Annabel Vernon is a woman on a mission. Known to thousands across south Manchester as DJ Belly, thanks to her regular broadcasts on All FM, she’s now planning to take her current show out of the ether and into the clubs and creative spaces in Levenshulme.
That show is the fortnightly Levenshulme Salon, which has been on air since September 2010, in which Vernon chats to a wide range of local musicians and artists about their work. But her plan was always to have a physical salon, where creative people could come together to share ideas and collaborate on projects.
Vernon: creative revival
The concept of the salon came out of Renaissance Europe – wealthy aristocratic women used their money and position to patronise rising artists and host parties where the guests could debate issues and enjoy cultural pursuits. While salons still exist, albeit in a different format today, in Europe, in Britain they fell out of fashion long ago.
Vernon’s interest in creating a salon lay in her earlier radio experience. Having done a broadcasting course at All FM back in March 2009, she was asked to join the station two weeks later and debuted on the Finally Friday show. She then gravitated to Ladies Who Lunch but after a year decided she wanted to do something that reflected her own interests.
Thus the Levenshulme Salon was born and every two weeks Vernon interviews an eclectic blend of musicians, writers, poets, comedians, artists and even tarot readers and mediums. This mix will be replicated when the salon comes off air and into the Klondyke Club in the heart of the neighbourhood for its launch event.
Says Vernon: “I had one of those mad lightbulb moments. Me and my friends had been joking about turning my front room into the ‘Levenshulme Salon’. I’d be draped across the sofa with a cigarette holder with everyone swanning around me… then I thought ‘let’s do it’.
“Being at All FM, I was surrounded by a community of people with a wide range of skills and the station is melting pot for ideas and energy. So I came up with the idea of having the salon as a two-part project – one part being a radio show and the other to be a physical companion salon.”
With the idea in place, Vernon spent a year planning and developing her dream. Several months in, All FM gave her the green light for the radio show and told her to get it on air within two weeks.
“Luckily I’m good at flying by the seat of my pants but I’d quit Ladies Who Lunch in July and intended to spend the summer planning the salon. But then I had just days to get content together for the salon’s first radio broadcast. It’s usually a real mix – I’ll have an artist, a musician, a poet plus I’m an astrologer so I throw a bit of that in too. It’s a specialist show but I try to keep the content broad so listeners don’t feel excluded from any part.
“Our first show opened with a Native American blessing, chanting and drumming, because I’d run into a Native American woman in Reddish just a week before! The very next day, someone emailed the station to say he’d loved the drumming, could I put him in touch with the drummers and offering to get involved with the companion salon.”
And so to the launch event.
“This is a great time to launch really. Levenshulme is positively buzzing these days and it is brimming with creative talent. I’d like the salon to play a part in the ongoing regeneration of the area,” says Vernon. “Over the last year we’ve seen things like Levenshulme Inspire open, which is a base for a lot of creative projects, and there’s the new regular crafts market that has sprung up. The salon has a role in that it can help the people in the creative community here work alongside independent traders and the clubs and arts societies in Levenshulme.”
One aspect Vernon hadn’t anticipated when booking acts for the companion salon was the current threat to All FM’s future as a community radio station
All FM is currently facing the loss of around £40,000 a year in funding from Manchester City Council – around half its running costs – as a result of the spending cuts. If the grant is withdrawn, the 10-year-old station could close immediately. Vernon’s gig has now become a much-needed fundraising event to keep the popular station on air.
Vernon says all the proceeds from the event will go to All FM. As she says, “Levenshulme Salon is very much about the creative and spiritual – with a small s – revival of Levenshulme.”
A Levenshulme without All FM would be a diminished neighbourhood.
The Levenshulme Salon launches on Saturday 19 March at The Klondyke, Albert Road, Levenshulme. Tickets cost £5 from POD, the Blue Bell pub, the Klondyke and online from We Got Tickets.
The line-up include performances by Caulbearers, Blue Grenade, Phil Davies and the Ninja Smokebombs and The KJs, plus special guests.
