Sim collaborates with Steve Cobby as J*S*T*A*R*S; and with Steve Cobby and Jake Harries as The Heights of Abraham.
Musician, composer, producer and label manager.
Sim was a co-founder of Sheffield-based industrial funk outfit Chakk and FON (Fuck Off Nazis) Studios; the first professional 24-track recording studio and set up FON Records in Sheffield - which worked with internationally-known record producers including Sly and Robbie, and Richard Burgess. FON's recording clients included Boy George, Pop Will Eat Itself, Yazz, Erasure, Take That, The Spice Girls, 808 State, Lulu, Tom Baker, Moloko and Pulp.
The Beat is The Law - Part One (2009)
(Produced, Directed and Edited by Eve Wood, 2009)
Sim Lister is one of the musicians appearing in this documentary film, which focuses on the city of Sheffield and its evolving eighties music scene in Thatcher's Britain - and as the miner's strike began.
For further information visit: www.thebeatisthelaw.com
At FON they started working with fledging digital recording techniques, including investment in Apple-based Greengate sampling software. Sim was also involved with the build and installation of two early recording studio projects in Sheffield - Human League and Comsat Angels / Axis.
A highly regarded saxophonist, Lister has also worked as a producer and musical director with Factory Records in Brazil, the USA and the UK. He also plays and records trumpet and French horn as well as using wide-ranging digital techniques.
Tours and performances as theatre musician have included full seasons at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with the Sheffield-based Compass Theatre. In the 1980s Sim gave music workshops at the 'Leadmill' arts venue in Sheffield as part of the arts organisation 'Manifesto' - one of his students was the comedian and broadcaster, Linda Smith.
Lister's recording sessions have included Boy George, Funky Worm, Cabaret Voltaire, Ashley and Jackson, Subsonic Two and Guy Barker - radio sessions include The John Peel Sessions, and his TV appearances have included Top of the Pops and The Tube.
As a composer he was jointly commissioned to compose a piece for Phoenix Dance Theatre in Leeds, one of the UKs leading contemporary dance companies.
Sim Lister's most recent releases are Two Thousand and Six (2005) by Heights of Abraham (a collaboration with Steve Cobby and Jake Harries) - and in 2006 Put Me On A Planet by J*S*T*A*R*S (with Steve Cobby): from this album the track 'Loose Nuke Threat' was chosen for a national TV advertising campaign by the John Lewis Partnership.
Nowadays he is also label manager of Twentythree Records: the label of Fila Brazillia, Heights of Abraham, Mandrillus Sphynx and The Solid Doctor - and Steel Tiger Records; home to J*S*T*A*R*S, Peacecorps and The Cutler.
Sim Lister 'Sandman Magazine' interview
1984: "One week we actually had the choice of whether we'd have the front cover of NME or Melody Maker. Complete madness, fun though." The 1990s: "We had a very grim time of it. It was a horrible slow lingering death." (Sim Lister)
Read Sim Lister's interview with Sandman Magazine