Created in Birmingham

• Top 10 Birmingham Bands of The Decade? « The Blue Whale Blog
  Ah, finally! Some opinionated Birmingham-centric music writing, I knew it’d be out there somewhere. The Blue Whale Blog is worth a subscribe. This is their hack at a top 10 Brum bands but many others have had their say since
• iain armstrong • sound artist
  “Iain Armstrong is a Scottish composer/sound artist who has been based in Birmingham, UK since 1998″ He was involved with BEAST, has presented work with Project X Presents and done much more besides
• Kate Green Photography
  Kate does commercial, portrait, wedding and fine art photography. She exhibits too
• Fierce: Female Performers wanted for site-specific performance in Birmingham
  “Mem Morrison Company and The REP are looking for up to thirty female volunteers* to perform in its current production, Ringside. This opportunity is open to all women over the age of 18 who wish to be involved in a site-specific performance”

Birmingham’s bidding for the title of City of Culture in 2013 and as a result a couple of attempts to get your feedback have been launched.

Big Blank Canvas

Big Blank Canvas is a project managed and devised by Fierce (on behalf of the council who are responsible for the bid itself) which, in its first version, is asking people:

• What do you do in your cultural life in Birmingham, and where?
• What would you like to see happen as part of Birmingham City of Culture in 2013, and where?
• Where would you like to have a cultural experience in Birmingham?

The second question has generated the most interesting ideas so far. Here are a few that jumped out at me:

a touring show for kids and families playing a different suburban park every weekend in the summer hols; with locals creating and participating (from Rob)

Literal street art – a day with no traffic when the streets can be used as a gigantic canvas by communities all over the city, free balloon flights to view the full effect… (from Mark Scourse)

Shut down all the major cultural institutions for a month and promote/support cultural events and activities across the outer city in non traditional venues (from The Blade)

The aim is for the site to be up in this form for the next couple of months, after which it’ll change somehow – responding to the ideas people put forward.

There’s also a Facebook Page and Twitter account you can follow to keep up with what people are suggesting.

I should also say (for the purposes of disclosure) that I’ve done some work with Fierce on the concept/design behind this one.

Cultural Birmingham – Have Your Say!

This is the bit that has been aimed specifically at under-25′s. Antonio Roberts was asked to get involved with the steering group for this and has written up some info about it. Again, it’s an online consultation exercise:

There is a three-page questionnaire that young ‘uns can fill out, but more interestingly I think it’d be better to get involved in the discussion on the Facebook Group (liek wot all da cool kids iz doin)

G’wan, have a go

Irrespective of the City of Culture bid, it’d be nice to show that folks around these parts really care about the cultural life of the city they live in and have some good ideas for how to build on/show off what we’ve got. Go nuts and use this to air your wildest dreams, fervent passions or give a mention to those things that you’ve seen elsewhere and wish would happen in Birmingham.

Tomorrow night (Thursday) I’m taking a wander over to Warwick Arts Centre, as are a couple of Birmingham-based outfits, for It Came From Pilot:

Father and son duo, Kings of England perform Where We Live and What We Live For. In 2001 75 year old Peter Bowes had a trans-ischemic attack, a stroke. In this gentle, moving work he and his son remember and imagine the man he once was.

The Other Way Works premier Avon Calling which explores the eternal triangle of mother – daughter – and Avon Cosmetics. Drawing vividly on personal source material Louise Platt reveals an intimate and comic portrait of a woman, a mother and an Avon Lady. Ex-Avon lady.

This is part of Fierce‘s programme of stuff at WAC running from Sept-Dec (although no news of what else is upcoming just yet).

A few extras for context:

• PILOT Nights are testing grounds for short, work-in-progress pieces from ‘some of the UK’s most exciting theatre companies’. Audience feedback is encouraged
• The Other Way Works are using Avon and Me to collect people’s personal stories about Avon cosmetics. If you want to see what the show has come ‘from’ there’s a video from the March 09 PILOT Nights here
• Kings of England are based in the North West but I’m assured they’re lovely. Their blog makes for a great read too

Typical.  I write a post about the Fierce Earth blog and what happens?  A few hours later Helga Henry, managing director of Fierce Earth, uses that same blog to make a couple of key announcements – the biggest of which is that:

at present I think it’s fair to say that there will not be a Fierce Festival in 2009 but that we will aim to produce 2-3 large scale ambitious public projects throughout ‘09, one of which may be at the festival time. Our partners too, may still want to programme audacious and risky work in May and June, and we will certainly be working with them as usual to promote performances if they do.

