JONATHAN SIMON, 1942 - 2012

Jonathan Simon and David Stark at the Ivor Novello Awards 2010

London, April 3rd: Veteran British music publisher Jonathan Simon died in his sleep during the past weekend. He is survived by his two children Joel and Zoe. He was both a great servant and mentor of the music publishing industry and of the MPA. He was a longstanding member of the MPA Board (and Chairman) having been a Director from 1979-2006, and then again re-elected in 2011. As well as the Board, Jonathan was an active member of the MPA Pop Publishers Committee from 1979-1989, and rejoining again in 2009. In 2009 he was award an MPA Gold Badge.

Jonathan's career spanned over forty years. He held the position of CEO and SVP positions at Chappell & Co (Australia), Chappell Music and Chappell International in the 70s and 80s. Jonathan moved on to become Director Music Division at The Really Useful Group before setting up and becoming Managing Director at Moncur Street Music in 1997. As well as his involvement with the MPA, Jonathan had been an active member of a number of Boards in the UK and Australia including, PRS, MCPS (and was Chairman twice), APRA, AMCOS and AMPAL.

Among his writer clients at Moncur Street Music is Simon May, who told SongLink that he was "totally shocked by this sad news. Jonathan always enjoyed visiting our studio in Guildford, and in fact we had lunch together only 10 days ago. He was a wonderful publisher and friend, and will be virtually impossible to replace. As a publisher he was one of the very best, always fiercely proud of his independence and he always amazed me with royalties that he seemed able to find out of nowhere, he was such a total professional. He's very sadly missed by myself and my co-writers, and I'm just doing my best to help console his daughter Zoe. We feel sure he would want the company to somehow continue in the same independent way that he loved."

MPA CEO Stephen Navincommented, "In the twenty four hours since we have learned of his death we have received a steady stream of emails from across our community, expressing shock at his sudden passing, but also admiration for his humanity, professionalism, warmth, humility, knowledge, patience and engaging enigmatic smile, and his matelot/Donovan hat."

SongLink's David Stark added: "Jonathan was one of the most respected UK publishers, always totally professional, extremely modest and totally honest in his dealings. I last saw him when we shared a train from Cannes to Nice during Midem for the Hornall's brunch, and am also indebted to him for paying some royalty commission on a small deal I helped arrange a few years back. He will be much missed by everyone in the industry who knew him."

The MPA has set up a page where anyone who knew Jonathan are welcome to leave their thoughts and comments:

http://www.mpaonline.org.uk/mpa_news/jonathan-simon-1942-–-2012

(Reprinted in part with kind acknowledgement to the MPA)