Category: Press Coverage

Big Bear MD Jim Simpson shared some of his favourite tracks from his 60 years and counting in the music business with Brum Radio’s takeover show. Listen back here:

Alan Musson’s Jazz Kaleidoscope

Big Bear MD Jim Simpson sat down with Alan Musson on Monday night on his Jazz Kaleidoscope show to talk him through the stories behind some of the choicest jazz cuts from our back catalogue, including getting Kenny Baker’s Dozen together, meeting Nomy Rosenberg in a gypsy encampment in Holland and how a few nights at Ronnie Scotts turned into an 18 month stay for Howard McCrary. 

Life Stories With Des Tong

UK Chinese Times

We were pleased to receive coverage for the Jagger, The Killer and The Prettiest Man In Rock And Roll exhibition at Lee Longlands on Broad Street. Big Bear MD Jim Simpson was interviewed by Stephanie Donglei Wang – you can see the article below in Chinese and an English translation provided by Yang Yue

UKCT interview Jim Simpson 1

UKCT interview Jim Simpson 2 

Interview with Jim Simpson – English-Chinese Times

To view the photos featured in the exhibition at Lee Longlands, click here. All of them are available to purchase as prints from Havill & Travis gallery, Harborne, Birmingham

Interview On Brum Radio

Dave Travis invites Jim Simpson of Big Bear Records on to Brum Radio for music and anecdotes from his time on the Birmingham and international music scene. Jim reminisces about Black Sabbath, photographing American Jazz artists and missing out on managing The Charlie Daniels band amongst other stories.

The Other Side Of…

Adrian Goldberg welcomed Big Bear MD Jim Simpson onto his BBC WM series, The Other Side Of… to talk talk him through Big Bear’s 50 years and counting in the business, plus some of Jim’s favourite tunes. Click here to listen.

The Vinyl Guide

Big Bear MD Jim Simpson talks to Australian journalist on his The Vinyl Guide podcast about the Big Bear Music story, from managing Sabbath to the present day!

Black Sabbath: The End

Black Sabbath’s first manager, and current Big Bear Music MD Jim Simpson, discusses the history of the band and what lead them to become such a world-renowned force. Interviews taken from BBC 5Live, BBC WM, BBC Shropshire, BBC Hereford & Worcester, BBC Coventry & Warwickshire and BBC Gloucester in January 2017 to mark Sabbath’s The End tour finishing in Birmingham.

Big Bear on Blues Unlimited

During the 1970s, Big Bear had the pleasure of working with a number of notable American bluesmen on the American Blues Legends tours. Traipsing around Europe in a splitter bus with the likes of Tommy Tucker, Willie Mabon, Homesick James, Eddie Guitar Burns, Eddie Playboy Taylor, Lightnin’ Slim and more, at the end of each tour the musicians would gather in the studio to lay down the material they’d spent the previous weeks performing on record.

The results were the American Blues Legends series of albums, released on Big Bear Records. We’ve always been rightly proud of them. But imagine our surprise when we found ourselves the subject of a two hour Blues Unlimited podcast, all the way from Tucson, Arizona.

You can listen to Sleepy Boy Hawkins’ deep dive on the American Blues Legends 73 and 74 albums here featuring knowledgeable introductions alongside some great music.