Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Midweek Magazine


Photo © Patrick Moran

Granny Buttons writes a good blog. Perhaps writing from a narrowboat on the canals gives a better perspective on things, a chance to slow down and really observe what's going on. Take this post on the Fred Grove affair which has research, linkage and commentary without being dry or one sided. Great stuff.

Speaking of good blogs, I really should do a proper recommendation for D'log, an arts-heavy blog from a teacher at BIAD which I'd not come across before starting these Birmingham blogs despite it having run since 2000. Utterly invaluable for Created in Birmingham, sometimes embarrassingly so.

In his ongoing journey to find an online vehicle to match the quality of his content I notice Adrian Goldberg's The Stirrer is being mirrored on a blogspot blog which means he finally has an RSS feed. Unfortunately he's embedded his (also rather good) Stirrer TV onto each page so you can't actually read it, but it's a start.

The Tories are coming! If Cameron does win the next election the security arrangements in 2010 are going to be fun...

Laura of the Silver Feet wonders why so few people go to the gigs she goes to and offers advice to people wary of seeing live music on their own.
"Bugger everyone else. Stop asking if anyone else is going to gigs, get your own ticket or take a spur-of-the-moment decision and go down and pay on the door. Stand on your own, enjoy the whole gig - if you feel self-conscious, at least you can feel proud that you're not sitting at home wishing you were at the gig but couldn't go because you couldn't find anyone else to hold your hand. [...] Look into the bands yourself - don't expect the media to do it for you. If you don't recognise any of the names playing then take a few minutes to investigate them, don't just ignore it til someone says 'oh they're great'.
Cars are to be made in Longbridge again, two years after MG Rover shut the doors. 250 people will be employed initially (compared to the 6000 made redundant) manufacturing the MG-TF sports car. This is obviously good news but I wonder how much actual manufacturing will take place there. I never worked at Longbridge but did a bit of quality control at Land Rover over in Solihull and was struck by how massive the place was and how every vehicle seemed to be assembled from the smallest parts. I could be wrong but I suspect Longbridge will be doing the minimal amount of assembly of parts shipped in from abroad, just enough to get a "Made in the UK" sticker. But I wouldn't want to detract from what is by any measure a good thing.

Open Street Map is a project not unlike Wikipedia aiming to produce "free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive or unexpected ways." There's a Birmingham contingent who are making good headway in the city and metropolitan area though there's still a long way to go. One to watch and, if you're a map nerd, get involved with. (via)

Finally, photos of the old Bull Ring. No, not the really old Bull Ring. The one inbetween. I kinda miss it.

Okay, not really.

Bad News

Do you remember when Martin Lewis said there should be more "good news" on the news? He was treated with ridicule. However, having monitored the news feeds for our fair city for a few months now I think he might be onto something.

Here are the last twenty items from BBC News West Midlands as delivered to me by their RSS feed:

Boy, 9, dies in blanket accident
Longbridge car factory to reopen
Cities granted casino licences
Stray dog numbers rise by a fifth
Muslim groups 'not doing enough'
Work to prevent building collapse
Bridgewater two fight cash ruling
Man charged over armed robberies
Family not told of mother's death
Arrests follow FA Cup derby match
Man found in road with gun injury
Man can stay in home of 40 years
Four arrests over armed robberies
Witness 'within feet' of raiders
Club "in crisis" after break-ins
Appeal to drivers over raid lorry
Rise in number of disorder fines
Crowbar robbers assault workers
Family turned home into nightclub
Tobacco smuggler sent to prison

Is this your city? If it is, do you still want to live here?

Friday, January 26, 2007

Before the Concrete Collar

Then-and-now photographs of a city are pretty common but there's something special about these photos by DJ Norton taken of Birmingham in the late 50s, early 60s just before the concrete revolution which his son, Mark, has recreated in 2005.

Take this gobsmacking view down Dale End near the Academy.



The photos mainly concentrate on the Inner Ring Road where most of the government sanctioned vandalism, sorry, redevelopment occurred. Mark provides this handy map showing how it was before with the concrete collar superimposed.

In the middle of this is the old New Street Station which I always find fascinating. Apparently it had a road running right through the middle of it! There's more about New St on Virtual Brum with some photos from the mid 1800s.

Mark's dad also took some stunning colour shots from the same period which are really odd to see. These mainly cover the suburbs in the south - Moseley, Pershore Road and a lot of Cotteridge.

Great stuff. Put aside a good hour or so to pour over these. Or you could buy his book, presumably stocked by our local book emporiums.

via this Birmingham Flickr thread

Autonomous Robots

Tomorrow sees the UK national final of the Robots Lego League held at the University of Birmingham's Great Hall from 10.30am.
Dr Richard Dearden, former NASA robotics scientist and Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the University says, ‘The aim of the lego league is to get school children interested in and excited about science, technology and engineering and we hope that by introducing them to robotics at this age, they will go on to study science at A level and then at University.’ Winners of this event will then go forward to the World Festival in Atlanta, USA in April 2007.
No idea if it's open to the public but should be worth popping along to see if you're in the area.

via D'log

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Things to Do

It would appear the deadening effects of the post-Xmas ennui are subsiding as the city says to itself, sod all this sitting around watching shite TV. Let's get off our arses and do something.

Russ L's Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands is out and it's a doozey. And don't forget Silver Footed Laura who's weekly gig guides are consistently entertaining and informative.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

YouTube Birmingham?

