/ archive / december 5th 2006
Special guests: Kevin Nixon & Dominic Minghella
Hayley Sherman speaks to two special guests this month; a veteran music industry figure, and a top television script writer.
Kevin Nixon
Kevin gave an insightful interview, recalling his long music industry career, from being an artist, manager and producer, before setting up BIMM (Brighton Institute for Modern Music), the unique music college. He told us of BIMM's aims and philosophies, adding that, "kids can turn up thinking they'll be the next Kurt Cobain, and we hope they are, but then they find out that a product manager at EMI earns eighty grand a year, and it's really creative, and they may say they'll do that!" Kevin explained the appeal of Brighton as the location for the college, such as its proximity to London and the array of great live venues. As he said, BIMM's successes include KT Tunstell's agent and the Kooks, and Kevin feels that to make it you need talent and attitude.
Currently as Director of BIMM (Brighton Institute for Modern Music), Kevin has spent his entire career in the Music Business spanning some 30 years. As an artist he was signed to EMI and RCA, and was a record producer for 8 years. Kevin has been V2 Records' A&R head, and has worked with artists including U2, Robert Plant, Bryan Adams, Pete Townsend, The Stereophonics, George Martin, and Peter Collins.
Dominic Minghella
The key figure behind BBC One's Robin Hood began by discussing what impact his childhood had on him becoming a writer and how writing for film and television ran in his family; his sister and brother also had great success. Dominic described why he feels that writing for TV is so brutal with much pressure, following in Doctor Who's footsteps, and "twenty five people in a room telling you what to write." This light-hearted interviewee gained a huge laugh when describing his working day, which apparently is full of fretting, coffee breaks and lunch, therefore resulting in just forty-five minutes of actual writing. Another anecdote featured him and Bruce Forsyth being taken to Glasgow by BBC One's controller.
Dominic created the current BBC One epic Robin Hood, and is the series' head writer and executive producer, which is still in production, completing the last episodes. His previous projects include the creation of ITV's Doc Martin, which starred Martin Clunes. Writing certainly runs in the family; his brother is the writer and director, Anthony, and his sister, Edana, is a Brighton-based playwright.
