She also had a stint in London working for a now defunct red top newspaper as a feature writer. She’s quite proud that she managed to write about the campaign for women victims of domestic violence who had been freed from prison on appeal among all the kiss-and-tells.

Sarah Clapperton

Sarah Clapperton was born and brought up in the Rossendale Valley and has recently graduated from Lancaster University – so it’s fair to say that she’s got a bit of a soft spot for Lancashire. She’s always been an enthusiastic writer and loves playing with the English language to create great pieces of writing. Alongside this, she has a passion for languages and is fluent in Spanish and (almost) in French. At present she is working in Rossendale and, in her spare time, loves sampling the new eateries, bars and pubs that the Valley has to offer. She is regularly seen out and about in the hills with her slightly loca springer spaniel, Maisie, and also trundling along in her recently purchased powder blue 54 plate Micra. Yes, the dent in your wheelie bin was her fault.

Paul Clark is a St Helens-based writer, freelance journalist, musician, and lecturer. He has previously worked as a sports journalist but these days is following his passion and writing more about music. He is an avid gig-goer and can often be found crate-digging in a number of the region’s record stores. He has just completed an MA in Creative Writing and is in the process of editing the novel produced on the course. When he’s not drafting/editing his novel, he has a keen interest in the theatre, literature, music, comedy, and poetry.

If his life wasn’t busy enough, Paul is currently trying to master the ukulele, although he has yet to learn a George Formby number which he realises is a major oversight for a uke player.

Lucy Clayton

Lucy Clayton is a third year Broadcast Journalism student at the University of Salford. A proud Geordie at heart, despite lacking the accent, Lucy has a passion for all things North East, from Northumberland’s rolling hills and picturesque coastline to Newcastle’s vibrant clubbing scene.

Specialising in travel writing, Lucy is a scriptwriter for Love it Book it, promoting the latest worldwide cruises. She has also contributed to Salford Now and Quays News throughout her studies. A lover of theatre, music and good food, you may find her at Newcastle’s Theatre Royal before a night out on the Bigg Market, and having worked as a bar waitress for three years, she definitely knows her bevs.

You can follow Lucy’s words on her blog hereand her pics on Instagram: instagram.com/lucyclayton99/

Katherine Clements

Katherine Clements is a novelist and award-winning short story writer specialising in historical fiction. Her debut novel, The Crimson Ribbon was published in 2014, followed by The Silvered Heart in 2015. She was born in Littleborough, Lancashire and grew up in Surrey and Sheffield. She studied Ancient History and Archaeology at Manchester University, followed by a move down south and a varied career in media, the charity sector and education. In 2014 she moved back to Manchester where the bleak northern landscape inspired her third novel, The Coffin Path, which will be published in February 2018.

Katherine is editor of Historia, the online magazine of the Historical Writers’ Association, and is currently Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Manchester University.

www.katherineclements.co.uk / @KL_Clements / http://www.facebook.com/KatherineClementsBooks

Karen Connolly

Karen Connolly has been a journalist for thousands of years. She started her career on her home town’s paper, The Wigan Observer, and has been a crime reporter, business correspondent and, her favourite, music journalist in the 90s – a right indie kid at heart.

She’s now a regular on BBC Radio Manchester drive-time where she drones on about what’s trending. She’s also a contributor to regional and national press.

Music is still her passion and, after years of ‘being with the band’, she’s now the ‘mother of the lead guitarist’ of the band MazeBound.

Matthew Connolly

Matthew Connolly was born in Manchester and lives in the Lake District. He trained as a journalist in London where he worked for a variety of newspapers including The Guardian, The Observer, the Evening Standard, The Sunday Times and The Times, where he was a classical music critic. Matthew’s first novel, Dances with the Daffodils (set at the time of the poet Wordsworth), was shortlisted for Lakeland Book of the Year and his latest novel, due out in 2018, is a contemporary recreation of Wuthering Heights. He is also writing a first book of poems and a novel set in Paris at the time of composer Claude Debussy. As a Lake District tortured artist in residence, Matthew plans to ‘re-wild’ the Lakes by introducing pretentious melancholia and bohemianism to some of its more conservative villages.