A bunch of lads from Worcester come to the big city and ride their BMX bikes all over it.



And that's the best of the recent Birmingham-related videos I could find on YouTube after a good half hour of searching. It's not bad in places but c'mon. Is this it? Am I looking in the wrong places? There are plenty of film makers here, be they students or whatnot. Where's their stuff? Help me out here.

There's a good representation of Birmingham photographically on Flickr so where are the moving pictures?

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Sunday Magazine

Moor Street Station
Photo of Moor Street Station © Brett Wilde

The Moseley Folk Festival has been set for 1st - 2nd of September this year. Stick it in your diary now. You don't want to miss this.

After the success of the Birmingham Flickrmeets where photographers in the area get together to take photos and chat, there are plans to do one in the Black Country starting with a meet in Walsall on Feb 18th.

Cheeky Monkey Comedy Club runs regular events at the Station pub in Kings Heath. By all accounts it's an established and quality night out and only a fiver in.

Mullaney TV: This week Martin details the improvement to a local park.

A short BBC news item about police leafletting kerb crawlers reveals that Small Heath is "Birmingham's largest red light area" which is news to me. I thought it was along the Hagley Road in Edgbaston having previously been moved on from Balsall Heath after a campaign by the predominately Muslim community there.

There's a volunteer evening for the Moseley Festival on Tuesday 30th January at 8pm at the Epic Skatepark for anyone interested in organizing or helping out with events for this years festivities including the two day Music In The Park gig.

Things We Love is a new music fanzine that should be available in West Midlands venues soon.

Comic Strip is a club night at the Sunflower Lounge every five weeks on a Thurday. "DeeJay Ben Drummond transmits Bugged-Out sounds from the Mid-Late 60s. Psyche Rock, French Pop, Groovy Soundtracks & Library Music, Fuzzed-Up Garage & Freakbeat. A back drop of oil projections & handpicked Psychedelic Cinema create a party atmosphere to be enjoyed by all!" The next one is on Feb 22nd.

Three posts on Created in Birmingham, my other blog, that might be of interest.

As always, feel free to send links, plugs and stuff for inclusion on this blog my way.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Big Experimental Screen

I try to avoid it personally as it always seems to be showing sensationalist news or special interest sport but it appears the Big TV Screen in Chamberlain Square is being put to a more interesting use this month with a season of experimental films. Here's the schedule for the coming week:

Saturday, Monday to Friday @ 10am: Black River Stage, Madraykin, Doppelganger

Saturday, Monday to Friday @ 11am: Travellers Remember

Saturday @ 8.20pm, Friday @ 7pm & 10.35pm (Music Videos): Down & Dirty, Charmaine Kay, Taxi, Shimm 1-Up Your Game, Open Mindz, LG Tee

Sunday @ 1pm & 9pm: Travellers Remember

Sunday @ 7.35pm & Friday @ 5.15pm: Through and Far Between

Monday to Friday @ 12pm: Spellbound, Dreaming, Mind the Gap

Monday to Thursday @ 5.15pm: Chaos: Fractals, A Loop, Coloured Hymns

Monday to Wednesday @ 7pm: FEED Film Fest 06, Parallax 04, Mind the Gap

Monday to Thursday @ 10.35pm: Dreaming, Doppelganger, Parallax 04,Madraykin

Here's a big BBC puff piece for the giant idiot lantern which while showing some impressive stats (300 films mainly from local film makers were shown) doesn't address the fact that it's always on all the time regardless of whether anyone's watching.

Listing via Film Birmingham

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Brum Beat

Brum Beat is a pretty comprehensive site dedicated to Birmingham's music scene of the 1960s.
"Norrie Paramore apparently came up with "Brum Beat" as part of an advertising campaign to promote national interest in the bands he had signed up from Birmingham, but Brum Beat would later become known more for the geographical location that certain groups and performers came from, rather than for a single unifying "sound". That geographical location not only included Birmingham, but also the heavily populated area to the west as far as Wolverhampton and known locally as the "Black Country" because of its long history of coal mining and heavy industrial activity. The area includes towns such as Walsall, Dudley, and Stourbridge.

"The West Midlands did have its own thriving music scene prior to the Mersey Sound, but few of the local performers were well known outside of the Birmingham area. Until recently, most of the local bands of that time were ignored and forgotten unless they had hit records or were in some way connected to a famous group. Many of the more well-known bands and performers on this site have both official and un-official web sites devoted to them. The intent of the Brum Beat web site is to gain recognition for as many as possible of the West Midlands groups from the 1960s who helped to create a scene that allowed so much individual and collective musical talent to flourish."

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Eastside City Park pt 2

Further to the previous post on the park, here's a couple more images found on the BCC site that might help to put the redevelopment into some kind of context for you. (Click for bigger.)





Also of note is the Eastside City Park and Digbeth Symposium on 31st January. It's free and open to the public but you need to register a place. Details at that link.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Eastside City Park



Ever since the winning design for the Eastside City Park was announced I've been trying to find a decent image of what the thing will look like. Today, after much hunting through our lovely Council's beautifully structured website, I finally found the PDF for Patel Taylor's design from which the above image is excerpted. Annoyingly it's low resolution so you can't read the text but the general idea is clear.

