SIX FINGER THINK TANK CONTRIBUTORS

ANDY GREEN

Andy is currently working on the follow up to Keane's 7x UK platinum debut album Hopes & Fears, and producing tracks for Island's buzz-band The Feeling. Andy has just finished producing young Rock band Need To Breathe for Lava/Atlantic Records, due for release in 2006.He recently produced and mixed Mercury Prize nominee K.T.Tunstall's top twenty single "Black Horse the Cherry Tree" - recently voted Track of the Year at the Q Awards - as well as additional production on her hit "Other Side Of The World", both lifted from her double platinum album Eye To The Telescope. Earlier this year, Andy mixed Moby and the radio hit "Krafty" for New Order. In 2004 Andy produced Keane's debut album and all their singles for which he was nominated for Producer of the Year at the 2005 Music Week Awards.

BARRY EVERARD

Opened one of the first Virgin retail stores in the UK during 1972 and went on to manage the store for a further five years before opening Record Collector, his own shop in Sheffield in 1977. Originally just specializing in vinyl, it wasn't long before Barry expanded into mail order and nowadays, with customers that include not just local bands Gomez, Def Leppard and The Human League but a wide-ranging clientele drawn in by his specialist knowledge, his shop's reputation is such that he is considered one of Britain's leading independent record retailers. Over the years, Barry has also contributed significantly to the local media in Yorkshire - both in print and by regularly appearing on radio.

BILLY SLOAN

Recently honoured for his services to music in Scotland, Billy - unquestionably and for the last three decades - has become one of, if not the most influential media personality in Scotland; indeed, it is fair to say that Billy's name perennially tops any PR or Record Plugger's list when working an act north of the border. His ground-breaking radio programme on Glasgow's Radio Clyde has won him countless plaudits while his ability to spot upcoming bands or musical trends allied to insightful writing in his column in The Sunday Mail and, previously, in The Daily Record has made him a much respected household name. Throughout the years, bands such as Simple Minds, Franz Ferdinand, The Cocteau Twins, The Associates, Waterboys, Skids, Big Country, Proclaimers, Deacon Blue, Run Rig, Annie Lennox and other major Scottish musical exports have all cited Billy as having played a pivotal role in the development while mega-artists from overseas such as U2, Springsteen, Tina Turner or Bowie will offer Billy media access over and above anyone else in the country.

BOB MERCER

Began his music industry career as Marketing Director for EMI Records in London during 1972, before becoming Managing Director in 1975..During his time at EMI, he oversaw the signings of Queen, The Sex Pistols and Cockney Rebel as well as Kate Bush - to whom he was recommended by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour - and was also responsible for the re-signing of the individual Beatles together with The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd. Bob moved to EMI Films in 1980 as Creative Director before taking on management for Paul McCartney in 1986. He then went on to manage Roger Waters from 1987 to 1991, culminating in the historic The Wall concert in Berlin. In 1992 Bob moved to Nashville where, in league with Jimmy Buffet, he was responsible for the setting up with of Margaritaville Records - where he remained until 1997. In 1998 he returned to major-label work with PolyGram before being appointed Senior VP of New Business & Artist Development at the company's parent, Universal Music Group.

BRUCE FINDLAY

Bruce teamed up with his brother and opened their own record shop in Falkirk in Scotland in 1967.By the early 70's this had grown in to Scotland's best known record store chain They spread through Central Scotland specializing in American imports and underground rock and were famous for their distinctive carrier bags 'I found it at Bruce's From there he went on to manage Simple Minds from 1978 to 1990.With his time completely taken up with the band he resigned from the record store chain and put his Zoom record label in to 'cold storage' In 1985 working closely with Bill Graham he was able to confirm Simple Minds as the first UK act to commit to playing Live Aid in Philadelphia. Since then he has become more involved in consultancy work and education in the music business and regularly lectures at colleges and universities throughout the UK. He chaired the first ever managers meeting at the inaugural In the City in Manchester out of where the MMF was formed.

CARIANNE BROWN

Carianne Brown joined Songs Music Publishing in June 2006. She has extensive experience finding placements for songs in films, television shows, commercials, video games, and trailers. Most recently Carianne was Director of Film & Television music at Universal Music Publishing. Previously, she was a Film/TV Executive at Dreamworks Music Publishing. Earlier in her career, Carianne held positions at artist management company Vox Productions and, subsequently, at Elektra Records.

COLIN SOMERVILLE

With nearly 30 years of multi media experience Colin began his career in radio at Radio Forth in Edinburgh 1979. He rapidly rose from Duty News Editor to Features Editor. From here he went on to become Head of Production before taking on the role of Music/ Programe Controller. In 1994 he moved to the newly formed Scot FM as Launch Programme Controller/Consultant. Next was BBC Radio Scotland as a Freelance Contributor and Presenter from 1994 - Present Tom Morton Show, Brand New Country, The Usual Suspects, The Arts Show, Radio Cafe, Movie Cafe, Book Cafe, Macauley & Co. His radio experience also overlapped into a career in journalism.From1992 to the present he became Feature Writer and Reviewer for Scotland On Sunday.1994-1998 Entertainments Editor, Edinburgh Evening News and also from 1994 - Present as Feature Writer and Reviewer for The Herald (comedy correspondent) There was also appearances on television and from 1994 to the present day he is a Freelance contributor/ presenter with VH1, BBC Choice and Scottish Television. In 2002 he moved to New Media with DigMedia as their Creative Business Development Office. This was an internet based company working with DRM with editorial control of the websites for Daft Punk and Miller Genuine Download who had partnered with AIM and other industry bodies. Colin is also has an Honorary Diploma from West Lothian College from their Music Management Course. In 2006 he became the Support Materials writer for SCOTVEC Music Industry Courses and sat as an Advisory Board Member to Music Works conference in Glasgow 2002-2005 (also Key Note Interviewer) Today he is an Advisory Board Member for Adam Smith College's Creative Industries Department and also involves himself in a variety of freelance radio projects.

DAN BROOKS

From an extensive corporate background, Dan spent two years as a Director of one of the UK's most successful independent radio-plugging companies before, after fifteen years living and working in Britain, returning to his native Canada where he is Chairman of the Key Music Group. At the company, he is individually responsible for his own stable of artists - The Marble Index (Universal Music); The Minatures (Maple / Universal / Field Guide); Cities In Dust (Paper Bag Records) as well as Ron Hawkins. Besides being a regular panellist at North by North East and Canadian Music Week in Toronto, Dan has also organised and run the Canadian stage at In The City in Manchester while in the UK.

DAVE ROBINSON

Originally a teenage photographer in Dublin, Dave Robinson opened the first Beat Club in Ireland. He took pictures for Rave magazine at the Cavern with the Beatles, and on the Rolling Stones first tour of Ireland ; He befriended Van Morrison, and briefly managed him, and he was Jimi Hendrix's Road and Tour manager from his first tour of the UK with the Pink Floyd, The Nice and The Move. He shared flats with Jimi and Noel Reading in London and toured with The Experience across America and the world until just before Jimi's death. .He also did major tours in the US with Eric Burden & The Animals, The Young Rascals and the Vanilla Fudge. He partied and clubbed with The Grateful Dead, Janice Joplin, The Who, Jim Morrison and the Doors. He then returned to London and started and managed Brinsley Schwartz, Graham Parker, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmonds, Ian Dury and Elvis Costello. In London, he single-handedly created a network of 35 pubs where bands could play what they liked and this became the forerunner of punk. Dave built a recording studio above the legendary Hope and Anchor Pub in Islington and with Jake Riviera, he started Stiff Records and signed The Damned, Motorhead, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Tracey Ullman, The Plasmatics, Jona Lewie, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, Kirsty McColl, The Box Tops, The Adverts, Lene Lovich, The Pogues, Madness and many more. After Stiff, Dave was installed by Chris Blackwell as president of Island Records, where he oversaw the careers of U2, Robert Palmer, Steve Winwood, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, working closely with legendary producer Trevor Horn. He personally compiled and marketed Bob Marley's 36 million selling LEGEND album. The biggest reggae album in the World.Dave had got Stiff Records into a three way co-op with Virgin and Island in the 80s and then sued Chris Blackwell and was sued by Richard Branson and won each case. He represented Rick Rubin running Def Jam Records and American Recordings outside North America working with Johnny Cash, the Black Crows, Slayer, Danzig and the Jayhawks. He settled the vicious two year litigation between Rick Rubin and Roger Ames, Chairman of PolyGram and signed American Recordings to BMG. Dave then ran The Famous Blue Note Club and Acid Jazz Label in London helping to launch The Acid House and Drum and Bass dance movements. Dave has been at the helm or in the mix of the most exciting and important musical developments and he is still active in the music industry as a consultant for various labels and projects - from Van Morrison for EMI to the Dubliners for Sanctuary - as well as keeping an eye on some of the most enduring repertoire the music industry has even seen.

