Music Venue Trust Gurus
MVT has assembled a team of experts who approached us to offer their services to venues in peril. Our gurus are passionate about live music and give a lot of their time voluntarily, especially to help with venues contacting our Emergency Response Service and face to face at Venues Day or other MVT events. We are always looking to recruit further experts in fields including Planning, Licensing, Acoustics, Legal and Financial issues so please encourage relevant professionals to contact us if they can offer us some time by emailing info@musicvenuetrust.com
The Gurus
Click on the images to read their bios.
Louise Aikman
Music & Entertainment Law
Louise is a solicitor with extensive legal risk management experience. She specialises in: Regulatory Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, IP Law, Data Protection and Commercial Contracts.
Andy Barber
Finance Strategy, Restructuring & Accounting
Andy is an accountant with over 20 years of experience, and a background in restructuring and insolvency. He specialises in helping businesses navigate challenging circumstances, manage their financial stakeholders and ensuring a robust finance function is in place.
Matt Barnwell
Profitability
Matt currently works as a Consultant to the Hospitality and Leisure industry, specialising in business operations, profitability and licensing.
Emily Berry
Energy Broker
Emily has worked in the energy industry for eight years with experience in supporting customers with procurement decisions, billing discrepancies and areas of possible cost recovery.
Chris Brown
Music & Entertainment Law
Chris is a consultant solicitor working on all aspects of music and entertainment law, specialising in Intellectual Property, Commercial Agreements, and Publishing.
David Butler
Business Advisory & Turnaround
David is a qualified insolvency practitioner with over thirty years’ experience of helping businesses and individuals to solve their financial problems.
Dave Campbell
Employment Law
Dave is an employment law advisor and trainer, with 13 years of experience advising employers and employees in all matters regarding people management and legislation.
Peter Conisbee
Energy Broker and Police Licensing
Peter is an experienced licensing consultant and commercial energy broker, finding and managing the best energy contracts for businesses.
Martin Court
Noise Planning & Licensing
Martin spent many years in Environmental Health specialising in noise issues. He has since moved to acoustic consultancy and provides advice for a variety of clients including music venues facing enforcement action from local authorities, planning for new venues or making applications for changes of use.
Matthew Dawson
Energy Broker
Matthew is an Energy Broker with 14 years of experience helping businesses manage and arrange gas and electricity supplies.
Alistair Duncan
Tax Specialist
Alistair is Head of Indirect Tax at Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP and has supported a number of music venues with the implementation of the Cultural VAT Exemption. Alistair also supports other clients in the music industry and hospitality sector.
Ben Dymock
Acoustics
An experienced architectural and environmental consultant with a PhD in urban noise and vibration control. Working in acoustics over the past 15 years, firstly as a mixing engineer and studio designer before moving into academic R&D, lecturing and commercial consultancy.
Gideon Feldman
Inclusive Design & Access
Gideon has extensive experience as an inclusive design specialist. He is a consultant level member of National Register of Access Consultants (NRAC), with 12 years experience of engaging on and facilitating change within the Live Events Industries across the UK and internationally with Attitude is Everything (AiE).
Josh Finesilver
Safety & Production
Josh is the Director of Event CTRL, the safety and production agency representing music festivals, events and venues.
Brendan Fisher
Landlord & Tenancy
Brendan is a Full time Chartered Surveyor and asset manager to bring some money in, and a part time music promoter to watch it all walk back out the door. He supports MVT to assess leases, tenant obligations and landlord negotiations.
Niall Forde
Licensing
An expert in licensing policy who offers support and advice to members of the Music Venues Alliance at MVT’s request and advises us on policy.
Martin Friend
Local Government and Planning
Martin has worked in local government and planning consultancy for over 30 years.
Martin Garland
Insurance
Working for NDML insurance brokers, Martin has a strong background in insurance for the nightlife industry. In the current climate, providing the best advice to support grassroots music venues and the wider night time economy to ensure they’re protected against whatever risk they may face.
Ian Harley
Acoustics
Ian has worked in acoustics for over 25 years firstly at a local authority where he gained experience in noise issues relating to Planning and Licensing, then latterly in private consultancy where he has worked with many operators from small pubs through to larger commercial venues. He brings extensive experience in discussing noise issues with operators and local authorities.
Ed Holloway
Architecture & Licensing
Ed is an architect at Beep Studio with extensive experience of music and arts venues, working with self financing community led groups and commercial operators.
Chris Hoskin
Corporate and Insolvency Lawyer
Chris has been a qualified lawyer for over two decades working at a number of international corporate legal and accountancy firms.
Ed Jolleys
Catering
A professional chef turned food safety and quality adviser, with a passion for live music and to see local, intimate and independent venues thriving.
Sean Keenan
Music & Technology Lawyer
Sean works in the intersection between music and technology and has a passion for the creative industries and the music industry in particular.
Stevie Kempner
Entertainment Law
Stevie is particularly well known for helping to launch the careers of new and emerging talent, in addition to their work for various chart-topping acts.
