For a bit of background, there’s this from Cllr Philip Parkin, Chairman of the Leisure, Sport & Culture Overview & Scrutiny Committee (who were responsible for the report):

Last year’s UK Music report, ‘Destination UK’, was the ‘most comprehensive study ever undertaken on the power of music as a tourist draw’ and the first of its kind to quantify the economic value of ‘music tourism’ to the country’s regions. It also laid down a challenge to public bodies, locally and nationally, to ‘realise the potential of this considerable economic asset’. And the Scrutiny Committee that I chair in Birmingham has responded to that challenge, coming up with a series of recommendations for city council approval – in our scrutiny report ‘Destination Birmingham‘ – that I hope will send out the clear message that we see popular music as being of huge importance to the cultural and economic life of our city.

You can download the Destination Birmingham report (PDF) here.

There are a series of recommendations on pages 8-10. I’ve not read the whole thing yet but will maybe, probably get round to it at some point. A quick flick through seems to suggest there are some interesting bits in there.

Music Birmingham

The recommendation picked up by the Birmingham Post is for the council to have a person able to act as a point of contact for studios, venues, promoters, producers and artists. Someone with:

the ability to bring together different departments and take responsibility for providing advice and support

That sounds like it could be alright. I remember hearing that Soweto Kinch’s Flyover Show (which is happening over in South Africa at the end of March and coming back to Brum on 11 August) stalled for years because of the difficulties with coordinating with so many parts of such a large council.

As a side point, it’s a very different thing, but it kinda reminds me of the discussions a few years back about whether Birmingham needs a Creative Director.

Celebrating our musical heritage

This was the other main recommendation highlighted in the preface:

It is also important that we do more to celebrate Birmingham’s rich musical heritage. Following the success of the Home of Metal exhibition, and in the year that Black Sabbath reform, we should celebrate Birmingham’s role in the origins of heavy metal. We should also be celebrating other music events and genres – bhangra and reggae also have their origins in Birmingham.

And don’t forget Duran Duran.

Thoughts?

If I’ve anything to add from the brief glance I’ve given the thing, it’s that there’s a lot about providing space and resources for archives and heritage and rather less about how conditions might be improved for the current/next generation.

Anyway, if you have a read of the report and Philip Parkin’s blog post I’d be interested in hearing what you think.

Ken Jones of Bright Eyes has sent an incredible list of gigs he attended at the Town Hall (and other venues) from 1964 to 1974

Presumably that’s not Bright Eyes as in Conor Oberst’s band. Or maybe it is.

In other Town Hall news, Classic FM have got an interview with Andrew Jowett, the Chief Executive of Town Hall Symphony Hall Birmingham.

Is anyone else out there blogging about Birmingham’s music scene? The Blue Whale Blog used to be my main place for that kind of thing but that’s been quiet for a while. BrumNotes and Counteract do a decent job but there must be more (especially non-indie stuff) out there.

SHAANTI PRESENTS PODCAST SERIES 001 – BY SHARNITA K ATHWAL (DEC 2011) by Shaanti

In the meantime, she’s made this of Hudson Mohawke‘s Thunder Bay.

Mind out for the strong language if you don’t like that sort of thing.

A full DVD’s due at some point, but it’s all up on YouTube in 7 parts. Here’s part one:

33TV is an online music channel based in Birmingham. We are dedicated to showcasing upcoming artists and musicians, featuring interviews, freestyles and unplugged performances

They’ve got interviews with Sox, Leo LeVox, Brian Travers, Firedon and plenty more. 33TV is on Twitter, Facebook and they’ve got a website at 33TV.co.uk but the best place to check out what they’re doing is on YouTube.

Not the easiest name to Google for, but the website’s at oorite.com, here’s his Soundcloud account (with a fairly lengthy bio as well as some tracks to listen to), he’s @C4_OoRITE on Twitter, here’s a link to the OoRITE mixtape and here’s a couple of videos. The first is for a track called Detention and was filmed by Blue Hippo Media:

And here’s another for About2Goin:

What’s more, his brother is Preditah, a producer who’s been doing very well for himself lately too.

One more thing about 1Xtra – they had a get-together with artists, producers, DJs and others on Tuesday lunchtime. The message was that they want to play more music from outside of London, so get in touch with someone there directly or go though BBC Introducing.

If you can’t read it, the flyer says:

For many people in Birmingham and the Midlance, The Hummingbird was their first taste of House clubbing. The memories (or lack of) have stayed with them to this very day.

Beginning in the summer of 88, a night called hipnosiz had the city rocking in hte small room of the venue every week, to the sound of house music. Following on in 89, The Snapper Club started in that same room with 100 clubbers, that by the end year moved to the main concert room and turned into 3000+ clubbers every single week as house music exploded nationwide!

The Leisure, Sport and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee is undertaking a review of the role of popular music in improving perceptions of Birmingham. One of the drivers for this work is the recent report from UK Music on music tourism and its value to local economies (Destination Music).

The Committee is keen to understand how Birmingham, and in particular the City Council, can better support the city’s music heritage and current industry to attract visitors to the city and improve quality of life for residents.

The Committee intends to explore how to take forward work already completed, in particular around how those involved in creating, promoting music are brought together in Birmingham and what could and should the City Council be doing to support this.

There are a bunch of questions being asked – follow this link for those, some more info and some extra docs.