Mark Connors 

Mark Connors is Northern Soul‘s Poetry Correspondent. He is an award-winning writer from Leeds and has had more than 150 poems published in magazines, anthologies and webzines.

Mark’s debut poetry pamphlet, Life is a Long Song, was published by OWF Press in 2015. His first full-length collection, Nothing is Meant to be Broken, was published by Stairwell Books in 2017. His second poetry collection, New Ways of Looking at Light, will be published in 2019 by YAFFLE. A joint collection, Reel Bradford, written with fellow writers from the team behind poetry publishers, YAFFLE, in partnership with Bradford City of Film, will also be published in 2019. Mark’s debut novel, Stickleback was published by Armley Press in 2016. Stickleback was long-listed for The Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize. His second novel, Tom Tit and the Maniacs, was published by Armley Press in 2018. It was selected as one of Culture Vulture’s novels of the year.

Mark’s award-winning short fiction has won him prizes and commendations at North London Literature Festival, Dartmoor Literature Festival and Otley Word Feast. Mark also won the open mic competition at Ilkley Literature Festival in 2014 and 2015. He features regularly as a guest compere at literature festivals and also runs WORD CLUB, his own poetry night, at The Chemic Tavern in Leeds with his partner Gill Lambert and co-runs Shaken in Sheeptown in Skipton. Mark and Gill also run a monthly poetry radio show on Chapel FM. Mark is a founding creative partner of Poetry at the Parsonage, an annual poetry festival with the Brontë Society in Haworth. Mark is the managing editor of the independent poetry publishers, YAFFLE, and a writing workshop facilitator and is training to be a bibliotherapist.

Lucia Cox

Part academic, part idiotic, mostly Lancastrian, Lucia Cox is a writer, producer, director and performer. Lucia wrote the Manchester Theatre Award-nominated play Blackbird which transferred to New York in 2013. She also adapted and directed the Anthony Burgess novel One Hand Clapping which was selected for the 2014 re:play festival at The Lowry in Salford. She writes and performs for theBBC Learning Department.  

Lucia was part of the literary department at HOME in Manchester. She read scripts and ran their play-reading group once a month. She runs a small production company called House of Orphans. Lucia has been a freelance writer for four years and has written for What’s On Stage, GQ Magazine, Manchester Confidential, Chimp Magazine and International Arts Manager.

Cathy Crabb

Cathy Crabb is an award-winning writer who has written extensively for the stage. Her plays include Beautiful House, Moving Pictures, and Beyond the 4th Wall. Her critically acclaimed play The Bubbler toured in 2014. Earlier this year, she co-wrote the musical Dreamers with Lindsay Williams. Her poetry appears in Best of Manchester Poets 2013 and her first collection Beside The See-Side is published by FlapJack Press

She is currently writing The F**k It List– a sit-com with actor Sally Carman, a new musical with Lindsay Williams, her new poetry collection and a play for Proud and Loud about two young people with disabilities who fall in love online called Oh For God’s Sake. Her poetry will be placed on four sculptures in Oldham by the sculptor Emma Hunter in January 2016. 

Paul Davies

Although born and raised in Birmingham, Paul has spent most of his adult life in the North West and is now settled in Manchester after living in Chester for 15 years.

As music editor for Fourculture magazine, he showcases new music as well as championing the classics. His passion for music sees him embracing many styles with an obsessiveness that could be healthy or unhealthy. Despite post-punk and electronica being his genres of choice, he’s equally at home writing an informed introduction to K-Pop or presenting a six-episode radio show on 1960s French Pop. With a worrying memory for the obscure he is an ideal pub quiz team member, once landing a job in a music retail store by simply coming first in a pop quiz each week.

As a singer/songwriter/producer he has graced many North West stages and has had airplay on BBC 6 Music. He also likes milkshakes.

Richard Dixon

East London boy Richard Dixon has been a journalist since 1979 despite having a PhD in fish glands. But since he studied for it in Sheffield and has maternal roots in Manchester, he believes he has the best of all inheritances: trans-Pennine steel and grit combined with almost never tiring of working life in the capital. 

