Created in Birmingham

As from next week it’ll be possible to advertise on CiB. In order to guarantee the independence and sustainability of the site it’s necessary. Readers – rest assured that, in Pete’s words, we’re not going to NASCAR the baby.

Interested in advertising?

Here’s how it’ll work:

• A small number of adverts will run concurrently and appear to visitors randomly but equally
• Ads will be text only (so no-one has to pay for a banner to be designed)
• The adverts will appear high up ‘above the fold’
• You’ll be able to submit and pay for your advert via the link on this site – the process is very simple indeed
• Your advert must be manually approved before it can appear
• Guidelines will point out what’s suitable as far as format and content are concerned but really it should be a matter of common sense
• We will control all content on the site and this includes adverts. If we say an advert is unsuitable then it won’t run.

As an introductory offer, a two-week advert will cost £50 and a four-week advert will cost £100.

Why advertise on the site?

We try to cover as much of the interesting stuff in the Birmingham as possible but we can’t cover everything. If there’s an event, conference or festival coming up then any mention we give it will disappear down the page as soon as new posts are added. The benefit in keeping a notice of your event on the front page should be clear.

CiB is fortunate to have a strong community of readers who are actively interested in art, design, music and other matters of a ‘creative’ nature with unique visitors currently averaging around 40,000 per month. If you want to reach them then you’ll be able to do so without submitting to our editorial whims.

What will happen to the cash?

It’ll cover the site’s existing costs – my wages plus hosting/domain registration and such. Any surplus will be reinvested into what we’re loosely calling ‘interesting things’ that will fit in with CiB’s general overall purpose.

Are you sitting comfortably? Well, it all started back in March with Danny’s post about Surface Unsigned.

A couple of months later (on 15 May) Danny received a threatening email from Surface Unsigned which worried him. After a weekend of checking that CiB had done nothing wrong, the original post was amended and an addendum was posted.

Danny blogged about it, then Pete blogged and I blogged. Then a lovely thing happened – the blogging community of Birmingham showed their support. As ever, BiNS and D’Log were quick on the scene.

Cat Bray was amused. Russ L made me laugh. Goodfaf Central chipped in. Birmingham Alive put up a banner. Simon Gray posted on his blog and on The Stirrer forum where an interview with Surface was promised ’soon’ (as if that forum and the comments section of an increasing number of blog posts didn’t give them enough space to reply/apologise).

And the blog posts did increase, with contributions from Brenda Dada, Bobbie Gardner, Si Hammond, Mabblog, The Careless Gene (aw, one of my faves), Graphiquillan, Art Stalking Ana and New Folder. Andrew Dubber pondered pay-to-play on New Music Strategies while Antonio Roberts got visual.

Dave Harte got forensic on his Birmingham Post blog, revealing who was behind Surface, shortly before the interview on The Stirrer appeared with the representative of Surface asking not to be identified (hello to Jay, probably). The interview discussed pay-to-play but not sending unnecessarily aggressive emails. Dave Harte cross-posted to his own blog, where dp wisely commented that

it’s interesting watching this thing unfold, partly because it’s going through phases, where the first reaction was indignation, then organised criticism, then more reflective stuff

Widening the social media net, several people tagged the story on delicious including Joanna Geary and Catnip, who deployed the word ‘nastygram’ to devastating effect.

Then things started moving away from Birmingham. First to Oxford (OxfordBands), then Yorkshire (fictions) and then on to the national music site Culturedeluxe.

By the end of the day Danny was feeling much happier.

But it didn’t stop there, with Ben Neal (who once played at Surface) saying hi. The Getgood Guide got with the LOLspeak. Stef examined what Surface should perhaps have done (executive summary – anything but what they did) and even the Daily Mirror’s forum received the good news. Paul Thewlis threw a link in, as did Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From. Dunc from the Autumn Store says we don’t need battle-of-the-band contests.

And so on.

Today’s the day we’re supposed to take down the original post. We’re not going to, obviously – Danny’s still not even received an apology.

However, as far as CiB’s concerned I intend to draw a line under the matter with this post (the comments are still open of course). It’s been fun but we’ve made our point. I for one would rather turn my attention to the many positive things happening in Birmingham (although every time I Google ‘Surface Unsigned’ I stare hungrily at all the forums that appear).

I’d just like to say thanks to those who have offered support, kind words and legal advice over the past few days. You’re beautiful people.

