If you’re at all interested in following the Arts Council funding cuts and how they affect the region you really should be reading D’log who is compiling reports from across the web like a blogger possessed. Good work, sir.
Archive for January, 2008
Lisa Capsule forwarded an email she’d gotten from the ZXZW Festival in Tilburg, The Netherlands, in September. They’re currently booking acts for this year and she thinks Birmingham bands should give it a go. Send CDs to PO Box 327, 5000 AH Tilburg, The Netherlands or email booking@zxzw.nl with links to mp3s (not attachments).
I don’t like to post about individual gigs and the like for fear of opening the floodgates but this terrific flyer from Coldrice is deserving of wider attention.
Or maybe I’m just a sucker for pulp.
There is a personal side to this too. When I moved back to Birmingham in 2003 after a few years away one of the first things that told me the city had interesting people doing interesting things was going to a Coldrice night at Bar Academy. The funereal oom-pah of Dead Brothers in particular blew my tiny mind. So without them I might not have started this journey of exploration.
via Fused who inform that Steve Copter of Coldrice is also Steve of Newtasty and created that wonderful flyer.
The fifth of Digital Central’s Perspectives on the West Midlands Music Industry series of interviews with local figures has Matt and Lee Parsons of Ditto Music answering three questions at great length. Topics covered are the strengths and weaknesses in the region, best practices and the inevitable but essential “next steps”.
You’ll remember Ditto as being the pseudo-label who helped Koopa become the first “unsigned” band to break the top 40 last year. Dubber covered the details well on that one.
Missed it: Nikki Pugh posted up her notes from the Studio Space debate last month held at Vivid. In a trade off to get people talking the event wasn’t recorded for publication, which is a shame. I was hoping more blogging, etc would come out of this. Maybe Christmas got in the way?
Downsizing the new Birmingham library. Interesting report by Paul Dale in the Post fron the city council scrutiny group on the central library’s new site next to the Rep. Starts thus:
Birmingham’s £193 million new library will have half the space for exhibitions first envisaged, may have fewer books on offer than at present and will almost certainly be run at reduced staffing levels, it emerged last night.
Members of a city council scrutiny group set up to examine the business case for the merged library and Rep theatre in Centenary Square remained unconvinced that what was being proposed would be an improvement on the Central Library in Paradise Forum.
and continues…
One for the built environment buffs – Revealing the Town Hall is a talk given by Anthony Peers at, yes, the Town Hall this Saturday Sunday afternoon. “Anthony has been researching the history of the building for close to a decade and was involved in the planning of the recently completed scheme of repairs and improvements.” News comes via Chris at About Brum who also provides the lovely panoramic photo I nabbed for this post. Click on it for the massive version.
Charlotte Carey of the Creative Enterprise blog just emailed: “I had this through and have been asked to forward to SMEs locally I thought it might of interest to your readers? apparently they have a significant quantity of vouchers left and it’s open to all local SME’s.” indexvouchers.org be the link in question.
One thing I’ve been meaning to do for a while now is a survey of Birmingham’s gallery spaces, from the high-end commercial to the drafty warehouses. In the meanwhile the occasional piece of serendipity will have to suffice, such as this post on Midwest which informs me of the existence of Three White Walls, a gallery in the Mailbox run by Artlounge that’s been open for nearly a year. Here’s their philosophy statement:
Three White Walls Gallery is a free public gallery.
The space has been created as a leading national showcase for contemporary art. The gallery is a joint venture between The Mailbox and one of the UK’s foremost commercial galleries, The Artlounge.
The gallery will be an exciting and progressive art space, one that seeks to contribute to the thriving art scene within Birmingham.
The gallery will exhibit a new collection of work every six weeks, always seeking to provide you with an exhibition to challenge, provoke debate and inspire.
As we encourage our artists that exhibit to express themselves, we hope that you, the public, will engage with the gallery and express your views. It is important to the gallery that visitors feel welcome and comfortable with the space. We value your opinion and would like your feedback as we develop this space as a platform for some of the UK’s leading artistic talents.
Their next exhibition, opening today, is Open Mic which runs until the 29th Jan:
A unique photo exhibition supporting a music project with local schools… Four Birmingham Schools have been taking part in the project aimed at encouraging children to better enjoy the learning process and the school environment through writing their own songs.
Former footballer, Brian Law (QPR, Millwall, and Wolverhampton Wanderers) and grime musician/producer, Dexplicit, visited Schools at Four Dwellings, Great Barr, Hamstead Hall and Aston Manor getting pupils in years 9, 10 and 11 to write their own tracks around the themes of climate change and School/ education.
The children then took part in an ‘open mic’ session with the ten best pieces from across all four schools featuring on a mix tape and music video produced by Dexplicit, to be launched in January along with the exhibition at Three White Walls which showcases photographs taken at the ‘open mic’ sessions.
Paul Birch of Revolver Records has started a blog. Paul, you’ll remember, had that email debate with Andrew Dubber last year that went all viral, so it’s great to see him embracing the form. And given he’s an interesting chap with lots to say about this music industry his blog should come high on a must read list. Welcome, Paul! via The Boy Wonder
As part of his search for local community blogs dp has come across a gem in Vale Mail, a relatively new blog covering the minutiae of Castle Vale. While not strictly on the CiB radar it’s an interesting model to look at. dp says:
It has apparently been online for all of 3 months, but has posted tens, possibly hundreds, of items and garnered 10,000 visitors/page hits in that time. Stories combine local interest (car burnings, who’s playing at the resident’s club, sports fixtures) and an assortment of other items.
I wonder how many official websites serving the community get that sort of traction in three months?
D’log notices in this Times Parliamentary sketch that the Birmingham Rep is, apparently, losing some funding in the current round of arts cuts. Nothing else in the news that I can see. Anyone know for sure? And if so, what it might affect?
From salamandertome
Photos are posted here from the Birmingham Flickr community. Click on the image for more details.