He remains a (metaphorical) gun for hire both as hack and turntable meister.

Caleb Everett

Caleb Everett was born with a quill in his hand, of low income even at birth. In time this was replaced with a biro, purchased from The Works (five blue-ink-biros on a £1.99 offer). Since then he has written various things that no-one has read and fewer have cared about. Between 2008-2010 he was the lead drinker of a London-based pop group. He is currently residing in Manchester writing a prequel to a book that hasn’t yet been published and assembling a band, for the first time in three years. He has a certifiable obsession with Patti Smith, wears a size 9 court shoe and claims to have given up smoking to improve his luck on Grindr.

Damon Fairclough

Damon Fairclough is Northern Soul‘s Liverpool Correspondent. A freelance writer based in Liverpool (via a long-lost Sheffield of the soul), in a career spanning a shocking number of years he claims to have written about ‘brutal grey music, ultra-brite passions and the dogged persistence of memory’. In practice, this means writing about mix-tapes, cities, theatres, haircuts, concrete, drizzle and bus stops – among other things.

You might find his words in publications including Northern Soul, Louder Than War, Bido Lito and Stuplex, or you could well discover them over at his own writing archive, Noise Heat Power. You might also wish to know that he’s available for hire as a freelance copywriter and content creator, having previously written for Sony, Toyota, Motorola, Interflora and more. Yes, actual brands you’ve actually heard of.

Find his portfolio at damonfairclough.com, stalk him on twitter by following @noiseheatpower or, failing that, simply whisper rumours about him when he’s out of the room.

Claire Fleetneedle

Claire Fleetneedle is Northern Soul‘s Gardening Correspondent. She is also a voice, public speaking and acting coach. In her spare time she is a trainee herbalist specialising in remedies and edible uses for local wild plants. In a world where free healthcare may soon be a thing of the past, she seeks to revive and pass on our ancient and largely forgotten herb lore. 

Angela Ferguson is a freelance journalist and the founder and editor of We Are Chester, a website which looks at all things artistic and cultural in and around Chester. She is also a lecturer in journalism at a university in North Wales and a presenter on the community radio station Flipside Radio in Chester.

Angela is hugely proud to combine all of this with being a single mum to three children. And yes, she should probably be doing more housework rather than taking on new writing and broadcasting projects. But journalism is in her blood and so joining the team at Northern Soul was a no-brainer. Just don’t pick her up on her slatternly ways should you ever visit her at home.

wearechester.co.uk, @WeAreChester

Susan Ferguson 

Susan Ferguson has lived in Birmingham, Manchester, Barcelona and London. She has picked strawberries in Norway, olives in Spain, vegetables in Bolivia and fights in bars. She has worked in nightclubs, schools, galleries, offices, archaeological digs, shops and marquees. 

She cut her journalistic teeth on Debris magazine and after a 30-year hiatus is back. When she is not travelling, Susan divides her time between Salford and Manchester.  

She is a minor player in her own life story. Follow her on Instagram @sferg10

Bernard Ginns

Bernard Ginns is a director of www.branksomepartners.com, a communications advisory firm based in the North of England. He works with clients across a range of sectors including technology, engineering and healthcare. He is Visiting Fellow of Journalism at Leeds Business School and a member of the regional leadership group at Mosaic, a Prince’s Trust charity which inspires young people from deprived communities to realise their talents and potential. 

Bernard served as Business Editor of the Yorkshire Post from 2008-16, leading the newspaper’s highly regarded business coverage and chairing the flagship Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business Awards, attracting blue-chip sponsors and political speakers such as David Cameron and George Osborne. Previously, he was Editor of the award-winning new media start-up Kent on Sunday (2005-08) and a Reporter at The Mail on Sunday (2002-05), chasing stories across Britain, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 

Bernard started his journalism career at the London Newspaper Group and is a philosophy graduate of the University of Manchester. Outside of work, he enjoys squash, yoga, the outdoors and researching urban subcultures of the 1990s.

