Vie Marshall

Vie Marshall is a renowned Black British music journalist, entrepreneur and management consultant born in Reading, Berkshire.

Early work

Her first forays in music journalism came when she convinced a local newspaper, Reading Evening Post, to let her review local concerts, even though she was still as a school child at the time. Following the publication of her first 3 articles, she was offered a job at the paper. However, her mother insisted that she was too young and needed to finish her education. Once she’d left school and started attending college, Vie began working on local radio shows and producing her own fanzine, Exposure.

Magazines

Vie did her first internship at Record Mirror, later writing for them professionally Following her stint of work experience at Record Mirror, Vie relocated to London and became Assistant Music Editor at The Voice Newspaper, following her second internship. From there, she went on to freelance for a number of publications, including Hip Hop Connection; PopShop; Rage; The Face (magazine); i-D; The Daily Mirror; Mixmag; Blues & Soul and her own publication The Drum (launched with a loan from The Prince’s Trust and investment from the publishers of Time Out). Vie was also the first UK based journalist to champion Soul II Soul, Tupac Shakur's group Digital Underground, A Tribe Called Quest, Monie Love and Queen Latifah.

Nightclub ventures & corporate sponsorship

Vie is also responsible for introducing Hip Hop music to London’s West End clubs, as host of club nights Muthaland (where she also DJ’ed). She’d already made a stance against the negative aspects of Gangsta rap and so continued it with Muthaland, winning over both club goers and the corporate world with a pro-peace and respect music and attendance policy. Under Vie’s management, Muthaland broke ground in being the first nightclub venture to obtain corporate endorsements (from brands such as Wrangler Jeans; Purdy’s Elixir; Stüssy and Troop SPX). The nights gave a number of British music artists their first platform to perform was a regular stomping ground for record company A&Rs and other industry figures such as Tim Westwood, The Stereo MC’s, Gang Starr, Dee C Lee, DJ Pogo, Cutmaster Swift and DJ Biznizz.

Other work

On signing with Virgin Records in the early 90s, Janet Jackson decided she would grant just one interview, consequently Vie was commissioned by Jackson & Virgin as Jackson’s official interviewer/biographer, with her interview transcripts syndicated to the media.

Her work as a manager, consultant and agent has seen her work with BBC Radio 1, Hil St Soul, Vannessa Simon, Omar Lye-Fook, Jeffrey Daniel (Shalamar) and Move.meant.

Vie has also featured as an actor in a small number of independent films and theatre plays (with The Timber Theatre company, headed by acting siblings Dexter Fletcher and Graham Fletcher-Cook).