Abigail Ward is an artist, producer, DJ, writer and curator from Lancashire, UK, with deep roots in Manchester’s vinyl underground and a growing reputation as a purveyor of raw, emotional machine music under the alias Ghost Assembly.
Abigail cut her teeth behind the counters of Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange and Kingbee, where twelve years of hawking wax to heads and obsessives gave her the ear of a true selector. As a DJ, she stitches together strange, soulful selections with the intuition of a lifelong digger – rare soundtracks, dubwise electronics, krautrock and deep soul rub up against mutant disco, outsider pop and off-kilter anti-bangers. It’s cinematic. Subversive. From the heart.
She’s played across the UK in clubs, bars, festivals and art galleries – with recent bookings including Manchester International Festival, É Soul Cultura, We Out Here, The Golden Lion and Manchester Psyche Fest .
As Ghost Assembly, she’s released four acclaimed EPs combining Chicago-style house, acid, breakbeat and cosmic disco, drawing praise from Test Pressing, Bandcamp Daily, Optimo, Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy and Luke Una, who calls her “one of the unsung heroes”. Her debut release, I Miss Your Love (Ruf Kutz), featured in Bandcamp’s Best Electronic Music of 2023.
A broadcaster of note, Abigail has curated and presented shows for NTS, Melodic Distraction and Reform Radio and is known for her anarchic humour as much as her deep crates. She is also co-founder of Suffragette City, a Manchester club night spotlighting women, trans and non-binary DJs while raising funds for grassroots causes.
Whether she’s live in a sweaty basement or broadcasting from her studio in Hulme, Abigail creates sets with real narrative pull – immersive, emotional road trips designed to haunt the heart and move the feet.
“Her selections are insanely magical… deeply esoteric and perfectly balanced. You can’t contrive that or replicate it.” – Luke Una
Charity Co-founder & Curator
Abigail is a co-founder of Manchester Digital Music Archive, an online community archive established in 2003 to celebrate Greater Manchester music and its social history. She left the organisation in 2020.
She has curated many exhibitions and events, usually with a strong community focus.
She acted as Consultant Curator on New Order’s box set re-release of their debut album, Movement.
Other clients include: Manchester Metropolitan University, Imperial War Museum North, Manchester Academy, Manchester Histories, The Lowry, People’s History Museum, University of Manchester, Liverpool John Moores University
Selected exhibitions:
- We Are Dynamite! Rock Against Racism 40th Anniversary exhibition at NIAMOS, Hulme, Manchester
- Queer Noise: The History of LGBT+ Music and Club Culture in Manchester at People’s History Museum
- Defining Me: Musical Adventures in Manchester – a major exhibition exploring music & identity at The Lowry
- Moss Side Stories: an online exhibition celebrating music and club life in Moss Side & Hulme
Creative Facilitator
Abigail is a freelance creative facilitator and project manager specialising in creating projects, progression routes and opportunities for Disabled and neurodivergent musicians. She identifies as neurodivergent.
Podcast Producer
Her work as an podcast producer includes:
- Unity is Strength, a podcast exploring rebel women of the trade union movement, commissioned by Manchester Histories
- Not Going Shopping, an audio project commissioned by Manchester Pride marking 30 years since the enactment of Section 28
- The Lapsed Clubber Audio Map, a podcast tracking the rave scene in Manchester, commissioned by Manchester Metropolitan University
- Superbia, an audio installation of queer poetry for 2019’s Superbia Gallery, commissioned by Manchester Pride
Writer | Editor
Abigail has written music features, reviews and sleeve notes for a number of outlets including the Quietus, Heavenly Recordings, Music Week, Red Bull Music Academy, LTM Recordings and Piccadilly Records.
In 2008 she edited and co-designed ‘1 Top Class Manager – the notebooks of Joy Division’s manager 1978-80′, a book about Rob Gretton published by Anti-Archivists.
Contact: hello@terminaljive.com