Izzy Thomas
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izzygthomas.bsky.social
Izzy Thomas
@izzygthomas.bsky.social
Ncl PhD candidate in music venues and labour history. Musician of many trades, master of none. Occasional journalist and critic.
Why I became interested in the subject, featuring references to the South Wales valleys, Thatcher, and mysterious, hidden dressing rooms:
blogs.ncl.ac.uk/ithomas3/how...
#workingmensclubs #socialclubs #musichistory #conservativeclubs #britishlegion #musicinclubs
“How did you get interested in working men’s clubs? And why music?” – Music in Clubs
blogs.ncl.ac.uk
April 28, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Highly recommended, for anyone who's ever struggled with their relationship with music.
www.buzzmag.co.uk/while-music-...
Belatedly sharing this review in which I pretentiously cram multiple music references and, in a moment of late-night-writing madness, attempt to compare the writer to Beethoven.
Music historian EMILY MACGREGOR pens a confessional memoir
Emily MacGregor’s While The Music Lasts recounts her father’s relationship with music and her own journey to becoming a music historian.
www.buzzmag.co.uk
April 19, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Reposted by Izzy Thomas
Big thanks and congratulations to @izzygthomas.bsky.social and co for organising such a great event!
April 15, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Great to have a paper by Martin on Max Boyce at Treorchy Rugby Club and performances of Welshness. Part of a whole morning of papers on topics close to my heart that had me absolutely buzzing. Definitely a couple of Welsh academics in the room swaying along to Hymns and Arias...!
Really stimulating couple of days at this conference. Enjoyed presenting a paper on Max Boyce. @royalmusical.bsky.social #AcademicSky #musicology
April 18, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Unwinding from a busy week:
1. Presenting my documentary film at the Subcultures Network Conference in Norwich
2. More scouring the archives at Mildmay Radical Club in between dancing to Dolly Parton and serving chips to older members
3. Delivering a two day mini-conference on music in pubs&clubs!
April 18, 2025 at 8:26 PM
✨Registration is now open for the RMA Study Day - Everyday Music Scenes: Pubs, Clubs and 'Stutes.✨

And we’re excited to announce that @petebrownbeer.bsky.social, author of Clubland: How the Working Men’s Club Shaped Britain, will be giving our keynote… with a twist!

@royalmusical.bsky.social
March 3, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Doing fieldwork in Islington. It's nice. Still has libraries. No rubbish lining the roads. Funded by the taxes of the local hipster multimillionaires, they're managing to hold this corner of the country in some sort of pre-recession glory days of state infrastructure, in-between matcha latte shops.
February 7, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Izzy Thomas
Please show your support of Cardiff University School of Music by sharing your experiences during your studies, shaping the narrative to champion the examples of excellence across the department.

Share your experiences here: forms.gle/R1V5u6gFpDj9...
January 29, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Turn the universities into weapons technology hubs and be done with it. We'll need it when we're protecting our nation from people whose languages we no longer speak, whose religions we can't fathom, whose music we can no longer jam with, and whose history we've forgotten we're intertwined with.
/s
January 28, 2025 at 6:36 PM
"...in Under The Eye Of The Big Bird civilisational collapse is assumed, and extinction is hinted at. It’s the attempt at surviving and rebuilding, in whatever forms possible, that allows for Kawakami's innovative worldbuilding and reflections on ethics, political structures and human nature..."
UNDER THE EYE OF THE BIG BIRD: innovative post-apocalyptic sci-fi
In Hiromi Kawakami’s post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel, newly translated from Japanese, attempts at surviving allow for innovative worldbuilding.
www.buzzmag.co.uk
January 22, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Izzy Thomas
There’s probably a tonne of pub rooms and venues that will be sat empty or quiet that people would book for a few hours if groups knew they could

Thinking about how many remote workers must want to meet with a large team and end up booking corporate spaces rather than independent businesses
January 4, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Reposted by Izzy Thomas
20 years ago we were suing teenagers for millions of dollars because they were torrenting a single Metallica album and now billionaires are demanding the free right to every work in history, so that they can re-sell it.

The law only ever serves capital.
January 8, 2024 at 4:34 PM
3 days left to get submissions in for the RMA Study Day(s) at Newcastle University in Spring
EVERYDAY MUSIC SCENES: PUBS, CLUBS AND 'STUTES

Some great session themes are coming together from the papers submitted, but still time for a few more!
@royalmusical.bsky.social
@newcastleuni.bsky.social
November 27, 2024 at 9:14 PM
A bit about me:
Once upon a time I turned to heritage studies to cope with the grief of watching grassroots music venues get murdered. I thought it might contain the solutions. With a jolt I realised there are 100(0?)s of other buildings across the country functioning as music venues, also dying.
November 27, 2024 at 5:24 PM