Created in Birmingham

A couple of weeks back I put up a survey because I was interested in seeing which websites or online services people use to find out what’s going on around Birmingham.

We’ve had 100 submissions, which seems like a good place to draw things to a close and have a look at the results:

Listings/what’s on

70 – Venues’ own websites
49 – CiBmail
30 – Birmingham City Council – What’s On
29 – Live Brum
18 – What’s on in Brum
17 – Ticketmaster
14 – Visit Birmingham
10 – Scene Central
6 – Birmingham Alive
4 – Birmingham Gig Guide
4 – What’s On Midlands (online)

Suggestions left in the ‘other’ box included The Ticketsellers, Last.fm, Songkick, Ents24, Brum Notes, finditinbirmingham.com, More Canals Than Venice, The Wire and Upcoming.

Arts/culture news

80 – Created in Birmingham
76 – Blogs/social network updates from individual artists/organisations
34 – Digbeth is Good
32 – BiNS
32 – More Canals Than Venice
24 – Birmingham Post/Mail (online)
20 – Arts Council England Arts News
15 – Audiences Central

Others included Ryan’s Gig Guide, An Craic, We Are Eastside and Area Magazine.

Who filled out the survey?

We had a roughly 50:50 male/female split, a wide spread of ages (with a slight skew to 18-25 and 26-35) and pretty much everyone has a B postcode, with a smattering of WV and DY’s too.

Any conclusions?

Nothing really concrete, but it was interesting. I’ve got an idea of the level of web traffic of some of the sites listed, so I know that the results certainly doesn’t indicate which are the most popular websites around the city. However, you could say that this shows which other websites overlap with CiB’s readership.

If anything, I was expecting the Post & Mail to come up a bit higher. Nice to see Live Brum up there.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who took the time to fill out and/or forward on the survey.

Jahmai ‘Jam Fu’ Jones blogs at The Inner Sanctum, dances with Smash Bro’z and MDK and is involved in Down By Law (a night at The Victoria.

He’s also one of the dancers who jumped on stage with KRS-One at the HMV Institute recently:

Speaking of Down By Law, they’re running the second room at Mama Feel Good’s Christmas Get Down at that new place called PST on Saturday 11 December. Facebook event here.

Speaking of musical Christmas bashes, I’ve just spotted the line-up for the Brum Notes/Speech Fewapy Christmas do on the Victoria’s website:

FRI 17th BRUM NOTES & SPEECH FEWAPY RECORDS CHRISTMAS PARTY – The Traps, Calories, Cajole Cajole, Tom Peel, Greg Bird, plus DJ sets from Malpas, Tantrums, Victories at Sea, Speech Fewapy and This is Tomorrow – 7.30pm, FREE
On Facebook: BRUM NOTES

• Live Art Speed Dates « Stan’s Cafe Theatre Company
  “coming to the West Midlands on 25th September as part of Fierce Festival’s fun and games”
• Artists wanted for smoke-free project
  Suggest an idea. A group of young people may choose to apply for a grant (up to £2000) and commission you to deliver it. Interesting model
• Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: September 2010 « Oh. (I know Russ L, and Russ L is no Russ L)
  Lots of things
• Dig out your camera and get snapping for free tickets to The Secret Garden!
  The REP are after pics of your secret gardens
• Screen WM: News
  Not sure what this is about, but I’m putting it out there – “Submissions for BRAIN WASH BRUM are now open, as we have not confirmed a date there is currently no deadline although it is probably wise to get them to us by the middle of October”
• September Brum Notes Out Now « Brum Notes Magazine
  The new edition’s out. The website seems to have been rejigged since I last looked too
• 09/10 Annual Report now online | The Other Way Works
  Annual update from the Birmingham-based theatre company
• Screen WM: News – Full Circle
  “Tucked away in attics, sheds, cupboards and garages are forgotten gems capturing local life and history on film. These are a vital part of the Midlands’ screen heritage. With the help of 60 midlands groups, MACE is looking for these old films and videos to preserve and share them with future generations”
• URGENT: Crew needed for Midlands Feature October/November 2010
  Hit the link for the info
• Facebook | Thatched
  This club night has one of the most horrific posters I’ve ever seen. Congrats, I suppose
• Corporate Development Manager
  The Hippodrome are after a corporate fundraiser with a passion for the arts