• ArtsFest – Short Cuts submissions to be in by 30 May
  As blogged previously but I’ve just been told the submission date is 30 May. Contact Kate Sullivan (kate.sullivan[at]birmingham.gov.uk) at ArtsFest for details/submission forms.
• Rhubarb Rhubarb
  News of “what is now known as Europe’s premiere review of the image, bringing to Birmingham 60 of the worlds most renowned international gallerists, curators, agents, photo publishers and picture editors”.
• Flip 08 – animation festival calls for entries
  Flip will run over 3 days between 6 – 8 November 2008 at Light House and other venues across Wolverhampton and Birmingham. The closing date for festival submissions is 8 August 2008.
• D’log – Mysterious monsters
  D’log ties in the ‘Mysterious Monsters’ exhibition at the Barber Institute (free, 22 May – 14 Sept) with BMAG’s ‘Myths and Monsters: Unravelling the Truth’ show (£4, 24 May to 31 August).
• O2 Undiscovered workshops at Academy 2, 24 May
  Late notice but maybe worth a look if you’re an aspiring musician or if you’ve ever had a thing for Dave Stewart (I haven’t, I hasten to add).

You wouldn’t know it from their own website (or at least I can’t find mention) but on bank holiday Monday, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery are offering

a rare opportunity to access the fascinating collections in store. This is no ordinary warehouse! It’s an Aladdin’s cave crammed to the rafters with every type of object you could imagine.

If you go, the good folk at The Big Picture (who flagged this up) would be keen for you to send them any pictures you take there.

The collection is at The Museum Collections Centre, 25 Dollman Street, Nechells, Birmingham B7 4RQ.

Ikon Eastside opens on 27 May with a party entitled ‘Flip Flop Or Die’ hosted by Soi Project. The party starts at 8pm with DJs, a band and a (pay) bar. The dress code only specifies the footwear required, which I’ll leave you to work out.

Soi Project’s installation ‘Island’ will be on show from 27 May to 22 June.

Ikon Eastside is at183 Fazeley Street, Digbeth and will be open 1pm to 5pm Thursday to Sunday. Admission will be free.

Photo by Stuart Whipps.

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.

Two things to report from Jibbering, Moseley’s creative dervishes. Firstly they recently launched an exhibition called The Paper Market which showcases

limited edition prints by many of the finest contemporary urban artists, illustrators, designers & photographers from within and around Birmingham.

and

explores the blossoming movement of incredible art that reflects the vibrant and diverse subculture that exists in the city today.

Secondly, the exhibition also heralds the launch of the Jibbering Art website which is worth perusal.

Alright, one last thing. Their next event on Saturday 7 June at the Hare & Hounds looks very cool. They’ve got Smerins Anti-Social Club, Me & You (check their cover of Brown Paper Bag) and Mr Muz & DJ Feva from Munchbreak.

**Update** Graeme from Boxer Design went to have a look round the exhibition yesterday and has put plenty  photos up on Boxer’s blog – Soak It Up.

Volume Magazine is a quarterly, London-based arts publication geared toward the promotion of new artists, writers and musicians and they’re doing a special issue for Birmingham.

Which is good, is it not?

The concept in brief is to create an exhibition space at the stadium in which to display a diverse range of work by local artists, representative of the diversity of the city alongside creating a publication highlighting artists from the Birmingham area.

If you’ve got some work you’d like featured in the project and in Volume then contact those good folks at submissions[at]volume-magazine.com.

As it’s copyright infringement day on Created in Birmingham it seems appropriate to mention The Chop Shop – Birmingham-based audio/visual cut-and-paste japesters who

cutup loads of tv and film footage and make daft audio and video with the results

and describe themselves as the Chuckle Brothers with samplers. Think adverts, political speeches, sitcoms and music videos all mixed together inna cheeky style, along the lines of Eclectic Method, Negativland and The Party Party, if you’ve heard of them.

My favourite track (so far) is DJ Reach’s recreation of NERD’s ‘Lapdance’, using quotes from Alan Partridge. It’s very special (and maybe ever so slightly NSFW) and is on his Myspace page.

The Chop Shop are DJ Reach (who also has a YouTube page) and Roger Species and they’ll be playing at Custom Made at the Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath on 24 May.

In March I posted a short post on CrIB about the Surface Unsigned festival. Following questions in the comments I extended this post with some speculation about an item in their terms and conditions. CiB was contacted by someone at Surface demanding the post be removed from the internet citing the printing of an excerpt of their terms and conditions as copyright infringement. We’ve replaced the quote with a paraphrased version but the post itself will stay up.

