“In music, pretty much everyone ends up freelance by the time they're middle-aged”

What Steven asked Ben Hopkins, freelance music writer, former film critic, and our very own Gills columnist

Ben Hopkins is a freelance writer in the music industry, a former film critic, and Local Authority’s very own Gillingham Football Club columnist. Steven first met Ben for an interview back in March at the Past and Present micropub in Gillingham, but no interview occurred as Ben got involved in a conversation with the regulars about Gillingham FC. They met again in July and discussed how he came to support Gillingham, how ghostwriting works, and how Infinity War was the first MCU film he saw.

Ben Hopkins

Where were you born?
Farnborough. Not Farnborough Farnborough, but a suburb of Orpington.

How did you end up in the Medway Towns?
My parents moved to Snodland when I was one or two, and then we moved to Strood when I was four or five.

What jobs did your parents do growing up?
My dad worked in warehouses for Safeway’s primarily. My mum worked at a baker’s. Was it called in Morley's? Francis Iles and some shoe shop. I can't remember the name of it.

Did you enjoy school?
It was okay. Got to the point of maybe in the first three years of secondary school thinking I wasn't really any good at anything, but then sort of things picked up a bit after that.

Did you stay on for sixth form?
Yes, I did the classic A-level selection of English, Politics, General Studies, and Business Studies at Chatham Grammar.

Did you go to university?
It's changed its name so many times, but it's basically High Wycombe. I was doing music industry management.

And what does that mean?
Basically, you study various subsections of music, whether it's legal issues, venue safety, marketing. All sorts of stuff around that. It was, at the time, the first music industry course in the country.

How did you do?
Well, one of the things we discovered from the lecturers and the visiting people from the industry was that the chances of actually getting a job from this course were minimal. I spent most of my time focusing on work experience, and the actual studies were on the back burner. That's the only way you were going to get what you were meant to be doing out of it. I'd be at a record label or I did some stuff at the NME and various others.

Do you play any musical instruments?
No, I have no talent whatsoever.

Why did you want to study music management?
I guess it was just I was really into music for as long as I can remember really.

But not enough to actually learn how to play an instrument?
I just didn't have an aptitude for it. You don't want to see me try and play anything on the piano, for example. It's just a disaster. I feel like it's reasonably common in the music industry that people aren't musicians themselves.

What was your first full-time job?
Working for Warner Music, which was 2000. I became a staff writer for their PR department. When I applied for the Warner job, I had to submit an example piece for the Madonna single which had just been released. As Ali G was featured in the video for ‘Music’, I included a daft joke about him getting Madonna confused with Maradona. A few months later, Ali G introduced Madonna as Maradona at a big award show. It was such an obvious joke I’m sure some had already had the idea, but I’m happy to take credit.
My interview was with Barbara Charone, head of the label’s PR department. Walking into her office and immediately asking her about her framed Dennis Wise Chelsea shirt probably sealed the deal more than my conversation.

What is your official occupation now?
Freelance writer.

And what does that mean? What does that entail?
I work for pretty much every music company you can think of, in various regards, on a weekly basis. I'll probably be doing press releases for albums, tours, singles, videos. I might be doing biogs, which are not so much factual but sort of interview-type features that position an artist for their story at this stage in their career or introducing them and all sorts of other things semi-related to that.

Did your university degree help you in the music industry you ended up working in?
Not hugely. Only in as much as sort of you know the basic what every department should be doing, but in terms of practical knowledge, no, not really. Alright in terms of what did inspire me. This guy came in and he was a student radio plugger. His job was to send music out to a hundred stations and then phone them all up to see if they played it and it's a bit like doing telesales. I think that's the thing that I kind of thought, ‘Yeah, this course on its own is not going to do much for me.’ I don't know what I did first. I worked at One Little Indian, the record label that Bjork and at the time Alabama Three, and Sneaker Pimps. That was kind of an adventure. I did lots of student journalism at the time as well, talking to the Bluetones or Napalm Death or someone.