OUR STORY

Green House Group was formed in 2009 when a group of friends from tech and PR backgrounds decided that this internet thing had legs. One of those friends was Alex Lee Thomson, who had joined the collective after three years at Orbit PR. There Alex had worked alongside Karen Johnson on campaigns for Frank Sinatra, Secret Garden Party, Orbital and Spiritualized.

Before that Alex was a regular contributor to Rockfeedback, music editor for Red Stripe’s website, on-camera interviewer for the brand at festivals, held a monthly column in The Fly magazine, and was a cover features writer for Notion Magazine. Originally from Staffordshire, Alex had got into the music industry via a fanzine he started in Stoke, as a way to interview bands and get into gigs for free between 2005-06.

In the earliest days of Green House Group finding budgets was tough. At the height of the blogosphere, when Hype Machine and traditional press were still sought after to fill the core of any campaign, popping things on fan pages was still a bit of a novelty. Alex remembers being tacked on to the end of label update meetings being “like hosting the feelgood local interest pieces at the end of the real news. Nice, but they’re more interested in the weather.”

One of Green House’s first clients would lead to their first side project. Collaborating with The Flowerpot venue, which was helmed by some of the minds behind Frog; The River Rat Pack Tour was born. This two year project would find artists like Mumford & Sons, Bastille, Jay Jay Pistolet (aka The Vaccines’ Justin Young), Beans On Toast, and Sound of Rum (aka Kae Tempest) alongside others living together on a barge. Artists would travel along The Thames, stopping each night to host a free gig in a small venue, living and working together, collaborating on new music, and cementing a scene. The tour was featured on BBC Evening News and also on the cover of TNT magazine, with a bespoke artwork piece from Pete Fowler.

That scene extended to Blissfields Festival, where Green House Group would handle all aspects of marketing, from advertising, press and radio, to designing and editing the programme. During Green House’s time with Blissfields it went from an 800 capacity event to a 5,000 capacity show featured in Guardian’s top ten festivals for five years in a row, picking up literally hundreds of other accolades and a shelf full of festival awards.

Other side projects at Green House in the early era was Track In The Box, a daily newsletter that gave subscribers a handpicked song every day as picked by Green House and various guest editors including Ellie Goulding, Chase And Status, and The Stranglers. While in circulation, before streaming took over the need for such a service, the list grew to over 10,000 subscribers, was featured in The Guardian and Netted, who quoted “Lester Bangs would approve.”

“There were a few early adopters though, like Various Artists, who saw the tide moving over to what we were doing. They took a bit of a chance on social media, and in our first few years in business we started working with Charli XCX, The Enemy, Reverend & The Makers, and Killing Joke together.”

Killing Joke would be a key act for Green House. Prior to working with the agency the band had no digital presence outside of a standard website. However within just a few months they had built a huge online fanbase. Over time this would grow into 250,000 fans on Facebook alone, the band also achieving their highest charting records in decades as well as a huge uptake in live ticket sales. Killing Joke’s approach to digital showed that social media wasn’t just for younger generations, but with a respectful and fan-focused campaign, social media was a core tool for established artists.

After an initial few years of growing and figuring out what they wanted to do, the original Green House team disbanded. Some went off to launch the much celebrated street food eatery Mother Clucker, while others went on to be successful developers, and head operations for mental health charity Calm. Alex stepped in to lead the company in 2014.

Alex has always been keen to hire from the grassroots, with a number of account managers coming from various backgrounds. Some of those who have worked with Alex have also been, or gone on to be, successful feature writers for GQ, editors of Loud & Quiet and Line of Best Fit, or secure jobs with Parlophone, Universal, and BMG. Alex’s current team covers a number of disciplines including sound design, illustration, copywriting, video editing, DJing, filming, as well as graphic design, and of course marketing.

Alex says, “Growing up in Stoke, I’m very aware how hard it is to find a first step. With Green House I had the luxury of picking who I wanted on my team, and that was people who had a bit of imagination, irreverence, humour and a sense of hard work. I figure you can show somebody pretty quickly how we structure things, but you can’t teach somebody how to be funny. Finding an emotional connection is a huge part of the job, and either you can do that or you can’t. I’ve always said, we’re music fans… not marketing wankers.”

In recent years Alex has been asked to present to the PRS Foundation, has guest lectured at universities and music schools, spoken at Reeperbahn, SXSW, Wide Days, and appeared more years at The Great Escape as a guest panellist than anybody else in the conference’s history.

During Covid-19, Green House launched a charity fundraiser called Virtual Pints - asking people to buy their favourite venue a virtual drink to raise money. This was championed by Time Out, Dummy, and countless other publications, artists and venues. Many venues, including Green House’s favourite London spot The Lexington, adopted the virtual pint approach raising over £50,000 to cover overheads. Also during this time Green House teamed up with Loud & Quiet magazine to launch the Indie Music Dispatch alongside End of the Road festival, Crack, 4AD, Rough Trade, and The Quietus.

Always keeping a toe dipped into editorial projects, the team at Green House have also worked with Smash Hits as it transitioned into a playlist brand. Then more recently worked with Amazon Music scripting live shows for their various cross-genre Twitch livestreams, including special concept episodes for Ed Sheeran, and a game led scavenger hunt with Easy Life, then becoming quizmasters of the newly formatted pop quiz series.

Green House operates far outside of just social media management. The company helps programme the hugely acclaimed Rockaway Beach festival, working with the show’s founder, Ian, on both the live and non-live lineups, as well as devising artwork and coordinating all marketing across the board.

Alex and Green House, working alongside CMU, have provided in-depth analytics and programming to the festival industry, working closely with the Association of Independent Festivals Congress event. Green House now works closely with the Music Venue Trust as marketing support for the Revive Live and United By Music tours. In 2022, Green House took a pivotal head of marketing role in bringing back the iconic Secret Garden Party, selling out 20,000 tickets to the rebirthed event in under 30 minutes.

Over the last few years, some of the other projects that Green House have collaborated with include: 2000trees, ArcTanGent, Barn On The Farm, Blue, Charlie Cunningham, Danny Goffey, DJ Shadow, Distiller Records, Echo & The Bunnymen, E-40, Everything But The Girl, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Gang Of Four, Jim Croce, Katie Melua, Laura Marling, Liverpool International Music Festival, MØ, Michael Bolton, Motley Crue, Orlando Weeks, Shakin Stevens, Simple Minds, Simply Red, Skunk Anansie, Stiff Records, Suede, The Courteeners, The Kooks, The Libertines, The Lightning Seeds, The Luka State, The Pixies, The Specials, Toddla T, Tricky, Trojan Records, Jimmy Choo Academy, and The Zombies.

For these projects, Green House has had various digital and social media roles, collaborating with both indie and major labels and promoters and organisations. Every project is different. Every project has different challenges, working with vastly diverse teams and approaches. No two artists or events are alike, so get in touch to help tell your unique story.