Music Conference and Festival
Anya Strafford is the International Marketing Manager at Caroline Records. The label’s roster includes 50 Cent, Misfits, Glass Animals, The Smashing Pumpkins. Her previous experience includes working as International Label Manager at Co-Operative Music. Caroline International provide a variety of different services to those in the industry, across the globe, from A&R to Finance.
Tre Stead is a tour manager for Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls and White Denim. Tre has also worked for Laura Marling, Django Django, Mystery Jets, River Rat Pack Tour (Mumford & Sons, Golden Silvers, Beans On Toast, Six Nation State, etc), Fenech Soler, Father John Misty and others.
Tre was voted Tour Manager of the Year 2014/15 at Live UK Music Business Awards.
Mike Smith is President of Music at Virgin EMI at Universal Music Group. Mike has been responsible for signing many acts such as Arctic Monkeys, Blur and Calvin Harris whilst working at MCA publishing, EMI publishing, Colombia Records and Mercury Records.
Mike started as an A&R man at MCA Publishing as a scout in 1988, where he signed Blur, Levitation and scouted The Smashing Pumpkins. He then moved to EMI Publishing in 1992, where he went on to sign acts, such as PJ Harvey, Elastica, Supergrass, Teenage Fan Club, Doves, Starsailor, The Beta Band, The Avalanches, Gorillaz, The White Stripes, The Libertines, The Scissor Sisters, The Arcade Fire, and Arctic Monkeys, as well as resigning Blur and progressing to the position of Head of A&R. He also worked with artists such as Robbie Williams, The Verve and Beth Orton.
Smith moved to Columbia Records UK in 2006 to work as the Managing Director. In 2006, he signed Mark Ronson and Calvin Harris. In 2007, signings included The Ting Tings, MGMT, The Hugs, The Gossip and Glasvegas. The following year, he signed Miike Snow and Lissie to the label and in 2009, Magnetic Man, Miles Kane and Paul Epworth. Band of Horses, Katy B, The Vaccines and Ryan Adams were all signed in 2010 and in the following year, he signed Madeon and The Civil Wars. Acts he also looked after included Kings of Leon, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Foo Fighters, Matt Cardle, Ke$ha, Sleigh Bells, and Kasabian.
As of 2016, Mike is the Managing Director of Warner/Chappell UK.
Laura Snapes is a freelance culture writer and editor for Pitchfork, Uncut, The Guardian, The Observer, Financial Times, Buzzfeed, BBC and many others. Laura is the featured editor of NME and has worked as associate editor at Pitchfork and assistant reviews editor at NME.
Laura also does copywriting for music companies and appears on Monocle 24 Arts Review and BBC 4.
Ricky Simmonds is our BA (Hons) Digital Music (electronic music) graduate and a multi-platinum selling DJ. Ricky also hosts one of the most-listened to digital music shows in the world, The Sound of Deep House on Ministry of Sound Radio. Ricky is Ministry of Sound’s resident DJ and has done music production under the alias Bordertown, released on New York’s legendary Nurvuous Records and Toolroom Records.
Ricky is also the label manager of Love & Other working with artists like Juliet Fox, Idris Elba, Austin Welsh, Brett Gould and many others.
Listen to Ricky’s radio show here.
John Robb is an award-winning journalist and director of Louder Than War. In a 30-year music writing career, John was the first to write about bands like Stone Roses and Nirvana. John is also an author of best-selling music books, vocalist with the band Goldblade and bassist with The Membranes.
Read more: SMILEfest 2015 interview with John Robb from Louder Than War by Sofia Gerganova from BA (Hons) Popular Music Journalism
Gary Powell is a a drummer, producer and label owner most known as the drummer of The Libertines. After The Libertines, Gary also joined Babyshambles and Dirty Pretty Things. He now works at 25 Hour Convenience store record label, signing The Clameens, False Heads, F.O.X and Tempers. 2016 marked a return for The Libertines with third album Anthems for Doomed Youth breaking a 11-year recording hiatus.
Zoë Miller has worked at Mute Records for nearly 20 years and is the label’s Head of Press. Mute Records is an independent label that has worked with artists like New Order, Goldfrapp, M83, Moby, Jose Gonzalez and Yann Tiersen.
James McMahon has been the editor of Kerrang! since 2011. Although having contributed as a freelancer to Metal Hammer at the start of his career, McMahon spent much of the last ten years at the NME, as a contributor, New Music Editor, Features Editor and latterly Film Editor. After leaving the NME, McMahon initially planned to launch his own music website called Stunt, before deciding to return to more conventional media, having taken the role of Deputy Editor at Future’s GamesMaster title before being promoter to the editor of Kerrang!
Carl Loben is the editor of DJ Mag and a world-renowned DJ/producer and Westway label owner. Primarily focused on breakbeat and electro, Westway releases quality music in varying styles and refuses to be pigeon-holed. The eclectic nature of the label fits the tastes of the label chiefs the main criteria is that, like every album by The Clash, each release has to push the scene forward.