• Black International Film Festival Call for Entries – 2010
  “The Birmingham Black International Film Festival (BIF FESTIVAL) is calling for all film submissions for this year’s festival, due to take place in Birmingham, UK, 25th Oct – 31st Oct 2010″
• Life in Flashback: TBB #2 is Here!
  “The latest issue of Birmingham’s premier collage-based magazine is here! TBB#2 – This Bourgeois Battalion is done, and this one’s got big questions”
• Supersonic Festival – Job Opportunity : Capsule Blog
  Heck of a job this – Ops Manager for Supersonic. Deadline was the end of last week but it was advertised all over so, um, yeah. Good luck if you applied
• Brum Notes Magazine – June issue
  It’s the June Brum Notes
• Capsule zine no 4 : Capsule Blog
  “This time put together by Mark Murphy”. Includes an impassioned plea for someone to find a way to help newly arrived university students to find where all the good stuff happens in this city
• Facebook | Save The Birmingham School of Media Against the £230,000 Cut
  There’s going to be a lot of this kind of thing, isn’t there?
• Film Forum West Midlands ? Seeking Film & Cinema Experts
  mac are “seeking a leader for mac’s Film Club”. Not a bad job, as they go…
• The Stirrer – See you down the forum then
  “the equation of loadsa time in/no money out has ultimately defeated us, and for the site to continue as it has in the past we need to find a more sustainable business model”

• January issue out now! Happy New Year! « Brum Notes Magazine
  It’s out now. The January issue.
• betty who?
  A fashion blog. Or, at least, a blog by a fashionable lady called Isabel Beresford (via Best Believe)
• Another year over…
  A quick review of 2009 and a longer look forward at what looks like being a busy 2010 for Friction Arts
• once there was
  “Once there was… is a project that aims to find some of these world-changing stories and publish them. We are looking for the best writers with the truest tales. If you’re a writer in the Birmingham and Black Country area, please consider sending us a story” Organised by Georgina Bruce and some volunteers from Birmingham Writers’ Group
• D’log – W Midlands events in 2010
  “Just the fab stuff…” Words to live by.
• D’log – Some Midlands exhibitions in 2010
  Another round-up of goodness. Particularly like the look of the Jaskirt Dhaliwal exhibition and The House of Fairy Tales
• Birmingham Graffiti.
  New graffiti blog. Bit heavy on the ads and it’d be nice to know where in the city the pics are from (via BiNS)
• New Year honours | Media | guardian.co.uk
  “Jonnie Turpie, founder and director of independent producer Maverick Television, was made an MBE for services to international trade”. Deirdre Figueiredo was also awarded an MBE for services to the visual arts. Congrats to both
• Sostenuto
  “Sostenuto LLP is a partnership of creative workers bringing their collective experience and knowledge together under one organisation to help sustain music industry activity in the West Midlands and beyond”. I think Andy Derrick’s involved in this, not sure who else

It’s actually a little tricky to find out about local music around the city, I find. This is the stuff I know about, feel free to add other stuff in the comments.

News

Brum Notes is the website for the free, monthly music and lifestyle magazine (Nov issue out now, Oct one online here).

The Birmingham Post have news and reviews here and the Birmingham Mail do rock/pop news.

Fused Magazine‘s site does the odd bit of music news, as does the website for sister magazine Area.

Surge Music takes a wider, Midlands-wide view of things, with articles and lists of gigs, bands and venues.

Cul-de-Sac turned out to be a false dawn for this sort of thing, but may come back one day.

@birminghamlive and @brumpunks are good sources for concert info too.

Reviews

Birmingham Live is the obvious choice here – someone from their ranks of volunteer reviewers and photographers will be at a gig in Birmingham pretty much every evening. Steve Gerrard organises this one (Lee Allen and I have also chipped in occasionally).

The Hearing Aid is a blog by someone called The Baron who goes to an impressive number of local gigs.

The Birmingham Mail do gig reviews too.

Get-togethers

The Birmingham Music Network meets monthly at the Department of Technology, Engineering and the Environment (T.E.E.) at Millennium Point. Their website has a good range of resources too.

Audio

I’m on shakier ground here – which radio shows promote local talent There’s Brumcast on Rhubarb Radio and Introducing on BBC WM. I don’t know enough about the shows on New Style Radio, Aston FM or any others.

Are there any Birmingham-based mp3 blogs worth talking about?

Anything else?

Let me know in the comments. Just to be clear, we’re not looking for bands/venues/promoters to plug themselves but if that’s you, where do you look to get featured?

Oh, and see also Birmingham listings.

(pic – The Editors by Steve Gerrard from the opening night of the new Academy)