Dimbola are delighted to have Mark Cooper, ex BBC Head of Music and Jools Holland producer coming to give a talk on Wednesday August 23rd, about his 26 years with ‘Later… With Jools Holland’, and his amazing career from music journalist in the 1970s, to head of music television, BBC Studios. Now, after leaving his job as head of music television, BBC Studios in 2020, where Mark exec produced more than 250 music documentaries and led BBC TV’s coverage of Glastonbury, he has written a book, ‘Later…with Jools Holland: 30 Years of Music, Magic and Mayhem’.

For 26 years, Mark attended every single recording of the show and its New Year’s Eve sister show, Jools’ Annual Hootenanny.

Mark Cooper and director Janet Fraser Crook came up with the idea for ‘Later… With Jools Holland’ with, back in 1992 - a ground-breaking concept at the time. Filmed ‘in the round’, the studio was full of different musical artists on different stages with the action switching from one to another – a revolution then, and probably still now!

Dr Brian Hinton, Chair of Dimbola, will be interviewing Mark on the evening: “Mark Cooper pioneered how to capture the flash and crash of a live gig onto film, and forever,” said Brian.

Mark will be giving his talk in the Experience the Isle of Wight Festival 2002 to 2023 exhibition – and many of those who’ve played the IW Festival have appeared on Later…

“Later…with Jools champions all kinds of music as did the Isle of Wight festivals I attended in 1969 and 1970,” said Mark Cooper. “I look forward to returning to the island to share stories about everyone from Leonard Cohen to Jay-Z and from Seasick Steve to Christine and the Queens as they seized their moment in the gladiator’s ring of the Later…studio.”

Tickets for Mark’s talk are £9, or if you are a Friend of Dimbola, just £7, with doors at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. There will be a cash bar and an interval. All profits help support the  Julia Margaret Cameron Trust to keep Dimbola open for all of us to enjoy. You can buy tickets from reception or call us 01983 756814 and pay over the phone.