Steve Kinrade is a nurse and branch education rep for Unison. Articles by Steve have appeared in Nursing Times and Professional Nurse. Today, Steve’s writing involves articles in Liverpool Noise, Vents, Pennyblack Music, and Northern Soul. He is the press officer for the Merseyside record label, Klee Music. 

 

 

Harry Kretchmer

Harry Kretchmer and The North were introduced by the BBC, first at its old Manchester base (RIP Oxford Road), then in Salford Quays. From 5 live late night argy-bargy fixer to Breakfast business producer, Harry got to know the city through those who would house him: Castlefield YHA (stunning ironwork, snoring tourists); Fallowfield engineer (Corrie cobbles); Whalley Range Mastermind exec (leafy, strangely empty streets); Sale artist (cats, canals – now home).

He read history at Oxford, as they say on University Challenge (RIP Granada), then completed a postgraduate diploma in broadcast journalism at Cardiff University.

These days Harry likes to explore the area’s canals and poke around interesting old buildings, taking the odd snap before he gets chased off. Occasionally, Harry can also be found sampling the varied cuisines and refreshments of the area.

Stephen Longstaffe

Lucy McNamara is the producer and presenter of The Northern Soul Podcast. A freelance radio presenter, podcaster and voiceover artist, until recently Lucy was the Weekend Breakfast presenter at 2BR, Lancashire’s local commercial station. Lucy started out as a journalist 10 years ago and has worked for BBC Radio Leicester, Norfolk, Cambridge and Stoke, presenting, news reading and reporting.

Prior to 2BR she was BBC 6 Music’s regular cover for Elizabeth Alker’s music news on Radcliffe and Maconie. During her time at 6 Music she presented the music news on the Shaun Keaveny breakfast show and also took part in BBC Music Day appearing with Craig Charles. She has also assistant-produced for Guy Garvey and Marc Riley.

During her time covering music festivals for radio she has interviewed Nile Rodgers, Everything Everything, Jean Michel Jarre, Tim Burgess and many more musicians both national and international.

This is Lucy’s third series as the presenter and producer of The Northern Soul new music podcast. Lucy has made Manchester or perhaps more correctly ‘Stockport’ her home along with her family and continues to be a big champion of all things Northern.

Danny Moran

Danny Moran was born in Radcliffe. He’s been a bartender, a life model, a musician and a journalist, contributing to City Life, Dazed & Confused, Attitude, The Face, Manchester Confidential, Guardian Guide and The Express.   

Andy Murray is Northern Soul‘s Music & Film Editor. He has been an arts freelancer since 1999, initially for City Life magazine and more recently for The Big Issue in the North, among others. He edited a story anthology for Comma Press, and currently teaches Film Journalism at the University of Salford.

Michelle Nicholson

Michelle Nicholson is Northern Soul‘s Sports Correspondent. She was born in Finsbury Park. After a Legal Studies course at the University of Bedfordshire she travelled north with love in her heart and has remained here ever since. Previous roles have seen her as a children’s librarian, hostess at Ewood Park, and a sales executive for an educational computer supplier. For the past 14 years she has worked for charities and the arts. 

Her interests include Batman, Arsenal and tattoos. She is partial to a long Dark & Stormy with extra lime.

Michelle can be found on Twitter @PurpleGooner ranting and cheering on her beloved Gunners.

Henry Normal

Henry Normal was born in St Ann’s, Nottingham in 1956 and now lives in Brighton with his wife, the screenwriter Angela Pell, and their son, Johnny. He is a writer, poet, TV and film producer and founder of the Manchester Poetry Festival (now the Manchester Literature Festival), and co-founder of the Nottingham Poetry Festival.

Chris Payne

Chris Payne is a Manchester-based photographer and arts marketeer (which makes him sound a little bit like a pirate).

He studied theatre and film at Glasgow University before heading down to Manchester at the turn of the century. He soon joined the team at Cornerhouse, working as box office manager for several years. Chris recently ended a ten year stint as host of the monthly film quiz – as a result he has an extensive knowledge of random bobbins which will almost certainly be of no use to him at any point in his life.

