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Press Shots and Editorial

Brand and Product Photography

Other Photography

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I’m also learning to DJ so standby for the mix tapes to drop ;). My art practise revolves around sound, spoken word, film and installation, as music is my life and I especially enjoy performing.

I’m also training to become a freestyle dance teacher and started PsychoGirls and Blank Space studios art collectives, in which we put on events and we’re about to launch podcasts.

I hate to be a cliché but I have a deep appreciation for all genres of music but the ones which hold are special place in my heart are funk, electronica/dance, world, new-wave, psychedelia, musical theatre and alt-rock.

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I spent my first two years at the University of Leeds as a dedicated member of Leeds Student Radio, where I was fortunate enough to be given many amazing opportunities to get involved within the Leeds music scene. During my first semester I hosted my own show specialising in chilled, electronic music, and worked on developing my interviewing skills through interviewing bands such as Spring King, JAWS, Bad Sounds and Sundara Karma. However, towards the end of my first year I discovered my passion for local music and was lucky enough to be chosen to form a part of the amazing Live and Local team; a core show for LSR. Through Live and Local I was able to interview many great local bands, cover Live at Leeds festival as press and even help turn this show into a live music charity event- an annual gig showcasing the best up and coming Leeds talent (‘PIG’, 2017 and ‘The Low Down’, 2018). We even successfully won the award for ‘Best Specialist Music Show’ of LSR in 2017, and were runners up in 2018.

Although I am currently taking a year out of the University of Leeds for health related reasons, I still spend all my time listening to music and attending gigs, and I am very excited to return to Leeds for my final year next September. I miss the buzz of the city, as well as having an endless number of excellent live music venues right on my doorstep.

As much as I love electronic dance music, I’ll always be a little indie fan girl at heart, making Pretend the perfect venture for me, and I am excited to see what lies ahead.

Interviews

Live Events

May 2018- ‘The Low Down’: featuring KOYO, Rafiki, LaRissa and Maya Kally

(Photos by James Ward)

May 2017- ‘Pretend it’s Glastonbury’: featuring HOWL, Heir, Kayta Rayna, Joseph Moore

(Photos by Meg Firth)

Writing

http://beccas-writing-thing.blogspot.com/

Video Interviews

Marmozets- (Filmed and edited by James Ward)

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Helloo there! My name is Emily, I love gigs, and I thrilled to be a part of the wonderful Pretend team.

Having previously been based in my favourite city of them all, Leeds, I have recently relocated to Nottingham to study a masters in Broadcast Journalism and pursue my dream of becoming a radio extraordinaire.

For two and a half years during my time in Leeds, LSR (Leeds Student Radio) was my life. I presented and produced several different shows of a whole variety of themes and genres, one of which was nominated for the award of Best Speech Show. It wasn’t until my final year that I eventually faced the music (sorry) and joined the Live and Local team, where I fell in love with music journalism. Over that year I conducted and edited several interviews, went to countess gigs, wrote reviews for The State of the Arts, curated and promoted a charity gig and was nominated for yet another award (Best Specialist Music) with my wonderful team.

Over this next year of being based in Nottingham, I intend to bring you the wonderful music and creative things this bustling city has to offer, all with the fancy technological/broadcasting skills I shall acquire along the way with my course. Whilst I may still pine for Leeds, being staggering distance from Rock City is a complete and utter blessing.

Writing

The State of The Arts articles: http://www.thestateofthearts.co.uk/author/emily-booth/

 Live Events

08/05/2017, 360 Club + Leeds Live and Local Present: The Low Down
Charity gig at The Lending Rooms in association with prominent Leeds night 360 club, featuring four key local artists Maya Kally, La Rissa, Rafiki and Koyo

Radio

I host and produce the feel good music Saturday breakfast show ‘Booth on the Groove’ on Fly fm, 9-11: http://flyfm.co.uk/
Show podcasts and interviews: https://www.mixcloud.com/emily-booth/

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About me

Hey! I’m Zoë.

I’m a gig enthusiast and lover of indie and dance music, so I guess I’m in the right place. 

