#uncon09

Don Letts’ reputation has been firmly established in both the film and music world, by a substantial body of work, from the late 70's through the 80's, 90’s and well into the millennium. His work has been exhibited in The Kitchen N.Y.C, The Institute of Contemporary Art, The N.F.T in London and was honoured at Brooklyn’s BAM festival. In March 2003 he won a Grammy for his documentary ‘Westway To The World'.

He came to notoriety in the late 70's as the DJ that single handedly turned a whole generation of punks onto reggae. It was whilst DJing at the first punk club 'The Roxy' in 1977, that Don adopted the punk D.I.Y ethic and began to make his first film 'The Punk Rock Movie'. Shot on Super-8mm, it is the only documentary on the U.K punk scene featuring The Sex Pistols, The Clash and many others. This led to a period directing over 300 music videos for a diverse range of artists, including Bob Marley, Elvis Costello and Beenie Man.

From the days of Punk Rock to the present, he has always been drawn towards musical projects. He created the band Basement Five, released a single with members of John Lydon’s P.I.L, managed The Slits and collaborated with members of Trouble Funk.

In the mid 80's he formed the group 'Big Audio Dynamite' with Mick Jones (ex-Clash). He went on to perform and co-write four albums with B.A.D, achieving several hits on both sides of the Atlantic including the top ten hit E=Mc2.

In the early 90's Don left B.A.D to form ‘Screaming Target’, their debut performance at The Transmusical Festival in France received rave reviews. They released one critically acclaimed album ‘Hometown Hi-Fi’'.'

As the 'Dub Cartel Sound System' he has performed DJ sets for The Rough Trade 25th Anniversary, Jarvis Cocker’s Desperate Sound System, Trojan, Lee Perry’s Meltdown, Glastonbury 2003/4 and Stussy's 25th anniversary.

His credits as a director include a variety of films and documentaries, including 'Dancehall Queen', ’Westway To The World' and 'PUNK: Attitude'.

Don has also released several compilation albums: 1996's ‘Time Warp Dub Clash’ (Island Records), 2002's ‘Dread Meets The Punk Rockers Uptown’ (Heavenly Records), 2003's ‘Don Letts presents: The Mighty Trojan Sound' (Sanctuary Records) and in 2004 ‘Dread Meets B-Boy Downtown' (Heavenly Records).

In March 2007, he released his autobiography in hardback: ‘Culture Clash: Dread Meets Punk Rockers’.

Garrett's first important professional work was design for the punk rock group Buzzcocks. From 1978 through 1994, Garrett was the design director of Assorted iMaGes. His work there included "graphic identity, exhibition design, television graphics, and literature design." His work for musical artists included Magazine, Duran Duran, Boy George, Simple Minds and Peter Gabriel. The sleeves that Garrett designed for Duran Duran (from 1981 until 1986) include their first four albums (Duran Duran, Rio, Seven and the Ragged Tiger (together with Keith Breeden) and Arena) and their associated singles such as Planet Earth, Is There Something I Should Know? and The Reflex.

In the early 1990s Garrett was increasingly attracted to digital technology and in 1994 Garrett teamed with Alasdair Scott to form AMX digital (later called AMX studios), an interactive media production company. Garrett left AMX when that company merged with Zinc to form Arnold Interactive in 2001. He then worked at I-mmersion in Toronto, Canada art directing interactive cinema, but returned to London in 2005 where he is now Creative Director at Applied Information Group.

Garrett is a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI), a Fellow of the ISTD (International Society of Typographic Designers), and a Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts in London. He is Creative Director of Dynamo, the online showcase and forum for the interactive media industry, and of the i-Design interactive media conference.

New Music Strategies

Andrew Dubber is an Arts and Humanities Research Council Knowledge Transfer Fellow in Music Industries Innovation, a founder member of the Interactive Cultures Research Centre and a Senior Lecturer in the Music Industries at the Birmingham School of Media at Birmingham City University.

He’s an online music consultant, a co-founder of Music Think Tank and the author of New Music Strategies.

Originally from New Zealand, Dubber moved to the UK in 2004 to begin a research project in Online Music Enterprise. With a background in both the radio and the music industries and with an academic record that includes numerous articles, book chapters, and conference presentations about digital media, the music business and media ecology, Dubber has quickly become one of the UK’s leading experts in the field.

