BIOGRAPHY:
Simon
Strong was born in Parson Cross, Sheffield and attended a local
comprehensive that made the school in Ken Loach’s Kes look
like Hogwarts. He became interested in computer programming after
seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey as a four-year-old and deciding
that it looked safer than being an astronaut. In 1982 he moved to
Brighton where he worked with Dr Blay Whitby on artificial
intelligence research projects at The Computer Aided Animated Arts
Theatre before abandoning the field due to belated ethical concerns.
A
period of homelessness followed and Simon took jobs as an audiovisual
technician, toilet cleaner, nightclub doorman, bookseller and
eventually production manager at Overground Records. He had been
writing poetry, stories and novels unsuccessfully since his sixteenth
birthday but meeting Stewart Home in 1987 changed his approach and
fortunes and Simon published his first experimental novel in 1995.
Its unexpected success persuaded him to withdraw it after just nine
months and to suddenly leave the country.
After
landing in Australia Simon worked at the “the World’s Freakiest
Bookshop”, PolyEster Books in Melbourne, and later at Melbourne
University Bookroom, one of the leading bookshops on the bottom half
of the planet. In 1999, he launched Australia’s first viable online
bookshop there, writing most of the code himself, and by 2008 he had
expanded the Bookshop’s services into print-on-demand with the
Custom Book Centre—the first public offering of such technologies
outside the USA.
Contemporary
with these events, Simon co-founded psychedelic new-wave group The
Pink Stainless Tail as frontman to provide research for future
novels, but he soon discovered that he preferred making music to
books and the group went on to play many shows and make three classic
albums over the next decade. Notwithstanding his literary ambivalence
Simon went on issuing experimental novels and non-fiction books
sporadically and he continues to do so whilst simultaneously playing
music with his new group which is called Ekranoplans.
CRITICAL
OVERVIEW:
STATEMENT:
..
Back
in the olden days, before YouTube was invented, I started making
short film clips to promote tunes by me and my pals. Since I was in
my own group I couldn’t easily film myself so I made some of the
earliest “mash-up” clips out of vintage porno loops and
propaganda films.
I
was keen to see a film about my pal Paul’s fantastic bookshop where
I had worked but I couldn’t persuade any serious filmmakers to take
up the job so I formed Golden Fist prods with my pal Aaron and
together we made Totally Weird Shit! which was surprisingly
well received and spurred me onto more ambitious projects. My
confidence got another boost in 2011 when I was invited by Prof. Ken
Goldsmith to contribute to the celebrated UbuWeb avant-garde archive.
You can find me between Jean-Marie Straub and Survival Research
Laboratories. Online views of some of my films run into tens of
thousands but it goes without saying that my channel isn’t
monetised. The films have very rarely been screened offline which is
a shame as I’m interested to see if people throw things at me.
I
don’t like the 21st century very much and I try to
ignore it wherever possible. I haven’t seen hardly any films made
after 1990 unless they were made by my pals. I still edit my films
with my twenty-odd year old version of Adobe Premiere and never do
anything on the computer I don’t know how to do (in theory)
offline.
My
primary cinematic influences (as distinct from my favourite
filmmakers) are Antony Balch, Craig Baldwin, Walerian Borowczyk
(shorts), Dziga Vertov Group, Stewart Home, Isidore Isou, Jeff Keen,
John Krish, Dušan Makavejev, John Smith, Amos Vogel and Peter
Watkins. I’m sorry. I don’t make the rules. I don’t recall
asking you anyway. Cheers. Keep on chooglin’.
Simon Strong, April 2024.
Totally Weird Shit! (trailer)
Pink Stainless Tail: Blood Sugar Dropping
FILMOGRAPHY:
The Function of the Gorgon
Pink
Stainless Tail: The Function of the Gorgon (2004,
7 mins, B&W, music clip, suppressed)
A
1920’s era pornographic film recut to a tune by Pink Stainless Tail
with words by Percy Shelley. Suppressed due to music clearance
issues.
