Birmingham listings websites
I’m still getting up to speed on what’s happening around town but thought it’d make sense to go through some of the main sources of arts/culture/ents info out there. Next up: listings websites. There are loads of em and theoretically they should all have the same information on them. Here’s the ones I know of:
- All Brum / Art Brum / Live Brum – there’s a whole family of these sites now, all feeding into All Brum which tends to be my first port of call if I’m at a loose end. Stuffed with nice features too.
- Birmingham Alive
- Birmingham City Council
- Birmingham Gig Guide
- Birmingham Listings
- MyVillage – they’ve gone for a social network flavour but
- Scene Central – Audiences Central’s offering with a West Mids-wide scope
- Skiddle – as you might expect from Skiddle there’s a greater number of club nights than on many other sites but there’s a fair amount of other stuff too
- Visit Birmingham – the official tourist information visitor website
- What’s On In Brum
NB – The following aren’t really listings, just good sources of info:
There’s also Russ L’s monthly ‘Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands’ series which tends to feature theatre, gigs, the main festivals and boxing/mixed martial arts (NB – don’t try and submit stuff to him or you’ll find yourself excluded). The 7 Inch Cinema newsletter is always stuffed with interesting local events too – sign up for that on the 7 Inch website.
Have I missed anything decent from that list? What do you tend to use?
Birmingham comedyBirmingham music infoBirmingham arts fundingAdvertise on Created in BirminghamBirmingham film info
Round-up lists are invariably useful so thanks for this.
I’m in the habit of adding Likemind onto Upcoming and, when I do, tend to have a squizz at what else is on around the West Midlands: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/search/?type=events&rt=1&rollup=&q=&loc=West+Midlands
Excellent list – thanks. Live brum / WOIB are always my first port of call!
http://www.last.fm/events is pretty good, should figure out your in Birmingham and update the listings accordingly.
If anyone knows where the Rainbow hide their upcoming events list, I’d much appreciate it. I’m always finding out about things I’ve just missed there.
The Hare & Hounds website is pretty comprehensive, but may well be included amongst those you’ve listed above.
Meant to say – good to see that CIB has been resurrected after winning the Weblog award and then dying on its arse.
Cheers Rob. Live Brum don’t do too badly on The Rainbow’s events. Can’t tell how comprehensive they are, but they’ve got something listed for most nights over the next few weeks – http://livebrum.co.uk/venues/the-rainbow
ArtBrum: http://artbrum.co.uk/
Nice to see that the current editors overlooked the slagging off of Adrienne and Katie…
If they hadn’t offered their time during last year, there wouldn’t be a blog to continue.
Not sure I like the insinuation, Steve. Care to expand on that?
Steve
I wasn’t “slagging off of Adrienne and Katie…”
I don’t think anyone could legitimately claim that the last year has been CIB’s best period. Disappointing as (in common with many, I’m sure) my awareness of the blog only began when the Weblog Awards ‘campaign’ was in full swing. For the energy to have been dissipated was unfortunate but I’m sure there were numerous reasons. I’ve been drawn to comment four times in the last week. I can’t remember that last time I commented at all.
Also the BBC and the Mail:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/entertainment/
http://www.birminghammail.net/what-is-on-in-birmingham/cultural-events/
Looks like I misread the comment. I responded to Chris saying ‘Cheers Rob’ to Rob’s comment above that. Chris has emailed me to clear up this up.
but….
another reason for my comment was that this website is put together by a team of people who are passionate about the Birmingham creative community. I’ve been running a similar site in Wolverhampton, for about the same time and I’m constantly bombarded with negative comments but, as I’m the only one who has taken the time (which I’m not paid for) to do something about highlighting our creatives, I take comments like the one above counter-productive.
The site may well not be as good as it has been but there are other things to consider… Pete and Chris are full time bloggers, Adrienne and Katie were both ‘filling in’ part-time, while they were working full-time. There is obviously going to be a dip in momentum, especially after funding is pulled and the site hits the heights of an award. It is hard to maintain that momentum.
And if the site currently isn’t good enough, offer time to contribute to make it better. It is easy to sit on the fence and say this isn’t any good, a lot harder to do something about it.
In the name of reducing confusion amongst the populace at large (and grateful though I am for the link), I’d like to point out that my “Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands” series mentioned in the last-but-one paragraph of the main post does not constitute a proper listings service. It’s just a list of things that look like fun to me.
I wouldn’t normally split that particular hair, but it feels like every sod in the six nearest counties has emailed me in the last few days asking for inclusion.
Ooh, dammit. Sorry about that. I’d say name and shame those responsible but I guess that’d be counterproductive. I’ll amend the post to make things a little clearer.
Folks are only trying to promote their doings, which I understand perfectly and have sympathy for. It’s just that I’m not running a gig guide.
I am, of course, all about the Exclusion.
Glad that people find Live Brum useful, and obviously I recommend that, but there’s also the online version of Ryan’s Gig Guide at http://www.surgemusic.com/ which always has good midlands wide listings for ‘gigs’ and has real credibility in my eyes.
Ryan’s been doing sterling work for longer than I can remember.
Disclaimer (of sorts): The paper version described my comedy club as ‘the dogs bollocks’ back in the day which generated lasting fondness on my part.