Frances Morgan and Mark Pilkington will be speaking at The Wire magazine’s Off The Page Festival on 24 February 2012, as part of a great lineup that includes Vicki Bennett, Gavin Bryars, Tony Herrington, Anne Hilde Neset, Evan Parker, Simon Reynolds, Aura Satz, Dave Tompkins, Jonny Trunk, Rob Young and many others.
‘Off The Page 2012 takes place 24–26 February 2012 at the Playhouse Theatre, Whitstable. £40 weekend pass/£12 Friday pass/£20 Saturday pass/£15 Sunday pass. Tickets available via Ticketweb.’
Mark Pilkington’s talk is:
From the Akashic Jukebox: Magic and Music in Britain, 1888-1978
Magic and music are as old as humanity, but organised witchcraft, a British cultural export whose influence has been felt all over the world, is younger than jazz. In this talk, illustrated with images, music and rare recordings, Mark Pilkington, writer and publisher of Strange Attractor Press, explores British occultism’s origins in the bohemian groves of late 19th century London, and charts its impact on popular music and some of its players, from the rock ‘n’ roll years through to the paradigm shift of punk. The emerging stories glow with transcendence, ripple with mystery, honk with absurdity and are all too often shadowed by tragedy.
While Frances Morgan is part of a panel discussing:
Critical Mass: Music Theory in the Information Age
The advent of the blogosphere, social networking and e-books have capsized the traditional dynamics of cultural criticism. Today, anyone who wants to disseminate information or express a judgment on music has free access to the technology that will allow them to share concepts and philosophies on a global scale. But has this new theory-babble expanded the discourse around contemporary sound and music or shut it down, democratised debate or created a climate defined by wooly thinking and subjective axe-grinding?
More details here