Culture Now: Gilles Peterson and Jez Nelson

DJ and radio presenters Gilles Peterson and Jez Nelson discuss UK pirate radio on the occasion of ICA Reading Room Exhibition Shout Out! UK Pirate Radio in the 1980s.

Although best known as a radio presenter on BBC 6 Music and as an international DJ, Gilles Peterson is also an avid record collector, curator, music producer and record label manager. He hosts the annual Worldwide Awards in London and Worldwide Festival in the South of France and Switzerland. Gilles has a long history of running record labels, including Acid Jazz in the late Eighties, Talkin Loud in the Nineties through to his current venture, Brownswood Recordings. As a curator he has put together over 100 compilations including the remix album for Melanie Di Biasio and the Worldwide FM radio channel for computer game GTA. As a producer he has worked on international projects including the Havana Cultura series and 2014’s Sonzeira album, made in Brazil.

Jez Nelson is the founder and CEO of the content agency Somethin’ Else. He started his media life broadcasting from dodgy flats in South London as a pirate radio DJ before launching Somethin’ Else in 1991 where today he oversee its overall vision and strategy for further growth. Jez has presented on some of the UK’s most prominent radio stations including; K-Jazz, Horizon, Solar, Jazz FM, Kiss FM, Radio 3 and Radio 4. He has also presented various programmes for BBC-TV including Tomorrow's World. Today he remains a pirate at heart supporting contemporary and classic Jazz music through his show on BBC Radio 3′s Jazz On 3.