Ella van der Klugt
Planning
Ella is an urban planning consultant with over five years’ experience as a planner in the public and private sectors both in development management and policy development.
Stuart Langer
Planning
Stuart is a planning consultant with over 12 years of experience. Stuart is happy to advise on any planning issue, particularly noise and neighbouring properties.
Toby Lewis
Noise Planning and Licensing
Toby is a recognised expert in the application of noise planning and licensing policy and the assessment of statutory noise nuisance.
Alan Lynagh
Fire Regulations & Compliance
As founder of ComplianceUK, Alan delivers fire safety and compliance services across the leisure industry and specialises in adding value through maximising occupancies and premises licence flexibility.
Nicolas McBride
Licensing/Property
(Scotland & Northern Ireland)
Nick advises on licensing issues on a daily basis, which he often combines with his skills in the purchase, sale and leasing of licensed premises.
Kris Mitra, MA, MRTPI
Planning
Planning has been a passion for Kris for the past 30 years, where he has been able to utilise his knowledge to best advantage in delivering development projects for private and commercial clients.
Charlotte O’Mara
Music & Entertainment Law
Charlotte is a music and media partner having specialised in music and entertainment law since qualification building on an already established career in the music industry.
Matt Otridge
Not For Profit Structures
Matt is an ex-venue operator with extensive knowledge and experience around the benefits, and processes involved, in setting up GMVs as not for profit organisations.
Craig Page
Architecture
Craig is an electric bass player and architecture student with the ambition to build robust music venues, studios and performance spaces.
Adam C. Pearson
Business Energy Specialist
Adam is a Client Services and Account Manager working for The Big Energy Group, specialising in business utility contracts.
Peter Pegasiou
Music, Media and Entertainment law
Peter drafts and negotiates contracts in all areas of the music industry and also advises clients on their branding and business.
Dan Potter
Energy and Utilities Specialist
Dan is Managing Director of Enterprise at Consultiv Utilities, an independent consultancy operating in the energy market.
Simon Ricketts
Planning Law
Simon is a well-known planning lawyer and deservedly unknown musician. He is co-founder of boutique planning law firm, Town Legal LLP.
Pete Singfield
Legal
Pete is a partner and head of the Media & Entertainment Sector at Foot Anstey overseeing a cross disciplinary team offering services ranging from Real Estate, Corporate M&A and Data Protection through to IP and Dispute Resolution.
Anton Smith
Financial Distress & Civil Disputes Law
Anton is a solicitor with 25+ years experience of advising upon all aspects of the law and procedures relating to financial distress, as well as civil litigation and disputes generally, under English law. Anton is head of the Business Recovery and Insolvency Group at Ashton Bond Gigg, a commercial law firm based in Nottingham.
Steven Swift
Insurance
Steven is an experienced commercial insurance broker advising Grassroots Music Venues on insurance, risk and claims. He has supported Music Venue Trust and its members since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, providing advice on complex policy interpretation and business interruption, including Covid-19 BI, and working closely with the wider MVT team.
Robin Tarling
Debt Advisor & Insolvency Specialist
Robin has been supporting small businesses across the hospitality industry for 15 years providing debt advice, restructuring and insolvency solutions. Together with the team at Bridgewood Robin has helped over 1,000 clients across the UK.
Sarah Taylor
Licensing
Sarah is a solicitor specialising in licensing and regulatory law, supporting venues to obtain new licences, protect their existing licences and deal with issues relating to their venue such as noise complaints and incident response.
Benjamin Thomas
Charity Law and Legal Structuring
Ben is a solicitor specialising in charity, social enterprise and legal structuring. He works with lots of music venues on all manner of structuring issues, including charitable registration.
Steve Trigg
Finance Strategy
Steve is an experienced Finance Director who can look at resetting costs and building ongoing strategies for venues. Help to develop business plans and recovery for distressed operations.
Tony Trup
Acoustic
Tony is a Director of Atelier Crescendo, an independent acoustics consultancy providing advice on noise and acoustics for planning, licensing, design and construction.
Richard Vivian
Acoustics
Richard is one of the only truly dedicated music noise specialists in the UK, with over 25 years’ experience in the industry.
Hamish Walke
Town Planning/Planning Applications
Hamish is a town planner with wide-ranging experience in dealing with planning applications and appeals. He has worked for a number of local authorities and also in the private sector.
Adam Whitehouse
Compliance, Structural Integrity, and Health & Safety
Adam is the Compliance Director at Build Concierge. He is also a Chartered Building Engineer and a Chartered Quantity Surveyor at Volarex Commercial Consultants, specialising in compliance, health & safety, building condition, and heritage restoration.
Sam Winter-Alsop
Commercial Property Law
Sam is a Commercial Property Solicitor at VWV who acts for companies, charities and community organisations on all aspects of transactional property, he advises on: Landlord and tenant matters, disposals, acquisitions and property finance (including advising on property as security for funding).
Nick Wright
Business Rates
Nick has extensive experience of representing clients at valuation tribunal, including a recent victory on Trevor Horn’s Sarm West Studios. He advises the Music Industries Association on business rates issues affecting their members.