Simon Lindley held posts at Westminster and St Albans Cathedrals and St Albans School before moving to Yorkshire in 1975; he is the long-serving organist of the parish church and town hall in Leeds. He still retains close links with the city of London; as a student at the Royal College of Music, he held posts at famous city churches including St Olave, Hart Street, the parish of diarist Samuel Pepys. He is churchwarden of the National Musicians’ Church, St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, the church of the “bells of Old Bailey” in the children’s song, and chairman of the Friends of the Musicians’ Chapel.

A veteran of recordings and broadcasts, he is prominent as a choral conductor and has received Fellowships from the Royal School of Church Music and the Guild of Church Musicians. In October 2001 an honorary doctorate of Leeds Metropolitan University was conferred upon him. He has served as president of the Royal College of Organists and of the Incorporated Association of Organists.