Louder Than Words

Last weekend I attended the inaugural Louder Than Words conference in Manchester. I have written a review for the Mudkiss website, and I will be writing a review for Archives+, as I went wearing my Opening up Archives trainee's hat. I'll share links to those once they are published. But I'd like to share some of my thoughts and impressions here too, because so much of it was, and will continue to be, a very personal response. Going to a conference alone was an unfamiliar experience for me. In the past I'd been to conferences with work colleagues and friends. I had no idea what to expect,and it was wonderful to get such a warm welcome from the organisers and others there on Friday night. The venue, the Palace Hotel, once the Refuge Assurance building, was, well for the want of a better word, palatial. It could have been intimidating, but it turned out to be intriguing ( the enigmatic Safe Room) and intimate. So the first night's highlights included meeting up with C P and Pam Lee again. I also met Mel, fantastic photographer and founder of Mudkiss. I met Jonty Skruff. We discussed our very different experiences of returning to Manchester. I was impressed that he had come back after 20 years away for the first time for the festival.I have loved my return, but he had longed to escape, and was unsure how he felt about being back. I hope he had a good weekend and a good journey back to Berlin. You can look at the programme on the Louder Than Words website. It was a full weekend of talk, debate, discussion and entertainment. Exploring music through words with journalists and writers, academics and students, punks and Northern Soul Fans, filmmakers and actors, musicians and managers. Academia v. journalists. Many had swapped the stage for the lecture theatre, journalism for theses. The history of music journalism was represented by writers who influenced my tastes back in the day, including Chris Salewicz and Barney Hoskyns. The future of music writing was there in force too, including Charlotte Davies from Hooting and Howling,and Ryan Carse who won the inaugural Wilko Johnson award. The role of women in the music business and the music press came up for discussion.The role of academia was up for discussion too - not just the courses. There are now five of them at universities around the country, but the way student unions promote live music was pointed out too. So in no particular order some highlights, thoughts and impressions. Writers are good with words, so there were some great turns of phrase. The hoopla of language. Longfella's poem, and the Dreamers, written for the Manchester District Music Archive exhibition. New vocabulary had to be invented for rave drug states. Music journalists think on their feet. The dance floor is a magic carpet. The future of music journalism is female. Words are a loss leader. Paradiddle on the snare drum. The golden age of the NME. Gonzo journalism - Tom Wolfe and Hunter S Thompson. It has been said that Manchester is Factory records' sarcophagus. Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. A book or a film can take you to the music or the club when you can't be there physically. Listening to the threads running through discussions I became aware of the folkloric aspects of this world. Shared experiences, rites of passage, mythologising Elvis, and other artists and eras. Wilko Johnson turned out to have a shared love of Icelandic poetry. John Robb's conversations with Wilko were wonderful. What an inspiring man, both as a musician and as someone facing mortality. He's already a legend. There were aspects to myth making I hadn't considered. Dance and rave culture had no stars, no record labels. Shaun Ryder and Ian Brown had to be mythologised as working class heroes to create a commercial aspect to it. Alan McGee revealed something about the Creation myth too - he has been playing Alan McGee since he was 15. Jonty Skruff was inspiring too, when he talked about finding his role, when he could look himself in the mirror. Authenticity came up a lot in discussion. As a blogger, a writer, an academic - it's important to know what you are writing about. Building trust and a following - it's good if you want to publish or make a film. Social media has a role to play here. The commodification of rebellion. The shift when the marketing men and accountants got involved. Women featured too, discussing roles and responsibilities, feminism versus Equalism. The dark side of the business from a female perspective.Women journalists were assumed to be groupies. The manipulation of stars and the derailing of women artists' potential in the pursuit of shock value and publicity.Stella Grundy's Rise and Fall of a Northern Star raised a lot of questions and I hope to be asking them soon as I have the chance to interview her. The dole and squats were good for musicians. They provided time for a band to develop. The world of music recording and writing about music have a lot in common. Nowadays you only get one chance to be successful. I also had an interesting chat about archives with Barney Hoskyns of the Rock's Back Pages archive. There was a Mancunian flavour that was perfect for a Manchester based conference, and people had come a long way because of Manchester's significance. The role of the Internet, the changing worlds of music and publishing, the old order changing, but the potential and possibilities of the new technologies, all this was up for discussion and debate. The future is female - that is, it's about community and sharing. Glossy magazines and podcasts could be the next thing. I had to choose between events running at the same times, and looking back, I chose business over personalities. So I missed Hugh Cornwell singing Golden Brown, but it is on YouTube. So is Wilko talking about his approach to being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. And the young winner of the inaugural Wilko Johnson award. There are fantastic photos taken by Mel from Mudkiss. I'm still processing what I saw and heard. I'm looking forward to next year.