DAVID AYERS AND FELIX TOD

David Ayers and Felix Tod write and produce music for film, TV and record. They have composed for several BBC series, produced hit albums across Europe and sound design for companies like Nike and Microsoft. Tracks they have written or produced have been used in Hollywood and European films.Felix and David are partners with Alan McGee in a new venture, Creation Studios (vintage Trident 72 input Desk/Pro-Tools and natural daylight). Felix produced Heather Nova's album South for V2 records. David was a founder member of Red Snapper on Warp records. Felix has produced five previous Heather Nova albums that have now sold 2 million copies worldwide.David and Felix have recently been nominated for a BAFTA (Cymru) in the category of Best Original Score for their work on the BBC Tribe series.

DAVID THOMAS

David Thomas was Young Journalist of the Year at 24, a magazine editor at 25 and the youngest-ever editor in the 150-year history of Punch magazine before his 30th birthday. Having switched to full-time writing in the early 1990s, he is now one of Fleet Street's leading feature writers and a successful author.In more than 20 years of professional journalism, he has interviewed an astonishing array of famous names in showbusiness, the arts, sport, politics and business. He has developed a reputation for being able to get to the core of an interviewee's personality, often discussing deeply personal, even intimate issues, without being aggressive or intrusive. Interviewees know that their quotes will be reproduced accurately, fairly and in context.Thomas is also a lifelong sports fan, who has written a critically-acclaimed book on football corruption (Foul Play: 2003), a sports column for the Evening Standard (2002-3) and numerous newspaper and magazine articles on sport, sportspeople and sports-business.From writing articles for leading publications such as Vanity Fair, GQ, Rolling Stone, Spin, Marie Claire, San Francisco Chronicle (all USA) .... The Face, Tatler, Esquire, Arena, High Life, Business Life, Saga, Classic FM, Radio Times, Cosmopolitan (UK magazines) The Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Sun, Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, Observer, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Express, Sunday Mirror, Evening Standard (UK newspapers) to such high profile interviews as Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman, Demi Moore, Joel Schumacher, Roger Moore, Helen Mirren, John Hurt, Sir Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman, Brain May, Roger Taylor, Mark Knopfler, David Bowie, Paul Simon, Sting, David Gilmour, Ozzy and Jack Johnson, Tina Turner, Sade, Van Morrison, George Michael,Morrisey, Neil Diamond, Sir George Martin…..the list confirms the significance of David Thomas as one of the UK's leading journalists.

DENNIS McNALLY

Dennis McNally attended 21 schools across many states and several countries, eventually graduating from undergraduate school at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY in 1971. He received his Ph.D. in American History from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1977 for a biography of Jack Kerouac which was published by Random House in 1979 under the title Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America. He settled in San Francisco, and after a period of free-lance journalism (for the San Francisco Chronicle’s California Living and the Berkeley Monthly, among others) and odd jobs, he became archivist for Bill Graham Presents in 1983, and in the year he worked there, established the BGP Archives. Having been selected as the Grateful Dead’s authorized biographer in 1980, he became the band’s publicist in 1984, and continues in those duties for Grateful Dead Productions to this day. From 1984 to 1995, he toured with the band, in the process working on its behalf at the United Nations, the White House, and Congress.

Dr. DAVID J MOSER

A professor at the Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee where he teaches courses in Intellectual Property, Legal Issues in the Music Industry & Music Publishing. Moser is also an attorney with over ten years of experience in intellectual property and entertainment law and has represented clients in the negotiation of recording contracts, publishing contracts, management contracts, sales and purchases of music publishing catalogues, copyright infringement lawsuits, and other matters. David is the author of "Moser on Music Copyright" and received a Fulbright Scholar Award to study piracy of intellectual property in the Philippines. He has also been awarded a Visiting Scholar position to teach at Lingnan University in Hong Kong in 2007.

GUY LOVELADY

Born in the same hospital as John Lennon but identified at school as "clapping nicely", it was inevitable that his musical ambitions would extend more to the admin side of things. A classic enthusiast, his independent label Ugly Man was responsible for the breaking of such international acts as Black, I am Kloot in the 80's and Elbow at the turn of the century. Steeped in the DIY ethic he was responsible for the cheapest video ever shown on UK terrestrial TV when Michael Jackson was appearing in Thriller.

GARRY BLACKBURN

Started at Island Records during 1982, where he was rapidly appointed as Head of Promotion. In 1985 he left to form the Anglo Irish Promotion and Management Company - initially promoting Billy Bragg, The Housemartins, The The and The Beautiful South plus managing The Redskins, Mel & Kim and Then Jericho. In 1990 the original partnership was dissolved while Garry continued with Anglo Plugging providing national and regional radio and TV promotion as well as developing on-line promotion for artists and labels both big and small. Over the next five years, Garry built up a roster of highly successful acts, garnering Anglo's standing as being at the cutting edge of UK promotion - a reputation they uphold to this day, having been seven times Music Week Award winners including both Best Independent Promotions Team and Best National Promotions Team as well as being first call for acts such as U2, Oasis, Depeche Mode and Suede besides representing such prestigious events as the annual Mercury Music Prize, Capital FM's Party In The Park, Guilfest, Homelands, the NME Brat Awards and The Teenage Cancer Trust concert series. Since the mid-nineties, Garry has also managed re-mixer & producer Norman Cook - better known by his alter ego Fatboy Slim - whose chart-topping dance sensibilities have played a major part in re-defining British Club culture.

GEOFF TRAVIS

His inestimable influence within British music is, perhaps, best defined by who he's signed over the years - amongst which is an astonishingly influential range of acts: from The Smiths to The Strokes; Scritti Politti to The Libertines; Robert Wyatt to The Go-Betweens; Cabaret Voltaire to The Raincoats; Eddi Reader to Belle and Sebastian; Stiff Little Fingers to Pulp. Rough Trade and all that it now encompasses sprang forth from the record store of the same name under which banner Geoff started trading in 1976. Thirty years on and Indie labels the world over owe an immense debt to Travis for establishing a distribution network that has helped smaller labels prosper. After a fallow period at the end of the Eighties, Rough Trade remains now as it was then, a strong voice in the Independent market with not just its never-less-than interesting roster of artists but also a management company - representing Scritti Politti, Pulp, McAlmont & Butler and Cerys Matthews as well as Producers of the calibre of Bernard Butler, Cavemen (Ross Orton & Steve McKay), Stuart Sykes and Chris Thomas. For the last thirty years Geoff Travis has remained at the forefront as one of the UK's finest ever A and R people.

GILES STANLEY

Giles has a 20 year career in the music business starting with music journalism in the 80's. For the past 15 years he has concentrated on producer management. For the first part of the 21st century Giles has specialized in running small business from within corporations. In 200 he created BBC Worldwide's first music management company before spending two years as Managing Director of Universal Music Management, the company that represented world class producers including multiple Grammy and Brit award winner Hugh Padgham, Andy Green (Keane, KT Tunstall, The Feeling), Nick Patrick and Grammy nominated James McMillan. Giles also represented Mick Glossop best known for his 25 year association with Van Morrison. In November 2006 he moved to set up his own stand alone producer/management company bringing along the cream of his roster assembled over the years from the previous organizations he worked at. Since it's inception Giles' company, GS Music has added artist Anna Phoebe, Ali Staton ( Madonna's playback programmer) Junk Scientist, Lee Baker and production legend Chris Kimsey ( Rolling Stones, Duran Duran, The Cult etc )

GERED MANKOWITZ

Gered is one of the most significant photographers to have worked in music and related fields over the last four decades; his defining images have been exhibited globally - from The National Portrait Gallery in London to Tokyo, through Europe and across America - in New York, Tommy Hilfiger purchased prints of the entire show. In the early Sixties, Gered was an apprentice at Camera Press before setting up his first studio in Mason's Yard in Soho - on one side the infamous disco The Scotch of St.James on the other Indica, the art gallery partly financed by The Beatles and where John Lennon would meet Yoko Ono. Within months he'd shot his first album cover as well as photographing Marianne Faithful. Impressed with the results, her manager Andrew Loog Oldham asked him to shoot the band he also looked after: The Rolling Stones. Gered became the Stone's official photographer for the next three years, touring extensively with them as well as creating a number of album covers. Since then, he has worked with a veritable who's who within the arts to include: Elton John, Traffic, ABC, Free, The Yardbirds, Eurythmics, The Nice, Duran Duran, Oasis, The Small Faces, Kate Bush, The Verve & Slade; he took the last ever pictures of Bing Crosby just days before he died, spent time on an ill-fated film 'Boom' shooting stills of Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton and… he also shot the iconic images of Jimi Hendrix. With designer David Costa, Gered formed Ink Icon Ltd in 1991 to produce limited edition silk-screen prints based upon his archive. Their first major project became the flagship image for the worldwide Jimi Hendrix Exhibition and graced the sleeve of the resultant multi-million selling album: The Ultimate Experience. Ink Icon's portfolio now also includes a number of Stones' images - notably Red Cage that celebrated the band's Bridges to Babylon tour. Besides managing his exceptional archive, Gered continues to selectively contribute to publications worldwide and, as he enters his sixth decade, has further books and exhibitions planned.

