Preview: Louder Than Words

Louder Than Words is one of the UK’s pre-eminent festivals of music and writing, interrogating the importance and essential relationship between the two forms. Whether it’s Guy Garvey talking about his lyrics, Edwyn Collins playing his own music or Hugh Cornwell talking about life in The Stranglers, the festival has something for anyone with a love for music and the way that words are used to inform, create and discuss that.

Taking in Q&As, panel discussions and workshops, the festival is now in its third year, taking place over the November 13th – 15th weekend in the gorgeous Palace Hotel, Manchester. A beacon of popular culture, the festival draws music personalities from disparate places and genres to Manchester for one weekend, as well as an audience from as far afield as San Francisco and Moscow.

Here’s a brief schedule of the weekend:

Friday

The weekend kicks off with Mike Garry in conversation. Mike will also read his fantastic, chart-topping poem ‘Ode to St Anthony’ for Anthony H. Wilson and it just gets better from there, with Paolo Hewitt discussing his Oasis book and his two-and-a-half years spent on the road with the band.

Saturday

Where to start! Saturday includes interviews with Rick Buckler of The Jam, Russell Senior of Pulp, Jemima Dury (daughter of Blockhead Ian) and Paul McCartney biographer Paul du Noyer amongst many, many others. Steve Ignorant of Crass is also performing spoken word and song, with Slice of Life.

Sunday

Pauline Black of The Selecter gives proceedings more of a two-tone feel; celebrated writer Jon Savage looks back at 1966—the year the 60s exploded, and the subject of his new book. Another key change finds Paul Harries exploring his iconic images of Slipknot.

The full weekend programme is now available from louderthanwordsfest.com, where you can also buy tickets. We’ve been promised special student rates!