Created in Birmingham

Now this is an impressive line-up of events:

• Saturday 24th - Tinariwen
• Sunday 25th - Resonance Events presents The Herbaliser and Chris Read while Mad Flow, DJ Maxwell and Chromatouch provide the local talent.
• Monday 26th - Capsule & Fierce present a Julian Cope lecture plus a screening of Haxan with live soundtrack.

The Saturday night is particularly interesting. It’s a joint Town Hall/Birmingham Jazz production and is billed as a relaxed club night following in the steps of the Town Hall’s all-night jazz sessions of the 50s. The Herbaliser have a new album out on Ninja Tunes and this is the first night of their tour.

Chris Read promoted Substance at the Medicine Bar with Roc 1 and, especially back when it was on every Thursday, there was no better place in town to be. He’s returning to Birmingham after picking up rave reviews for his The Diary mixtape which condenses a 801-track history of hip hop into 70 minutes. It has to be heard to be believed and can be downloaded free from his website.

It’s really good to see the Town Hall being used in this way. Sure, there are plenty of safe, bland acts booked - I expected that - but this weekend they’re putting on one of the most varied leftfield programmes of any venue in the city, and that I didn’t expect. In fact I could quite happily spend my whole weekend down there.