HARRY POLONER

Based in New York, Harry heads ASCAP's Pop / Rock membership activities on the East Coast, as well as overseeing the administrative aspects of the New York membership office. Previously he spent six years at EMI Music Publishing as Vice President of Creative during which time he signed acts such as Incubus, Good Charlotte, Cake, SR-71, Brad Stewart of Puddle of Mudd, The Flaming Lips and Fountains of Wayne among many others.

HENRY SMITH

Began working in music during 1967 working for RAK Music Management who, at that time, represented the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin and the Jeff Beck Group, working specifically for Peter Grant and Led Zeppelin's tour manager, Richard Cole. After five years, Henry moved to New York to tour manage world tours by Aerosmith and the Scorpions, working for Leber Krebs Management. Between 1980 and '82, he was North American tour manager for Abba, fulfilled the same duties for Gary Numan and also tour managed Roberta Flack's world tour; the next two years were spent in the company of Motorhead and Girls School - again, as world tour manager. From 1985 he took on the role as Vice President for the Shandaken Theatrical Company in Woodstock, New York and, from 1988 - '90 worked on Broadway with producer, Bill C Davis. Moving to Florida in the early nineties, Henry provided site coordination for W1KX and its outdoor concert series as well as charitable events. In 1999, he founded Global Event Management Services (GEMS) with Kraig Colburn, working with Big3 records in Saint Petersburg, Florida as well as tour managing Rick Derringer; providing Site & Stage Management for the Tampa Bay Blues Festival; tour managing the Trans Siberian Orchestra's winter 2002 tour; stage managing Aerosmith in Japan at the 2002 World Cup Finals as well as being involved in corporate stage production and coordination for the likes of American Express, AT&T and the Hasler Corporation. Henry is a board member of both the John Entwistle and Johane Kriek Foundations and currently runs his own record label.

HOWARD SHARROCK

Originally Howard qualified as a Chartered Accountant in the UK but soon migrated to independent media advisor to numerous Manchester bands and record labels. From advising them on disputes and bankruptcy,through to searching for non-rendered royalties. on digital rights management (DRM) he has advised on the acquisition of publishing rights of recorded music. Most recent positions include Chair and Director of Galaxy Radio Manchester England.Chair of 2M Media Ltd, a publisher of online lifestyle magazines. Chairman of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy, Fund-Raising in the North West of England. Director of Dp anercussion, the free dance and urban music festival in Manchester, England. Chair of Circuit Series, a series of media related debates and discussions held in Manchester, England.

HUGH PADGHAM

Hugh is a production legend. Mix Magazine voted Hugh one of the 'top ten most influential producers of the mix magazine era' Hugh has also produced albums for artists including Sting, The Police, Genesis, XTC, Phil Collins, Mansun, Melissa Etheridge, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Bee Gees.He has won many awards including: · Grammy Award - Best Engineer - Sting - Ten Summoner's Tales · TEC Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement - Recording Engineer · Brit Awards - Best Single - Phil Collins - "Another Day In Paradise" · Grammy Awards - Producer of the Year & Album of the Year - 1985 Record Of The Year - 1990 · BPI Awards - Best Producer Nominations - 1985 & 1986 · Music Week Awards - Best British Producer - 1985 · Music Week Awards - Top Album Awards - 1990

JAMES BANBURY

James works as a producer, programmer, writer, string arranger and musician. He has cemented his reputation as one of the leading string arrangers for his continuing work with Snow Patrol, U2's 'Original of the Species' as well as The Editors .He has written regularly for TV and film including the Touchstone/Bruckheimer movie Coyote Ugly as well as for the Granada TV show ' Hit me Baby One More Time'. As a programmer and ProTools engineer he has worked with artists as diverse as Katherine Jenkins, Tricky, Holly Valance, Natalie Imbruglia and Talvin Singh; and with producers including Nellee Hooper, Hugh Padgham and Trevor Horn. Currently in the band Infantjoy with writer/thinker Paul Morley they have recently released the critically acclaimed album Where the night goes on Sony BMG. He was also a member of the 90s cult indie band The Auteurs and today runs his own independent record label.

JAMES McMILLAN

After attending the Royal College of Music in London and receiving a Scholarship at Berklee College of Music in Boston, he started a professional career playing trumpet with Sade. Away from playing and production, James consults to the Labour Party on Music Education, is a signatory to the Music Manifesto, a consultant to the EMI Sound Foundation and teaches Music Technology AS and A2 levels and mentors at Christs Hospital School in West Sussex .He was nominated for a Grammy for his production and arrangement on Ruben Stoddard's US No.2 "Superstar" single, and is signed to a world-wide publishing deal with EMI (Publishing) Ltd. James has also recently produced Russell Watson.

JAMES DOHENY

Studied composition and production at the Royal Academy of Music where he established a continuing profile as a commentator on music and related musicological / intellectual property matters. Became a journalist for Wired Magazine and the BBC before forming Celebration PR (1996 -present) specifically to promote the music of the most innovative composers and performers. Over the years has worked with such pioneering musicians as Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, King Crimson/Robert Fripp, The Amphex Twin, Philip Glass, Wynton Marsalis, Sigur Ros etc With similarly diverse and creative work for companies including: EMI, Sony-BMG, Universal Music, Warner Music, Virgin, The South Bank Centre (London), The Lincoln Centre (New York), The Sonar Festival (Barcelona), BBC etc .James was invited to write a book on Radiohead which would combine a complete and definitive history of the band and a musicological overview of their entire recorded output 'Karma Police: The Story behind every Radiohead song .He currently divides his time between PR consultancy ,Production/A&R work for a number of record labels, and the management and development of several up and coming artists. James is also a member of the board of directors of Manchester's Futuresonic Festival.

JAMES H REEVE

James Hengist Reeve is a UK broadcaster, journalist, raconteur and radio phone-in host based in the Manchester area. James has hosted shows on Piccadilly Radio BBC GMR (now BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Five Live , Sheffield Hallam FM, talkSPORT TEAMtalk radio stations and, up until July 2006, presented the late night phone-in show at Key 103 James has also worked on radio in Saudi Arabia and is widely acknowledged within the broadcasting industry to be a specialist at launching and assisting with appeals. He appeared in the 1981 TV production of 'Strike: The Birth of Solidarity' with Sir Ian Holm.Tommy Boyd famously mused, "do you think James H Reeve is a communist?"

JASON FREE

After receiving both a Master's of Arts in English Literature and a Master's of Sciences in Education, Jason has garnered an enviable reputation in the educational community as a innovator, researching and designing cutting edge educational programs for secondary and higher education across the US. At Berkeley Preparatory School in Florida, he designed an educational curriculum - The Master Writers' Program - which incorporated advanced teaching practices and emerging technologies as it reinforced the most fundamental concepts of education whereby students were able to work with the program and professors at universities and colleges throughout the US such as Harvard, Boston College & the University of Boston, Tufts, Georgetown, George Washington University, the University of San Francisco, the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford. Under his supervision as its director, the program earned Berkeley Preparatory School a $100,000 grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation. He is also a regular speaker at the annual conventions for such as The Conference of College Composition and Communication, the National Association of Independent Schools in North America and the Florida Educational Technologies Conference. As one of the core-founders of Six Finger Records, Jason is a Trustee and Director of Education for the company

JON JACOBS

Jon started his career at Air Studios and he has been a freelance producer since the late 1980s, working as producer/engineer/mixer with artists including Paul McCartney, The Divine Comedy and Tom Jones (Reload). He has worked extensively in Europe and Japan and was nominated for a Grammy in 2001 for best-engineered album for Italian superstar Laura Pausini.

