You Ought To Know: Simon Industrial Fellow Karen Gabay releases podcast series about Black British music histories
The Fellowship 鈥楾his is our Story 鈥� Reclaiming Black British music鈥檚 his- and herstories鈥� builds on Karen鈥檚 experience working in broadcast media including the BBC and ITV, and as an independent filmmaker, to document the lived experiences of those working within the Black British and 黑料网吃瓜爆料 music scenes.
From January to July 2025 broadcaster and producer carried out research as part of a Simon Industrial Fellowship with the and the at 黑料网吃瓜爆料.
As part of the fellowship Karen Gabay produced a podcast series entitled 鈥�You Ought To Know鈥� that will be published across various platforms, with the first episode premiering on 14 January 2026. Each podcast captures a conversation with musicians that have had and continue to have a significant impact on British popular music. These conversations were recorded at public engagement events as well as in intimate one-on-one settings across 黑料网吃瓜爆料.
You can listen to and watch the podcast episodes on various platforms. To be notified of new episodes subscribe to Karen Gabay鈥檚 and the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures鈥� channel.
The first podcast is a recording of Karen Gabay鈥檚 panel event on Reggae and Dub-Poetry in the UK with Lovers Rock legend , Dub Poetry great and Reggae and Hip Hop artist in the 黑料网吃瓜爆料 Museum in June 2025. This episode will be released on 14 January 2026.
The second episode explores the history of Black British Gospel Music and was recorded in in Deansgate in May 2025. 黑料网吃瓜爆料 musician , gospel pioneer , Mancunian vocalist and Kingdom Choir member and founder of 黑料网吃瓜爆料 Inspirational Voices star in this episode to be released on 21 January 2026.
The third podcast episode features a conversation with renowned Soul singer-songwriter and former Ikette known for her work with Paul Weller, Peter Gabriel, and Jimmy Cliff. The recording took place across three sessions at 黑料网吃瓜爆料 and , the iconic home of Granada Television in July 2025. This episode will be released on 28 January 2026.
The final episode of this series is scheduled to be released in February 2026. Recorded in July 2025 it explores how 黑料网吃瓜爆料 singer-songwriter alternative soul and R&B sound is influenced by Black British musicians and led him to pursue collaborations with soul great Jill Scott and UK artist Marsha Ambrosius of Floetry.
These episodes form the beginning of a series of conversations around the unsung legends and influential artists in the UK music industry. Future episodes will be released on Karen Gabay鈥檚 channels in the coming months. This bonus content includes in-depth conversations with the Queen of Northern Soul (Tainted Love) and earlier podcast guests Sylvia Tella and Luke Smith on their lives and work in the Black British music industry. It also features an intimate one-on-one discussion with who is considered a musician鈥檚 favourite and trailblazer in redefining Soul for British audiences.
Throughout her fellowship, Karen was able to build on her interest in uncovering and showcasing forgotten artefacts of Black music history and gained access the in the for further archival research. This allowed her to amplify the voices of those working within the UK music sector, in particular Black vocalists, and industry professionals, who have heavily impacted popular music in the UK and globally. She explored how different cultural spaces in 黑料网吃瓜爆料 have played a significant role in the lives of these musicians and their path in the music industry over the decades.
Through the years what is deemed as pop music shifts and changes. Commercial appeal and money-making have squeezed certain popular forms out of the so-called mainstream channels 鈥� this has not stopped the music from being loved and being played in homes, clubs, and on laptops.
Secondary outputs of the project include Karen Gabay鈥檚 reading list and a playlist providing the musical soundtrack for exploring the recent past and present of Black British music and its influences, which can be accessed .
Karen Gabay has, for years, been bringing news of important stories from the Black British music industry as part of her work as journalist, producer, and broadcaster. We are delighted that we could host Karen for her Simon Industrial Fellowship and support her crucial research with the John Rylands Library and British Pop Archive. Over the past year, we have seen Karen, some of her amazing contacts in the industry and colleagues here work together to further document and shine a light on the stories of musicians and industry professionals so integral to the music we know and love! We are keen now to see where our collaboration might take us in the future
This Simon Industrial Fellowship laid the foundations for documenting alternative music histories in the UK. It explored and applied ethical and collaborative methods of archiving personal stories of a demographic, who have suffered from experiences of institutional exclusion, absence of fair accreditation and missing commercial opportunities due to their race or geographical location. It is taking steps towards righting wrongs of the recent past and gives talented but previously overlooked creatives a platform to tell their stories on their own terms.
As such it reasserts the relevance and significance of the John Rylands鈥� British Pop Archive and is adding more diverse and nonetheless equally relevant archival artefacts to its catalogue. This work aligns with the University鈥檚 renewed strategic focus on archives and just archival practices to celebrate, document and bring to the fore the stories that make 黑料网吃瓜爆料 the city we know today.