The Great Escape has confirmed Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker as one of the keynote speakers of the newly revamped conference.

The UK music industry event returns to Brighton from Wednesday 15 May to Saturday 18 May, with the Council of Music Makers (CMM), The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), BBC Introducing and Youth Music each set to curate a day of the programme.

On the Saturday of the conference, Cocker will present Biophobia, a special climate-themed talk about getting to grips with nature. The session will be presented by EarthPercent, the charity founded by Brian Eno to help the music industry support the most impactful organisations addressing the climate emergency.

Giving the conference’s opening keynote conversation on Wednesday 15 May, Darcus Beese OBE will reflect on his career as the UK’s first black record company CEO and one of the greatest A&Rs of his generation, having signed and nurtured artists like Amy Winehouse, U2 and Florence and the Machine. This conversation will come soon after the publication of his upcoming memoir ‘Rebel With A Cause’.

“Without a doubt, this is set to be an unmissable event for the UK industry”

On Thursday, Tom Gray (chair of the Ivors Academy and Labour Party PPC for Brighton Pavilion) and YolanDa Brown (OBE DL, musician, broadcaster and chair of the BPI) will deliver another keynote speech, discussing what the industry needs to do to protect music copyright and culture on a legislative level.

They join two previously announced keynote speakers: Lauren Mayberry (lead singer of CHVRCHES) and Sacha Lord (chair of the NTIA, co-creator of Parklife Festival and the Warehouse Project and Night Time Economy Adviser for Greater Manchester).

Also announced today, the Association of Independent Music joins as the conference’s newest industry collaborator, hosting three sessions centred on the independent music sector on the beach on Wednesday 15th May.

Rory Bett, CEO, MAMA Festivals, says: “From cultural icons to industry legends, our revamped conference has truly been supercharged with the calibre of these keynote speakers. Without a doubt, this is set to be an unmissable event for the UK industry.”

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The Green Events and Innovations Conference (GEI) will welcome back Brian Eno for a third time, for a keynote conversation with Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker.

The leading conference for sustainability takes place on the 27 February at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London – the first day of the International Live Music Conference (ILMC).

Eno previously headlined the event alongside Norwegian popstar Aurora and multi-Grammy-Award-winning artist and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier.

This year, the EarthPercent founder will share the stage with Cocker, who will present his ‘Biophobia’. In addition, Eno will appear alongside EarthPercent’s executive director, Cathy Runciman, for the EarthPercent Hour.

“We are over the moon that Brian Eno and Jarvis Cocker will bring such a special experience to the GEI delegates this year,” says Claire O’Neill, CEO, A Greener Future. “GEI, since its inception, has been about uniting the live community and beyond to make a better world for all of us. This is why we love the work of our charity partner EarthPercent and can’t wait to experience and share what we have in store next month.”

“We love the work of our charity partner EarthPercent and can’t wait to experience and share what we have in store next month”

Eno is a renowned musician, producer, visual artist and activist who first came to international prominence in the early seventies as a founding member of British band, Roxy Music, followed by a series of solo albums and collaborations. He founded charity EarthPercent to help combat the music industry’s impact on the planet.

Cocker is a legendary musician and broadcaster who formed the band Pulp while at school in 1978, going on to become one of the most successful British groups of the 1990s. He presented the BBC6 Music programme Jarvis Cocker’s Sunday Service, as well as the ongoing, award-winning BBC Radio 4 documentary series Wireless Nights. He also has two honorary doctorates and his lyrics have been published by Faber and Jonathan Cape.

News of the keynote comes shortly after GEI unveiled speakers, sessions, exclusive research projects and case studies for the forthcoming edition. For more information on the conference, or to purchase tickets, click here.

GEI takes place as part of the ILMC week, the largest gathering of live music professionals in the world. Across GEI, ILMC, and related events on the schedule, over 2,500 professionals will take part at the Royal Lancaster between 27 Feb and 1 March.

For more information about ILMC 2024, The Arthur Awards, Futures Forum, TEL and London Calling, visit 36.ilmc.com.

GEI is organised by AGreenerFuture in partnership with ILMC. GEI’s dedicated website is here.

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