His research includes a project on online fandom within the BBC’s Audio and Music Interactive division; explorations into jazz and other specialist music consumption online; the social impact of iPods; and post-graduate work on digital radio and deregulation.
He currently consults for over thirty music and radio businesses in the UK and Europe – from established record labels and retailers to entrepreneurial online music start-ups – and is on the advisory boards of Bandcamp (US), Meetsound (France) and Un-Convention (UK).

He has written articles for Computer Music Magazine and chapters on blogging and podcasting for the Alternative Media Handbook (Routledge, 2008). He is currently co-authoring an undergraduate textbook on the Music Industries, and is the co-author of a book about new technologies for broadcasters in developing nations, commissioned by UNESCO.

When he’s not teaching and writing, most of his time is spent travelling, presenting seminars and workshops across the UK and around the world.

Andrew Dubber es profesor miembro de la junta directiva de la Universidad de la ciudad de Birmingham (Birmingham City University) en el área de Transferencia del Conocimiento del Consejo Investigación en Artes y Humanidades (Arts and Humanities Research Council). Es uno de los socios fundadores del Centro de Investigaciones de Culturas Interactivas (Interactive Cultures Research Centre) de la misma Universidad; también es profesor adjunto del curso Industrias musicales de la escuela de los Medios de Birmingham (Birmingham School of Media). Es consultor especializado en el nuevo mercado digital y fue uno de los fundadores del Music Think Tank, escribió el libro Nuevas estratégicas musicales (New Music Strategies).

Nativo de Nueva Zelanda, en 2004 se trasladó al Reino Unido para emprender la investigación sobre la industria musical en línea. Debido a su experiencia en radio e industria musical, junto con su carrera académica que incluye varios artículos, postulaciones y presentaciones magsitrales sobre temas como los medios digitales, el negocio de la música y la teoría de los medios, Dubber ha llegado a ser, en muy corto tiempo, uno de los principales expertos en este ámbito.

Sus investigaciones incluyen un proyecto sobre las subculturas de los fans en línea, realizado para el Departamento de Músicas Interactivas y audio de la BBC; un estudio sobre la consolidación de la distribución en línea del jazz y otros géneros musicales especializados; que incluía una mirada sobre el impacto social de los iPods y una inviestigación de postgrado enfocada en la radio digital y su desregulación.

En este momento es consultor de más de 30 proyectos de radio y música en el Reino Unido y Europa- dichos negocios incluyen sellos disqueros establecidos, comercializadores y empresarios de la música en línea que apenas comienzan. Así mismo, es miembro de la Junta Directiva de Bandcamp (EEUU), Meetsound (Francia) y Un-Convention (Reino Unido). Ha escrito artículos para la revista Música Ordenador y ha redactado capítulos sobre el blogging y el podcasting para el libro Alternative Media Handbook (Manual de los medios alternativos) (Routledge, 2008).

Actualmente escribe sobre las industrias musicales y realiza con colaboradores una obra encargada por la UNESCO sobre las nuevas tecnologías para las estaciones de radio y la televisión en los países subdesarrollados. Cuando no trabaja, en su tiempo libre le gusta viajar, dar conferencias y realizar talleres en el Reino Unido y el mundo.

Jez Collins is the originator of the Birmingham Popular Music Archive, an online repository that recognises and celebrates Birmingham's rich musical heritage.

Interested in how communities associate cultural memory and music, he believes it is in the unforgotten voices of music that the most interesting stories are heard - the long forgotten bands, venues and impresarios that give life to a cities music scenes.

He has just completed production of Made In Birmingham: Reggae Punk Bhangra a documentary film that looks at the cultural, political and social issues that give rise to some of the biggest, and not so big, bands of the genres. He works at the Centre for Media and Cultural Research at Birmingham City University and unsurprisingly has an interest in music and archives along with cultural policy and the creative industries.

Creador del archivo de música de Birmingham (Reino Unido) y uno de los organizadores del mes de música de Brum (apodo de la cuidad de Birmingham). Está interesado en los aspectos cultuales y sociales de la música popular. A pesar de entender y darse cuenta de la importancia y el significado de la industria musical, quiere investigar las nuevas formas de entender qué es la música y lo que significa en nuestra sociedad hoy en día. Cuenta con más de 20 años de trabajo en la industria musical y las industrias creativas y culturales.
Actualmente se dedica a la educación como investigador para el Departamento de Investigaciones sobre las Culturas Interactivas de la Universidad de la ciudad de Birmingham. Este equipo participa en la discusión e intercambio de conocimientos sobre cómo se pueden utilizar las nuevas tecnologías para fomentar y cambiar los negocios de la música así mismo sobre cómo se pueden promover nuevas tendencias, ideas y modelos de negocios para la industria musical. Además es docente universitario en el curso BA de industrias musicales.

