SMILEfest Music Industries Conference Day – featuring a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Oasis’ Definitely Maybe!
On Friday 14th March 2014, Southampton Solent University proudly presented the SMILEfest 2014 Music Industries Conference Day, featuring a very special guest appearance from Oasis manager Marcus Russell.
As in previous years, the conference played host to numerous music industry guests and a few special surprises. In the year that Oasis’s classic album Definitely Maybe received a re-release – and rumours abound that Oasis might reform for a tour – we welcomed Marcus Russell, co-founder of Ignition Management, which manages both Oasis and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
There was also a panel discussion about the enduring success and influence of both Oasis’ Definitely Maybe, and the work of the band Nirvana, twenty years after lead singer Kurt Cobain’s untimely death. The panel included renowned music journalist Keith Cameron, alongside XFM DJ John Kennedy, and the band manager and All Tomorrow’s Parties resident DJ Declan Allen.
“These guests provided astute insights into the rapidly evolving music industries and told some entertaining rock’n’roll stories too. I enjoyed the dialogue between them, and the students came up with some great questions from their own perspectives. ” – Johnny Hopkins, conference organiser and BA (Hons) Music Promotion lecturer.
The conference featured many other guests including James Endeacott, who signed The Libertines while at Rough Trade, and is now writing his autobiography The Fat White Duke alongside journalist Andy Perry. Looking at the visual side of the industry was video director WIZ (Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, Dizzee Rascal), and band stylist Lauren Eva.
There were also rock ‘n’ roll stories from journalist Ben Marshall and legendary photographer, Tom Sheehan (famed for his photographs of Oasis, Radiohead, Mick Jagger and Coldplay), and a special panel on Women in Radio. This saw Guardian journalists Laura Barton and Nosheen Iqbal, music writer Zoe Howe, and Amazing Radio presenter Ruth Barnes take to the stage to discuss the shortage of women’s voices in daytime radio.
The conference concluded with the annual SMILEfest Demo Surgery – where the fantastic musical talent of Solent students were given the A&R treatment by music industry professionals such as Anna Moulson of Melting Vinyl, Tom Davies of Secretly Canadian, and Kerrang! magazine editor James McMahon.
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