Created in Birmingham » Publishing

Bearded Four

Pete Ashton — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:07:26 +0000

If you haven’t already, go download issue 4 of Bearded magazine as a free PDF.

Inside you’ll find a load of good stuff including a four page overview of Birmingham’s music scene.

Shaping the City book

Pete Ashton — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:17:21 +0000

Birmingham: Shaping the City is a new book published by RIBA about our fair city written by Ben Flatman after years of research. The photographic editor was Craig Holmes who took photos at the launch night. Here’s the blurb:

“Birmingham: Shaping the City” is an authoritative and objective assessment of the redevelopment and regeneration of Birmingham. It tells the story of how Joseph Chamberlain’s grand Victorian city was almost obliterated due to an infatuation with the car and how a belated but vital reassessment took place at his home, Highbury in 1988, leading to arguably the most dramatic transformation of any city in the country. It is also the story of hugely ambitious projects, often implemented in the face of great opposition, driven by a rediscovery of Chamberlain’s unique brand of city entrepreneurialism.The book seeks to identify the drivers for change in the renaissance of contemporary Birmingham following its evolution from Victorian times and explores the depth and complexity of the public-private partnerships involved in the delivery structures and their achievements. Using unique case studies that illustrate the processes involved in the major physical change of the city, it assesses their influence on planned future projects. The book articulates and stresses the importance of urban design for successful regeneration in this ever-changing city.

“Birmingham: Shaping the City” will make a lasting contribution to city’s collective consciousness and make available, for the first time, a coherent narrative of where the city has come from and where it may be going in both a written and visual form.

While the credentials of the contributors are impeccable I’d be interested to hear what others think of it. Available soon from Amazon and presumably in the RIBA bookshop on Margaret St.

Bearded magazine includes West Midlands music scene special

Julia Gilbert — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:14:45 +0000

The current issue (PDF link) of Bearded magazine, includes a feature on the West Midlands music scene, more specifically Birmingham and Coventry.

The feature is a handy round-up of the bands to watch as well as local promoters, venues, club nights and record shops.

via Rich Batsford

The Â£1 Arts Commission Scheme

Julia Gilbert — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 10:11:26 +0000

Brum-based eccentric publishers The Eccentric City are giving away a whole pound every month to the person who can put it to the best use. What’s more, it’s totally free to enter and you could even see your idea in print. So get yer thinking caps on and you could be in the money! The deadline for this month’s proposals is 15th March.

New Birmingham available

Pete Ashton — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:29:52 +0000

Craig Holmes’ book A New Birmingham which sold out of it’s initial run last year available from the publisher presumably on a print-on-demand basis. There’s a 16 page PDF preview too.

Amok

Pete Ashton — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 17:52:21 +0000

Simon Peplow has produced the 18th issue of Amok, “a series of zines produced purely to showcase the work of artists, illustrators and designers who’s work excites us.” Available here for Â£3.00.

Bhangra Book

Pete Ashton — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:08:03 +0000

Spotted on the Punch Records site – a new-ish book about Bhangra by Birmingham-born academic Dr Rajinder Dudrah, senior lecturer in Film and Media Studies at the University of Manchester.

Bhangra music is a genre that comes from the Indian subcontinent and sung in Punjabi. Bhangra: Birmingham and Beyond traces its birth in the UK to when migrant workers from the Indian subcontinent and East Africa arrived in the country in the 1960s, many settling in West Midlands areas such as Birmingham.

Along the way, we learn how stars such as Heera, Alaap, Premi and Malkit Singh stamped their influence on the scene, paving the way for fresh UK based talent such as Apache Indian, Bally Sagoo, Juggy D, Sukshinder Shinda amongst many others, to follow in their footsteps and become successes in their own right.

More…

Priced at Â£15 you can hopefully find it in the local bookshops or from Amazon. And if you’re in Manchester this weekend there’s a Q&A at the Deansgate Waterstone’s from 12-3pm.

4Talent Magazine

Pete Ashton — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:04:38 +0000

I heard this a while ago but couldn’t remember if it was official yet or not, and going through my backlog of feed it turns out it is, and has been for a week or so. Ten4 Magazine is being renamed 4Talent Magazine. “The page count will double to 200 pages and we are going bi-annual, the next issue due out in May.” The mag is published by Maverick in Birmingham, hence the relevance.

TAKmag

Pete Ashton — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:24:36 +0000

TAK have published a magazine for use as a promo showcase thingy.

Do Want.

Bearded 3 is out

Pete Ashton — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:28:42 +0000

Download the PDF for free.

Eccentic City number 2

Pete Ashton — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 07:54:52 +0000

Issue two of The Eccentric City, “the worlds first eccentric newspaper”, is out. D’log investigates…

Bearded Recruitment

Pete Ashton — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:11:11 +0000

Bearded Magazine is recruiting, specifically for an Advertising Manager and Marketing Manager. All interested should follow that link.