A
dubious 1940’s propaganda film about Soviet animal experiments
recut to a tune by Pink Stainless Tail about confectionary.
The
Bites: I’m Not Coming Down (2004,
3 mins, music clip)
Melbourne
combo The Bites filmed in a trippy Ira Cohen-inspired 1960s style.
Dial “S” for Sundial
Pink
Stainless Tail: Dial “S” for Sundial (2007,
4 mins, music clip)
Acted
by puppets. Footage filmed at Itty Bitty World in Kryall Castle,
Ballarat, scored to a PST tune.
Pink
Stainless Tail: King Edward Memorial Film Clip (2008,
4 mins, music clip)
An
abstract Derek Jarman style film about a statue on Hove seafront in
UK, set to a PST tune about said statue.
The
Conquest of Space in a Time of Power (2008,
2 mins, B&W, experimental)
First
of a series of films planned to mark the Paris évènements of Mai
68. Based on an essay by Situationist Eduardo Rotha.
The Bites: I’m Not Coming Down
Pink
Stainless Tail: The Message Most Difficult to Transmit (2008,
51 mins, music documentary, suppressed)
A
compilation of PST clips and live footage interspersed with
interviews with SS. Suppressed due to music clearance issues.
Totally
Weird Shit! The Strange and Terrifying Saga of the World's Freakiest
Bookshop (2008, 27 mins, documentary)
Co-director:
Aaron Goldberg. Paul Elliott, proprietor of the iconic PolyEster
bookshop, talks about his hilarious but often harrowing adventures
from twenty tears of trying to bring the freakiest books, comix, and
underground culture to the streets of Australia.
To
Arms and All That (2009, 1 min, B&W, experimental)
Another
Mai 1968 film, this time inexplicably starring CSIRAC the computer.
Beauty
is in the Street: L’Atelier Populaire, Paris, 1968. (2008,
3mins, animation)
An
animated film done as a service for English-speakers interested in
the posters produced by the People’s Workshop during the
disturbances.
The
the Naked Lunch and the Naked the Naked Lunch (2012, 57 mins,
B&W, documentary)
Inspired
by Warhol’s durational cinema, an intoxicated old experimental
novelist tries to explain why he dislikes David Cronenberg's film of
William Burroughs' book The
Naked Lunch so much. It caused a brief hoo-ha on the Burroughs internet forum but
I only found out five years after it was over.
Shoot
the Wrx! Artist and filmmaker Jeff Keen (2012, 7 mins,
documentary short)
A
walkthrough of a retrospective exhibition at Brighton Museum &
Art Gallery devoted to the career of the visionary artist and
filmmaker who worked in Brighton and Hove most of his life.
Bring
me the Head of Rafaello Carboni! (2013, 27 mins, experimental)
A
flawed satire on the process of bourgeois historicisation. Funty and
with a banging soundtrack but in questionable taste. Starring Sönke
Rickertsen.
Spring of the Vampire
Spring
of the Vampire (2014, 25 mins, documentary, uncompleted)
A
Marxist reading of Jean Rollin’s Le Viol Du Vampire done in
the style of Chris Marker’s La Jetée. Abandoned because I
couldn’t cast the francophone narrator.
Sönke:
I am a Frog (2015, 5 mins, live music clip)
Sönke
improvises a funty mating call / tune in a bar with his cello and the
punters flock in...
AWOTT:
3CR Melbourne, Australia (2017, 40 mins, music documentary)
As
long-time fans of Simon’s book in translation, Moscow-based
avant-garde electro jazz combo AWOTT were stoked when he invited them
to perform a live-to-air set at a 3CR Community Radio. Full banging
show!
Ekranoplans: You Think This is Bad?
Ekranoplans:
You Think This is Bad? (2019, 8 mins, music clip)
An
eye-bleedingly psychedelic music clip set in Sönke’s derelict
shanty shack for a long tune inspired by Kurt Vonnegut.