We’d like to deliver a bigger, more ambitious programme, and it may take some time to sort that out.

So it’s not all bad and a reflection of their ambitions more than anything.  It’s worth reading the whole post for more about the whys and wherefores but, as Helga says, watch the blog for developments.

There’s also information about Fierce’s Creative Learning work and the announcement that:

We’re considering announcing a call for projects and inviting ideas for innovative and exciting creative learning projects with people who would be willing to partner Fierce Earth

So if that sounds like something you’d be interested in then that’s another reason to watch that space.

Which makes me very pleased indeed.  Gemma’s posts over at My Fierce Placement have given a great insight into the breadth of work that Fierce Earth are involved with so it’ll be interesting to see what’s posted on the Fierce Earth blog.

As well as producing the Fierce Festival, Fierce Earth provide training via Metapod (for start-up creatives) and Momentum (for producers/curators).  They also offer consultancy services, having recently worked with Birmingham Jazz (amongst several others) and are soon to start working with Tindal Street Press.

It looks like they’ll also be using the blog to spread the word about interesting opportunities that they come across.  Worth keeping an eye on.

The Birmingham Post Power 50 (tremble at their might!) has just been announced.  With last year’s list having an impressive showing from the arts world, interest at CiB could almost have been described as ‘mild’.

Ok, so it’s easy to be cynical about these things (and it’s open season on the Birmingham Post site – all the winners’ profiles are commentable), but there’s little sense in detracting from the recognition given to the following folks who work hard on the city’s arts & culture scene.

So, from CiB (hating the game, not the playa since 2007) hearty congrats go to:

• 18. Dorothy Wilson, Midlands Arts Centre
• 25. David Bintley, Birmingham Royal Ballet
• 26. Amajit Talwar, Punch
• 29. Graham Vick, Birmingham Opera Company
• 30. Soweto Kinch, Musician
• 35. Mark Ball, Royal Shakespeare Company and Fierce!
• 39. Sarah Gee, Indigo
• 43. Sandra Hall, Friction Arts
• 49. Stuart Griffiths, Birmingham Hippodrome

While I’m at it, the Birmingham meeja luminaries who would like to thank their friends, family, deity of choice, etc and so on are:

• 7. Sir Michael Lyons, BBC Trust
• 14. Jon Bounds, Blogger
• 15. Suzie Norton, Screen West Midlands
• 20. Steve Dyson, Birmingham Mail
• 28. Ian Squires, ITV
• 31. Jonnie Turpie, Maverick TV
• 41. Gurjeet Kaur Bains, The Sikh Times

The big list of movers and shakers is on the Birmingham Post website which, like I say, they’ve made an effort to do all nice so you can comment on how brilliant and deserving everyone is.

But feel free to vent your spleen in the comments here if you feel the need.

• First day nerves – My Fierce Placement…
  Gemma has just started a placement with Fierce and it looks like she’ll be blogging about it. This could be a good chance to see what Fierce do all year round, when not concentrating on their festival.
• AFWM – Local Animator Wins Watch Film Award
  More award-winning – “last week’s Shooting People Watch Film winner was none other than West Midlands-based animator Joe Butcher”.
• Fused Magazine – read Issue 35 online
  “It is the VERY first time Fused has been available to browse through in this way”.
• Clare Edwards wins UK Young Music Entrepreneur 2008
  “The board of Gigbeth would like to congratulate Clare on winning the UK Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2008″. As would I – congrats Clare!
• BIAD’s BA(Hons) Fine Art graduates
  BIAD’s gradutating students of 2008. Hopefully I’ll have a reason to bog about their creative exploits in the future. For now congrats to the lot of em.
• The Triangle Cinema – Gosta Green, Birmingham | Dave Harte
  Dave says “After much searching I have at last found the video I made in about 1988 about the Triangle Cinema in Gosta Green, Birmingham”.