JOHN GLOVER

Set up Blueprint Management in 1974 with a company focus to work with singer songwriters looking after the recording, publishing, promotion ,marketing, touring, merchandising and sponsorship affects of all his artist's careers. John's vast experience started with the management of Joe Cocker. Free. Mott the Hoople and Spencer Davis Group. Over 30 plus years his management company has established long term relationships with clients such as Go West, Beverley Craven, Tony Hadley, Alison Limerick etc. John was a founder member and former Chairman of the MMF ( The Music Managers Forum ) together with being a founder board member of AURA ,the Association of United Recording Artists. John Glover remains one of the music industries most respected managers.

JENNIFER KNOEPFLE

Since joining ASCAP in 1999, Jennifer has been responsible for various artist development programs including the production of the ASCAP Presents CD samplers; a series that features emerging new talent that are circulated to key music industry decision makers. These CD compilations act as an integral part of the launch-pad for many artists and songwriters and have recently featured: The Killers, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, Dungen, Be Your Own Pet and The Editors. In addition, Jennifer coordinates local and regional showcases on the West Coast for up and coming bands and her role has further expanded to include the planning of ASCAP's participation at national industry events such as South By Southwest, CMJ and Bumbershoot as well as several regional outreach programs. Jennifer has also been instrumental in forging ASCAP's relationships with a number of online and technology companies, most notably MySpace.com with whom she is currently developing a variety of strategic partnerships.

JOLENE PELLANT

Originally from the world of video editing to become Director of Marketing and Promotions at two of Los Angeles premiere radio stations, Jolene eventually landed herself the position of Director of Marketing and Promotions at Clear Channel Entertainment/SFX/Avalon Attractions. In 2004,she was promoted to Vice President of National marketing, overseeing national marketing and working on tour marketing for such artists as, Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz, Fiona Apple, Journey, Def Leppard, Damien Rice, Chicago, Backstreet Boys, Stevie Nicks, Il Divo, and many others. The company was eventually renamed Live Nation. She left Live Nation and has now teamed up with fellow SFTT member Mike Gormley, combining their vast experience to form an exciting new management/marketing/music publishing company, Yes Dear Entertainment.

JONATHAN SHANK

As a youngster in New Orleans, Jonathan worked as an intern for producer Kim Fowley as well as at one of the city's most famous landmarks - the House Of Blues. He moved to Los Angeles in 1997 and joined American Artists as a booking agent being responsible for Dave Mason, Robby Krieger, Jefferson Starship and The Marshall Tucker Band. Three years on and Jonathan moved into management with the Avenue Management Group, becoming responsible for WAR and Particle as well as working closely with Issac Hayes. A further two-year stint at Direct Management came before Jonathan opened his own company, Big Picture Music Management. From unlocking their doors with just the one act, Particle, Big Pictures client roster grew to include: former Grateful Dead stalwarts Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann as well as Planet Drum, Rhythm Devils and The Muytator until, in early 2006, Big Picture Music Management partnered with the Velvet Hammer Music & Management Group.

JON WEBSTER

Jon Webster currently works as CEO of the MMF The Music Managers Forum ) after holding the position of Director of Independent Member Services for the UK's record company trade association the BPI ( British Phonographic Industry ) He has gained immense knowledge from working in many areas of the music industry .He ran the UK's largest independent label, Virgin Records. He invented the highly acclaimed ' Mercury Music Prize 'as a promotion to support creative album artists, as well as being a founder member of the BPI , where he sat on the council from 1985 to 1992. For 10 years he wrote the 'Webbo' column in Music Week, and since 1993 he has worked as a consultant to a variety of companies including Virgin Records where he carryied out International Marketing for Genesis, Peter Gabriel, UB40, Mike and the Mechanics and Van Morrison as well as independent artists Erasure .Since June 2002 he has been a consultant to 'clinic' a London based creative communications company and has also advised such companies as Amazon.co.uk, Echo Records, Mute Records and MCI. He frequently contributes to radio and TV programmes as an industry pundit. His formidable reputation coupled with his straight talking and down to earth approach made him an easy choice as one of the founding members of the Six Finger Think Tank

KAVI OHRI

Originally worked in radio at LA based KCRW before moving to Geffen. From there he progressed to Director of A and R at Virgin Records based first in Los Angeles, and later in New York City. Artists under his watch included Massive Attack, Daft Punk, Gomez as well as a few acts on sister label Astralwerks - The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Basement Jaxx etc.. He also oversaw the commissioning of club/dance remixes for all artists on the label, scoring several # 1 Club Mixes on the Billboard charts, and 2 Grammy Nominations for the company. Kavi currently works at Decon Inc, a New York-based production company and creative agency where he is involved in a variety of projects ranging from music video production, DVD creation and production to music supervision (video games). He also oversees several marketing initiatives for client companies. In his spare time, he co-runs Los Angeles-based club promotions company Bossa:Nova - responsible for bringing some of the world's top DJs to Los Angeles, and also one of the longest running weekly club nights in L.A. He also continues his A&R work, commissioning remixes for artist and label clients, producing branded compilations, and as creative consultant to several NY retail establishments.

KEVIN CUMMINS

From his early iconic work chronicling the nascent punk scene in his native Manchester, Kevin has become venerated as one of the world's leading documentary photographers of the era. He was as much instrumental in establishing Manchester's whats-on guide, City Life as he was as a founding contributor to the influential style magazine, The Face. Prior to moving south in the late-eighties, he was commissioned to photograph contemporary life in Wigan - his ensuing photographs played an integral part of the Wigan Pier Heritage Tour for the next fifteen years. Besides contributing to major publications globally as well as shooting numerous album and book-covers, Kevin also spent 10 years as a multiple-award-winning chief photographer for the NME and his photographs are now held in permanent collections at: The National Portrait Gallery, The Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Museum of Film and Photography and other galleries. He has been short-listed for the Fox Talbot Award (for his work celebrating the LS Lowry centenary) and is a major contributor to Rock X-Posed, the Kodak sponsored US touring exhibition - the pictures from which will take up permanent residence in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Ohio. He was recently nominated for the Citibank photography prize for his best selling book that recorded Manchester City FC's final season at Maine Road and is currently working on a 30-year retrospective of Mancunian musicians to be published by Faber & Faber in 2007.

MANJIT DEVGAN

Born and raised in the UK ,Manjit has been singing writing and performing from a very young age. After first being heard on London's vibrant underground scene and BBC radio she moved to New York to explore her music career by performing live and making mix tapes. Of Punjabi-East Indian decent lend itself to not only singing in Hindi, Punjabi and English but also acting and dance .Manjit has headlined high profile events for Russell Simmons ,Deepak Chopra and Christy Turlington. Recently she performed at the acclaimed Bollywood Awards which was televised to a global television audience of 650 million. Having collaborated with the likes of Jay Zee, Stuart Matthewman ( Sade ) and Yoko Ono she continues to work with renowned artists in New York and London.

MARK HART

Label founder - Contrade Records; musician - keyboards for Superstring; club promoter - Manchester's Club Suicide that saw early appearances from The Libertines, The Rapture and Franz Ferdinand; panellist - for the BBC, In the City and the Manchester Music Network; concert reviewer - for numerous titles across Britain; conference general manager - for In the City and Interactive City. Now living and working in London, Mark has recently begun work on creating a new dance imprint.

MARK HODKINSON

Musician, author, journalist and founder of Pomona - the UK's largest specialist regional press company. With a day-job as a journalist, Mark played guitar in bands for many years, supporting groups such as Pulp, Stone Roses and The Wedding Present. Swapping guitar for a word processor, Mark turned freelance and has written for the Times in London for many years; he has also written a number of books on music and sport and set up Pomona in 1993. Since then, the company has represented a cross range of artists from David Bowie, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen, to hundreds of up and coming bands. Pomona has recently branched into publishing - with a diverse series of titles including volumes by the acclaimed author, Hunter Davies.