It's basically a long thin strip, about the width of the current Millennium Point car park, stretching from the gardens on the junction of Park Street and Fazeley Street down past Millennium Point and terminating by the canal just before Curzon Circle on the Middleway. Which was not what I was expecting really. I'd assumed they were going to do something with the green areas in front of Cuzon Street Station but it seems, other than some trees, they're being left as open spaces, which makes sense for events and festivals.

The general theme seems to be water with little rivers, fountains and "features" scattered along the route before merging with the existing canals. It also looks like Curzon Street, amongst others, is going to be pedestrianised but that shouldn't be an issue - it doesn't get too much traffic as it is.

What'll be interesting is what happens to the area behind the station, currently a boarded off patch of wasteland. Is this the location of the much vaunted "learning quarter"?

It's also interesting to note that the spit'n'sawdust pub opposite the station (the name of which annoyingly escapes me - the Woodman?) is clearly marked on the plans. I wonder if it'll keep its unique charms in the redevelopment?

On the whole I give the new park a cautious thumbs up. It looks like a nice place to chill out and, once the rest of the developments around Masshouse Circus are complete, should really tie Eastside / Digbeth into the rest of the city centre.

(If that PDF link vanishes I've stuck a copy here. If anyone can send me a readable copy I'd be most grateful.)

Big Wok

You're not going to get many restaurant reviews here mainly because I don't go to restaurants that much (though it's not a bad idea for a blog...) but I did tonight and can't help but recommend Big Wok to you all. Tucked away behind the monolithic Chung Ying on Wrottesley Street (map) it's a pretty bare bones if large cafe-style place with a killer angle - all you can eat buffet for £4.99 during the day and £8.99 in the evenings. Did I mention it's all you can eat?

The food was great, the service excellent and they have these neat little quirks like a discount for children only if they're under 130cm high. What I particularly liked was the potential for randomness with the food. I found myself selecting stuff by shape, only going for food that was curly.

Interestingly it closes at 11pm meaning it's no good for an after pub meal, but I guess that's very sensible on their part. There's an element of etiquette needed here and I'd imagine having a load of pissed-up idiots at a buffet would be a nightmare to manage. Shame because it'd be a good place to continue a night out into the early hours. Still, we have plenty of balti houses for that sort of thing.

So, Big Wok - highly recommended. Generating a bit of a buzz in blogland too.

(Do you have a favourite eating place in the city that isn't Mr Egg? Let us know in the comments.)

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Open comments

I've switched the comments on the blog so you don't need a Google/Blogger account to leave one. If I get a torrent of spam I'll switch them back but for now if you've been wanting to comment you now can.

Martin Mullaney's War on Tagging

Martin Mullaney, Lib Dem Councillor for Moseley and Kings Heath and one of the few politicians in the area I'm aware of with an active blog, has long been associated with his dedicated campaign against graffiti taggers. He even turned up on a tagger's message board last year warning that he was on to them. (Currently this page but it scrolls down - look for May 30th 2006).

Not knowing Martin personally I've been somewhat amused from a distance by his activities, though when I heard that he'd been instrumental in the identification and arrest of three taggers before Christmas it did raise an eyebrow. It's not just talk. He's serious.

On Friday Mullaney posted this 6 minute video to YouTube in which he explores in great detail the tags on a recently repainted building in Moseley. It starts a little shakey, as you'd expect, but he soon gets into his stride, detailing where the taggers live and what schools they go to. Actually you might say he gets a little too enthusiastic at some points. I wouldn't, but you might.


YouTube link

I particularly like the bit where he points out "Fuk Martin Mullaney"

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this subject Martin's video is a fascinating insight into something most of us will tend to blank out, though in the interests of balance here's a video of one of his targets doing some more legitimate graffiti.


YouTube link

(Tip of the hat to Andy Pryke for the Mullaney video link.)

Update: Martin's video has been picked up on by members of the tagging community (as it were) and there's quite the discussion going on there. This is kinda fascinating. Where else would you find teenagers debating with representatives of local government

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Gig Junkies

Monday, January 8, 2007

Birmingham and Slavery



It came to my attention recently that this year is the 200th anniversary of the passing of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 which intended to outlaw slavery within the British Empire. Given Birmingham's industrial heritage and the concentration of Quakers here (who were somewhat instrumental in campaigning against slavery) I was toying with doing a series of posts on the subject, especially as there's quite a bit of material online (such as this photo essay on abolitionist Joseph Sturge's statue at Five Ways).

So it was with interest that I noted this article on Indymedia about a protest next Thursday in Perry Barr.
Human rights lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith, comedian and activist Mark Thomas, Reprieve, Amnesty International, and Guantanamo campaigners will deliver a ‘birthday cake’ to Hiatts of Birmingham on the 5th anniversary of the opening of the infamous detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The event is to highlight Hiatts' achievement in consistently providing outstanding service to the slave trade and unsavoury regimes around the world.

The activists will arrive at Hiatts on a 7.5 tonne truck with folk band “Seize the Day” to ‘celebrate’ the 5th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay’s camp on Thursday 11th January 2007.

Hiatts manufacture the shackles used by the US military in the notorious Guantanamo Bay over the last 5 years. Hiatts' has never missed a business opportunity in over 200 years from supplying "nigger collars" to the slave trade to shackles used during torture to various unsavoury regimes.
It's probably worth noting that Hiatts also supply handcuffs to the UK police and many other law enforcement agencies across the world some of which are not evil but it's the historical resonance here that's really interesting. While Birmingham has a proud history of campaigning against slavery it also benefitted greatly from the trade whether indirectly along with the rest of industrial Britain or directly in the case of manufacturing metal restraints. And some of those companies are still in operation.

