Speakers: Nemone Metaxas, Phoebe Inglis-Holmes
We welcome BBC 6Music legend Nemone Metaxas for our closing keynote speech. Nemone’s career spans far beyond the realms of broadcasting & DJing (including Top Of The Pops, BBC Radio 2, Electric Ladyland) although that’s played an imperative part of her successful career. Joined on stage by BBC Introducing’s Phoebe Inglis-Holmes, we’ll learn about Nemone’s combination of psychotherapy & music and how that has forged a dedication to advocating for mental health & wellbeing within the industry.
Nemone has been at the forefront of UK national broadcasting for 25 years, with the last twenty at the BBC. Joining Radio 1 in 2000, she also presented to mainstream audiences on Radio 2 and Five Live before finding her spiritual home at BBC Radio 6 Music. She has produced and presented documentaries for BBC Radio 2 and has hosted numerous television shows reflecting her passion for sport and music, including TOTP, BBC Ski Sunday, ITV’s British Touring Car Championships coverage. Now best known as a BBC Radio 6 Music DJ, she is a familiar daytime voice but her passion for dance music led to curating a specialist show (Nemone’s Electric Ladyland) for the last decade.
A fully qualified psychotherapist, Nemone is an insightful interviewer and vocal champion of mental health issues. During the pandemic, she was the first to bring breathing and grounding exercises to a broader audience via 6 Music - you can find her mediation moments at https://www.mixcloud.com/Nemone/ . Building on her psychotherapeutic background, she now hosts her Journeys in Sound series: taking a deeper dive into our relationship with music, interviewing musicians about the experiences that have shaped who they are. In October 2021, the John Grant episode discussing his life experiences and relationship to music won a New York Radio Festival Award.
Before her career in broadcasting, Nemone completed a Psychology BSc at Manchester University. A lifetime spent listening and talking to people in the interests of hearing and communicating their story compelled her to return to study Psychotherapy later in life. She now holds a masters in Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling and sees clients weekly, online and face to face in West London. As a therapist, she offers a confidential space to reflect together on what’s happening for her clients and why. Having been part of the media world, and witnessing the rise in social media first hand, she is mindful of the huge worth in a one to one connection with another person, face to face.
Nemone has more recently combined her knowledge of both psychotherapy and music collaborating on and touring with Scottish Ensemble, DJing and speaking at How the Light Gets In Festival in May this year, contributing to GROW - Mixcloud’s educational campaign exploring the creator journey - and is a creative consultant on The Box in Plymouth’s “Because The Night Belongs To Us” exhibition.
Always a keen sportsperson, having had a tilt at the Greek national 400m squad for the 2004 Olympics, Nemone is now an advocate of outdoor swimming for mental health and well-being and, having completed her first half-marathon last year, she’ll be at the start line for the Royal Parks Half Marathon again in 2022.