Created in Birmingham

The good ship Capsule sails into double figures in December and they’re putting on a succession of parties to celebrate that fact.

• 1 December – Monotonix + Beestung Lips + Cum Dogs + Esquilax (VIVID)
• 2 December – Tunng + Six Organs of Admittance + Lightning Dust + Bela Emerson (Town Hall)
• 8 December – Lightning Bolt + Tweak Bird + Pete Prescription (VIVID) SOLD OUT
• 10 December – Sunn 0))) + Om (The Asylum)
• 13 December – Capsule and 7inch Cinema present: Afternoon Tea – a light buffet with a healthy serving of films (VIVID). FREE Event
• 16 December – Beak> (Geoff Barrow – Portishead) + Einstellung + Thought Forms (VIVID)
• 19 December – Closing Party: Modified Toy Orchestra + PCM + Calvados Beam Trio + Una Corda + Stinky Wizzleteat, plus a selection of special guests (VIVID)

The line-up’s on More Canals Than Venice too, with links to each band’s MySpace profile. Tickets are available here.

But there’s more. As the ladies say:

Not only will we be hosting a series of live shows… we’re also producing an exhibition which delves deep into our archive. This will feature 10 years worth of flyers, photos and related ephemera

If you’ve got anything that can be added to that archive then get in touch with them at info@capsule.org.uk.

Finally, we’re lining up a joint Capsule/Created in Birmingham event for 17 December which will be an excuse to celebrate some of Birmingham’s rising independent talent. More details on this to come…

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?