There's more on Birmingham's slavery past on the Connecting Histories site, from where the above image was pinched. Information on that coin can be found here.

[Update: BBC report on the protest.]

Friday, January 5, 2007

Brum Blog #9

Originally published 5/1/07 here.

The Grassroots Channel at Podnosh is currently running a series of short podcasts interviewing people involved with the Birmingham Community Empowerment Network about what they're passionate about.

The Redditch Standard has a surprisingly long list of What's On In And Around Redditch in January. Who'd've thunk it?

A rather alarmist article in Wolverhampton's Express & Star (C-charge 'will destroy jobs') alerts me to proposals to introduce a congestion charge in the West Midlands as a pilot scheme prior to a national roll out. A Guardian report from September is a little more even handed. Naturally the newspapers don't link to the actual government reports themselves but it would appear to be coming from the Commission for Integrated Transport who have a handy Road User Charging portal page should you want to investigate this further. Personally, as a non-driver, anything that reduces the stupid amount of traffic on Birmingham's roads can only be a good thing though I do have major qualms over the black box satellite monitoring. Still, expect to see giant red circled C's on the roads in a few years.

Andrew Dubber's The Wireless blog has transformed into an mp3 blog which also functions as a podcast if you drag this link into iTunes (or similar). One song a day is promised with extensive commentary. Also, Dubber and Spoons, of Buscast fame, are allegedly making a comeback. More news as it emerges...

It looks like local band The Twang are about to hit whatever counts for the Big Time these days judging by their reaching second place in the BBC's Sound of 2007 poll of 130 critics and broadcasters. While Phil &co might not be doing anything radically original they're doing it well with passion and humour and above all don't come over like a bunch of cunts, which counts for something in my book.

Birmingham Central Library holds all manner of curious stuff in its archives, some of which isn't related to Birmingham, just collected by local figures and donated over the years. Paul alerts me to Robert Welch's Ireland photographs from the late 19th century, 400 of which were collected by industrialist and politician Benjamin Stone whose own work comprises over 22,000 prints some of which have been integrated into the Digital Handsworth project. All this sort of thing can be found in the Local Studies and History deparment on the 6th floor of Central Library.

As ever, bloggers are doing the What's On thing well. The Gig Slut has gigs for this week lined up and RussL's Things to Do in January listing, while short, is always worth a perusal.

Over in Oldbury, starting this weekend, is the 31st Annual Smethwick International Exhibition of Photography which looks rather impressive. The launch is at 3pm Saturday and I might pop along (if I can figure out how to get to Oldbury...). Prints are on display and there are slideshows throughout the week at these times. (Thanks Mike)

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is one of those cultural organisations that takes a lot of public money to prop up and while it's well worth the investment it does mean they have a significant outreach remit. An impressive fascet of this is the CBSO Podcasts, very professionally produced half hour shows of a quality you'd expect to hear on Radio 3 or Classic FM which give an insight into the workings of the orchestra as well as educating you on specific aspects of classical music. They're monthly at the moment with four in the archives. (via)

B:INS link of the week: Nick Owen of Midlands Today has a blog on MySpace.

Brum Blog #8

Originally pubished 23/12/06 here.

Heritage Corner

I'm a bit ambivalent about the Blue Plaque scheme whereby buildings are marked according to what notable person from history lived in them. There's something rather superficial about them, especially when the original building has long been demolished. That said, some nice patterns do emerge, even if they don't really mean anything. Take for instance William Hutton's plaque. He opened a bookshop in Birmingham in 1750. Where his house stood is now the location of High Street Waterstone's branch. Which is, y'know, interesting in a psycho-geographical echoey kinda way.

Still, it's no doubt a good thing to bring the history of the city to the surface and even if these plaques don't say much on their own they do build an awareness of what has been. For more information the Birmingham Civic Society runs the local scheme and has a big list while BirminghamNet has a photo gallery.

Also noted: In a Previous Life is a neat thread that's developed on the Birmingham Flickr group where members research the history of buildings in the city.

Wheel News

According to icBirmingham the recently departed wheel of Broad Street is now overlooking the amusingly similarly named Broad Beach in Brisbane, Australia. Here's a photo:

stolen from icBirmingham without permission

Also of note from that article is that Broad Street is know as "Birmingham's Golden Mile" which will come as news to those who call it a "Boschian Fleshpot of Despair".

BiNS Orgy

Jon Bounds of Birmingham: It's Not Shit has had a productive couple of weeks. His review of the year is a must read and the Brummie of the Year award went to Jason Furnell, a cricketer by all accounts, with Danny Reddington of the recently closed Reddington Rare Records came in second.

Brum Blogwatch

Some local blogs new on my radar:

Pete Lewis "a research student, photographer, skier, free software advocate, balti-eater and aiming-to-be all-round friendly guy, living in Harborne"

Brum Project isn't about the city per se but stands for Birmingham Re-Usable Materials and is connected with Birmingham Uni's Information Services department. So pretty niche then.

The Wireless is Andrew Dubber's (of New Music Strategies) music blog. Currently he's running down his top 30 albums of the year.