I am a former presenter on the Indie and Alternative show at Leeds Student Radio at the University of Leeds, where I studied Philosophy and deep thought on a 24 hour basis (half joking). I am currently at the end of my 3rd year now, about to graduate! I am now, thanks to James who was the Head of Music in my time at LSR, an editor of Pretend alongside him and the lovely Lucy Bradshaw. 

Being a part of a radio team was the best experience I could have asked for during my time in University. As well as leaving the studio each week with a smile on my face (corny- but true), it transformed how I interacted with music. I moved from listening and appreciating music in a casual way, to truly engaging, reviewing and unpicking what exactly it was about the music I was listening to that fired up something in me. And of course, it further made me be on the hunt for new material at all times. 

The vast opportunities I received from being on the show were truly amazing, especially considering it was the first experience with interviewing I’d had. I gained further insight into the music industry and how it works, and learnt how to conjure up creative questions based on existing interviews and research into such bands and artists. In my time I have interviewed the likes of The Orielles, The Horrors, Rejjie Snow, Indoor Pets, L.A. Peach and Van Houten.

I’m so excited to be back in the interviewing game and contribute to the incredible content of Pretend.

Check out some of my stuff below: 

Writing

InTheMiddle with Rejjie Snow

Podcast Interviews

Video Interviews

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Hello my name is James, I started Pretend as a show on Leeds Student Radio in February 2018 and built this website as I looked to extend the brand after graduating from university. I have since gone on to work with the likes of Love Supreme Jazz Festival (marketing), Jayda G, BICEP and RA (photography) and promoted the work of musicians in the UK through this “Pretend” platform.

This page details the events I have worked on and gives links to some of my radio, photography and video portfolio. All work displayed on this page is my own unless stated otherwise.

I have a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Leeds, where I wrote my dissertation on the economic value of music among young people in Leeds. This is available upon request.

Please see below for an idea of what we do at Pretend. Edited by Jacob Whiting with footage from myself and Rebecca Cribb (2019).

Interviews & Press Clippings

An interview with Rotterdam based blog, Every Day Is Friday – February 2021

Feedback from the Student Radio Association on Pretend as it was on student radio

“The strategic/music expertise and commitment on display here from a single producer is remarkable with some of the output on par with some of the national music stations”
“Impressive attention to detail”
“Pretend operates a strategy similar to those used in the industry often with a team behind them… to be able to replicate that level of output without those resources is a fantastic achievement”

Event Production Roles (Starting with the most recent)

Love Supreme, Nocturne Live and KITE Festivals (2020 to Present) – Marketing and programming manager at Neapolitan Music working across their entire portfolio of events and other projects incluidng the Love Supreme Jazz Festival, “Love You Live” Podcast (launched at 3 in spotify podcast charts), Nocturne Live, KITE Festival and other small venue shows under the Supreme Standards Banner.

Pretend: Joshua Zero (February 2020) – Hosted Joshua Zero for the first night of his UK tour with Soybomb and Hether supporting at the Cavendish Arms. Promoted in colloboration with TC Presents.

Pretend: Ife Ogunjobi (December 2019) – Working with Sun Street Collective we put on Ife Ogunjobi, the Trumpet player for Ezra Collective, Solange and others at Off The Cuff in Herne Hill. We also had Mamilah, Pleasure Barge and Monzanto Sound performing on the evening with DJs in the bar area of the venue until 3am. The event was a sell out.

No Bounds (October 2019) – Venue managing at the Kelham Island Museum venue for the 500 capacity opening party with Lanax Artifacts, Caterina Barbieri and Ed Gamble. Looking after a team of stage managers and stewards while ensuring that artists got on and off site in an efficient manner.

Pretend: Tugboat Captain (March, 2019) – An indie gig at the Hyde Park Book Club with Tugboat Captain, Joshua Zero and Bull all compared by the Alternative Comedy, It’s Downstairs!

Pretend: Monster Florence (March, 2019) – A live music focused club night at HiFi (Leeds) with rising hip-hop sensation Monster Florence and Osquello.

Pretend: Loop x Dance Disease (Feb, 2019) – A Boileroom style event held to help promote the resident DJs of start up nights in Leeds.

