‘Ladies Music Pub’ is Infiltrating the Industry

Ladies Music Pub (LMP) are exactly what they say on the tin, starting from hosting meetings out of London pubs for those of all levels around and within the music industry, they’ve since started their own record label, signed their own artists, and are on a noble mission to conquer oppression, one connection (and pint) at a time.

We sat down with founders Hannah Turnbull Walter, and TYSON backstage at Glasto to chat about all things at the heart of LMP, the importance of authentic communication, and how they’re helping to hold the hands of those exploring the music industry as they grow in it themselves.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Give LMP and TYSON in an elevator pitch

Hannah: My name is Hannah, and I’ve been running LMP for a few years with Tyson. We started in 2015, so 8 years.

I’ve always worked in the music business, it’s kind of all I’ve ever done. We founded LMP to be a real collective space for people who worked in the industry and for performers, artists, producers to bring people together and to share experiences and to just fight oppression. Sounds quite grandiose but it is quite literally true.

To bring people together and to build a network. Build a community and share ideas. Help people get employed, support them when they’re employed and kind of fight injustices that we saw around basically’

And it’s really, really amazing to be bringing that to Glastonbury, and it feels very right that it’s in Shangri-La, which is all about fighting oppression basically. The stage right next to us is called [the] ‘Truth’ stage, I can hear Jonny Banger and the Sports Banger crew who do amazing work and are a DIY collective as well so it feels like the right home for us.

TYSON: Through LMP we started working [on an EP] in 2020 and in 2021 released my first EP, as I’m an artist, and we have our own label called LMP recordings, and management company where Hannah, and Marina who also runs LMP with us, manage me. And then with Nellie, the fourth member, we run LMP together and LMP recordings, and the plan is to take on other artists aswell and yea. Just put out a single on our label, week before last. Plug!

Now that’s an elevator I can get onboard with.

Your whole look & feel is very informal, chilled and vibey - How do you think that’s important to the culture of LMP, when surrounded by label giants like Sony/ Universal?

Hannah: Very important, it’s kind of the whole point; we want it to feel accessible and not intimidating and that’s why we meet in pubs. It’s less formal than going to formal networking events that might be, I don't know, organised where everyone gets a sticker and it’s really difficult to introduce yourself.

I don’t really know another group in a similar space that works like [us], and it takes a lot of effort, time, love and commitment from us but we get so much from it as well and I’m really glad that that comes across in the socials, that it is informal and friendly.

And it is really important because, people often come to the meetings by themselves and that’s a really hard thing to do, particularly if you feel vulnerable, or if you’re looking for a job, or you don’t feel confident, or you’re being bullied at work. And that’s the space that we're trying to create, [a space] for people who are in that experience.

TYSON: I don’t have much to add to be honest, that was like perfect.

We were just talking on stage now, with the other organisations that are here with us, about line-ups for festivals, looking at the hierarchy, I think that’s something that we all we’ve always had in mind. Even from the way our meetings are set up, the way that we run everything, there’s no hierarchy, we all introduce ourselves; whether you’ve worked in music for 10 years, whether you’re not in music yet, whether you’re running LMP, everyone is the same in those meetings and that’s how we run it. And we’re probably the most nervous people there haha, we bring a lot of awkward energy but I think it’s good, because it’s real, it’s how we’re actually approaching it. And it probably makes people feel more welcome, I can imagine, hopefully!

Let’s talk pubs. Do you pick different pubs to meet at? Do you have one consistent pub that you go to?

TYSON: Actually it’s been a while since we’ve done one in a pub. We’ve been experimenting with a lot of different spaces, and I think because they’re all in London, how London’s changed we were for a long time, working with the spaces that we were offered for free. But at the moment we’re doing every other meeting at Vogue Fabrics which is a bar/nightclub which now has a sober space where we’ll be running events and [meetings etc.]. So I suppose that’s the pub environment that we’re in at the moment.

Hannah: We’ve floated around a few places, like Tyson says, London has changed a lot and we’ve had different sort of ‘homes’ where people have welcomed us. There was a pub in Kennington, run by my friend Bill, that was very near the old NinjaTune office where I used to work and that was like the genesis of LMP. Now we’re sort of shifting to do [meetings] in more industry spaces because it’s quite useful for [attendees] to see these places. And it’s nice for the businesses to offer us their hospitality, like Vogue Fabrics do.

It feels kind of pertinent to LMP because we all work in music. After 8 years, it's a real network with real people and businesses, and people who started coming to LMP as interns are now just smashing it, running their own businesses, some of them are at Glastonbury. It feels really meaningful and exciting.

Who are your musical heroes + villains? (no shade)

TYSON: Taylor Swift comes to mind as my villain. And not just because she’s not playing anymore, I don’t know why [ ] that’s just who came up as my villain. Heroes, that’s really hard. Billy Holiday, you know, she’s giving powerful, sad girl energy, I like it.’

Hannah: Heroes: the Slits, Neneh Cherry, ESG, Tyson. Villains, every cancelled musician of the past 5 years, if they’ve been cancelled deservedly. People who’ve been ethically deplatformed because they haven’t treated their community with the respect it deserves, as the villains. God that’s such a literal answer to your question, I’m struggling to think of any [villains].

Getting hypothetical and hopeful for a minute - If you had all the people at Glastonbury in front of the stage, and you were handed the mic, what would you say?

Hannah: I’d feel really uncomfortable in that space to be honest, that’s why I work behind the scenes.

What if you could go behind a curtain like in Wizard of Oz?

Hannah: I do have a nice soothing voice, so dya know what I would do - I would read out a guided meditation to those 300 thousand people and would subtly put in some digs at the patriarchy, slip them in; and I would lead 300 thousand people in guided meditation but with some subversive messaging. That’s what I would do, but I’d do it very uncomfortably, that’s never a position I’d particularly like to be in, but thank you for the option of doing it invisibly.

I present you Hannah, the Wizard of Glastoz - Tyson?

TYSON: I’d probably do something similar. I wouldn’t want to do anything preachy, [like] a sermon. I’d probably end up singing, and yeah same as Hannah put in some subtly ‘we need to fucking do better’ inside the song, [or] ‘please give Ladies Music Pub some moneyyy.

Someone get these 2 a prime-time spot on the Pyramid stage for Glasto 2024 stat!!!!!!!