Sound Vault has been made possible by broad range of people coming together from across the community, and across the generations. Here are a few of them who put the shows together, made the project happen, and presented shows regularly.
Paul Simpson
Paul was the main energy behind Sound Vault. He was the Chair of the launch executive team, and went on to become the Editor. As well as producing his own short-lived show (The Particular), he worked closely with many of the other volunteers, producing their shows on a weekly basis.
Paul is a former head of PR at BBC Radio 1. In a PR career that also had time spent in politics, he also had clients which included Kiss FM, music recognition app Shazam, and broadcasters Nicky Campbell and Mark Goodier. More recently, he was a senior lecturer in public relations at the University of Greenwich, and the University of the Arts, London.
He loves listening to the radio, and when a neurological condition forced him to retire early, he was excited when he had the time to come up with the germ of the idea for this project – and even more excited when the Farnham Maltings wanted to collaborate on it. Paul lives in Yateley, and was born in Farnham.
Tom Garrett
Tom was Sound Vault’s Vice Chair; an award winning filmmaker who was a student while involved with the project. He graduated in film production and screen-writing from the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, and was founder of the ‘Braid of Voices’ podcasting society there in 2016. As Vice Chair, he was responsible for creative direction, training, and wrote and produced the “Audio Listener’s Guide To Adequate Hearing” series. Tom passed away from a rare form of adrenal cancer at the age of 24 in August, 2021. He left a huge and lasting impression on us all. Huge love Tom – and all his family and friends.
Jorge Latter
Jorge was a lynchpin to the Sound Vault project, effectively the production and studio manager. The youngest member of the original executive team, Jorge was a film student at the local University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, and has already built a background in broadcasting and videography over the past four years, having worked with Ted Talks and many other productions. When not at Sound Vault Jorge works in child care. In addition, Jorge produced the four-part series “Tracks with Chack“, where he worked with a sixth-form student who was on a week’s work experience with the project.
Gilly Stewart
Gilly Stewart is a well known face in and around the town of Farnham, Surrey. Gilly threw herself into Sound Vault’s work, not only writing and presenting a storytelling podcast for younger children (“Tale Waves“), but acting as an unofficial ambassador for Sound Vault throughout the town, helping it to make connections. Her series builds on years of successful storytelling by Gilly in libraries, schools and bookshops, founded on child participation, dressing-up, and lots of fun. You can read more about those sessions here and here.
Gilly writes all her own stories. In 2016, she was awarded the ‘Outstanding Service to Farnham’ medal by the Town Council. She has been artistic coordinator of the Friends of Farnham Library; she has worked at the Museum for eight years, and is now a ‘Keep Guide’ at Farnham Castle. As well as being a fun, creative story-telling vehicle for children, with strong educational and historical resonances, Tale Waves attempts to capitalise on the increased interest in children’s radio.
Before getting involved with Sound Vault, Gilly had never used a computer, let alone made a podcast – testimony to the project’s commitment to digital literacy.
Mark Sumner
By day, Mark is a bricklayer from Upper Hale, near Farnham. In his spare time, Mark is an avid collector of vinyl. Despite having never used a computer, he jumped at the chance to share his passion for soul, jazz and fusion music, and ended up creating and presenting what became Sound Vault’s most prolific show – 30 episodes of Mixed Bag.
Mark was born in London, but grew up locally in Farnborough, Hampshire. He is a big fan of the Shiftless Shuffle sessions at the Trapeze Bar in East London. Like Gilly, his involvement with Sound Vault is testimony to the project’s commitment to digital literacy.
Tim Davies
Tim Davies, from Wrecclesham, brought a wealth of experience to our project, putting together a seventeen-part series (US Railway Travelogue) which documented the sights and sounds travelling around the US railway system. Not only was it well produced, it was accompanied by some breath-taking photography captured on Tim’s travels, which demonstrated beautifully how podcasts can be marketed via social media channels, such as Instagram.
