Louder Than Words Festival returned to Manchester this month, featuring a packed program of high quality events co-curated by Jill Adam and John Robb.
Taking place at Manchester’s iconic Principal Hotel, the festival offered a wide selection of Q&As, panel discussions and workshops, featuring Jah Wobble, Paul Morley and Celeste Bell, as well as disco parties in the evening.
From Campus to Mosh Pit: Bank notes for musical notes – this writing panel discussion presented the fundamentals of making a career out of music without doing the “hard graft”.
Chaired by Louder’s Simon A. Morrison, current students and published music journalists, the event discussed the idea of “the elephant in the room of music journalism”: Monetisation.
Touching on the training students receive at university to artist autobiographies, this esteemed panel featuring Professor Martin James, Lucy O’Brien, Matt Parker gave the audience an insight into their own journeys, opinions on the music journalism industry and how it’s changing.
This interesting and insightful discussion focused on the fact that you aren’t going to get anywhere in the journalism industry as a whole if you don’t put yourself out there and be a bit cheeky – you can’t be afraid to be the person to go up and “ask the questions”.
It also offered insights on the different sectors of music industry and they ways to make money in them and encouraged the audience to send their work to professionals and get feedback and criticism in order to learn and improve.
Black Female Voices: Shaping the sound of Manchester Music
This years MDMArchive guest panel ‘Black Female Voices: Shaping the sound of Manchester Music’, focused on the hidden voice of black female artists in shaping the sound of music in greater Manchester.
This session featured a panel of black women in the music industry discussing their experiences and included TV producer and radio presenter Karen Gabay, writer and performer Melanie Williams, performer and collaborator, Yvonne Shelton, DJ, electronic producer and performer Henrietta Smith-Rolla and singer, writer and creative activist Ruby-Ann Patterson.
They explored the idea of stereotypes and stigma that comes with black women in the music industry and gave the audience an insight into the racism that exists in the industry.
Featured image and gallery: Hoang Phan Notebooks were carried from one workshop to another. Writers from different generations sat around tables, sharing manuscripts and listening to each other. Outdoors, small groups strolled along Oxford Road, pausing before buildings steeped in literary history. This was the scene during the Manchester Writing School Summer Festival 2026, held…
Featured image: Katja Ogrin With many sore heads and limbs this morning after the most hardcore day of the festival taking place yesterday, many are recovering from the moshing and pit brutality of the previous day’s antics. As the tradition of a morning movie in the Serpents Lair prevails, the crowd sprawls out onto the plush,…
Featured image: Abbi Draper After an electrifying start to the weekend, with temperatures slowly climbing, many lather themselves in suncream, shed their band shirts and rise from their tents to trek towards the arena. Saturday has big things incoming for the humans of Bloodstock 2026. Some pace themselves for the day and hide from the early…
Featured image: Abbi Draper After a memorable Thursday opener, Bloodstock 2026 opens its gates once again onto the Hallowed Grounds of Catton Park, kicking off day two of its 25th-anniversary celebration of metal. As the sun rises on Catton Park, festivalgoers emerge from their tents to prepare for another day of mayhem. The morning brings…
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