Bengi Ünsal is Head of Contemporary Music at the Southbank Centre, the UK’s largest arts centre, on the south bank of the River Thames, where she is responsible for a year-round programme of more than 200 gigs and contemporary music performances across its iconic venues – the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room. She manages the award-winning Meltdown, the longest-running artist curated festival in the world, securing luminaries M.I.A (2017), Robert Smith (2018), Nile Rodgers (2019) and Grace Jones (2020) as curators. Robert Smith’s 2018 festival was the highest-grossing Meltdown ever, nominated for Music Week Awards’ Festival of the Year and winner of the AIM Independent Music Awards ‘Act of Independence’.

He is primarily known for being the drummer for English bands The Libertines and Dirty Pretty Things, as well as Guyanese-British reggae musician Eddy Grant. He also played with the New York Dolls for their 2004 reunion shows, Powell has performed at the Isle of Wight Festival, Wireless Festival, T in the Park and Oxygen, as well as playing with Red Hot Chili Peppers. Gary Powell also has a successful DJ career, deejaying for club NME at London’s Koko and Carl Barat’s club night as well as many other venues in London. Powell also performed drums on Chas and Dave’s 2013 album That’s What Happens. From 2016 to January 2019, Powell was the touring drummer for ska band The Specials, replacing the late John Bradbury. He also runs his own record label, 25 Hour Convenience Store.

Gary has his own radio show on Boogaloo Radio and is currently doing a series of Protest Mix.