Phil Nelson

Director - Pathways Into Music (also First Column Management)

Phil has been an Artist Manager since 1988 managing first The Levellers who achieved 1 Platinum, 5 Gold records with Phil. During Phil’s tenure the band headlined the Glastonbury Festival before starting their own 15,000 capacity Festival Beautiful Days Festival. He went on to manage The Longpigs (1 Gold record and Brit Award Nomination), and current clients include Grammy and Ivor Novello winning Matt Hales / Aqualung / (1 Gold record), Duke Special (1 Platinum record), and Sweet Billy Pilgrim (1 Mercury music prize Nomination.)

Phil was the Vice Chair of the Music Managers’ Forum from 1997-2007. He co-founded The Great Escape Festival and now runs Pathways Into Music with Chris Cooke. Pathways is a not-for-profit organisation launched to support music educators and music talent development programmes around the UK and beyond, and to help early-career music-makers plan their personal pathways into music. Phil is Principal Lecturer for the MA in Popular Music Practice at BIMM University, London.