Fused Art

Pete Ashton — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:55:39 +0000

Fused have posted some artwork from their current issue on their blog. Lovely stuff.

Urban Watercolours

Pete Ashton — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:37:52 +0000

Change in the Midlands – Urban and Industrial Watercolours is a new book of paintings by Arthur Lockwood, a member of the Birmingham Society of Artists. From the publisher’s site:

Without making judgements, Arthur Lockwood has dedicated himself to recording the demolition of nineteenth-century buildings and the construction of new landmarks such as the Bull Ring Shopping Centre in Birmingham. Alongside this, he set out to document the decline of the regionâ€™s manufacturing, painting working factories and foundries before many were closed down and some of them demolished.

In Oldbury he recorded the last line of working drop hammers and in Wolverhampton the last manufacturer of tacks and cut nails. In Birmingham he painted the last drop forge in the city.

The book contains over 100 paintings selected from twenty yearsâ€™ work.

Here’s a couple of examples of his work, nicked from this informative essay.

Coombs Wood Works from the Dudley Canal

The Core Shop, Sidney Smith Castings.

One would hope the book is available in our local bookshops but if not you can get it from Amazon (with a sourcing fee) or direct from the publisher.

via the invaluable D’log

Things

Pete Ashton — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:20:46 +0000

Charlotte Dunckley is looking to turn her zine Things We Love into a more professional magazine called Things and is seeking feedback on what people would like to see in it, not to mention contributors both online and off. Full details at the link.

Careless Talk

Pete Ashton — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:38:15 +0000

A bit of local web buzz for Careless Talk, the new novel by Michael Richardson published by Tindal Street. Birmingham Words gave notice of the launch (which I missed telling you about – sorry), BiNS has a review and The Stirrer has a video interview:

Bearded Two

Pete Ashton — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:44:49 +0000

The second issue of locally produced magazine Bearded hits the streets on October 29th with a Misty’s Big Adventure interview and a cover by ZeroTen

You can download a PDF copy for free from the site or pick it up from these outlets.

Stef Blinks

Pete Ashton — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:07:57 +0000

Stef Grindley is rather pleased with how his design work on Blink issue 1 came out.

Blink is out

Pete Ashton — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:25:12 +0000

Blink, the new magazine from the creators of Fused, hits the streets today.

Like Fused it’s free and can be picked up from the following places in Birmingham:

The Mailbox restaurants
Harvey Nichols
Selfridges
Ikon
Fusion
House of Fraser
Brindley Place restaurants
The Cross, Moseley
The Fighting Cocks, Moseley
and “places like that”

The rational behind Blink is for readers of Fused who’ve grown up a bit but are still interested in interesting stuff with “design, interiors, architecture, and art with fashion at its core.” Currently distribution is limited to the West Midlands but, like Fused, they expect to go national in time.

They’re always interested in photographers, writers and illustrators for future issues so if you flick through a copy and think you could be in there get in touch with them.

No Post and Mail Sale

Pete Ashton — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:22:58 +0000

The sale of the Post and Mail group has been called off by current owners Trinity Mirror, apparently because a suitable bid was not received. From my perspective this is annoying as it means they won’t be dragging themselves into the 21st century any time soon. Time to go it alone, hacks.

[Later: Discussion thread on The Stirrer.]

Five Birmingham Poets

Pete Ashton — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 15:22:45 +0000

Five Birmingham Poets by Eric Doumerc

Dr. Eric Doumerc is conducting an ongoing research of the Caribbean oral traditionsâ€™ influence on Black British performance poetry. His main interests include the study of Jamaican deejaying (the early 1970’s period) and its influence on oral poetry. He travels to Birmingham, UK, where he interviews Five Poets with Caribbean and other international links. Included here, are the responses and poetry of Sue Brown, Moquapi Selassie, Leon Blades, Martin Glynn and Roi Kwabena, all poets living in that vibrant British Midlands city. “Five Birmingham Poets” is an excellent introduction to contemporary poetry and culture of Black Britain. It is suitable for study by students at High (Secondary) School and University levels. However also provides general readers with a splendid opportunity to experience these unique voices.

It’s available from lulu.com for Â£8.91. via Birmingham Words

Ten4 Gigbeth comp

Pete Ashton — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:37:59 +0000

Ten4 magazine are running a competition to win a press pass for the Gigbeth festival (oh, and an iPod Shuffle) for three budding rock journalists. To enter send in a 150 word “essay” on your favourite Midlands act, old or new, by October 1st. Full details here.