MARK RADCLIFFE

With a masters degree in American Studies and Classical Civilisation Mark Radcliffe chose to pursue an unrivalled career in radio. Starting as a producer and presenter for Piccadilly Radio in Manchester in the early 80's he worked his way up to become Head of Music before moving to the BBC, the world's largest broadcasting company where has remained for the last twenty plus years. In his time at Piccadilly Radio he presented one of the leading 'new music' programes in the UK 'Cures for Insomnia.' From here he helped propel the careers of Joy Division and New Order, The Buzzcocks, James , The Chameleons,etc .Apart from these legendary 'local' acts he was also interviewing and championing the likes of U2 , Simple Minds, Echo and the Bunnymen together with Talking Heads Television, The Ramones. In 1991 he was awarded the prestigious Sony Gold award for Best Specialist Radio Show in the UK. In 1998 and 1999 he was awarded the Sony Gold for Daytime Award and in 2001 Sony Award for Best Music Programmer. He is also the author of two best selling books and a regular contributor to national newspapers together with television .He also has his own production company from where he produces his own radio programes and voiceover work. Mark's knowledge of music is unique. Often compared to his mentor John Peel he is one of the true great music radio people of his generation. Born in Bolton Mark has been, and continues to be one of the most influential tastemakers in music. He has remained true to his roots and has always insisted on presenting his show from the city he loves the most, Manchester. ,Respected by the likes of David Bowie ,U2 to name but two of today's acts Mark Radcliffe is a Mancunian icon.

MARK RICHARDSON

A freelance critic, Mark is the senior contributor to Pitchfork Media, acknowledged as the most widely read independent music publication in the world. Based in Richmond, Virginia - though a native of Michigan - Mark has written for Pitchfork continuously since 1998, contributing over 500 record reviews to their archives as well as numerous features while also posting his monthly column, Resonant Frequency. A specialist in the abstract and experimental music genres, Mark also writes for eMusic.com; the electronic music quarterly Grooves, a number of alternative weeklies as well as Paste.

MIKE GORMLEY

Over the years Gormley has managed The Bangles, Oingo Boingo, Danny Elfman, Concrete Blonde, Angelique Kidjo, Lowen & Navarro and many others. He had been Vice President and Assistant to the Chairman of A&M Records .Prior to that Gormley was partners with Miles Copeland in L.A. Personal Direction where he became President. Both were affectionately referred to as L.A.P.D. He has now teamed up with fellow industry veteran and SFTT member Jolene Pellant to form a new management/marketing/music publishing company called Yes, Dear Entertainment.

MEHMET DEDE

As Director of Lifestyle Marketing at NY-based Giant Step, Mehmet Dede specializes in developing and implementing grassroots and non-traditional marketing techniques that maximize exposure of music and lifestyle products. He researches and develops strong business relationships with a core group of cultural evangelists called "tastemakers," orchestrating strategic marketing programs and providing analysis and advisement for major and independent clients. With a keen eye on current and upcoming trends, he executed successful campaigns for the likes of Amy Winehouse, Norah Jones, Joss Stone, Robin Thicke, Feist and Jamiroquai. Throughout his 7 years with Giant Step, Mehmet has held various other positions in areas including event management and new media. A graduate of NYU's Music Business program, Mehmet Dede's thesis explored emerging music business models online in the wake of a phenomenon called Napster. Prior to moving to New York in 1999, he worked at Universal Music Turkey in Special Projects & Strategic Marketing, facilitating clearance of UMG's domestic and international repertoire, synch licensing and creating branded albums for Pepsi and Audi. Mr. Dede started his music business career in 1996 at a Top 40 radio station producing weekly shows and booking bands. Raised in Germany by Turkish parents, Mehmet Dede holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Istanbul Technical University and an M.A. in Music Business from New York University with honors. He is also the co-founder and co-producer of the NY Gypsy Music Festival, an annual world music festival dedicated to exploring the sounds of the people of Rom.

MICK GLOSSOP

Mick has been producing, engineering and mixing for over 30 years. Initially known for his work with new wave and punk bands like Magazine, Public Image Ltd, Penetration and The Ruts, he had huge success throughout the 1980s collaborating with bands like The Waterboys, Furniture and The Wonderstuff. Mick also has a 25 year history with Van Morrison which persists to this day, spending most of 2004 and 2005 extensively mixing Van's archive material for a long awaited box set.

MIKE PELA

Mike is an internationally renowned producer and mixer, with over 25 years experience in the music business.In his long and successful career, he has helped to shape and interpret the vision of a wide variety of British and international artists, including Sade, Maxwell, Savage Garden and Boy George. He has had many hits and number one records around the world, and his projects have sold millions of units worldwide. His records are acclaimed for their emotion, their warmth and clarity.He has also acted as a consultant on various aspects of the music industry, from studios to labels to general strategies, and is currently mixing Maxwell's new album in New York and developing new artists for future release.

MICHELLE DE VRIES

Michelle began her music career as a tape op in a small recording studio in North London recording demos for the likes of Jesus Jones. Whilst managing a songwriter she gained the attention of Hit & Run Music who promptly offered her a job. Hit & Run was an independent publishing company set up by Tony Smith, the manager of Genesis, initially to look after their catalogue. Smith later purchased the Charisma Music catalogue after the death of Chairman Tony Stratton Smith. Charisma Music had the copyrights of Julian Lennon, Marillion and Gregory Isaacs but soon the company grew to a catalogue of over 10,000 songs. Moving to New York in 1989 she worked as an A&R assistant for Hit & Run Music before being promoted to A&R Manager a year later. She set up co-writes, pitched songs to record labels, managers, film music supervisors, ad agencies and organized singer songwriter nights. Whilst registering the copyrights together with all of the copyright administration she still managed to spend her evenings traveling all over the US scouting for bands and organizing showcases and gigs. In 1994 she transferred to the UK office of Hit & Run and became A&R Director. In 1999 the company was bought by EMI Music Publishing where she stayed for a further five years. During her career at Hit & Run she was involved in the signing of several bands who went on to achieve considerable success including Kula Shaker, Space , US band Splender and Right Said Fred . Hit & Run was primarily known to be a development company, they would sign bands and writers for small advances. These writers went on to have massive success with Brandy, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore, Celine Dion, Robert Miles, Enrique Inglesias and Michael Jackson to name a few. With the bigger artists her job involved catalogue exploitation, film and TV placement as well as looking for new ways to generate income.She was the executive producer for a Phil Collins tribute album which consisted of R&B versions of his songs. Out of this came UK top five singles "In the Air Tonight" recorded by Lil Kim and Brandy's version of "Another Day in Paradise". Leaving Hit & Run in 2004 she helped set up Visionary Management and was also the Music Supervisor for a TV company which made documentaries on The Life of Nat King Cole and also John Lennon. Michelle currently works as a consultant to both Big Life Music Publishing and Mr Simon Cowell

MURRAY FOREMAN Phd

Murray is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. His research focuses on youth, media and popular music and his essays have been widely read in many diverse publications: Popular Music, the Journal Of Popular Music Studies; Television And New Media as well as Topia: The Canadian Journal Of Cultural Studies. Dr Forman is author of The Hood Comes First: Race, Space And Place In Rap And Hip-Hop; co-editor (with Mark Anthony Neal) of That's The Joint: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader as well as serving as co-editor for The Journal of Popular Music Studies. He was a US National Endowment for the Humanitarian Research Fellow in 2003 - '04, during which time he conducted primary research for his project, One Night On TV Is Worth Weeks At The Paramount: Popular Music On Television Before Elvis.

MICK MIDDLES

Mick Middles brings with him 30 years of experience working within the music press , general newspapers…..national and local, magazines and publishing. Based in Manchester , Mick spent the seventies and eighties working for a variety of music publications including Sounds, The Face, Zigzag and Jamming. During this period his work also featured in The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday, Daily Express, Daily Telegraph, Independent and The Independent on Sunday .He worked as a music writer and general columnist for The Manchester Evening News for eight years. He has written 13 books, mainly on the subject of Manchester based music which include biographies on Joy Division/New Order, The Smiths, Mick Hucknall and Simply Red, and Mark E. Smith of The Fall. He is currently in the process of completing a full length biography of Joy Division's legendary singer Ian Curtis written in conjunction with Lindsay Reade, one time founder of Factory records, alongside her then husband the late Tony Wilson. Mick always felt that music writers should spend their middle years living alone in a flat with a stack of cd CD's and a cat ! Having perfected that scenario the cat died. Today he writes for London based magazine Record Collector and works as a sub editor at Guardian Newspapers.

MIKE HOWLETT

A Grammy Award winning producer, Mike was born in Fiji and educated in Australia and Singapore before joining esoteric space-funk combo Gong (the second act to sign to Virgin Records) aged 23. Four years later he put together his own band, Strontium 90 with three fellow musicians - four became three and the trio were… The Police. In the '80s Mike started producing records regularly and scored with a string of top-ten hits: Martha and the Muffins' Echo Beach; OMD's Enola Gay & Souvenir; Flock of Seagulls' Wishing, I Ran & DNA (his 1982 Grammy Award) as well as producing other international top-sellers by The Alarm; Berlin; Gang Of Four & Joan Armatrading. During the mid-'80s, Mike became a founding member of MPG, The Music Producers Guild - for whom he now serves as Chairman. He founded his own (short-lived) label - Mauve - in the early '90s before, once again working with Gong - completing three world tours before the end of the decade; producing a new studio album in 2000 and headlining the Avalon Stage at Glastonbury the same year. Since 2002, and while still actively involved as a producer and member of Gong, Mike has taught and lectured Audio Technology in Wales (University of Glamorgan) and at Thames Valley University in London.