A saxophonist, he has played in a variety of bands, ranging from a ten-piece celtic folk big band to a traditional ska outfit, supporting legends such as The Beat, Bad Manners, Neville Staple and, erm, The Drifters. He currently plays soprano sax with Ears in Excellent Condition – a trio performing live scores to silent films.

You can see more of Chris’s work at chrispayneimages.co.uk.

Phil Pearson 

Phil Pearson is a journalist and playwright.

He has worked at the BBC, The Guardian, The Independent and the Manchester Evening News.

Phil has written five short plays, all of which have been performed in England and Ireland. From Barrow-in-Furness, he now lives in South Manchester.

@philpearson67; pafpeo@gmail.com

Zoë Perrett

Having fallen hard and fast for the myriad charms of the North, Zoë Perrett is a recent immigrant from down South. She’s been in food and drink media for more than a decade – ghostwriting cookbooks, contributing to the likes of Edit, Foodepedia, Foodtripper, Ibiza Spotlight, The Times of India, View London and Chaat! magazine, doing PR and marketing for independent businesses, and spending four years editing the glossy mag Good Things.

Now based in Leeds, Zoë is the founder of food and travel-centric site Amuse Bouche; craft chocolate blog Culinary Adventures of The Cocoa Nut; and Culinary Adventures of The Spice Scribe – devoted to Indian food. 

When she’s not writing articles, Zoë’ co-runs Slap & Pickle, a street food business that has just opened its first premises at Assembly Underground in Leeds city centre, works on copywriting project and, very occasionally, enjoys the odd day off.

Colin Petch

When he grows up, Colin plans to write meaningful feature pieces about Northern folk – and what they get up to. While working as a lecturer in the North East he was inspired by the work the creative community were doing to record the lives of ‘ordinary people’, and this was the inspiration for his own embryonic project, From the Pennines to the Sea, a digital archive capturing something of life in the North now.

When not writing for regional titles or loitering around the School of Journalism at a well-known Northern university, he can be found on a hillside in Nidderdale where he is generally given the run-around by family members and assorted livestock. His interests include social justice, youth and community engagement, the arts and cakes of various types.

What he says about himself: “The opportunity to capture the stories of others is a privilege.” What others say about him: “His agitation peaks when the council change the recycling collection day because of a bank holiday.”

www.penninestothesea.com; @cpetchwriting

Phil Pounder

Phil Pounder is Northern Soul‘s North East Photographer. A Durham University maths graduate whose artistic/creative side has taken 40 years to fight its way out of his logical brain, Phil is originally from County Durham. Via a seven year stint in London, he now lives in Low Fell and works for an IT consultancy based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Can often be found down the Quayside with his ‘way too expensive camera’ (not his words obviously) looking for new angles of the Tyne Bridge. A keen photographer who is discovering the joy of ND filters, bokeh and pano stitching. Can be found on twitter @glasses502.

www.philpounderphotography.com

Wendy Pratt

Rachael Richards is an award-winning PR Manager with 12 years of PR experience, working both in-house and for agencies.

She has worked with a wide variety of clients including Manchester Pride, the RNCM, LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre and Love Hearts sweets, gaining coverage on Daybreak, The Jonathan Ross Show, ITV News at 10, The Sun, The Mirror and The Telegraph.

Rachael has a passion for the arts and has lectured in music PR at BIMM Manchester (The British and Irish Modern Music Institute). Having previously worked promoting established acts such as Echobelly and Mike Joyce from The Smiths, she used this experience to help the college’s young musicians publicise their work.

Born and raised on a farm in mid-Wales, Rachael moved to Manchester 14 years ago and has always been an avid supporter of the city’s cultural scene. As a former arts reviewer at Large magazine and Chimp, she regularly attends theatres, arts centres, galleries, gigs and festivals around the North West.

Drew Savage

Benjamin Stacey

Benjamin Stacey is a third year Broadcast Journalism student at the University of Salford. Born in Belfast but often told that he sounds Scottish. Benjamin’s biggest love in life is music and there’s no better feeling than being front row at a gig. Benjamin specialises in musical interviews, creative writing and reviews and has contributed to Salford Now, Shock Radio and Global Radio throughout his studies. You’ll probably see him on a Friday morning queuing for concert tickets or working as a part-time bartender where he’s the only Irishman who pours a terrible Guinness. You can see some of Benjamin’s musical chats here.

