World Productions, Higher Than the Sun, World Productions, and Surveillance, Fulcrum. Contributor to Vox'n'Roll, an anthology edited by Richard Thomas. Contributor of reviews to New Music Express, The Face, and Sounds.
SIDELIGHTS:
British writer Kevin Sampson, a former rock critic and band manager, is the author of the semiautobiographical tale Powder: A Rock 'n' Roll Novel. In the work, Sampson details the rise and fall of The Grams, an alternative rock band from Liverpool, England. In an interview with Anna Battista on the Erasing Clouds Web site, Sampson remarked: "Powder was a huge success: people are fascinated by the excesses of famous people, especially actors and rock stars, and this confirmed their worst fears!"
Sampson found early success in music journalism, publishing his first review at the age of eighteen. He wrote for such publications as New Music Express and founded his own film production company before serving as manager of The Farm, a Liverpool-based band, from 1990 to 1995. In Powder, Sampson looks at the music industry through the eyes of Keva McCluskey, lead singer and songwriter of The Grams, his hedonistic bandmates, their manager Wheezer Finlay, and wealthy producer Guy de Burret. According to Sia Michel, writing in the New York Times Book Review, the author "skewers British musicians as lazy and naïve, but he sympathizes with them when it comes to the destructive effects the music business has on their creativity and morale." "As a whole Powder is an endless entertaining journey through the world of rock'n'roll, highly detailed, full of crazed humanity and debauched fooleries, two characteristics proper to human beings, but also full of immorality and demented excess, two characteristics typical of any band on this planet," observed Battista.
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Books, autumn, 1999, Ralph Baxter, review of Powder: A Rock 'n' Roll Novel, p. 10.
Independent, July 3, 1999, Ben Thompson, review of Powder, p. 9.
Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2002, review of Powder, p. 1173.
Library Journal, August, 2002, Heather McCormack, review of Powder, p. 146.
New York Times Book Review, November 3, 2002, Sia Michel, "Meet the Grams," review of Powder, p. 23.
Publishers Weekly, October 9, 2000, review of Powder, p. 71; July 8, 2002, review of Powder, p. 28.
Times Educational Supplement, September 5, 2003, review of Freshers, p. 17.
ONLINE
BBC Collective,http://www.bbc.co.uk/ (September 12, 2003), Laura Bushell, review of Freshers.
Erasing Clouds,http://www.erasingclouds.com/ (May 13, 2007), Anna Battista, "Scoring for Liverpool: Interview with Writer Kevin Sampson"; (May 13, 2007), Anna Battista, "Of Freshers and Men: An Interview with Kevin Sampson."