NICK PATRICK

Nick's productions have sold tens of millions of albums in all genres including pop, classical, and world music. In recent years Nick has primarily focussed on establishing crossover Classical Music. He recently produced Katherine Jenkins' third album, the Classical No.1 Living A Dream - the follow up to his production of the hugely successful Second Nature. Russell Watson's first two (Nick-produced) albums have both sold in excess of a million units. Nick recently produced Amici's album for Sony/BMG.In conjunction with Giles Stanley, Nick has also developed and signed several artists to major labels. Past highlights include Gypsy Kings -El Mundo with sales of 2.75 million copies

NEIL STOREY

Neil's thirty-five year career history within music and related areas incorporates: time at EMI; Island Records (Head of Press); Sport For Television ( Head of Press ) BMG (as Head of Publicity & Corporate PR); as Managing Director of The Coalition Group Ltd, the PR & media company he co-founded at the start of the '90's with Rob Partridge. After seven years co-running The Coalition Group, and within a year of moving he harnessed his knowledge from working within virtually every component part of the music industry. Over the past quarter of a century, Storey's vast experience comes from working at the heart of public relations to sales to marketing encompassing graphic design, from radio & TV to touring worldwide - all in tandem with a stellar list of artists. Within media alone, he directed (or co-directed) campaigns for; U2; Marianne Faithfull; Bob Marley & The Wailers; Eurythmics etc. In addition, Storey was consultant PR to both the Greenpeace In Moscow project and the Nelson Mandela: Freedom At 70 concert; a director of the Jimi Hendrix Foundation; joint media co-ordinator (with Partridge) for Oasis's record breaking concerts at Knebworth and in Glasgow during 1996.He was also editorial consultant for the Songs of Freedom Exhibition for the The Bob Marley Foundation & editorial consultant and Worldwide PR co-ordinator for The Ultimate Experience ~ the Jimi Hendrix Exhibition .Following his resignation from The Coalition Group, Storey set up his own media company to run & coordinate global pr campaigns for Marianne Faithfull and Nigel as well as representing the Michelin-starred chef Gary Rhodes, Rogan House Publishing and The Mercury Music Prize (in conjunction with Coalition) in Britain. At the end of 1997, Storey relinquished his media duties to take on full-time management for Nigel Kennedy during '99, Storey returned to artist management to work with the acclaimed composer Nitin Sawhney

NICK DI COSOLA

Nick DiCosola has been engineering since the age of 15 when he started as a runner at Big 3 Records in Saint Petersburg Fl .While there he got promoted to studio assistant and worked with artists such as Mario Winans, Cheap Trick, Rick Derringer, 112, as well as Bad Boy Records and alongside producers such as Rodney Jerkins, Jack Douglas, and engineer Wayne Allison. From there he left to attend Berklee College of Music as a drum principal with a dual major in music business management together with music production and engineering. Moving to Studio Center in Miami Nick got to work with Cash Money Records, Lil Wayne, Baby, Trina, Shakira, and Ricky Martin .While negotiating work at Supersonic he was introduced to writer/producer Alfredo Matheus who's credits include N*Sync, Mark Anthony, and Chayenne with whom he has formed a writing partnership. Nick is now the co owner of that studio . After opening his own studio in Miami , Nick has now relocated to run a new studio in Las Vegas.

PATRICK CARR

Grammy nominated liner note writer, journalist, columnist, magazine editor, radio reporter & author, Patrick was born and raised in England, a New Yorker from 1967 - 1984 and is now based in Florida. As a feature writer and reviewer on music, culture and crime, his by-line has appeared in a multitude of publications including: Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, L.A. Style, Melody Maker, Newsday, Harper's, Penthouse, Playboy, Oui, Paris Match, USA Today & many other magazines and newspapers. His columns have appeared in The Village Voice, New Times & Country Music Magazine. He co-authored the definitive study of Johnny Cash with Cash himself (Harper, San Francisco 1998); wrote The Illustrated History of Country Music (Doubleday 1976 & Times Books 1996); Backstage Passes (with Angela Bowie, Putnam 1993); Gun People (with George Gardner, Doubleday / Dolphin 1986) & Sunshine States (Doubleday 1989 / University Press of Florida 1999). He was nominated for a Grammy in 2006 for his liner notes to the 4CD Johnny Cash - The Legend - box set

PETE CARROLL

Following many years working in the UK music industry, Pete relocated to Australia in 1987 to work at Sony Music. Throughout the nineties, he worked with a broad range of both domestic and international artists, playing a key role in breaking Oasis and Jeff Buckley. After twelve years at Sony, Pete returned to the UK, developing marketing initiatives and multi-media products for soccer clubs Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. He founded Offworld Sounds, an electronic music based independent label with Cabaret Voltaire frontman Stephen Mallinder and has presented Soulsides on Arts Radio RTRFM for the past eight years. Besides forming little BIGMAN Records with Happy Monday's drummer Gaz Whelan, Pete also produced Shaun Ryder's 2002 solo album - Amateur Night In The Big Top. At In The City in Manchester, he has staged Australian showcase nights .

PETER REEVES

Pete was first published at a very early age. At 14 he had an article accepted by "Punch" magazine and as a 24-year-old copywriter his work won 5 prestigious CLIO awards and a CLIO Oscar for advertising excellence at the New York Advertising fair. Soon after that he was to become Head of Commercial production at Piccadilly Radio in Manchester, then Head of Music and Presentation as well as one of the station's frontline broadcasters. Later he was to write "Cabs," a daily soap, for Piccadilly, as well as articles for local and national press and magazines. His television work started with Cosgrove Hall Films in Manchester where he has written for such series as "Cockleshell Bay", "Duckula," "Fantomcat" and "Creepy Crawlies. "Recently he has finished scriptwork on "Bob the Builder", "Postman Pat", "Pingu", "Rudi and Trudi", and "Hanna's Helpline". He has also written, "Bob the Builder" stage shows for the British and Australian markets. In January 2007 Pete won a finalists certificate at the New York Animation Festival for his work on "Bob the Builder".Peter writes regularly in the press as well as lecturing on the Media Studies courses at Salford and Bolton Universities. In between teaching radio degree courses in the UK Pete is working on a new series for Disney.

PETER JENNER

After gaining a First Class Honours Degree in Economics at Cambridge University, Peter Jenner became a Lecturer at the London School of Economics at the tender age of twenty-one. His career in academia lasted for four years after which he left to devote his attention to managing an up-and-coming modern music group that had caught his attention. The band's name was The Pink Floyd. After their time with the Floyd was over, Peter and his business partner Andrew King then put on a series of free concerts in London's Hyde Park which culminated with The Rolling Stones in 1969.Now, after more than forty years in the music business, the list of clients he has worked with reads like a Who's Who of musical successes. He has managed T Rex (fronted by Marc Bolan), Ian Dury, Roy Harper, The Clash, Robyn Hitchcock, Eddi Reader, Baaba Maal and others. Peter continues to manage the career of Billy Bragg and 7 Seconds of Love and was recently the co-author of the well received Music Tank report Beyond the Soundbytes. He is also Chairman of the IMMF, a director of the UK MMF (Music Managers' Forum), and has many other projects on the go.

PHIL SAXE

At present, a Senior Lecturer at LIPA in Liverpool, Phil has an enviable history of being at the forefront on burgeoning cultural movements - be it from the worlds of music, fashion, art, media or consumer goods. A pivotal part of Factory Records success in the halcyon days of Madchester, Phil discovered and managed The Happy Mondays while, among numerous other highlights for the label, he A&R'd New Order's chart-topping and now evergreen World Cup single, World In Motion. He has researched the processes behind successful branding; investigated the barriers to marketing the arts and is currently studying the perseverance of youth sub-cultures. He has prepared business plans for fledgling airlines and managed successful product ranges of toys, frozen foods and non-edible consumables. Through his work as In The City's A&R Director, he has also played a major role in launching the careers of Oasis, Coldplay, Muse and The Darkness - living up to his undeniable reputation as one who has the ability to spot the next big thing while simultaneously being able to enthuse colleagues, students, artists and industry professionals alike.

