It’s hard to believe, but it’s already over a week since we were at the Louder Than Words festival in Manchester, and we’re tumbling headlong towards Xmas. Organised and run* by the ever-active John Robb and the redoubtable Jill Adam, whose boundless energy and enthusiasm is a feature of the weekend, it’s definitely one of the highlights of our year.
LTW is unique in its intention to give a platform to the very best in writing about music, and brings together under one roof – that roof belonging to the delightful Palace Hotel in central Manchester – a series of interviews with authors who’ve written biographies of musicians, musicians who’ve written their own, discussions about the rise, fall, and legacy of musical genres, and panels whose aim is to open up any and every area of music to the enquiring minds of anyone who cares to listen.
What we saw and listened to over the weekend was largely governed by the presence of our stall in one room of the festival – it sprawls over four or five – but all of it was good. We learned more than we ever imagined we’d wish to know about prog rock, and found ourselves actually enjoying it (yes, we really did write that sentence, although we can’t quite believe it either). We listened to Karren Ablaze talk about Riot Girrl, watched Steve Ignorant and his Slice Of Life put spoken word to music, and heard Pauline Black of The Selecter – so interesting we could have listened to her all day – talk about how race, music, fashion, and politics shaped her life.
But we weren’t just there to sit on our proverbial and be entertained, dear reader, fun though that was. On the Saturday afternoon we took part in a discussion panel about something very dear to our heart: independent publishing, the highs and lows, the problems and pitfalls, the fun, and the bloody hard slog. It was a chance for us to share our experience and offer some pointers to others, but it was also a very welcome opportunity to listen to the experiences of Karen Ablaze, and Ian of Route (who’s been at this publishing game far far longer than either of us and has more useful information at his fingertips than we can begin to imagine).
We also sat alongside music biographer and all-round good egg Zoe Howe to judge the poetry slam. Packed to bursting with new talent, it was heartfelt, passionate, skilful, and a joy to be part of. Which rather sums up what LTW is all about. If you’re interested in music or writing about music, then there’s no better festival. We can’t recommend it highly enough, and we’re extremely proud to have been part of it. If, for some inexplicable reason you’ve failed to make it part of your life as yet, do yourselves a favour and book it in your diary for next year.
You won’t regret it. And we’ll see you there.
*we mean the festival, although it’s fair to say they’ve got it in them to make a good go of running Xmas, too.