A thing from a couple of weeks back with a neat summary of events from The Hearing Aid:
Here’s a (very) brief potted history. Group of Bearwoodians reckon there should be more live music in Bearwood. Groups meets in pubs and bars. Quite a bit. Not a lot happens. Group has a bit of a rethink. Group decides to put on a free afternoon of music in an old, long neglected bandstand in Lightwoods Park. Working on a bit of a shoestring budget group assembles all the kit, fills in all the forms, books all the bands (7 in total…7…ambitious eh?) and does the whole promotions thing. Restoring the group’s faith in human nature around 500 people turn up to watch. Blimey. Slightly sweatier group returns to bar to plan the next one
A full write-up then follows. If that’s relevant to your interests, you’ll be interested in welovebearwood.
I like to call it the illegal legal underground underground
So says someone (Tony, I think, but I’m not sure) in this decent video – not just a tour around PST but a chat with some of the people involved in starting the venue.
Realtime, generative Audio Visual performance presented in the MAC’s best kept secret – a gem of 1960s architecture – the HEXAGON theatre, originally the Cannon Hill Puppet Theatre
SCREE are DJ Sir Real from the House of God and VJ Catweasel who does visuals for artists like Stevie Wonder. Modulate are an AV collective who grew out of electronic ambient pioneers Higher Intelligence Agency. FREECODE are an AV collective of tweakers featuring:
Earlier in the day (in fact from 12pm to 7pm) head over to Lombard Street in Digbeth for PST’s street party. This here flyer says there’s going to be food, live art and heavy bass. And face painting.
Capsule have got an event at Kings Heath’s Hare and Hounds on Saturday night called Wedlock. Dunno what that’s a reference to but I like the pretty picture.
There’s loads of other stuff happening too. Have a look at Live Brum for listings.
There’s also a whole shopping list of extras that you can pick up in exchange for a little more investment, including advance copies of the album on CD, T-shirts, an exclusive performance by the band and Grandmaster Gareth’s soul.
Things seem to be going pretty well so far – they’re up to 53% of their total already.
Others
A quick trawl around a few crowdfunding sites - Pledgebank, Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, Sponsume and WeDidThis – reveals just one more project from around Birmingham that’s asking for your money. I thought there’d be more (tell me if I missed any).
It’s a collaborative project between Birmingham-based Lantern Music and New York-based Cassis who are looking to fund the second part of A Hawk In The Rain. There’s more info about that project on their blog.
On 26 March, Home of Metal are hosting their forth and final open day at The Public, “Think Antiques Roadshow for metal fans”.
Metal fans of all ages are being invited to share their memorabilia and stories with the digital archive , further cementing West Midlands as the birthplace of Metal.
Home of Metal celebrates the music that was created in the West Midlands, its legacy and influence across the world and how the social history of the region was a fundamental ingredient in providing the backdrop against which Heavy Metal was created, defined and reshaped over the past decades.
They’ll have activities going on throughout the day, hosted by Kerrang! Radio DJ Johnny Doom who’ll be talking to former ‘Raw Power’ presenter, Ozzfest compere and all round Metal expert Krusher (he’s the jolly looking chap below).
Artist duo Juneau Project, will also be on hand with family activities including creating your own D.I.Y guitar, plus rock photographer Steve Gerrard will be dishing out advice during his photography masterclass.
The masterclass is limited to 15 places – to guarantee a spot on the day, call The Public on 0121 533 7161.
SOUNDkitchen launches with an Opening Banquet tomorrow (17 February), at the Hare & Hounds, as the first in a series of monthly events bringing new and experimental sounds to Birmingham.
The night will bring together emerging Birmingham based composers with established organisations Modulate and Mama Feel Good! along with guest performers from Bristol, Leicester and London. Their aim is to provide professional development with an open environment for sound artists to experiment, collaborate and build networks.
Thursday’s set menu looks to be a tasty affair, with all of this to look forward to;
…incidental DJing from Two Left Ears; a theremin and wii mote performance from Eric Bumstead; live laptop performance by Norah Lorway; Audio-visuals from Martin Clarke (oem records); soundscapes from Simon Whetham; Experimental audio trio performance from Modulate; and an afrobeat and electronica DJ set from Bobbaliní Hot (Mama Feel Good!)
SOUNDkitchen will be serving from 8pm-1am, at £6 entry. For more info and the full menu, visit the SOUNDkitchen website.
Pitchfork: Have you ever had any kind of personal interaction with any of the Sabbath people?
Dylan Carlson, Earth: No. Sabbath is from Birmingham, England and Tony Iommi supposedly came to a festival we played there once, but I didn’t actually see him. The two women who put on that festival are always trying to get the Birmingham City Council to recognize that it’s the city of heavy metal and put up a plaque or a statue to acknowledge it.
This here tweet from the Leeds-based East Street Arts has put some flesh on the bones of a rumour I heard a few months back:
@artistsmakers fingers crossed by end of month should have carling academy Brum, ex club/venue, ex cinema. As they say watch this space!
Watch that space indeed. Oh, and thanks to Julia for spotting that tweet.
Speaking of the old Academy, how are they doing at their new place? Comparing the listings of upcoming shows at the Record Shop Institute in Digbeth and the Phone Company Academy on Bristol Street, it looks to me like the former is getting the bigger names in at the moment, while the latter has a surprising number of tribute acts and bands living on past glories turning up in the next few months. Is that about right or am I off the mark?
It is with great sadness we announce that Trish Keenan from Broadcast passed away at 9am this morning in hospital. She died from complications with pneumonia after battling the illness for two weeks in intensive care.
Our thoughts go out to James, Martin, her friends and her family and we request that the public respect their wishes for privacy at this time.
This is an untimely tragic loss and we will miss Trish dearly – a unique voice, an extraordinary talent and a beautiful human being. Rest in Peace.
Not Charlie Windsor, although he was meant to be in Birmingham today to unveil a statue (snow stopped play).
This is the Prince of Wales pub in Moseley, which I’ve just discovered has a blog. The owners use it to talk about upcoming events but also to rail against what they see as the negative effect or regeneration/gentrification in the area.
The latest cause for concern apparently came up at an acoustic folk night on Tuesday evening:
a few weeks ago Crosby Lend Lease, the developer of the proposed flats next door, came to the Tuesday night folk session. One of their employees pretended to want to record some of the folk session for radio, so the musicans and my staff agreed. This person then used noise level recording equipment to record the sound levels in the pub. This information can now be used against us.
Birmingham promoters, Leftfoot, will be bringing their 10th anniversary year to a close with a string of live soul gigs, starting tonight with NYC disco pioneers Metro Area, followed by veteran producer and DJ Bonobo and Motown superstars Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.
Since launching at The Medicine Bar back in 2000 Leftfoot have played a huge role on Birmingham’s soul scene, Adam Regan, explains the ethos behind the music;
We started out promoting under the name Leftfoot because it seemed to represent the leftfield music we were in to.
I’ve always booked artists I’m passionate about. By making sure our production and hospitality values for live shows stay high, both those on stage and those in the audience share an amazing live experience.
Musicians and artists based in Birmingham will be putting on this special performance, featuring live adjusted sound and video, guitar, bass, drums, trumpet, sax & ableton.
Doors open at 7.30pm, and the performance starts at 8pm.
