Kevin McManus is currently Head of UNESCO City of Music for Liverpool, based in Liverpool City Council and working closely with the Liverpool City Region Music Board.

Prior to this he was the Curator at the British Music Experience in Liverpool, the UK’s only national museum of rock and pop music.

Kevin has been involved in music since he began writing for influential music paper New Musical Express (NME) when he was 18. As well as writing for NME his music journalism career also included writing for The Face, ID, and Mixmag.

He went on to work for the University of Liverpool where he wrote a number of books about Liverpool music history and the social and economic context in which it was made.

In his subsequent public sector career Kevin led the pioneering creative industries sector development agency for Liverpool, Merseyside ACME. Kevin’s achievements during this period included setting up the Baltic Creative CIC and establishing Sound City.