The number of good things happening this evening is nuts:

• Fierce’s Platinum Programme is at The Edge, some of it you can drop into, some you have to book.
• Behind Closed Doors are holding the launch of The Secret Garden – an installation round the back of the Custard Factory from 6pm to 8pm.
• Fierce, again, are having a preview screening of Helen, a film entered for the Edinburgh and Sydney film festivals. That’s at 6pm (for drinks with the film at 6.30pm) at the AMC Broadway Plaza cinema. You’ll have to book yourself in on 0121 244 8080 though, no turning up unannounced.
• Creative Networks are holding their regular event at Millennium Point with a talk on how to Power Your Business With Web 2.0 from the CiB-affiliated Pete Ashton and Stef Lewandowski.

There’ll be more too, but those are just the ones I’d have hoped to make it down to. It’s a shame to miss out on things but on the other hand is great to see so much going on around town.

Paper clipping from here.

Now this is an impressive line-up of events:

• Saturday 24th – Tinariwen
• Sunday 25th – Resonance Events presents The Herbaliser and Chris Read while Mad Flow, DJ Maxwell and Chromatouch provide the local talent.
• Monday 26th – Capsule & Fierce present a Julian Cope lecture plus a screening of Haxan with live soundtrack.

The Saturday night is particularly interesting. It’s a joint Town Hall/Birmingham Jazz production and is billed as a relaxed club night following in the steps of the Town Hall’s all-night jazz sessions of the 50s. The Herbaliser have a new album out on Ninja Tunes and this is the first night of their tour.

Chris Read promoted Substance at the Medicine Bar with Roc 1 and, especially back when it was on every Thursday, there was no better place in town to be. He’s returning to Birmingham after picking up rave reviews for his The Diary mixtape which condenses a 801-track history of hip hop into 70 minutes. It has to be heard to be believed and can be downloaded free from his website.

It’s really good to see the Town Hall being used in this way. Sure, there are plenty of safe, bland acts booked – I expected that – but this weekend they’re putting on one of the most varied leftfield programmes of any venue in the city, and that I didn’t expect. In fact I could quite happily spend my whole weekend down there.

A perfect storm of Birmingham creative scene interestingness is happening on Monday 26 May with Capsule producing an event for the Fierce Festival at the really-rather-good Town Hall (who seem to be widening the scope of the events they’re putting on).

Julian Cope will be presenting his lecture entitled ‘Ancient Worship Of The Gods Beyond Rome’, followed by a screening of ‘Haxan; Witchcraft through the Ages’ with a live soundtrack provided by Bronnt Industries Kapital.

More details and ticket buying info are on the Capsule page.

Julian Cope will be returning with Capsule for the Supersonic Festival, 11 to 13 July. Weekend tickets are available for a bargainous £65 and (limited) day tickets are now on sale too. Check their website for details but don’t dally if you want a ticket.

The line-up for this year’s Fierce! Festival, the international performing arts festival, has been announced and can be seen on the events page of their newly updated website. You may recall that a significant number of acts were chosen via a public vote and these have now been programmed into the wider festival too.

The opening party will be held at The Vaults on 16 May and promises burlesque cabaret from Miss High Leg Kick and Fierce’s favourite DJ Joe Egg. Entry is free but you’ll need to RSVP as capacity is limited.

In the lead up to the festival there are a few events being held on Wednesdays at 2pm at BIAD:

• On 30 April Breathe will be creating “sensory performative experiences in interactive environmments” with The Other Way Works “daring and remarkable theatre that draws the audience into the very heart of the experience.
• On Wednesday 7 May at the same time and place it’s the turn of Harminder Singh Judge and Hancock & Kelly Live.
• Finally, on 14 May it’s the conceptual artist Yara El-Shirbini and trans-disciplinary artist Jiva Parthipan who will take the stage.

I’ll go into the specifics of this year’s festival a little nearer the time but the main programme runs from 21 to 31 May, with a bewildering array of shows and events in that time.