OBE For Queen Of The Indies

The woman who effectively looks after the interests of the UK’s independent music companies has been awarded an OBE for her services to the creative industries.

Alison Wenham, a founding member of the Association For Independent Music and now its chairman and chief exec, will receive her award from the Queen at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace later this year.

Wenham, one of the most powerful women in the music industry and affectionately known as “Queen Of The Indies,” has grown AIM to the point where it’s become one of the most respected and successful trade associations in the world. It has more than 900 independent record label members, representing a 20 percent share of the UK’s music business.

“Alison is like a force of nature. The record industry is such a complex one, and to unite a world full of inflated ego and self interest is no mean feat,” said Bella Union label owner Simon Raymonde.

“Knowledge is one thing, it can be accumulated, but judgment and perception are harder to attain, and when so much is at stake, Alison Wenham represents all AIM’s members, and the wider musical community.”

Her achievements at AIM include licensing the original version of Napster and leading the negotiations between Apple and the indie sector when it launched iTunes UK. It guaranteed the inclusion of independent sector repertoire, which at one stage had been largely overlooked by the technology firm.

Along with other senior independent figures she’s overseen the formation of MusicIndie and Merlin, the body which licenses independent music to new digital platforms, ensuring the indie sector continues to be represented on the same level as its major label counterparts.

In 2006 Wenham was elected founding President of the Worldwide Independent Network comprising more than 25 independent trade associations.

Two years later it launched ‘Independents Day,’ an annual celebration of independent music, artists and labels which culminates in a series of global gigs, special auctions and the release of limited edition music.

She also struck a partnership with UK daily The Independent to publish an ongoing music magazine supplement purely focused on indie label material.

“No one deserves this honour more than Alison. The Queen of the Indies has over the past 10 years brought the indie community, here and worldwide, from a standing start to a position of formidable strength and tremendous influence,” said Beggars Group chairman Martin Mills.

Wenham’s music biz career began in 1970 when she worked part time in a local record shop. After completing a degree at Keele University and a four-year stint as sales manager for a London-based retail chain, she became sales and marketing manager of Conifer Records and later a director.

She became MD at BMG Entertainment International UK after selling Conifer Records to the German music company in 1994.

nder her direction Conifer grew to be the UK’s largest independent record and distribution company in the specialist music field.
Other music industry figures to receive an award in the Queen’s birthday list include Velvet Underground founder John Cale and Graham Nash. Both received an OBE.

Phil Kelsall, the resident organist at Blackpool’s Tower Ballroom, receives an MBE as does Leonard Andrews, a 90-year-old brass band teacher.