Antonio Gould is a new media consultant pushing the Long Tail ethos and social software usage in that area.

The Deplorable Word is Tom Martin's blog that I've been following for a while so it's not really new to me. Might be new to you though. Primary focus is interactive media stuff but strays into other things, as you do.

News News

Trinity Mirror are trying to sell all their Midlands-based titles including local behemoths the Post and Mail. A leakage of revenue to online advertising is blamed. The fact that they're shit newspapers isn't mentioned. I've got a case of the schadenfreudes.

Brum Blog #7.5

Originally published 06/12/06 here.

Gig news

Since I'm not planning another Brum Blog for a few days I feel I ought to point to the just posted Silver Footed Gig Slut issue 10 in which our host goes through all the gig listings, links to all the bands and adds commentary and recommendations to each evening's choice. And there was me worried that I hadn't done any gig stuff this week. Distributed blog networks are great!

Brum Blog #7

Originally published 5/12/06 here.

Today's Photo
horses01
Matt Murtagh at the Pantomime Horse Grand National

Narrowcast News

Podnosh is a podcast station based in Birmingham that I stumbled across recently. I like that this pretty established outfit with high aims exists outside of my awareness - it implies there's even more happening online in the city for me to discover. I'm particularly taken with the Grassroots Channel which "is here to provoke and inspire anyone who thinks they just might want to change the world around them". For a quality sample check out this interview with Soweto Kinch, a jazz saxophonist and rapper from Handsworth who recently released an CD set in a tower block in B19, samples of which can be found on his MySpace page. Given what he says in that interview I intend to investigate Mr Kinch further.

Legacy News

Over at the music blog The Art of Noise they're running a series of debates on whether some aspect of music is deserving of praise or whether it really a bit shit. This week it's Birmingham's Musical Legacy and my opinion might surprise you. All votes are valid and will count towards the final verdict so get over there.

Sports News

Congratulations to Birmingham: It's Not Shit's Airbiscuit which won this year's Pantomime Horse Grand National. I didn't make it on the day but by all accounts it was fucking mental. B:INS has a good report with many photos.

New Blog News

The Hearing Aid is a relatively new blog from Daron (who, as it happens, formed the basis of this post) which concentrates on gig reviews in Birmingham at the smaller venues. Needless to say this is right up my alley but I'm delighted to add the writing is really good. Now, if we had another, say, 20 blogs of this quality...

Things to Do department

Speaking of people who review too many gigs for their own health, Russ L's Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands In December post appeared over the weekend and it's frightening in it's hugeness, though there is a lot of boxing in there. Actually, the boxing stuff has me intrigued. Perhaps I should tag along with Russ to one of them.

I've no idea how I got on the mailing list but every month Birmingham City Council send me a What's On email. It's very mainstream not really straying from the big ticket stuff but worth a scan I find. I see that there's a Christmas Craft Market on at the moment in Chamberlain Square (that's the one by the library if, like me, you tend to get your squares confused) which is notable for only having stuff that's produced locally. Might be worth a shufty just to see what's actually being done in the area as much as to buy "handmade soaps".

Choir Correction Corner

Andy Pryke emailed to point out that the Complaints Choir of Birmingham, as featured in the last Brum Blog, was actually the first one. There's now an international Complaints Choir website which has a good history of the project and BBC Birmingham ran a feature where it's revealed they're going to do a second one.

Brum Blog #6

Originally published 26/11/06 here.

Today's Photo

Longbridge-sunset
Longbridge Sunset by Kate Drew.

Music

When I heard that the NME had done a feature on the music scene of Birmingham and surrounding areas under the knowingly awful banner Best Midlands I knew I had to buy it, partly because some of the bands I like were mentioned and partly just to see how the magazine would deal with a scene I've had something of an eye on these last few years. I've often said that one of the paradoxically nice things about Birmingham bands is they're pretty resigned to not making it big quickly and so they concentrate on being good instead. If they want to be famous they'll fuck off to London which is why when I lived in London I never went gigging. It was too depressing. That said, I'd love for some of the genuine talent in this city to get the recognition it deserves and, for good or bad, things like the NME are what makes that happen. And at the very least this features means that a few hundred folk in the area can now put a face to some of the dozens of bands playing at the Jug or the Flapper and might well check them out. That alone can only be a good thing.

Since the NME is quaintly printed on paper and sold in shops for one week only before being recycled into pulp and doesn't keep a digital archive I've take the liberty of scanning this historical document and uploading it to the internet on their behalf.

NME
(Here's the 1.7mb readable version.)

And here are the bands themselves with handy MySpace linkage. Those I can recommend are in bold and those I haven't seen but intend to check out soonish are asterisked.

Ripchord
The Enemy
The Twang
Untitled Musical Project
The Ripps
Envy and Other Sins*
Deluka
Murdoch
The Gravity Crisis*
The Big Bang
Vijay Kishore*
Sunset Cinema Club*

When you consider the paper could have picked all the sub-Oasis clones and Libertines wannabes that plague our city this is not a bad selection all told. The paucity of women does cause one to pause but it is regrettably representative of the guitar-based scene. We really need a decent Ladyfest-style movement and soon.

