Something musical:
The Moseley Folk Festival is your big event for this weekend. Last year’s was terrific in the rain on Saturday and fantastic in the sun on Sunday. If you’re a hippy with a beard and a floppy hat then you’ll be in heaven and if you’re not by any stretch you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Something arty:
Last chance to see How To Improve The World at the BM&AG Gas Hall as it ends on Sunday. Here’s my review. Well worth a visit.
Something geeky: PodCampUK comes to Birmingham with two days of talks, seminars and random networking things all done on a free-form-ish basis. If you want to run and event just add yourself to the wiki
Something else?
Got any tips? The comment box is yours.
You think TAK are getting a lot of mentions on this blog? That’s because they post a lot of bloggable stuff to their blog. If you had a blog and posted lots of bloggable stuff to it I’d mention you here too…
The Stirrer reports that Birmingham band Midas have been disqualified from the UK charts for the current single Red Shoes expected to chart in the top 20 based on midweek figures. It appears they prompted a suspicious spike in sales by selling pre-loaded SIM cards at gigs which make downloading the single easier for fans, but the Official Chart Company have apparently refused to investigate further.
It’s worth noting that the band release on their own label, Plastic Tank, and therefore don’t have the legal muscle of, say, EMI. And it’s also apparent that the chart system isn’t able to deal with innovations in selling digital music. I mean, I’m a total tech-nerd but the concept of selling pre-loaded SIM cards seems totally left-field to me.
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Ah, the perils of writing stuff and scheduling your blogging software to post it the next day. In the meanwhile someone else will write something much more informed, detailed and in all ways better. Step forward Andrew Dubber who reckons Midas getting kicked out is the right thing, but that everyone should get kicked out cos the charts are rigged, and anyway the charts are rubbish and mean nothing. He goes on to hope that Midas’ outrage is just for the publicity (independent act banned by majors-loving charts shock) rather than a genuine desire to get in the charts and welcomes a fight if anyone wants to take him on about this whole “the charts are shit” point of view.
(For the record the top bit was written at about 10pm Thursday with the second bit at a little before 7am. This whole thing will arrive online at 11.58am UTC+1)
Minimum Mouse – handmade jewellery made from kitsch and vintage clothes. And other stuff. Run by Marianne and James and based in Birmingham they sell on eBay.
B:INS points to Fraz ‘n’ Gus, ostensibly a novelty pop act but with a pretty decent musical heritage behind them. Songs include Northfield Nan and the rather cutting Moseley. Apparently they’ve got an album’s worth of Birmingham songs which I think might actually be worth seeking out. Also, their Friends List on MySpace looks worth investigating. Lots of bands I people I’ve not heard of there.
4talent need an ident – one of those fancy animated things you see on the telly – and they’re opening up the field. Details of how to submit your idea (with a £2,500 prize) at the link.
Remember the Sky Orchestra thing that was supposed be part of the Fierce Festival but was postponed indefinitely due to shite weather? Well, they’re giving it another go one morning between Wednesday 5 and Friday 7 September starting from Summerfield Park, Edgbaston (map)
via a teeny tiny little mention on the sidebar of the Artsfest website. Nothing on the Fierce site yet. C’mon people. Don’t you want folks to know about this stuff?
In summary, a developer has made an offer but nothing has been signed. The future of the pub is uncertain as the landowner does want to sell but this has been the case for over three years. No bands have been booked past October as a precaution.
I myself would like to apologise for making the mistake of taking anything Barnard says without the customary lorry-load of salt.
If you’re not already aware of it, Brumcast is a regular podcast that features music from local bands and artists. Check it out.
I’ve been chatting online-style with Little Chris, the chap behind Brumcast, and the inevitable came up. “So” said Chris, “I hear you actually get paid to run your Created in Birmingham blog. How they hell did that happen?” I’m paraphrasing slightly. But yeah, I do. And I think others who do stuff like I do stuff should get paid too.
The thing is, the financial situation behind this blog came about somewhat randomly. Stef at 3form reckoned he could get some money for me to write some articles and I said, hell, for that I’ll blog for you every day. So I did. I don’t really know where the money comes from – Stef deals with that and I prefer it that way. Keeps me independent.
Chris does the same sort of thing with Brumcast, putting out a podcast every week or so. He’s up to number 65 and has gotten into a pretty professional grove. Using a rag-bag of free services his overheads are zero except for time, and time is becoming a rare commodity thanks to his having to earn a wage.
I don’t know Chris’ exact circumstances but he’s definitely in the position where he’s created something that could be very useful for the city’s music industry, something that with a bit of spit and polish on the web front, a small bit of marketing and some cash to free up his time would be a valuable asset to the city.
I’ve no idea how this might work. It could come under Digital Central’s remit maybe or perhaps someone might like to sponsor him. It’d be nice if, say, Birminghamusic.com could give him a lump of cash each month and let him get on with it but that project is winding up soon, I think. I dunno the exact answer but he’s ready and willing to take this to the next level.
Contact Chris via MySpace or at brumcast [at] hotmail.co.uk.
Here’s a video interview with Chris from July to give you an idea of where he’s coming from:
While there’s something wonderfully incongruous and almost comical about watching Moseley Councilor Martin Mullaney give a mini lecture on the origins and aesthetics of graffiti art he does, through his “war on tagging”, know a fair bit about the local scene. In this video, about the Selly Oak pocket park, he talks about The Gifted Few and The Lost Generation crews.
Martin’s line is that you can have graffiti art without the blight of tagging, which I would be skeptical about, but if you’re ignorant of and curious about Birmingham’s graffiti art scene this is as good an intro as any.
Using this info a quick bit of Googling found me Hoakser who does stuff like this:
and whose MySpace links to loads of other TGF / TLG folks.
Issue 7 of Ten4 magazine, produced in Birmingham and distributed everywhere, is out. You can buy it at Borders / Virgin or pick it up for free at hip and cool places.
There’s a rumour, I repeat, a RUMOUR going around that the Jug of Ale in Moseley has been sold and will be torn down to be replaced with flats. The source of this rumour is not 100% reliable so if anyone knows anything concrete feel free to comment below.
Update: Loosely confirmed by the staff via local councilor Martin Mullaney on the Moseley mailing list. Expected to close in 6 weeks.
Update 2: Arthur of Catapult Club who’s been putting gigs on there for 15 years is waiting to hear something more concrete before he comments and if it’s true will put out a press release outlining his next move and the final gigs.
Thread on The Stirrer that doesn’t add any new info but has a discussion about the development of Moseley / Kings Heath.
I came across Stuart Estell a couple of years back when he was offering a bunch of mp3s of amusing cover versions done on a concertina (I’ll Be Your Mirror, Love Will Tear Us Apart, that sort of thing) so when I saw his name on MySpace a big bell went ting. He’s not been standing still in those two years and recently released an album, Mother’s Thinking Bath, an instrumental collection featuring “11 original tunes rooted firmly in the English and Appalachian folk traditions, and a wide range of instruments, including concertinas, appalachian mountain dulcimers, piano, harmonium, shruti box, and guitars”
Stuart’s notable for his ability to take traditional songs any apply them to modern concerns (and vice versa) and it’s a no-brainer that I should feature his I Can’t Find Brummagem which takes a 100 year old song and tweaks it in line with the current changes in the city. And uses some guitar phrases from The Jesus And Mary Chain. More background here and here’s the mp3.
[audio:estell_brummagem.mp3]
His website is built around a blog (meaning you can subscribe to it) and features new songs and general musings.
No forthcoming gigs that I can see but certainly someone to keep tabs on.
