News Stories about Louis Barabbas

Louis Barabbas is working with a group of artists from Brazil, India, Uganda and Nepal as part of a project set up by Un-Convention and In Place Of War, to be performed at UK festivals this summer.

What is now being called “The Revolution Band” has been rearranging songs by The Bedlam Six and others. The first performance will be at Shambala this weekend. Artists include members of OS Nelsons, Joel Sebrunko, Kiran Nepali and Vivek Rajagopalan.

In Place Of War (IPOW) is a project based within the University of Manchester that researches creativity in sites of armed conflict and has, over the past seven years, developed extensive international networks of artists and creatives making theatre, street art, music, spoken word and more in response to war.

Debt Records’ creative director Louis Barabbas has been nominated for the Independent Entrepreneur award by the Association of Independent Music (AIM) for his work with Debt Records and Salford’s Un-Convention, representing the only northern label in the shortlist.

Other nominations across the various categories include artists such as Adele, Frank Turner, Edwyn Collins, Madness and Arctic Monkeys. Labels include veteran companies Mute and Bella Union. Fellow Manchester-based music enthusiast Shell Zenner is also nominated in the Indie Champion category.

Of his nomination Louis said: “I’m just thrilled to get a chance to be in the same room as Madness – they were the first band I really loved when I was a kid!” But then, on a more serious note, he added “It’s great that Debt Records is getting more attention in the south… Manchester still has the a lot of the best acts around and it’s a real honour to work with so many of them.”

The awards ceremony takes place on 29th October at The Brewery in East London.

Louis Barabbas is off to Uganda with Un-Convention to record a new album of original material with local and international musicians.

The event will be a mixture of writing and recording sessions interspersed with panels, workshops and lectures about the state of the music industries.

For more information visit the Un-Convention website.

Debt Records co-founder John Louis (aka Louis Barabbas) has accepted a position on the Un-Convention advisory board.

Un-Convention is a global grassroots music event and community that meets physically and virtually to share ideas and debate cutting edge issues around music, technology and creativity, facilitating members engagement with their peers. Un-Convention is not about the business of music. The community is driven by a not for profit initiative that sees opportunity for the grassroots in the changes to the way music is being produced, consumed and sustained.

The jobs involved as part of this three year post include:

1. Advising on overall strategy and direction of Un-Convention, particularly in terms of issues such as branding, content, event strand, geographical reach, external image, organisational developments, significant policy changes, sustainability and growth, partnerships, identity and positioning of Un-Convention; and other major questions of strategy and direction that may arise
2. Help establish and develop Un-Convention’s position within networks of practice, locally, nationally and internationally.
3. Advise on fund raising activities, including identifying opportunities especially those most relevant to the focus areas of Un-Convention.
4. Act as a sounding Advisory Board for new ideas and developments for Un-Convention.
5. Assist the Executive Team to build and deliver cases for institutional change where these are required.
6. Provide appropriate and constructive challenges to the assumptions and operating routines of Un-Convention.
7. Act as an ambassador for Un-Convention and champion the organisation externally.

For more information, visit the Un-Convention website.