Ha escrito una conferencia con Andrew Dubber titulada La música como la cultura, una respuesta a la industria y a las agencias gubernamentales, quienes suelen ignorar a los consumidores de la música en los debates sobre el futuro de la música en la era digital. Con el propósito de que la música, como la cultura, sea esta voz perdida.

Bearded Magazine

Gareth Main started Bearded magazine in 2007 in an attempt to increase media coverage for independent record labels and artists. By 2009, Bearded was on sale in over 1,000 newsagents, record stores and supermarkets across the UK, and was stocked in both WH Smith and Borders. With Bearded currently online only, Gareth is working with the majority of the music media industry to create a very special print annual chronicling independent music and single-handedly trying (un)successfully to bring on and offline music journalism together into the modern day. Outside of Bearded, Gareth writes for a number of publications in print and online on the culture of music journalism, as well as writing a monthly 'rubbish recommendations' column for award winning music site The Line of Best Fit. Most rants, nonsense and stuff that can't be published are written on his own blog - myownworstNME.tumblr.com.

Music Glue

Although with a background in management consultancy specialising in telecoms, Mark has been working part time within the music industry for over 15 years. In the last 5 years, Mark made the transition into full time, starting up his own technology consultancy company called Barking Spiders, which has now been folded into Music Glue. Barking Spiders enabled Mark to work side by side with key industry professionals, delivering state of the art solutions at budget costs, including:

a) Passport Back To The Bars. In 2003, a charity event was held to raise money for Warchild and Shelter by having 22 major recording artists performing at 200 capacity venues throughout the UK. All tickets were bought via auction using premium rate texting, the first of its kind in the UK (subsequently used for Live8). The entire project was managed by Barking Spiders.
b) Complete development of the Barfly website and Content Management System which now powers in excess of 20 venues for MAMA Group (one of the leading music groups in the UK) from The Hammersmith Apollo to the chain of Barfly venues.
c) Digital consultant and development of The Great Escape website and Content Management System used to operate Europe’s premier emerging artist festival since its inception to present.

In June 2006 Mark co-founded Music Glue, a D2C solution for artists and event promoters developed to reduce the number of intermediaries in the value chain between 'fan and artist' and maximise revenue opportunities for those that 'add value'. Music Glue recognises that digital music is simply content that consumers expect to get for free, and instead of fighting this cultural shift, embraces it by converting 'content into relationships', and 'relationships into revenue'. Music Glue is still in beta, however it has a rapidly expanding brand within the grassroots industry as a reputable company with a very big future.

Monstro Discos, Brazil

31 years old Fabricio is the current President of ABRAFIN (The Brazilian Association of Independent Festivals), an institution that congregates 44 Brazilian festivals, such as Abril Pro Rock (Recife – PE), Goânia Noise Festival (Goiânia – GO), Eletronika (Belo Horizonte – MG), Porão do Rock (Brasília – DF), Calango (Cuiabá – MT), Porto Musical (Recife – PE), Feira da Musica (Fortaleza – CE) . Fabricio is director of Monstro Discos since 1998, a label that released more than 100 records of Brazilian bands / and international bands, such as: Ratos de Porão, Autoramas, Mundo Livre S/A, Jupiter Maçã, Lucy And The Popsonics, Macaco Bong, Guitarl Wolf (Japan), Black Lips (USA) and Tormentos (Argentina), etc. Head director of Monstro Productions that runs Goiânia Noise Festival, Festival Bananada and the Brazil Central Music Conference; and produces International bands concerts in Brazil, such as Deep Purple, Mudhoney, Lemonheads, The Bellrays, Man Or Astroman, Vaselines, Trail of Dead, Battles, Guitar Wolf, Megadeth, Helmet, The Datsuns, Dirty Projectors, Danko Jones. Nobre has been presenting panels and lectures at many internationals conferences such as Porto Musical, Red Bull Music Academy, CMW, SXSW, Bafim, The Great Escape, Resonancia Colombia, Pop Montreal etc. In 2009, Nobre won the British Council’s Young International Music Entrepreneur Award for Latin America. As a musician, Nobre has been the main leader and singer of MQN since 1997.