While this is Tim’s first podcast series, Tim is no stranger to the radio studio. He used to be part of the team at Hospital Radio Wakefield over thirty years ago – the same place where a certain Chris Moyles could be found doing his thing before moving on to fame and fortune at BBC Radio 1 and Radio X.
Noah Dann
At 11 years old when he join Sound Vault, Noah was the youngest presenter/member of the project. He is from Farnham, Surrey, and attends the local All Hallows School. His podcast, The World of Wonder aimed to address politics and technology from the perspective of children and young people.
Noah’s energy and enthusiasm was infectious, and he was a mainstay of the Sound Vault studio. He was a great ambassador for the project, appearing regularly in local newspaper and radio coverage promoting us. He was interviewed on both the Peter Gordon Breakfast Show on Eagle Radio, and on Allison Fern’s show on BBC Radio Surrey.
Michael Chacko
Michael Chacko was a sixth form student at Yateley School when he did a week’s work experience with us in the summer of 2017. As a result of that, he went on to produce a four part series, and a one-off show to mark World Radio Day in 2018.
Kitty Sholl
Kitty Sholl, from Farnham was 14 years old when she joined our ranks, and became our second youngest presenter, picking up the skills in digital editing so she could go on to produce her own music show. It has been great sharing her passion for music, and swapping suggestions for tracks to go on playlists. Listen our for her name – whether she DJs under the name Kitty, or Plastic Dino, she’s set to go places!
Sophie Chalk
Sophie was our editorial advisor, pitching in with the portable digital recorder on the odd occasion. She has worked in broadcasting policy since 2006. She is Director of Advocacy for the International Broadcasting Trust and following a number of years as a Trustee of VLV, now works for the organisation as Head of Policy. Prior to working in policy, Sophie worked for 17 years as a producer/director and reporter in television and radio. Credits include BBC World Service and Radio 4, TV-am, GTMV, Sky News, Yorkshire Television, Jazz FM. In 1998 she set up the independent production company, Rooftop Productions, to specialise in making popular programmes about the developing world. Credits include commissions from the BBC and BAFTA-nominated Rooted for Five. She lives locally.
Paul Wisdom
Paul teamed up with us at Sound Vault, as we worked on future ideas for community radio, which included an internet radio station, ‘Heath Sound Vault‘. He is a director of the community interest company behind ‘Heath Radio‘, who had submitted an expression of interest in a community FM radio licence to cover Fleet, Yateley, Farnborough, Camberley, Hartley Wintney and the surrounding area, but ultimately, Ofcom gave the only licence for the area to another company.
Paul has extensive experience in radio, including at Wey Valley/Delta Radio, Mercury FM, Essex FM, Smooth Radio, and with BFBS, both here and overseas.
People we’ve met along the way
Sound Vault has enabled those of us who got involved to meet such an amazing array of people through the programmes we have made. Like Emma Sutcliffe, assistant curator at the Museum of Farnham. Like octogenarian Brendan McEnhill and his tales of playing with Jerry Lee Lewis and Bill Haley & The Comets. Like Keep It Cheap guys, Sam Gard and Alex Youngs who regularly got the train down from London to Farnham as respite from their final year degree studies. Like MXCast’s Katy Garnham, who provided an audio documentation of somebody’s transition from AFAB (assigned female at birth) to a body more suited to their needs. And like aspiring voice actor, Paul Enright-King.
Thank you to each and every one of you we have met along the way!
Rest of the team at launch
As we first started to get the idea of Sound Vault off the ground, before a single show was produced, we had an ‘executive’ team who helped orientate ourselves for launch – and we’d like to say a big ‘thank you’ for their energies too.
Darren Mooney; Cait Robinson; Opkar Hans; Nikki Gilbert; Garry Green; Nick Langhorne, and Karen Alford.
* And we’d like to thank Rhianne Hill for all her work with Sound Vault on the network’s brand identity prior to launch. Her creative eye helped ensure we looked as good as we sounded. And Al Patrick, who as well as providing much sage input at launch, also lent his voice to many of the ‘jingles’ in the soul/jazz show, Mixed Bag. Thank you!
Sound Vault 