The Birmingham News is going ultra-local

Pete Ashton — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:21:30 +0000

I’m not sure if this is strictly relevant to the creative sector but it’s certainly interesting. Free paper The Birmingham News is going ultra-local, splitting itself into seven papers covering specific areas of the city. “To help get to the grass roots the newspaper has recruited an army of citizen correspondents.” I wonder who they’ve got and how they found them? Should be interesting to see what comes of this. via BiNS

Concrete 2 Canvas

Pete Ashton — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 20:16:01 +0000

Stef Grindley has designed a book:

I have recently procured a preview copy of Concrete 2 Canvas, which I designed and have a section in. This is a little bit late now news-wise, but since the book is not out until October I thought Iâ€™d still post a quick shot of the cover and say how stoked I am with the outcome. Hopefully itâ€™ll sell millions of copies and make Laurence King happy people. Maybe theyâ€™ll hire me againâ€¦

Ten4 7 cover

Pete Ashton — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 19:12:24 +0000

In the interest of being fair and balanced!

More details here.

– — –

While I am it, what other glossy style-type magazines are there that come out of Birmingham / West Mids? Being a web-head I don’t tend to check the newsstands much.

Fused 32 is out

Pete Ashton — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:22:03 +0000

Here’s the cover for issue 32 of Fused, the arts and culture mag produced in Birmingham.

You can pick it up for free in the usual arts venues in the city, buy it from enlightened magazine stands nationwide or by mail order and read most of the articles online.

Clutter Cover

Pete Ashton — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:38:57 +0000

Here’s the cover to Clutter issue 11, due out in a few weeks.

Clutter was the first English language magazine to concentrate on the designer toy phenomenon and is produced by Miranda Oâ€™Brien & Nick Carroll in Uttoxeter. Which is close enough for my purposes. They were part of Ten4’s Creative Class 2006/7 and there’s a neat little interview here.

BLINK Magazine

Pete Ashton — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 12:04:13 +0000

BLINK is a new West Mids-centric magazine launching in October.

WHAT IS BLINK
BLINK is a new title brought to you by the publishers of Fused Magazine that focuses on design, interiors, architecture, and art with fashion at its core. BLINK will be a fresh take on the current trend in city lifestyle publications using original photography and informative articles all wrapped in high quality editorial, design and print.

With a national feel but regional distribution, BLINK will set itself apart from the rest with a unique voice and contemporary edge.

WHO IS BLINK FOR
BLINK is for male and female professionals who have a keen interest in fashion, art, interiors and design. Individuals that want to know more about stylish new products and be kept informed on current trends in lifestyle living.

DISTRIBUTION
BLINK will be distributed throughout the West Midlands using carefully considered and specifically targeted channels. We will only go to the best bars, shops and galleries.

They’re looking for contributors, namely writers, photographer and illustrators.

More details as they emerge.

Bearded

Pete Ashton — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 15:09:57 +0000

Bearded is a new music magazine coming out of Birmingham this month.

In the independent music industry, there is a dedicated voice emerging for artists and labels alike to give their wares prominence in an industry stagnated with sub-standard songs and even worse band names.

Birminghamâ€™s Mistyâ€™s Big Adventure recently summed it up quite aptly in their independent chart hit â€˜Fashion Paradeâ€™ â€“ labelling the recent shoddy state of affairs a â€œbland ageâ€ – and it is from Birmingham where the next push of the independent scene nationwide is originating.

Launching on the 20 August, Bearded magazine is set to avoid newsstands nationwide and plant itself in independent record stores and alternative music venues, bars and clubs around the country every month.

A joint project bringing together the writing and PR pool Fleeing from Pigeons and West Yorkshire based, award-winning design agency This is Make Believe, Bearded is the cut-off from the traditional music press â€“ dedicating itself solely to independent labels and independent artists whilst matching the alternative nature of its content with a high quality feel and design â€“ made from thick, superb paper and delivering itself to the alternative subculture of Britainâ€™s youth absolutely free.

via B:INS

DÃ©but

Pete Ashton — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 15:37:19 +0000

DÃ©but are a publishing house based in Wolverhampton who specialise in art and design books. They’ve currently got two releases, 99 Silhouettes exploring the medium of the shadow “from signage on toilet doors to Japanese shadow puppet theatre” and Free?Fonts listing some of the many shareware and freeware fonts available and putting the culture of free fonts into some context.

Their next project is Branded consisting of logos submitted by 130 Artists, Agencies and Designers. This is due out later this Summer.

Presumably to raise funds for the printing of Branded they’re currently selling 99 Silhouettes and Free?Fonts at 50% off retail in their shop.

What I find interesting about DÃ©but is their open submissions system where anyone can enter a contribution for their books. Presumably this gives them a greater depth and range is content. I’ll be watching them with interest.

Hat tip to Creative Wolverhampton.