Ekranoplans:
Unconditional Loop Promotional Film aka ULPF! (2021, 50
mins, music documentary)
On
18 December 2020 the Ekranoplans went into the studio between
lockdowns to record their second LP. This film is cobbled together
from studio footage, live clips and specially shot interviews to help
explain things. “50 laff-packed minutes of pub-n-dub action!!”
Performance
XTRMN8mm
XTRMN8mm (1997, 4 mins B/W, experimental)
d.
David Cox. An afternoon in the life of a William Burroughs impersonator spent
wandering the streets of Melbourne, Australia.
Pink
Stainless Tail: The Poet’s I (2005, 6 mins, music clip)
d.
Dave Cox. Members of the Pink Stainless Tail kill time at a derelict
glue factory as it gets dark.
Implications
of the Copernican System for Our Future Prospects (2006, 4 mins,
documentary short)
d.
Aaron Goldberg. Simon tries to figure out how to get into a boozer
where he is meant to be playing a show.
Simon
Strong Reads from “Rape vs Murder” (2009, 6 mins, live
reading)
d.
Paul Elliott. A rare spoken word reading from Simon, filmed at
PolyEster Books. “MA 15+ Adult Themes”
p.
University of Melbourne. An overview of the Custom Book Centre
featuring Simon in his day job then. A slice of history and a vision
of democratic publishing in a future that could never be.
Simon
Strong talks about Walerian Borowczyk for 12 minutes more or less (2016, 13 mins, documentary short)
Simon
irreverently introduces a Borowczyk screening at Melbourne
Cinematheque. This clip inexplicably has more than 92,000 views on
YouTube despite being pretty much incomprehensible.
Ekranoplans:
We Told Ya (2017, 4 mins, music clip)
d.
Jarret Gahan. The Ekranoplans play a tune about classic dystopian
science fiction films and then the world explodes.
Installation
Pussy (Space Studios, London, E8. 12 April – 2 June 2013)
With Kathy Acker. A recording of Kathy reading from her 1996 novel Pussy, King of the Pirates, plays on a loop, accompanied by a large panel of autobiographical text from Simon about meeting Kathy and commissioning her debut CD.
The The Naked Lunch and The Naked The Naked Lunch (trailer – full film at UbuWeb)
Louder!
Faster! Sh’tr! The Marquis De Sade Meets the Post-Modern Art
Cannibals During the Course of a Psychogeographical mission (754-202:
The World in the Artist 2a) [prescribed readings] (Victorian
College of the Arts, Melbourne, 2002)
66mindfuck99 [experimental erotic novel, credited to Prof. Jason Crest] (hors
commers, 2005)
Rape
vs. Murder [experimental erotic novel, credited to #579] (hors
commers, 2005 / CD version, 2022)
Even
the Old Dude Is Cool: William S. Burroughs on the Wheels of Steel and
the Silver Screen [non-fiction] (LedaTape Organisation, 2013)
Unquiet
Dreams: The Bestiary of Walerian Borowczyk [non-fiction]
(LedaTape Organisation, 2015)
The
Bastardizer Polishes a Turd [experimental novel] (Cripplegate
Books (UK), 2022 / CD version, 2023)
Discography
Ekranoplans: Unconditional Loop Promotional Film
Physical
longplay releases only
Pink
Stainless Tail: The Skys a Soft Target (CD, 2003)
Pink
Stainless Tail: This is me in the park with no clothes on...
I like the flowers. (CD, 2005)
Pink
Stainless Tail: The Infinite Wisdom of the Pink Stainless Tail (CD, 2008)
Simon
Strong Reads Selections from "Rape vs. Murder" by #579 (CD, 2011)
Ekranoplans: Sanity
Testing (LP/CD, 2019)
Ekranoplans: Unconditional
Loop (LP/CD, 2021)
Simon
Strong Reads "The Bastardizer Polishes a Turd" by "Chus
Martinez" (2xCD, 2023)
