Music Conference and Festival
Jo McKay is the director of LarMac Live. She works on creative design, production and on the ground management of brand experiential activity and music events across temporary sites, stadiums and multipurpose venues worldwide. LarMac has worked with AEG, Common People, Creamfields, MTV, Live Nation and many others.
Mark Jones is the MD of Wall of Sound records and the presenter of ‘Back to the Future’ on BBC6. Wall of Sound’s releases include those of Grace Jones, Aeroplanes, Röyksopp & Robyn and Tiësto vs Diplo ft Busta Rhymes.
Paul Gallagher is the oldest brother of the Gallagher’s and worked in A&R at Creation Records. He’s also a DJ and a book author.
Andy Copping is Download Festival’s booker and promoter and Live Nation’s head of UK touring, which includes promoting shows for the likes of Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
Read an interview with Andy from SMILEfest 2013: Inteview with Andy Copping
Briggy Smale is BBC Radio 1 former entertainment news presenter. During that role, Briggy interviewed huge bands like Kings of Leon, Kylie, Snoop Dogg and Fatboy Slim. She also reported from festivals and events like Glastonbury, The Oscars, The Brits, and The MTV Awards. Briggy has also worked as the programme manager at Juice FM.
Briggy is awarded with a Visiting Fellowship at Southampton Solent University where she also mentored our music and journalism students.
Lauren Pritchard is a musician from Jackson, Tennessee based in London and professionally known as LOLO. She performed the lead role of the Broadway show ‘Spring Awakening’ in New York before signing a publishing deal with Sony/ATV and meeting Eg White with whom she recorded and co-wrote songs before being signed to Island Records in 2009.
Lauren is most known for being featured on the single ‘Miss Jackson’ by Panic! at the Disco. She has also opened their live concerts and toured with them.
Jim Prime is the founding member and keyboardist of the band Deacon Blue. Simon has 30 years of industry experience that began in the ‘80s on an American tour with Altered Images followed by a number of years and albums with John Martyn. He has also worked as a Musical Director for Cumbernauld Theatre. Deacon Blue have 17 top 40 hits and 3 number one albums to date. Jim was signed to Columbia Records (Sony) for over 15 years.
Jim has recently headlined Glastonbury, Liverpool Echo Arena, Belladrum and opened ‘Last Night of the Proms in the Park’ in Hyde Park.
Jim has also worked with Bryan Adams, Jean Jaacques Goldman and written and recorded music for the film of William McIlvanney’s Dreaming and Channel 4’s Against the Tide, a documentary on George Orwell.
Gary Mulholland is the author of the highly acclaimed books “This is Uncool”, “Fear of Music”, “Popcorn” and “Stranded at the Drive-In” and has contributed frequently to The Guardian, BBC, Observer, Uncut and Time Out.
Jim Mawdsley has operated as an independent music promoter in the North East of England since the mid eighties. He has promoted indoor events that range from 50 capacity pub gigs to 10,000 capacity dance events in arenas. In addition to taking on a role that has built Generator into the UKs leading Music Development Agency, he continues to develop Evolution, the Newcastle Gateshead based music festival which boasts attendances of 30,000 a day at the May Bank Holiday Weekend Event.
Mark Hobrough is an experienced music industry professional, currently managing songwriters & artists and acting as an industry consultant for both established and new enterprise at Swansfield Music. He has previously worked as a Music Consultant at Shazam and at 1917 Corp, a music marketing consultancy specialising in promoting to music and creative arts students in the UK. Clients include many UK major labels and independents as well as some film companies.
Mark also acts as a consultant including recent campaigns for Island Records and works within the music education sector with Music Business Training and Etude Music. He has also moderated industry panels for Generator, Music Futures, DMF Digital and others.