Andrea Goetzke is programme curator and one of the initiators of the all2gethernow (a-2-n.com), a platform and conference in Berlin on new strategies in music and culture.

She is interested in new models and experiments for a culturally rich and diverse society, and e.g. hosts a free culture radio show on reboot.fm.

Over the past years, she has explored and advocated for open approaches to production and social organization, and worked on other topics of digital culture and activism; e.g. initiated and organized the openeverything events in Berlin (openeverything.mixxt.de/), curated workshops on topics like open design; or collaborated on a programme to promote open source software skills in African countries.

She enjoys creating inspiring and/or social environments, centered on
art and/or conversation.Andrea is one of the owners and project leads of the Berlin-based agency newthinking communications (newthinking-communications.de), which e.g. organizes the social media conference re:publica and has the public lead for Creative Commons in Germany.

DJ, writer and broadcaster Dave Haslam DJ'd over 450 times at the Hacienda and has since DJ'd worldwide (he has just come back from a short tour in the USA); he has written for the 'NME', 'The Guardian', 'The Times', and has published three books. During the autumn months he lectures at the University of Salford (Journalism) and the Manchester Metropolitan University (School of History of Art & Design). He has been name checked by Noddy Holder and Andrew Marr; Sonic Youth slept on his floor; Neil Tennant introduced him to Tracey Emin; Tony Wilson threatened to shoot him; he managed a band Alan McGee wanted to sign; he's created an installation for an art exhibition in Berlin; and he's cooked cauliflower cheese for Morrissey.

Martin Atkins is the definition of entrepreneurial activity in cultural arts endeavours, his 30+ years in the music business spans across genres and borders and industries.

He was a member of Public Image Ltd and Killing Joke. He founded industrial super group Pigface, The Damage Manual, and Murder Inc., and has contributed to Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. He is the owner of Invisible Records and Mattress Factory Recording Studios (est. 1988). He is the author of Tour:Smart, a Suicide Girls columnist, and teaches at Madison Media Institute (and prior to MMI he taught at Columbia College Chicago for six years). Martin is a producer, drummer, documentary film maker, DJ, and father of four.

Most recently, he started his own entrepreneurial school revolution number three. (www.revolutionnumberthree.com)

Whatever the future of music is, you can pretty much bet that he'll be in the middle of it.

Martin wrote his book Tour:Smart in 2007 and has since spoken around the world at the Midi Institute in China, NAMM, SXSW, CMJ, NYU, USC, Drumtech in London, By:Larm in Oslo, and many more.

A distillation of Martin's 30+ years in the music business, the book and Martin's Tour:Smart presentation contains not only valuable insight into his methods, but an unusually candid discussion of mistakes and failures. It covers routing strategies, strategies to sustain, sponsorships, geography, guerrilla marketing, and entrepreneurial activity in the music industry.

He is on the road in support of Tour:Smart hosting FREE Tour:Smart D.I.Y. summits worldwide.

Matt Carroll is part of Central Station, a critically acclaimed team of artists, based in Manchester. Central Station created a new visual language producing iconic artwork for Factory Records, Happy Mondays, Black Grape and James. Their first exhibition in 1990 at the Manchester City Art Gallery featured a collection of larger-than-life portraits of famous faces from British film and television. The V&A purchased four paintings for their permanent collection of modern art. "As kids we would sit looking out of the bedroom window, watching the neighbours parading past on their way to the labour club on Saturday night, all dressed up with their painted faces, champagne pink and blue rinse hair do's." These images were the inspiration for the portraits that became the 'Hello Playmates' exhibition, and the portrait of Shaun Ryder that was used on the cover of Bummed. They also created film Artwork and titles for '24 Hour Party People', documented in the authoritative publication 'Communicate - Independent British Graphic Design since the Sixties'. This accompanied the world touring Barbican exhibition of the same title.

Matt Johnson has been involved in the music industry for 10 years. Working for years with Mr Scruff, and also running live events for XFM, Live Nation etc, his career now involves being Director and General Manager of the Babycakes brand, as well as co-owning MDM Music who represent The Travelling Band, Rose Elinor Dougall, Sneaky, The Earlies and more recently Pegasus Bridge. Matt still runs live shows, recently promoting sold out shows from Glasvegas, 65daysofstatic, General Fiasco and many other.