Continuing the round-up of where else to go for arts/culture/etc info. This is an easy one, because Who’s Laughing Now is pretty much the best/only place I know of for Birmingham-based comedy.
Listings come from Live Brum (although they’re not coming through quite right at the mo, so check Live Brum itself), news comes from Chortle and they add their own news, previews and reviews. Their Twitter account puts out a weekly top tip.
The Glee Club and Jongleurs are the main venues around town so it’s worth browsing their listings too, just in case.
7 Inch Cinema’s family-friendly Travelling Picture Show has been chugging around the region since July and will be pitching up for its gala finale at the Electric Cinema on 25 October from 6-7.30pm.
There’ll be cartoons from around the world, a pair of comedy classics with live piano accompaniment and the premiere of The Magic Box.
The Magic Box has been created by children at workshops held across the West Midlands – it’s a kind of animated Consequences.
One for the kids then, but I’m willing to bet there’ll be plenty for the grown-ups too. Grab tix from the Electric’s website.
These are new, so there’s not much info about at the moment. So far all I can find is a Brainstorm Theatre Group Facebook group and a Twitter account.
Sounds interesting though – from the Facebook group:
A new and exciting theatre group for people wanting to explore infinite possibilities of performance physically and vocally and in a range of styles.
With experienced tutors who have brought this group together, this friendly and already established group have one very successful performance under their belt and more to come. But it doesn’t end there… There is always room for more people with the desire to sink their teeth into the performing arts.
Whether you love Shakespeare or Spielberg, Tarantino or Truffaut, the darker side from Edgar Allen Poe to Rob Zombie – classic or contemporary performance – or even musicals – then a collaboration of ideas, from a wide variety of influences awaits you!
If you want to pop along then go along, they meet a Moseley All Services Club on Mondays at 7pm.
Oxjam Brum is taking over a bunch of Birmingham pubs/bars on Saturday 24 October for a fundraising, musical extravaganza:
Showcasing the very best of local, grassroots music whilst embracing national upcoming talent this will encompass over thirty acts, over six venues and all for one ticket which will be exchanged for a wristband on the day
The venues involved are The Flapper, The Prince of Wales, Basement Bar, The Victoria, Island Bar and the Sunflower Lounge. Here’s the list of bands.
The point of it all is to help raise awareness for Oxfam’s work on climate change. Tickets are only £6.
The Fringe
That’s the main event covered. Hit the link for the range of fringe events happening in the run-up.
A couple of music-related things came out over the weekend both adding up to paint a less than rosy picture of Birmingham’s current live music scene.
The Interactive Cultures team at BCU have launched MusicAsCulture.org – a place to discuss the idea that ‘music is not just commerce’. It’s not an exclusively local thing, but it launches with a Birmingham-focussed campaign dealing with the noise issues at The Rainbow in Digbeth. The campaign is being headed up by UB40 and is called Live, Loud and Local:
Here in Birmingham, as with many places elsewhere, heritage music venues are in danger of closure or losing their live music licence because of issues of noise. Areas that were once not residential now have tenants, and the clash between apartment dwellers and local music venues has demanded a response at a policy level
UB40 will be playing a one-off gig at The Rainbow on 3 November to raise money for a new roof on the building in an attempt to reduce outside noise. I don’t know where you can get tickets from yet, but then nor do the folks on the UB40 forum.
Meanwhile, Fused interviewed Johnny Foreigner who aren’t afraid of sticking the boot in. They’re working on a documentary about how Birmingham’s music scene “suffers as a result when compared to other major cities”, which they see as a result of neglect by the council. Their advice for the city:
Drop the ego like Liverpool or nurture the homegrown stuff like Leeds and see the results in five years time when there are famous and forward looking bands not ashamed to say where they’re from
(Pic – The Rainbow, Digbeth by ell_brown)
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:
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?
The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group kick off their new season on Friday 16 October with two concerts in one.
It’ll start at 6.30pm with a ‘Spotlight on Matthew Sergeant’ and is followed at 7.30pm by a programme featuring premieres of a couple of BCMG’s ‘Sound Investment‘ commissions.
Matthew Sergeant is/was Apprentice Composer-in-Residence at BCMG and there’s a couple of interviews with him – one from the start of his residency and another at the halfway stage.
There’s a ticket offer for the Friday night too – just quote ‘Welcome’ when booking online or over the phone on 0121 767 4050.
Sing! Right Up Your Street is:
a week long celebration of the adult choirs and singing groups in the West Midlands Region. Choirs across the region will be opening the doors to their rehearsals and welcoming new members as well as in some cases streaming their rehearsals live on the internet
It’s part of the Learning Revolution project and you can get more info on the Sing WM website and on Twitter. Here’s the flyer:
I’ve been seeing flyers for Clickity Clackity Anarchy all over the place, so someone’s doing a good job of promoting it:
It’s on at BIAD on Margaret Street from 12 to 22 October. More info on More Canals and the Clickety… Facebook Page.
Bollywood Steps
An outdoor dance spectacular that’s part of Birmingham Town Hall‘s 175th birthday celebrations. They’re hoping for up to have had up to 12,000 people take part. It’s being performed on Friday 9 October at 8pm and Saturday 10 October at 3pm and 8pm – and you can learn the steps half an hour before each performance.
It’s part of the People Dancing programme and there’s plenty more info on westmidlandsdance.com and the Bollywood Steps website.
Birmingham Poet Laureate Inaugral Reading
Tonight, at the Library Theatre, our new poet laureate, announced yesterday as Adrian Johnson (ACE West Mids Literature Officer), will be performing for the first time in his official capacity.
Info on the Birmingham Book Festival website.
Goings on in Digbeth
Nicky Getgood, on Digbeth is Good, has linked to a fair amount of interesting stuff happening:
- Eastside Studio are holding an Open Studio on Saturday afternoon from midday to 5pm to ‘celebrate the completion of carving the ‘Rugby Writers’ commission’
- Also on Saturday, VIVID are taking part in The Big Draw with a variety of artists getting visitors to interact with their work
UPDATE – Oops, cheers to Nicky Getgood for pointing out the next one is on Sunday 18 October:
- On Sunday Nikki Pugh is doing a GPS-assisted walk around “the perimeter of the regeneration area taking great care to stop, investigate, prod, document, tell stories about and explore things along the way”
Also, see the comments for more free stuff this weekend.
Matt from Smile Creative Consultants put together this photo-montage. He says:
We all said how cool it would be to get on top of the tower for a 360 degree joiner of the Birmingham skyline. Does anybody know if it is possible to get up there, and if so, who to contact? If you do, drop me an email
Colour is the night run by Cib alumnus Katie Spragg and it returns to The Victoria on Thursday 15 October. Back in February (that long ago) they brought Charlie Parr along – there’s a video of him performing a fantastic version of ‘Cheap Wine‘.
This time round they’ve got a Commercially Inviable special starring World of Fox with support from James Summerfield, Friends of the Stars and Richard Burke.
Pixie Sixer’s already written all about it on More Canals Than Venice so check that for more info. I’m really posting this for an excuse to post Ruth Green‘s artwork for World of Fox.
Ruth is a recent addition to the Love to Print collective – a project explained on the rather wonderfully named Shoulder to Crayon. Most of that collective are also involved with Girls Who Draw, including Karoline Rerrie and Sarah Ray.
There seems to be quite a tangled web of ladies out there producing pretty, quirky illustrations. See also i heart joan and the Inkygoodness folks.
