Hanging with the stone poet
I work in the Arts, primarily music. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. There has been a consistency in what I have done and my motives since my late teens; its just taken this long to realise it!
Early on I developed an interest in diversity both in the arts and in society. My degree in economics trade and development, added a business approach to the issue, but arts and culture have always been at the core. In the early 90s following a move from London, I began DJing and promoting bands, very much riding on the crest of the world music boom in London and beyond; I remember the main stage at Glastonbury being entirely African music on Sunday night, with Fela Kuti topping the bill, with Youssou N’Dour and Mahtletini and the Mahotella Queens before. Amazing!
In Bristol I set up a series of club nights playing African, Latin, Bhangra and Reggae to a large and enthusiastic crowd. Pretty soon we started bringing over big names in Congolese music like Sam Mangwana, Diblo and Swede Swede. This led to branching out and founding Cactus Jazz, which saw top world acts like Ruben Gonzalez / Ibrahim Ferrer, Ile Aye and the Oliver Mtukudzi debut in Bristol. It also saw festival seasons begin, such as Zimpop!, Fiesta Cubana, and Diverse City. The burgeoning interest in Latin Music led to my founding, with Casa Latina in Leeds, mac Birmingham and Band on the Wall, the Latin Promoters Network. This brought in acts such as 5 times Grammy award winning Eddie Palmieri, and Fania Records legend Alfredo de la Fe. Following on from this was a broader touring consortium called Live Roots, in which each lead partner produced a tour. For me it marked the beginnings of a new development strand aimed at introducing audiences to the music of the five former Portuguese colonies in Africa. Palop Africa produced six tours, was featured on BBC national radio and TV as well as the World service and lead to international recording contracts for two artists, Lura and Manecas Costa, and a World Music award nomination, not to mention numerous articles from The Times and The Guardian to Songlines and The Sun!
At the same time South West TUC, Bristol City Council and Bristol Harbour Festival asked me programme and develop audiences. Relationships that saw me programme acts such as EST, Cinematic Orchestra, Gotan Project, Wynton Marsalis and Goldfrapp across Bristol. It also saw the beginnings of a wider profile for diverse music in the city; I led Colston Hall into the Music Beyond Mainstream – a legacy that continues to this day.
I have programmed concert Halls for a decade, including Colston Hall, Warwick Arts Centre and Leicester de Montfort Hall, in each bringing new perspective; in Bristol linking Youth Music to the programme, in Warwick introducing a student focused strand in programming and in Leicester,
More recently I was contracted with Punch records, fundraising and managing the Cultural Olympiad project in Birmingham ‘Dance Routes’ and for three years the annual BASS Festival, as well as administrating Black Routes – the national collective for Black music touring in England.
Britain’s first tour of Somali music
Since 2013 my main focus has been Track Change, which has worked with Britain’s South Asian and Somali communities to bring some of the greatest names in music to the UK to huge acclaim