RAY COOPER

Started his career in the music industry in London in the mid 1970's at specialist folk label, Transatlantic Records, as a Sales Representative and then Sales Manager. He later became National Sales Manager at ABC Records, working with Steely Dan, The Crusaders and Don Williams and in 1980 joined Jet Records as Sales Director, running marketing and retail campaigns for Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) and Ozzy Osbourne amongst many others.In 1983, the highly influential Island Records offered Cooper the role of Marketing and Media Director ,where he orchestrated award winning promotional campaigns for U2, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Bob Marley and the Wailers .Together, with his future A and R partner, Ashley Newton, he also established the dynamic urban music label, 4th and Broadway. Cooper and Newton left Island in 1987 to form Circa, a new label in partnership with Virgin Records UK, which became home to such groundbreaking acts as Massive Attack and Neneh Cherry from where he moved into the Virgin Group of labels overseeing Ten, Pointblank and Realworld. During this time, he founded the highly successful alternative rock label Hut, which signed such gold and multi platinum acts as The Verve, Gomez and Placebo .He became Managing Director of Virgin in 1994 where he helped them become the market share leader for albums (label and company) for 12 straight quarters in the UK and by 1996 had achieved the number 1 singles label market share with combined worldwide sales of 100 million units with such respected artists as George Michael, Janet Jackson, The Rolling Stones, Meat Loaf and The Smashing Pumpkins with breakthrough artists The Spice Girls, The Chemical Brothers, Everything But The Girl and Shaggy.In October 1997, Cooper became Co-President of Virgin Records America. During Cooper's tenure, the company recorded multi platinum albums from Fatboy Slim, Lenny Kravitz, D'Angelo, The Spice Girls, The Verve, Gorillaz, The Smashing Pumpkins and Aaliyah, as well as gold and platinum albums from Ben Harper,Tina Turner, Van Morrison, , Kelis, and Blur .He left the company in February 2002 and in the September started a new multi media management company called Zama Media Management based in Los Angeles, which manages a roster of developing music artists including the Polyphonic Spree and Marjorie Fair and consults on a number of projects in environment, music, art, fashion ,design, mobile phone technology, non profit/cause related .After working together on some of the biggest selling records of the eighties he rejoins Tony Michaelides at the Six Finger Think Tank as one of it's founding members.

RICHARD COLE

Arguably, the tour managers' tour manager, Richard has since the mid 1960's, accumulated an almost unmatchable wealth of experience encompassing every single aspect of touring globally. His life on the road began in 1964 as a roadie for Ronnie Jones and the Nightimers before a stint with chart-toppers Unit 4+2 led him to working with The Who. A year on from being on the road with Freddie Mack came his first tour management job, The Young Rascals in 1966. From there he moved on to looking after Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band (opening for The Doors) to touring with The Jeff Beck Band who, at the time, included Rod Stewart as vocalist. Then came Vanilla Fudge, Creation and Terry Reid before accepting the position as Tour Manager for Led Zeppelin - having met Jimmy Page while working for The Yardbirds. From their first live show at the University of Surrey in October '68 to playing across every continent (their highest attendance being to 76,000 in Michigan in May '77), Richard remained with Zeppelin until autumn 1980 when, after John Bonham's death while rehearsing for a US tour, the band announced they would not continue. Subsequently, Richard has served as tour manager for Eric Clapton, Black Sabbath ,Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford, Alice in Chains, Black Uhuru, Paul Rodgers etc and, most recently Gypsy Kings and Fu Manchu. Richard, together with Richard Trubo is the author of the best selling novel 'Stairway to Heaven' his no-holds- barred account of life on the road with the world's greatest rock band.

ROBIN MILLAR

Robin is one of Britain's most successful ever record producers with 150 gold silver and platinum discs and 44 No 1's to his credit. His productions have sold 55 million copies, earned the UK over £400 million in foreign income and have won most of the major global music awards. He is known as 'the man behind Sade', the producer of the first acid jazz record and was dubbed 'Golden ears' by Boy George. He is the only British person to produce the Olympic games opening ceremony [Atlanta 1996].Robin is Hon. Patron of the Music Producers Guild, a member of the Human Genetics Commission and The Sector Skills Council. He is former chairman of RePro the Global Recording Trade Association and former board director of The Performing Artists Media Rights Association and The Association of Professional Recording Services .Robin has owned and run businesses in the music industry for 22 years, including Power Plant, Maison Rouge and Whitfield Street Studios, training and mentoring orchestral, rock and computer-based audio engineers and mastering engineers. He has been a visiting professor and lecturer in commercial music for 15 years at establishments including The Royal Academy, Surrey University, The University of Modena and The Brit School. His outstanding work for the world's most vulnerable people has involved work as patron of UNICEF UK, patron of UNHCR Geneva, trustee of The Playing Alive Foundation and a long-time trustee of the Vietnamese Boat Peoples' Appeal. Robin was awarded the 2002 Windrush Award for his work with minorities. Other notable artists Robin has worked with include Everything but the Girl, Fine Young Cannibals, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello, Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton etc etc He has produced campaigning records and concerts for Artists Against Apartheid, Oxfam, Nimibian Freedom Fighters, The Chilean Solidarity Campaign, UNICEF and UNHCR.

ROGER WATSON

As a teenager, joined the promotion department at Decca in the UK and, during his first week, began work with The Rolling Stones on Ready Steady Go - the most important British music programme of its era. In 1966, Roger toured with the Stones in company with Ike & Tina Turner while regular visits to the Marquee Club saw him witnessing The Who, Them, David Bowie, The Move at their most vital. He became a regular panellist on the BBCTV chat show Exit, It's the Way Out and, when MCA began operations at the end of the decade was hired as Head of Promotions; he brought Jesus Christ Superstar to the company before going on to learn production and A&R under Mike Leander. Roger joined Chrysalis in London during the early '70's before being transferred to Los Angeles to head the West Coast's A&R department where, under his tenure Blondie, Huey Lewis, Pat Benatar, Ian Hunter & Pere Ubu were signed and he was nominated for a Grammy with Tim Rice for the production of the Joseph & His Technicolour Dreamcoat Cast album. He joined Island in the '80's - working with founder Chris Blackwell on a number of soundtrack albums before Clive Davis appointed him as Managing Director of Arista UK where he was part of the team that masterminded Lisa Stansfield's global success. He returned to Chrysalis as General Manager of Publishing scoring big hits with Tina Turner and has since music supervised numerous films; The Choir TV series (for Universal Classics); worked for Sun Microsystems as a digital rights consultant & developed the Snow Queen - the part animated TV series that premiered on BBCTV Christmas Day 2005 and launches December 2006 across the US during PBS Pledge Week.

ROY ELDRIDGE

Having trained as a journalist and written for UK music magazines Melody Maker & Sounds, Roy started at Chrysalis as the company's first in house press officer before becoming A&R director and signing The Specials alongside their ground-breaking independent label, Two Tone. The Specials' chart-toppers include both Ghost Town and the Too Much Too Young ep while The Beat, Selecter and Madness all achieved top ten records on Two Tone. Roy also gained platinum albums with other signings - Ultravox, Spandau Ballet, Go West & Billy Idol while, as the label's Managing Director (late '80s - mid '90s) he oversaw the careers of Blondie, Arrested Development, Sinéad O'Connor & Shara Nelson and, during this time, was elected to the BPI Council. On leaving Chrysalis, Roy launched Papillon Records and randm Entertainment - both independent labels specialising in new recordings by established brand name artists such as Jethro Tull (Grammy & Ivor Novello Award winners) and former Rolling Stone, Bill Wyman - indeed, Papillon Records won an Ivor Novello award as well as the Record of the Year marketing award for 1999's best selling UK single with Sir Cliff Richard's Millenium Prayer. In partnership with his son, Sam, Eldridge manages the controversial London based rapper Plan B whose critically acclaimed controversial debut Who Needs Actions When You Got Words has just been released.