Pretend Launch Night (Nov, 2018) – Handled all areas of the gig from marketing to financing to programming a night mixing live and dance music. Organised and created marketing content. Distributed print across Leeds independent venues, conducted targeted exit flyering of events where Pretend media side had been making content.

Stretchy Dance Supply (Ongoing) – Acting marketing consultant and production assistant to DIY multi-genre bassline night. Assisting with video, copy writing, print distribution and event logistics.

Natural Selection (2018) – Production assistant on an ad-hoc basis assisting with basic set up and door duties.

Camp Wildfire (2018) – Marketing assistant to the festival as a whole writing social media copy, newsletters, making basic design assets at the direction of the creative director, sourcing and engaging a team of on site volunteers or “camp leaders” who formed the core of marketing assets to be made at the festival and made various promotional videos. The festival’s marketing campaign was shortlisted for “Marketing Campaign of the Year” at the UK Festival Awards 2018. I also completed 20 hours of programming across main and second stage, including film, music and spoken word acts. I was the sole artist liaison on site: from accreditation to artist care and rider provision. Below is a video of Heir, one of the acts I booked for the festival having a great time.

Flux summer events (2018) – Working in a marketing capacity with Flux, a Leeds based House, Techno and Disco promoter, record label and blog. Acted as artist liaison and production assistant across Farr Festival and the brands London and Leeds summer parties. Video below taken at Farr Festival where flux were hosting the main stage.

Neverworld (2018) – Marketing and production assistant, working with the marketing team in the two months leading to the festival and on site during the Festival. Role mirrored what was done for Camp Wildfire as the two festivals are run by the same independent company.

The Transmission (Feb, 2018) – Sold out event at The Brudenell Social Club (400 cap) with a line up of artists based in Leeds raising £800 for MAP Charity. The event was nominated for an “I love Student Radio Award” (2018). We broadcast the whole thing live using wire-cast with presenters recording as-live features to go out in between the live acts in order to showcase the amazing work done by Leeds Student Radio’s music team in the first semester of broadcasting. Working with Zoe Pettavel (co-head of Music) I programmed, advanced and distributed promotional material across Leeds. Specifically, I took a lead working out the logistics of the broadcast from programming. Broadcast stream available upon request.

UK General Election Coverage (June, 2017) – As Head of News on Leeds Student Radio I worked with Leeds Student Television leading an online live broadcast of the 2017 UK General Election. I personally conducted interviews with Alex Sobel (now Labour MP for Leeds North-West), George Hartshorn (a promoter who was running a “Vote to Party” event  in Leeds just before the election) and various students who were campaigning with the Conservative Party. I organised interviews with every candidate running in a student area, dealt with some aggressive political press relations workers and programmed lighter pre-records such as comedy sketches to fill the inevitable dead time within the broadcast. On the night I edited, presented and cycled down to the town-hall to swap memory cards with our reporters there on multiple occasions as they did not have an internet connection.

Leeds Ball (June, 2017) – Helped design and program a stage at Leeds Ball promoting talent from Leeds Student Radio and local community projects such as MAP. Pictures below

PIG: Pretend It’s Glastonbury (May, 2017) – A gig celebrating a year on Leeds Student Radio’s “Live and Local” radio show. Programmed, advanced and promoted by myself. Booking Howl, Heir, Kata Rayna and Joseph Moore, we sold out the space raising £250 for WaterAid. We also had T-Shirts made by local art collective Beefy Squarms and food provided by Honest Edibles.

US Election Night Coverage (November, 2016) – 10 hour long outside broadcast from Leeds University Union’s Old Bar attracting over 1,000 attendees. Organised content programming and promotion for the event alongside Lauren Ellis, with an event reach of 80,000 on Facebook event. Presented on the night of the event and edited content going out.

Radio and DJ

Currently host of monthly show on Threads Radio alongside Maddi Fearn. Started on Leeds Student Radio and featured on Radio Nova in 2018, moved to MCR Live September 2018 until the station stopped broadcasting in April 2019.

Photography

Video and Live Streams

Some coverage of the 2017 general election, leading a collaboration between Leeds Student Radio and Leeds Student Television

A live stream from a Leeds living room using a 1970s BBC vision mixer going out originally on Facebook Live for Kmah radio

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