As I was leaving the Electric yesterday having seen the excellent Planet B-Boy I was handed a brochure for this year’s BASS Festival, happening across the East Midlands over June.

BASS stands for British Art and Street Sounds and the festival is a Punch Records production in partnership with 2Funky Arts, Hella Music and Baby J Studios. This year the festival revolves around the theme of ‘The Elements of Hip Hop’, usually broken down into MCing, DJing, graffiti, breakdancing and beat-boxing.

Go to BASS Festival for the full line-up, but here’s a few of the events in Birmingham:

• Hedz Interative Aerosol Mural, 31 May to 1 June – creating a 50ft bespoke aerosol mural in the city centre
• Urban Disturbance v MyBass ft Mary Anne Hobbs, 31 May at The Rainbow – drum n bass and dubstep heaviness
• Faith 47 – The Restless Debt of Third World Beauty, 3 to 10 June at Womb Gallery – this looks very good
• BASS West Mids Launch – 3 June
• The New Mastersounds, 14 June at The Yardbird – a band at the forefront of the retro-funk sound
• My Love for Hip Hop, 19 June at The Drum – powerful spoken word with 3 poets, 3 hip hop artists and a turntablist

Actually, this is daft, there’s loads of good stuff so please go and have a look at the listings and maybe flag up anything you think looks really interesting in the comments.

Don’t forget that Jessica is currently doing a work placement at Punch and blogging about her experiences.

Punch’s director, Ammo Talwar, was at Buckingham Palace the other week to pick up his MBE for “outstanding achievement and service right across the industry”. He’s emailed to say that his dad was annoyed at not having tea with the Queen! Ammo’s sent over a pic of his dad with some beefeaters though – nice shoes.

• Writers’ Guild of Great Britain – Scripting the future
  “Following the success of our first meeting in March, the West Midlands branch of the Writers’ Guild will be officially launched, and celebrated with a glass of wine”. At The Rep on 18 June, 7.30pm Need to RSVP quick for this one.
• Sandwell Library Graphic Novel Reading Group
  A new date has been added for the Sandwell Library Graphic Novel Reading Group – Monday 16 June 6pm till 7pm
• Rotundavision
  “The Rotunda has opened its doors to the lucky tennants of the ‘pie sliced’ appartments therein, and it’s never been more celebrated”. BiNS rounds up the Rotunda-related filmic action.

I’ve just discovered that my local independent book shop, Bonds Books in Harborne, has a website and a pretty good line-up of events coming up over the next few months.

• 28 May – Martin Bell will speak about his new book ‘The Truth That Sticks’
• 12 June – Prof Robert Knecht, esteemed historian, will introduce his book ‘The French Renaissance Court’
• 2 July – Catherine O’Flynn award-winning local author of ‘What Was Lost’ (due to be turned into a film, reports The Stirrer) will read from the book and sign copies.

They’ve got a reading group too, and the staff in there have always been lovely and helpful. I can’t help thinking that a little blog to promote and record these events, recommend new books and generally help tie themselves into their community might be a good idea.

If you know of any independent book shops doing interesting events (preferably with some sort of interweb link) then give them a mention in the comments.

• Likemind: Birmingham
  A monthly coffee morning that's open to all and has no agenda other than simply to get people talking. Organised by James from Supercool and Lucie from Saint Caffe. The next one is tomorrow 8.30am to 10am at Saint Caffe, St Pauls Sq.
• Another Byte Of Banality
  Midge works at Urban Village and has a new, Birmingham-based blog.
• Perform at the Birmingham Book Festival « The Asian Writers Project
  The Birmingham Book Festival and sampad are looking for writers who struggle to connect with writing communities and audiences because of a barrier of language.
• West Midlands Cultural Olympiad – Find Out More
  This is tonight. The original ticket allocation went quickly so they've taken a bigger room and have made a few more tickets available.

Capsule need a couple of people to help out at their festival:

There are 2 festival internships available to assist with: Artists liaison / Production / Marketing / Festival Management you will be required to do 5 -10 days between May to July. You will receive valuable work experience and be credited as part of the core team that deliver Supersonic Festival.

In addition to this we need a team of volunteers to help deliver the festival over the weekend of the event itself 10th-14th July and in the run up to Supersonic from June onwards. You will be required to do a minimum of 6 hrs over the weekend in return for a day ticket and festival t-shirt.

Plus it’s a good item to get on the CV – this has been called one of the UK’s best-run festivals, after all. If you’re over 18 and are interested in getting involved then email info[at]capsule.org.uk and put ‘volunteer’ as the subject.