 

Richard Stephenson

Richard Stephenson caught the political bug early in life which turned into an obsession for communications. He worked on his first political campaign in the UK at the age of 15 and took a trip to Washington DC aged 16 to work on his first of two Presidential campaigns.

He studied politics, international relations and history at Coventry University before going to Cardiff Journalist School to complete his post-grad. Since then he has developed his political and professional careers and in 2004 became the youngest ever President of the Conservative Party Convention at the age of just 28, chairing the party conference in Bournemouth that year. He has trained politicians in Europe and Africa and toured the five regional capitals of Pakistan to debate East/West relations.

Professionally, Richard has been the Director of Public Relations for Royal Mail Group and Director of Corporate Affairs for AXA, as well as holding board level positions in consultancies. Richard is also passionate about charity and organised his first fundraising event aged seven, raising £80 for the local Help the Aged. He is now chairman of Kids Count, a charity that brings the voice of young people to Parliament and seeks solutions to the problems faced by kids in urban and rural areas.

Richard is a frustrated writer and constantly tries to capture his experiences in notes and memos. Married to Liam since 2010, the couple live in central London and are totally besotted with their recently adopted Jack Russell Dachshund puppy, Bobby, who is bound to be an inspiration for future columns.

Jack Stocker

A freelance copywriter, Jack Stocker was born and raised in a small town in Surrey. He moved up North to study journalism and broadcasting at Salford University, and after that there was literally no going back (the train ticket was a single).

Since then, he has taken up permanent residence as – among other things – a reviewer for Take One, as well as writing and producing short films and radio dramas. Jack has been writing creatively since the age of 13 – most of his fiction is of the fantasy and horror variety, much like the books that fill his shelves at home. You can read some of it, as well as his other endeavours, on his personal website.

Jack’s other hobbies include reviewing video games, fruitlessly learning to play the guitar, and trying to remember why he came upstairs.

http://jack–stocker.wix.com/jackstocker

Greg Thorpe

Greg Thorpe is an arts freelancer, writer, copy editor, DJ, events promoter and graduate of the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University. He has worked with Cornerhouse, The Whitworth, Central Library, Manchester Art Gallery, Islington Mill and Manchester International Festival. Greg’s writing has appeared in Time Out, Manchester Evening News, City Life, Creative Tourist, The Big Issue, Metro, Scout London, Manchester Wire, The 405 and the Itchy Guides. He runs the club nights Drunk At Vogue and Off The Hook and writes the Manhattanchester blog. He likes porters and stouts, red wine, vegetarian food, beards and bikes.

manhattanchester.blogspot.co.uk; gregthorpe.contently.com

Drew Tosh

In a career that can only be described as ‘all over the place’, Drew Tosh has had a crack at many things, from PR to puppetry, care homes to charity fundraising. After a 15-year career in theatre/arts marketing and PR in Scotland, promoting everything from Wagner’s Ring Cycle and Andy Warhol exhibitions to the World Pipe Band Championships and the Great Scottish Run, Drew upped sticks for Manchester.

As well as Northern Soul, Drew has written for several other titles and is a regular panellist on BBC Radio Manchester. He has written two plays which have been performed, Peg & Bessie and Physical, a novel (in a state of endless editing) and is currently having a crack at a musical.

Drew believes that Kate Bush should be made Queen, macaroni cheese should be available on the NHS and that a bowl of trifle heals all. 

Chris Wallis

Chris Wallis is Northern Soul‘s Theatre Editor. He has been a radio drama producer for 25 years, a theatre director for 40 years, and a foodie fan for a lot longer than that. Born in Aberdeen and brought up in Hounslow, he went to Liverpool University in the late 60s in search of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Failing to find the first, he taught himself to cook from Mastering The Art Of French Cooking by Beck, Bertholle and Child – a manual he thinks is yet to be surpassed and is still in print. In fact, it’s probably the only cookery book to have had a film made about it (Julia and Julia). The second and third have provided him with stories ever after. Thanks to the BBC, he moved to Manchester in 1991 and has been here ever since, but he commutes to London and a lot of his restaurant experience is drawn from there. To see what Chris does for a living, go to www.watershedtheatre.com.