SAUL GALPERN

Saul started his career in 1982 moving from Glasgow to London to run the mail order department at Bonaparte Records one of the UK's leading independent stores. From here a label "Human Records' was started and he signed such acts as Birmingham band "The Au pairs' who's debut album went top 20 as well as singles by post punks 'The Slits'. An of shoot label 'Kamera' was then started and he signed legendary Manchester cult band 'The Fall" After a brief spell at Arista Records in early 84 he was headhunted for the new Elektra Records UK set up and discovered Simply Red who went on to sell over 50 million albums worldwide. Their debut album 'Picture Book' penned the U.S no1 single 'Holding back the years'. In 1986-89 he moved to Island Records once again to work with Australian Band 'the Triffids' as well as former Teardrop Explodes singer 'Julian Cope.In 1992 it was time for him to start his own independent label, Nude. His first signing was Suede,the band that heralded the start of Brit Pop in the UK. Their debut album went straight to No1 and became the UK's fastest selling album, a title they held for the next 10 years .That year Suede ruled. They went on to receive 5 Brit nominations and won the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. They were the undisputed darlings of the British music press and their next three albums all went straight to No 1 in the UK. They achieved more success with 10 Top 10 singles and went on to sell 4 million albums worldwide.Nude's success continued throughout the Nineties with artists as diverse as Geneva ,Lowgold, Ultrasound and Black Box Recorder .After a brief period of inactivity Nude returned, with several releases including a compilation album 'Future's Burning' featuring bright UK hopeful's Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight and the Kaiserchiefs, together with the debut album by Leeds band 'Duels'. Further success for Nude continued with new Brighton buzz band 'Blood Red Shoes' who they signed to a venture with V2. In 2005 Saul teamed up with Rough Trade veteran and SFTT member Geoff Travis to co- managed the Brett Anderson/Bernard Butler comeback band The Tears.

SEAN DEVINE

Seán first started out in the music industry as both band manager and running local band competitions. On moving to London, he began work as a talent scout for Famous Music and, two and a half years later, was recruited by Roger Greenaway to become Membership Secretary for ASCAP. For the next three years, he ran the ASCAP Presents… series of showcases - bringing bands such as Placebo to the attention of the UK A&R fraternity. At ASCAP's annual Awards, Seán was approached to assist in the setting up of V2 Music Publishing where he became A&R Manager working with Boy George, Fluke, Ben Christophers and more. After three years sculpting their music catalogue, Seán returned to ASCAP as Senior Director of Membership before, in 2004, being appointed Vice President of Membership for UK & Europe.

SID GRIFFIN

Musician, writer, broadcaster & DJ, Sid Griffin gained his Journalism degree at the University of South Carolina. He formed The Long Ryders who are now acknowledged as a primary foundation stone of today's alt-country scene. For the last 20 years, his by-line has appeared across a diverse series of worldwide publications - from the LA Times to the NME and from Q Magazine to Variety; his first book, a biography of Gram Parsons, appeared in 1985 and his newest book is Bluegrass Guitar: Know The Players, Know The Music. Sid also appears regularly as both pundit and commentator on BBC Radio - for whom he was commissioned to write two scripts, the most recent being Will The Circle Be Unbroken: The Story Of The Carter Family which was narrated by Dolly Parton. He also scripted the BBC TV documentary Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel which has recently been released to great acclaim on DVD. In more ways than one, Sid has earned his informal title as bestowed by the Irish publication, The Hot Press, when they titled him The Great Enthusiast. Currently playing bluegrass with the Coal Porters he is researching his next book - based upon Bob Dylan and The Basement Tapes and due for publication Summer 2007.

STEVE FELLOWS

Has seen life in the music business from a variety of perspectives: as a singer, guitarist and songwriter in the Comsat Angels; then from behind the counter as a retailer at Record Collector in Sheffield and then as Manager of Mercury Music Prize winners, Gomez - it all blew up very quickly, I'd never been a manager before, they'd never been a pro band. None of us really knew what we were doing and we all had to learn very fast to cope with the situation we found ourselves in. Currently, besides managing Little Glitches from his Sheffield bunker, Steve is trying to get to grips with the possibilities, dangers and opportunities presented to musicians and the business

TOM NASH

Mr. Nash is an experienced project director for systems implementation projects, a change leader, business strategist and problem solver. He is also an author, trainer, international public speaker and business advisor. He has run Xalles and its predecessor companies for 9 years. Mr. Nash is currently on the Board of Directors of 6 companies spanning Asia, North America, and Europe. He is a public speaker on 4 continents, and has provided business advice to more than 200 firms worldwide. Mr. Nash also trains companies using Xalles' proprietary programs including "Successful Systems Implementation", "Problem Solving POWER™ and "International Marketing for IT Firms". His speaking experience spans conferences, associations and special training events, presenting to audiences of up to 800 people.

TONY KOSTRZEWA

Tony, along with fellow SFTT member, Geoff Travis has been one of the pioneers of the UK independent record scene. He started his career in the music industry in 1977 as the founder and MD of Red Rhino Records, an operation that encompassed record retail, wholesale, distribution, import, export, product manufacture, recording artists and record labels, music publishing and world-wide procurement of licences and release for UK product. He also handled over 125 releases on own record label .In his time here he also became business development manager for 10 x Better, and independent promotion company together with being business manager of The Catalogue, Europe's first independent monthly music magazine for trade and public. He became General Manager for The Cartel in 1984 launching and managing this joint venture of 6, an independent record distribution company based on introducing new product range to high street chains. He was also UK Director to APT (now known as Vital) European Music Manufacturer and Distributor, controlling 1,200 accounts and 67 staff. In 1992 he was elected Director and Franchise Manager for Laser Quest in Leeds, the forerunner in the hi tech leisure market using laser-tag game equipment. Tony is a renowned speaker and music industry business consultant as a recording company owner and label manager & specialist advisor to music labels, sales organizations and distribution companies. An advisor re digital distribution models & physical distribution & partners for UK & Pan-European representation, personnel, new business & label acquisitions, contracts, manufacturing, marketing and telesales operations. Lectures at colleges on product manufacturing, sourcing and procurement for labels, DJ's and bands, how to develop new markets and promotional campaigns. He advises labels and artists on music industry matters including contracts, management, raising investment and marketing.

TONY MICHAELIDES

With an irrefutable reputation that has been achieved over thirty-plus years working with a stellar cast of clients such as: New Order, The Stone Roses, REM, Happy Mondays, The Police, Massive Attack, Bob Marley, Matchbox Twenty, Lisa Stansfield, Elvis Costello & Peter Gabriel, it is not for nothing that U2's manager, Paul McGuinness has said, Tony has long been one of the UK's foremost record promoters and undoubtedly one of the best that U2 have had the pleasure of working with. Tony is recognized and respected by not just the artists he has worked with but also by his peers for the wealth of experience he has gained through a career that has seen him work within Transatlantic and Island to founding and running his own promotions company, TMP - for over 20 years, one of the most successful in Britain. From it's inception he began working with the newly formed Circa Records and their artists who included Massive Attack, Neneh Cherry etc. Also at this time he instigated all the regional promotion at Factory Records where he worked for the next 10 years enjoying success with New Order, James and Happy Mondays. Tony enjoyed a long standing relationship with BMG enjoying their most successful period ever with Annie Lennox, Whitney Houston, Take That, Natalie Imbruglia , Westlife , Puff Daddy .. It was here he spent several years working with the now legendary two Simon's …..Fuller and Cowell. In 1984, together with running his promotion company Tony was asked to step in and replace Mark Radcliffe on Piccadilly Radio presenting their specialist music programme which he did for over 12 years. 1996 saw a personal highlight when Tony was asked to be publicist for David Bowie's Earthling tour responsible for all press, radio and television. .After acting as a music consultant to various labels and agencies he decided to re locate to Florida and set about utilizing his experience and further consulting opportunities. Here he met Jason Free and after months of discussion the Six Finger Think Tank was formed with the vision of sharing industry experience with schools and colleges throughout the world.

TONY TOBIAS

Tony Tobias is owner of Pangaea Media & Music Inc. He has been an active member of the Canadian music and cultural industries for over thirty years. His career has spanned music publishing, artist management, the writing and producing of music videos, film, television and new media production. Tony established his music publishing operation in the 1970s. Currently he represents the music of multi award winning songwriter Ken Tobias, Grammy and Juno award winning The Jeff Healey Band, Latin guitarist Nick Cuda and numerous television and film scores. As a music and media consultant Tony provides creative, business and marketing strategies for independent music artists and labels with a focus on new "artist centered management" and value chain models and licensing. Tony is an award winning documentary film and new media producer and has been producing award winning interactive media since the advent of the Web.As an active member of the Canadian music and new media industry he is currently VP of the Canadian Music Publishers Association (CMPA); a director of the Canadian Music Reproduction Agency (CMRRA); founding director of the New Media Business Alliance (NMBA) and a founding director of the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. Tony has been honoured by, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Science (CARAS) and the Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA) for his contribution to Canada's music industry. Tony is a regular speaker on the impact of new technology on the cultural industries, cultural careers training, music publishing, cultural economics, internet marketing and promotion and intellectual property. He has been an advisor to federal and provincial governments on several cultural, music and new media initiatives.