Thinking of forming a band or taking your group to the next level? This event will uncover the myth of band dynamics particularly exploring when ‘bands go bad…’ Is this purely down to band dynamics and creative differences or can questionable management and record label influence also be to blame?
Speakers include:
Chris Stanley, the former drummer in Manchester based indie outfit, Fear of Music. Forming in 2001, Fear of Music were quickly snapped up by major label SONY-BMG in 2005. With John Leckie (Stone Roses, Radiohead) producing their debut EP Fast, Faster, Fastest (2006) and a follow-up EP We Are Not The Enemy produced by Dimitri Tikovoi (Placebo, John Cale, The Horrors), a six date tour with musical heavyweights Manic Street Preachers soon followed in 2007. By 2008 the band unfortunately announced officially on their MySpace page that they were to disband.
Dee Sada,from all female London based trio, An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump, described by the NME as ‘The Jesus and Mary Chain meet Kim Gordon in a post-apocalyptic world’. The trio suddenly disbanded 18 months after forming and recording a debut album with the legendary Steve Albini (Nirvana, PJ Harvey, The breeders) in 2010. Their explosive live shows included a live accompaniment to renowned British fashion designer Giles Deacon’s 2009 A/W collection for London Fashion Week.
Liam Walsh has worked in the UK Music Industry for over 20 years as a highly respected independent radio/TV plugger. Formerly MD of renowned record plugging company Red Alert, Liam now runs Ask Me PR, which he formed in 2008. During his career, Liam has worked with various major record labels including, Warner Music, Sony, EMI, Universal and BMG. He has promoted most of the large independent labels over the years including Mute, Rough Trade, Factory, Beggars Banquet and XL on some of their most successful campaigns and has promoted hundreds of artists from most genres, and contributed to their rise to fame. These artists include Oasis, The Killers, Moby, Feeder, Nick Cave, Doves, Bjork, Prince, Elbow, Pulp, Depeche Mode, Biffy Clyro, The Wombats and The Ting Tings. Liam has also been representing the prestigious, and highly influential Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize since 1994.
Ben Blackburn is a founding member of the new music blog Crack In The Road and was a selected judge for the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition for 2011. Ben writes for several other online publications, including the established The 405 and the latest ‘meta-blog’, LostLostLost. Outside of journalism Ben has recently released Club Smith’s debut 7″ No Friend of Mine on his label Front Wall Records, which received airplay on Steve Lamacq and saw the band receive support slots for the Pigeon Detectives and Kaiser Chiefs. He also runs ad-hoc online PR campaigns for various bands, and a DIY label called Everybody’s Stalking Recordings and was asked to operate the social media outlets (primarily live-tweeting) for the inaugural Manchester Music Seminars.
The event will be chaired by Simon Price, Rock and Pop Critic for The Independent on Sunday, Dj and author of ‘Everything: A Book About The Manic Street Preachers’