On Friday, two days from now, your man
from Just Backdated is heading off to the Palace Hotel in Manchester to take
part in Louder Than Words, the music writers’ festival where we all get
together to talk about our profession in panel type discussions that last from
Friday evening until Sunday afternoon. We also hang out in the bar a lot at
night and argue amongst ourselves, tell lurid tales about the worst interviews
we ever did and, well those of us a bit long in the tooth, bemoan how much
better it was ‘in our day’.
LTW
is in its third year now and for the second year running Omnibus Press, of
which I am the senior editor, is a sponsor of the event. Last year we came on
board a bit late which meant we had a fairly low profile but this year that has
changed. I’m on the welcoming committee, which means I’ll address the gathering
on Friday night, and I’ve been roped in to take part in three events on the
Saturday.
The
first, on Saturday morning at 10.15, is entitled Watch The Small Print: Libel,
Copyright & Legalities. Associate Carol
Isherwood, of national law firm Shoosmiths, and yours truly will be discussing
legal matters relating to music, rock books and publishing in general. Carol
specialises in intellectual property law including copyright and contract
issues, representing artists in both contentious and non-contentious matters
including infringement cases, and while my legal training extends no further
than a two-day course at the Publishing Training Centre in Clapham I have spent
half a lifetime fending off complaints great and small.
Advertised
as a light-hearted, anecdote-fuelled session with a serious underpinning, it
has the potential to be as dry as a Sauvignon Blanc but rest assured that if pressed I
will liven things up by revealing the names of those acts who have attempted to
sue Omnibus Press over the years and why, and how we ducked and dived our way
out of potential trouble.
On
Saturday afternoon at 3.30 I’m on safer ground, taking part in a discussion
entitled The Who At 50 with Mark Blake, author of Pretend You’re In A War (see Just Backdated
review: http://justbackdated.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/pretend-youre-in-war-who-sixties-by.html),
Tony Fletcher, author of our great Keith Moon biography Dear Boy, and Ian Snowball, who’s just compiled a tribute book to
Moonie that Omnibus will be publishing next year. We tried to get the Rt. Hon.
Peter Townshend of Richmond-upon-Thames to join us but he declined owing to
prior commitments, sending us his best wishes in the process. This was a shame
but then again I might have been obliged to explain to him why I was
disappointed with his own book, not to mention The Who's Official History. It does
seem like a good opportunity to tell a few Keith Moon stories though.
Finally, at 7.15, I’m part of Juke
Box Fury, ace record label man and now the world’s coolest librarian Richard
Boon’s panel where writers play and discuss the tunes that inspired their
careers. Then they vote hit or miss, and discuss music writing in general. I’m
on the panel alongside Mick Middles, who co-wrote our biography of Ian Curtis, Riot
Grrrl pioneer Karen Ablaze and Daniel Rachel, author of Noises: Conversations with Great British
Songwriters.
Richard
asked me what song I’d choose and to tell him why I chose it, but I won’t give
the game away by naming it here and instead offer a potted version of how I
responded to his request about why: it’s the summer
of 1969, I’m 22 years of age, at a crossroads having worked for five years as
newspaper reporter but growing a bit disillusioned, love rock’n’roll, love The
Who, buy and love Tommy, see Who (for
first time) at Plumpton Festival in August, mind blown, decide to answer ad for
job on Melody Maker, interview
involves long discussion on Who, job given to Richard Williams, my mum dies in
November after long illness, depressed, listen to Tommy a lot over Christmas and New Year, see Who again (at
Dunstable) the following March with girl I want to get friendly with, her
mind’s blown by Who so getting friendly happens after show, a week later MM editor Ray Coleman calls, there’s another
vacancy, still interested? Been writing about rock’n’roll (and The Who) ever
since.
Other
Omnibus Press writers taking part include Paul ‘Smiler’ Anderson, Richard
Balls, Daryl Easlea, Zoe Howe, Spencer Leigh, Joel McIver and Simon Wells. Zoe,
married to drummer Dylan Howe who now plays with The Blockheads, will be
talking to Jemima Dury about her dad. Musicians taking part include Keith
Levine of PiL, Steve Ignorant of Crass, our good friend Rick Buckler, Pauline
Black of The Selector and CP Lee, doyen of Alberto y Lost Trios
Paranoias. Once again the festival will climax on Sunday afternoon with the
presentation of the Wilko Johnson Young Writers Award for music writers under
25. Supported by Bloomsbury Press and the website Rock’s Backpages, the
finalists and winners deemed to have produced the most aspiring and inspiring
music writing will receive their prizes from David Ward of Bloomsbury and my pal Barney Hoskyns, the man behind RBP.
A
full programme of events can be found here: http://louderthanwordsfest.com/programme-of-events/
A
splendid time is guaranteed for all, and daily reports from the event will
appear on Just Backdated if the laptop behaves itself.
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