Music Journalism Workshop – POSTPONED TIL THE AUTUMN TERM
Saturday 19 June: One day course
10.30am- 4.30pm : £60.00
This course has been postponed until the Autumn term.
Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Is it all free CDs, guestlists to the best gigs and jetting around the globe to hang out with the coolest bands?
Being a music journalist is quite possibly the best job in the world, but with the media landscape apparently changing by the hour, it’s a role that requires up-to-the-minute skills, the finest writing talents and insider knowledge to really succeed.
With panel discussions, Q&As, talks and practical workshops, this is a unique opportunity to find out how and why the role is changing from professional writers and editors who between them have worked on almost every music title worth its salt (and plenty that weren’t).
You’ll discover how music journalism used to work, how it operates in the 21st century and how local music scenes fit into the grand scheme. You’ll learn how to write effective reviews, conduct fruitful interviews and create sparkling features, as well as picking up a few tricks of the trade and hearing some “hilarious” war stories along the way, whether you like it or not.
Price includes entry to a show at Norwich Arts Centre in the evening.
The panel
NEIL MASON
Neil has been writing about music for over 10 years. He cut his teeth as a sub editor on Muzik, before turning gamekeeper as reviews editor on Melody Maker and features editor on NME.COM. He was the Editor of warchildmusic.com, and was instrumental in the record-breaking online release of 2006′s ‘Help: A Day In The Life’ album, which raised over £500k for the War Child charity. He knows why it’s best to say ‘no thanks’ when Howard Marks offers you anything, what it’s like landing at JFK on the back of a hurricane, why Feeder’s Grant Nichols is useful to have around should a punch up occur in Brooklyn and what it’s like living next door to Phil Oakey. He also understands the perils of telling Tom Jones jokes to Tom Jones. He runs mynewfavouriteband.com and rippingvinyl.co.uk.
BEN KNOWLES
Ben has worked as a journalist and editor for the last 16 years, holding senior roles on some of Britain’s biggest magazines and newspapers. Ben started as a showbiz reporter on the Daily Mirror, rising to become Deputy Editor on the Daily Star in 2006. In between, there’s the small matter of becoming NME’s youngest editor aged 26 in 2000, launching landmark men’s weekly ZOO in 2004 and has worked on Smash Hits, Melody Maker and Select. He has interviewed many of the biggest names in music and entertainment and is a regular pundit on TV and radio, appearing on everything from Chris Moyles’ Breakfast Show to Question Time and Newsnight. He is also listed in Who’s Who.
ROB FITZPATRICK
Rob has spent the last 10 years writing about music, television, books and films. He’s a contributing editor at The Word and writes for The Guardian, Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph and Private Eye. Rob edited Channel 4′s music website and has written for NME, Mixmag, Sleaze Nation, URB, Ministry and Melody Maker. His proudest moments include being called on his mobile by Usher’s mother while in the pub, spending an interview talking about childcare and night feeds while bouncing Beck’s baby on his knee and nearly being murdered by glue sniffers while in Istanbul with ambio-popsters Bent. He bitterly regrets not getting drunk with Lemmy when he had the chance. According to the internet he invented the expression “mashup”.
EMMA ROBERTS
Emma is the Editor of Outline, Norwich’s longest running free entertainment magazine. She started throwing words at pages five years ago gaining experience as a commercial copywriter before switching to music journalism. She is fiercely proud of the local music scene and is more than pleased to act as an advocate within Outline. Career highlights include introducing the humble podcast to commercial radio, charming the ears off Norwich residents as a drivetime presenter on Future Radio and witnessing much of her writing within quotation marks on city buses. Things to tell the grandkids? Interviewing Beth Ditto, who proceeded to eat the article, watching Ocean Colour Scene do their ironing and getting Chuck D to give a testimonial on why you should advertise with a Norwich publication.