Isabel Webb 

Fresh from the toil of A-levels, Isabel Webb is currently studying history at University College London. You can read all about her attempts to navigate life in London and wear her Northern roots proudly on her sleeve in her blog for Northern Soul, Chips ’n’ Gravy.

Originally from Manchester, she has spent the last few years exploring the South Manchester suburbs and the city itself. The result of this is a blog in her own little corner of the internet called Daphne & Delilah which features restaurant write-ups, theatre reviews and general musings on life. Isabel has written articles for The Lowry, Didsbury Community Index and the University of Manchester, among others. As an aspiring journalist, she hopes this list will continue to grow. For now though, you can read her (unfortunately un-edited) thoughts on Twitter @DaphneDelilah.

Paddy Wells

Paddy Wells is a musician and freelance writer specialising in music, film and culture. His features, reviews and interviews have been published online and in a range of international publications including Classic Rock, The Blues, Planet Rock and Vintage Rock and Country. He was online editor of bluesandsoulshow.com from 2014-16.

Paddy has been singing and playing harmonica for almost three decades. During seven years as frontman of Leeds-based Chicago blues band Poorboy, he appeared at most of the major blues festivals in the UK and supported the likes of Paul Jones, Mick Ralphs and Mud Morganfield. Paddy has performed in the blues clubs of Chicago, played with top musicians in Austin and New Orleans and made a special guest appearance at the world-famous Ground Zero Blues Club, Clarksdale MS.

He’s now a member of the long-running, highly regarded band, Crosscut Saw, bringing his unique sound to their hard-driving, rootsy blues. He conducts session work and gigs regularly with The Dave Hanson Band, appearing on Hanson’s latest album, Almost Horizontal.

Originally from Hull, Paddy is now based in Leeds where he works as writer and copy editor for travel, arts and culture website The Culture Trip and spends most of his time staring out of the window. Check out his music and writing at paddywells.com or find him on social media.

Lisa Wood

Lisa Wood is Northern Soul‘s Property & Interiors Correspondent. More than two decades ago, Lisa Wood left the sleepy town of Leek for the bright lights of Manchester and has never looked back. She now sees herself as an adopted Mancunian.

After fuelling her inner creative at Salford University, Lisa forged an interesting and varied career in the world of PR and marketing and had a ball spending eight years building the global brand for MediaCityUK, where she fought off the national tabloids on a daily basis with their ‘North bashing’ and organised high-profile events including the official opening with The Queen.

She now juggles family life with looking after the PR for a digital health company and supporting her husband in building his animation business. Lisa lives in Timperley with her husband and young daughter, Sienna, and when not at work she can either be found in a spin studio, sweating in a hot yoga class, listening to a good podcast, baking or sharing details of her love of interiors on Instagram. She loves the great outdoors and often spends weekends exploring what’s on her doorstep or, if feeling lazy, socialising with friends over a good glass of wine. Lisa is also an avid theatre-goer and has been known to ‘tread the boards’ in a number of amateur productions.

Lizzie Wood

Lizzie Wood is Northern Soul‘s Travel Editor. Originally from Essex, Lizzie moved to Nottingham to study Ancient History before slowly gravitating further North and settling in Manchester to start life as a PR at Fourth Day. With a passion for food, fashion, gigs and art, Lizzie has written for titles including Creative Tourist, Made in Shoreditch and Northern Soul.

Fran Yeoman

Fran Yeoman spent more than a decade on national newspapers before returning to her native Liverpool in 2016 to join John Moores University as Senior Lecturer in Journalism. Before that, she was Assistant Editor of i, where she oversaw the paper’s news output. She previously worked for The Independent and The Times as a news editor and reporter, and spent a year as a political reporter based at Westminster. She has reported from countries including Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Greece and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and co-authored a Rough Guide to South America.