Campaign News

I was sorry to miss the blockading of Gas Street Basin this weekend by dozens of narrowboats protesting the £7 million cut to British Waterways' budget. Birmingham's canal network has benefitted hugely from this investment over the years and it's hard to believe they used to be no-go areas. While a case, however pitifully weak, could be made that the bulk of the work has been done and it's just a caretaking job now, the scale of these cuts and the 180 redundancies that inevitably come with them are pretty shocking. From a purely tourist point of view the canals are a valuable asset to Birmingham not to mention providing essential cycle routes into the city. And it strikes me that £7m isn't actually that much compared to other investments made by government agencies on our behalf. coughIraqcough

[Update: Photos of the protest on Flickr from Martin.O'C]

On a more petty note Andy Pryke was telling me about singing in the Complaints Choir of Birmingham the other month and I had no idea what he was on about. Seems I should have paid more attention as it's become something of a YouTube phenomena. After the (admittedly superior so don't watch it yet) Complaints Choir of Helsinki some wise folk in Birmingham decided we needed one too...


YouTube link.

If there's a story behind this worth retelling I shall endeavour to provide it to you.

Transport News

From the unlikely source of LiveJournal's Birmingham department I learned that bus fairs are going up again in the new year to £1.40. That's an increase of 17% which seems a little high. The last increase was, if memory serves, in the winter of 2004/2005 and then it was from £1.10 to £1.20. It would appear the vile and unavoidable-unless-you-sit-right-at-the-front-upstairs TV screens aren't proving the revenue earning devices it was hoped they would be. That said, and allowing for my relentlessly optimistic attitude to such things, I don't think the bus service is that bad in the city. Not a patch on London's (oh for a night bus system of such glory!) but better than most cities I've seen. The only problems I can see with it are all the fucking cars that get in the way. Oh, and the arseholes who think I want to listen to their shit music pumped through the tinny speakers of their git-phones. Other than that though... I can't find any confirmation of this on the spangly new Network West Midlands site but that wasn't a big surprise. However while googling around I did stumble across this review of the Birmingham transport system from 2002 which raised a smirk.

Back to robbing the BBC for stories, it seems the campaign to rejuvenate New Street Station has picked up steam again with a bunch of the great and good petitioning central goverment to kick start a £500m scheme. Everyone's favourite local historian Lord Carl of Chinn is quoted as saying "If we as a region do not grasp the need to be part of the transport revolution of the 21st Century, we will continue to lose jobs." Which will come as news to those of us unaware we were in the middle of a transport revolution or that having a shiny new train station would have kept Rover open. What I did find notable about the current proposals is that the entrance to New St will be flanked by two giant phalluses. Lovely!

Recommended Gigs

Briefly, as it's getting late. Go see the following if you can.

Wednesday 29th: Rumblestrips at Academy 2.
Thursday 30th: Mr Bones and the Dreamers at the Sunflower Lounge

Nonsense

The Pantomime Horse Grand National returns this year on December 3rd. Last year Jon of BiNS came last. He hopes to improve on this. No idea where it's actually taking place - if anyone knows the comment box is below...

From the BiNS newsletter:
Victoria and Chamberlain Squares
Sunday 3rd December 2006

1.15pm Parade of Horses to The Bullring
1.45pm All horses in Parade Ring for build up to the event
2.30pm Colts - Heat 1
3pm Colts - Heat 2
3.30pm Fillies Final
4pm Colts Final
4.30pm Prize-winning presentations

Brum Blog #5

Originally published 23/11/06 here

Baywatch in Birmingham

(YouTube link for the RSS people, via the complicated life of Adam Nazir Ahmed Teladia.)

Bugger all to report today, mainly because I haven't been looking. A new project is on the horizon. It's Birmingham related and it's rather large. More info next week.

In the meanwhile go read issue eight of Diary of a Silver Footed Gig Slut. It's very good.

Brum Blog #4

Originally published 19/11/06 here

In which I give bullet points a try...

  • The musician, artist and accidental superstar blogger Momus held a lecture in Birmingham recently and, naturally, presented his impressions of the city on his blog Click Opera in two posts, Breakfast in Brum and Panspermingham.
    The church that stands opposite the blob, for instance, what is its spire but a long stone finger pointing out into space in the vague direction of a supernatural deity? And me, I've arrived in a plane to give a lecture here. I'm from space too. When you think about it, even the industrial revolution which gave this town its core identity was really a series of tools falling from the sky, rather like the bone the monkeys in "2001: A Space Odyssey" threw up in the air -- and which came down as waltzing spacecraft. The spinning jenny, the steam engine, they must have seemed like spores when they arrived, changing everything.


  • The 24 Hour Museum's Birmingham City Guide is a bit of a gem, bringing together museum, gallery and general heritage information with some original material of its own like city trails. It's also nice to see a site like this that understands the important of linking - browsing through their pages leads to all manner of interesting stuff. such as...


  • Digital Handsworth is one of many slick online local history resources produced by a variety of individuals and organisations under the auspices of the Council's culture departments and the Lottery people, leveraging the expertise of the city archives department and the knowledge of the actual people of the city. It's a wonderful resource, going from the 14th century to the present day, and contains many gems such as the extensive galleries of Vanley Burke who's been photographing the people of Handsworth since 1967.



    There are a number of online initiatives like Digital Handsworth which deserve wider awareness and which I'll be bringing to your attention over time.


