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UK industry vets launch new promoter Luminescent

The brainchild of Ade Dovey and Ben Taylor, Manchester-based Luminescent unites 30+ years of collective programming and promoting experience

By IQ on 13 Jan 2021

Luminescent's Ben Taylor is the founder of You Are Not Alone (YANA) festival

Ben Taylor is the founder of You Are Not Alone festival


Experienced British promoters and venue programmers Ade Dovey and Ben Taylor have joined forces for Luminescent, a newly launched live music promotion firm.

Taylor and Dovey bring over 30 years’ combined experience in venue programming, promoting, touring and artist management to the new company. The pair have worked at Manchester venues including Albert Hall, Gorilla, the Deaf Institute, Sound Control, Night & Day Café, Roadhouse, the Haunt, Jimmy’s and Manchester Arena, with artists such as the 1975, Mogwai, Kylie Minogue, the Courteeners, Everything Everything, Osees, First Aid Kit, Nils Frahm, Dinosaur Jr and American Football.

Taylor is also the founder of You Are Not Alone, a nonprofit festival in aid of the charity Manchester Mind, while pre-pandemic Dovey worked for Manchester Arena operator SMG Europe (now ASM Global).

“Throughout 2020 after a range of unforeseeable changes, both personal and professional, it just made sense for us to join forces,” says Dovey, commenting on the launch of Luminescent.

“We ralised we have an opportunity to do something together; something creative and fulfilling”

“We had both hit the ceiling pretty hard with our ongoing commitment to running music venues over the years. We have been friends, and competitors, for ten years, so when Covid-19 flipped the world upside down we just kept in touch and realised we have an opportunity to do something together; something creative and fulfilling – something we had both missed for a long time in our previous roles.

“After some serious soul-searching, the concern of ‘what venues are going to employ us now?’ and the music industry on its knees due to the pandemic, Ben and I realised that this potentially gave us an advantage and it was time to get our ducks in a row. We’ve had time to reflect and develop this new venture, and the feedback we’ve had from industry professionals has already been overwhelmingly positive.”

“I’m a firm believer of things happening for a reason. With the journey we have both been on, juggling and wrestling shows between ourselves in Manchester, it seems fitting that we’ll now be working together to bring some very exciting shows to the table,” adds Taylor. “Ade’s a great friend and superb promoter. I’ve been a big fan of what he’s produced over the last few years. As soon as the idea of us joining forces was born, I was in.

“We just can’t wait to build on Luminescent, work with artists and individuals that we both love and creatively respect, support the music community, be sustainable and do it our way.”

 


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