Simon is a media professional and academic, with 25 years experience as writer, broadcaster and academic. From writing books and travel journalism to screenplays for the BBC; presenting TV and radio to researching his PhD and establishing the Music Journalism degree at Chester, Simon is passionate about creating engaging stories and content, and about passing on that experience and knowledge to the next generation.

As a music journalist, he reported on music scenes everywhere from Beijing to Brazil; from Moscow to Marrakech for his column in DJ magazine, ‘Dispatches from the Wrong Side’. The best of these were published in the UK and USA by Headpress in 2010, in his collection 'Discombobulated: Dispatches from the Wrong Side'.

He also lived in Ibiza, where he edited the magazine 'Ministry in Ibiza' for music/media company of Ministry of Sound.

As a freelance Simon wrote for everyone from The Observer to Red and Marie Claire magazines. He turned a story he wrote for The Guardian into a screenplay, which was sold to the production company Baby Cow and then on to the BBC.

In terms of media, he has presented TV for the likes of Rapture TV, hosted radio shows in Ibiza, produced and presented for Kiss Radio and appeared on the couch of BBC Breakfast and regularly for BBC 5 Live.

Alongside this work, for many years he also ran a PR agency - Pad Communications - which he founded and operated from central Manchester.

He has been involved with the music literary festival Louder Than Words for over a decade, at one time running the PR for the festival, and programming panels on subjects such as the club scene and music journalism. He has been able to involve students from the University of Chester in that festival, as both attendees, and even panellists, which has provided great experience for those students.