  • I popped past the burnt out shell of Edwards (see Brum Blog #1) on Saturday to grab some pictures before the somewhat inevitable demolition and noticed this stuck to the railings:

    Flowers for Eddies

    Bunches of flowers like this usually signify the site of a road accident or murder, but these were for the club. Obviously this (along with the makeshift memorial plaque) don't constitute a public outpouring of grief but I did find it significant. While I'm generally positive about the rapid redevelopment of the centre of town (which I touch on in this thread) it's notable how people can get attached to areas of the city that, in town planning eyes, are a blight.

    Finally, I neglected to check the Edwards forum where, amongst the expected reminiscences, I found news of a Deposit Fund to raise money for the "rebuild" of the club.


  • Do you want to go see Misty's Big Adventure and the "anthemic nerdcore" of the ZX Spectrum Orchestra at the Glee Club on December 6th? For free? Since it's being broadcast on Radio 6's Freak Zone they ain't charging but the Glee Club isn't huge so get there quick. While Misty's play regularly in Birmingham (there's a gig at the Jug of Ale on Wednesday) a set from the ZX Spectrum Orchestra is a rare treat indeed.


  • BBC Brum has details of a mass Sleep Out in a Digbeth car park on Friday November 24th, organised by St Basils to raise money and awareness of youth homelessness in the city.


  • BiNS link of the week: Made in Birmingham - one man's attempt to record every company based in the city. It's somewhat mad but does contain some real gems. I particularly liked the entry for Coronet cameras as I'd picked up one of their models (a Twelve 20 Box) for a couple of quid purely because I liked the typeface. Turns out it was made here.


  • Later in the week I want to do a Birmingham Blog roundup to start building a list of the quality end of the local blogosphere, so consider this a call for submissions. The comment box is below.

Brum Blog #3

Originally published 17/11/06 here.

TODAY'S PHOTO

Cold water
Cold Water by Rob Gillespie ©.

SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND

Music
On Saturday I'll be popping along to see Una Corda, Mothertrucker, upcdowncleftcrightcabc+start and Haxan at Chapter 11 at a gig put on by It's Just Noise. Where's Chapter 11? Good question. It's in, or maybe even is, the King Edwards Inn by Aston University. Here's a photo and here's a map. The flyer promises variations on the theme of post-rock with a stoner edge. And some other stuff. Plenty of quiet-loud-quiet instrumental soundscapes and noodling guitar-based noise I'd imagine. Personally, and as someone who's not really a rock/metal kinda guy, I've thoroughly enjoyed the Una Corda and Mothertrucker gigs I've been to and am intrigued by upcdownc, so for Four Pounds this is a no brainer. Doors open at 7.30pm.

Food
The annual Frankfurt Christmas Market starts this weekend in Victoria Square. Here's hoping they have that giant ugly Santa again this year.

Art


Patrick Hughes' Superduperspective is currently on show at the Waterhall in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. You'll know his work if you've ever been there before - one has been on display in the entrance for years now. From his website:
Reverspectives are three-dimensional paintings that when viewed from the front initially give the impression of viewing a painted flat surface that shows a perspective view. However as soon as the viewer moves their head even slightly the three dimensional surface that supports the perspective view accentuates the depth of the image and accelerates the shifting perspective far more than the brain normally allows. This provides a powerful and often disorienting impression of depth and movement... The illusion is made possible by painting the view in reverse to the relief of the surface, that is, the bits that stick furthest out from the painting are painted with the most distant part of the scene. This is where the term reverse perspective or Reverspective comes from.
This is apparently "the largest ever UK exhibition of his three-dimensional paintings and prints" and it runs until 11th Feb.

Film
Outside of the multiplexes, The MAC has the fascinating looking Cinema of Prayoga, an exhibition of experimental Indian film from 1913 to 2006, split over 3 programmes starting at 12.30pm. This actually looks pretty unmissable, especially the 4.15 show "Indian Video Art: Between Myth and History".

CREATIVE INDEX

An ongoing attempt to catalogue the various organisations, collectives and ramshackle groupings in Birmingham that are dedicated to pursuing and promoting the interesting. Starting with the blindingly obvious...

Capsule - music gigs, mainly at the Custard Factory, with an experimental / metal bias. Producers of the annual Supersonic Festival.

7 Inch Cinema - dedicated to underground, low budget, independent or just plain different moving pictures, they do regular nights at the Rainbow in Digbeth along with the annual Flatpack Festival, the next one being in February. They also have a What's On page "in the absence of a sparky listings zine/website for the West Mids." We're working on it...

Ten4 Magazine is based in the West Midlands and covers the creative industries along with giving advice to aspiring artists such as grant applications and so on. Alongside this they have a blog which I've found pretty useful.

More, much much more, to come (and let me know of anything relevant to this section in the comments below or by email.)

UPDATES

BBC Birmingham has more on Mark "Dead Soldier" McGowan with some nice reactions from the public and links to radio interviews.

Brum Blog #2

Originally published here on 15/11/06

ARTS NEWS

snarfed from the BBCArtist Mark McGowan has begun a week long performance piece entitled "Dead Soldier" where he's lying on the ground on the corner of New St and Needless Alley (clever...) dressed in uniform for 10 hours a day to "raise questions about the horrific nature of conflict". Or at least he was. Possibly because of inevitable outrage from The Sun, or maybe just because of "safety" reasons, the police have asked him not to continue, according to the BBC. Naturally he's rather annoyed about this. "What am I supposed to paint, pictures about nice things? Well, things right now are not very nice." There's a long interview with him here, a catalogue of his recent stunts and a retrospective of his work is on display in the International Project Space at the Bournville Centre for Visual Arts from November 16th to December 16th.

Congratulations to Stuart Whipps who has won first prize in the Observer Hodge Photographic Awards for his documentary photographs of the deserted MG Rover plant in Longbridge. He receives £5,000, a camera kit from Olympus and an assignment from The Observer. You can the series on his site, one of which a reproduced below, and an exhibit of the winning photographers' work is at the Guardian/Observer's Newsroom on Faringdon Road, London, until 19th January. (via Ten4)

(© Stuart Whipps)

Brilliantly Birmingham, running from November 16th to December 23rd, is an international festival of contemporary jewellery with exhibitions, workshops and fairs taking place in venues across Birmingham and the West Midlands, with an emphasis, naturally, on the Jewellery Quarter itself.

MUSIC

Podcasts come and go, the initial enthusiasm weakened by the inevitable drudge of producing the darn things on a regular basis, but Birmingham based music promoters ColdRice have gotten off to a good start with weekly half hour shows containing the kind fo eclectic mix you'd expect from the people who once brought Guitar Fucker to the Birmingham stage. Drag this link into iTunes or whathaveyou and enjoy.

TECH NEWS

Apparently there's going to be a square mile of WiFi in Birmingham city centre next spring, offering access to council services and run in conjunction with BT and Digital Birmingham. According to the press release (PDF) "the portal will give... free access to information on health, transport, events and schools. People will also be able to buy vouchers or subscribe to services such as BT Openzone." Interestingly the signal will be transmitted via existing lamp posts and will stretch from Brindley Place to Millennium Point. I'm not sure this is quite the "groudbreaking innovation" they claim but it's a notable development. It'll be interesting to see exactly what they charge for normal internet access and whether there'll be any content filters in place.

Brum Blog #1

Orginally published here on 15/11/06

Eddie's on fireGiven that Edwards No 8, which burnt down on Saturday, was frequented on the whole by those of the goth / rock persuasion it's not that strange to find a lot of mentions on the Google Blog Search, and while most of them can be summarised with "OMG! Edwards burnt down!" there were a few poignant comments, not to mention a couple of first hand accounts.

Best of the bunch is Silver Footed Gig Slut (who I'll be keeping an eye on I think). Scroll down half way for the tribute, of which this is but an excerpt.

"Moving on... to the back of this room, through the sea of emo, was the room known as the Hair Metal room, even when there was no Hair Metal playing. It had paintings of a sexy Snow White and demonic seven dwarves on the walls, and too many shot based drinks for its own good. Or ours, anyway. And a sticky floor. Anyway, reversing out away from Glenn's wildly flailing hair, we'd go upstairs to the 'other main' room. This would be the goth stomping ground; literally, you know that one-two sideways stomp they do because their boots are too big and heavy to get any flexibility round their ankles. Awesome."

More blog posts and one from UCE's RockSoc which says there's a wake being held at Scruffy Murphy's "next Thursday". There's also a thread on the LiveJournal's Birmingham community which I've found myself contributing to.

I hadn't been to Edwards for years (and sorely regret not making a pilgrimage of late) but it did provide some of my best nights out in the mid 90s. My housemates, you see, were goths. In fact they wound up running Goth Soc at Birmingham Uni for a while and I even DJ'd a couple of their club nights at Eddies. That was where I discovered, to my amazement, that The Sun Always Shines On TV by a-ha is the best goth record ever record ever made. Yes, really. Despite my liking for black clothing I was never a goth, nor much of a metalhead, and found the whole thing kinda funny, but even if the music sucked the nights themselves, coupled with the insane dedication to dressing up, were tremendous fun. And I sprained my wrist dancing like a drunken loon in the indie disco there on my 23rd Birthday.

On the Sunday after the fire I happened to be in town for the Flickrmeet and passed by the area to see what could be seen. Not much, since it was still cordoned off, but there were small gatherings of folk looking sad, some young, some old. And I felt a bit sad too, though oddly pleased that the stench of smoke had made it all the way to the Bullring. That seemed fitting somehow.

Right now the front page of the says "We hope to be up and running again either in the club or at an alternative location ASAP... For now we have had to cancel all upcoming gigs, however we are seeking an alternative venue. So be optimistic, and lets all look forward to the club's return in the not too distant future."

Photo

remembrance05
Remembrance Sunday in Centenary Square, taken by Matt Murtagh


Music

News to me, but we're half way through a massive music festival in Birmingham at the moment. With 100 performances in 19 venues over 3 months and most of them for free Birmingham Rocks looks like the sort of thing everyone should at least have heard of. Here's the lineup which runs until the end of the year. (via BBC Bham)

Links


The Birmingham Post has a long article on Stripsearch, the comics outreach program run by local comics luminaries John McCrea and Hunt Emerson with the Hi8tus project. (via Ten4)

Last week Jon Bounds of Birmingham: It's Not Shit scored high with a piece in the Guardian pushing those areas of the city that aren't on the marketing radar. Expect to see some new faces at Mr Egg and the Nature Centre.

BiNS also draws attention to a public meeting to save Moseley Baths, one of only three Grade II* listed swimming pools still in use in the country, which is apparently under threat. The meeting is on November 27th.

Again with Moseley, the Telegraph covered the area in their guide to the best regional food with an emphasis on the farmers market and local independent shops. (via Jez)