NGA blog and Birmingham coworking

This is the story of two items on today’s to-do list.

New Generation Arts Festival blog

BCU have hired several bloggers to cover different aspects of this year’s New Generation Arts Festival. As a fairly direct result of my work with My Fierce Festival I’ve been asked to cover the ‘online interactive’ side of things which should be very interesting. My first job was to get my ‘welcome post’ up. I’d have knocked that off a little quicker if I wasn’t enjoying chatting to people via Bambuser while I was doing it. Still, it’s done now and here it is – nothing to shout about really but comments are welcome.

Birmingham coworking wiki

In case you’ve not come across coworking the idea is that some types of workers – especially freelancers who are often homeworkers – would benefit from working around others of their ilk. There’s a lot of value in bouncing ideas off others, making connections, etc and so on. In some cities there are dedicated spaces for this sort of thing.

I had a conversation with Joanna Geary about this last night. In fact several people have been discussing this recently and the idea seems to be gathering momentum – apparently there’s a chance of something being set up in Birmingham which would be excellent. In the meantime, there are plenty of places around the city which would be suitable for people to drop into from time to time, it’s just a case of organising something.

I stumbled on Microcoworking.com the other day and thought that it was a workable enough model. They don’t have a single space to work in, they have many and they use a wiki to flag up where people will be and when. So…

I’ve set up the CoworkBrum wiki for the potential coworkers of Birmingham to organise themselves, coordinate sessions and generally do with as they will. I’ve put up a bare-bones layout, it’s now for the community to adopt it, nurture it or let it fade away.

Thanks to Sixball, Kev, Bluemilkshake and Joanna who visited my ramblings on Bambuser while I was doing this.

Infadels @ Birmingham Barfly, 16/3/08

It speaks well of a band when, with the venue just over half full, the band’s appearance causes everyone in the crowd to huddle down the front with not a single straggler left propping up the walls. Before being assigned to cover this gig I knew two things about The Infadels – their dance/rock songs often sounded better after being given some remix treatment and they’ve got a reputation (and have won awards) for putting on a heck of a show. Read the rest of this entry »

Foals / Youthmovies @ Birmingham Academy 2, 12/3/08

As support bands go you can’t ask for much more than what Youthmovies provided. Revealed later on to be Foals’ favourite band, they were a diverting hotch potch of styles and genres. Their set included some Money Mark-stle keyboards, the guitarist abandoning his guitar to be a second drummer and an LCD Soundystem-esque finale. A few of the crowd bounced about enthusiastically in thanks. I’d probably not go out of my way to see them again but in terms of a warm-up they hit the spot. Read the rest of this entry »

Duffy @ Birmingham Glee Club, 11/3/08

The (really quite good whoever it was) DJ was playing Aretha when I arrived at the Glee Club. I took that to be significant before remembering that no, Adele’s the new Aretha, Duffy’s the new Dusty. Of course. Whether or not she’s worthy of such praise, well, that was what I was there to make my mind up on. Read the rest of this entry »

Envy & Other Sins @ Birmingham Bar Academy, 7/3/08

You may remember mobileAct unsigned as T4′s awful indie-X-Factor show with an amusing twist. The twist being that it managed to be more embarrassing for the presenters (hello Alex James, Jo Whiley and Simon Gavin) than for the acts involved. The eventual winners were the Birmingham-based Envy & Other Sins; a likeable quartet of Victoriana-clad gents and the evening’s headliners. Read the rest of this entry »

Laura Marling / Johnny Flynn / Jay Jay Pistolet @ Birmingham Glee Club, 5/5/08

The Glee Club was humming when I arrived, most likely caused by a reportedly excellent set by Jay Jay Pistolet which I’d just missed. The merchandise table was certainly doing a brisk trade with his stack of 7″ promos disappearing quickly. “Very like Bright Eyes” was one approving verdict so I’d urge you to check his MySpace, as will I. Read the rest of this entry »

MGMT / Virgin Passages @ Birmingham Bar Academy, 3/3/08

My CDX Tips for 2008 are all doing pretty well save for one. I backed Yeasayer to make a splash over here after checking out their debut album and the wad of positive reviews that accompanied it. However, now they’re over here and touring no-one’s paying much attention to them. Their support act on their last US tour, MGMT, on the other hand are generating a right royal buzz with ‘Time To Pretend’ all over daytime radio. Read the rest of this entry »

Tina Dico / Ain @ Birmingham Glee Club, 2/3/08

In a recent album review Ain was described as commanding attention by ‘being the quietest person in the room’. However, the ever polite Glee Club audience was silent and still threatened to drown him out. Ain is the archetypal shy, mumbling, floppy-haired singer/songwriter and has produced a decent album of textured subtlety but I found that most of this was lost in a rather too apologetic performance.

With exactly the same stage set-up – a mic and two guitars – Tina Dico made an entirely different impression. Of course, being thoroughly beautiful (if tall, musical, stereotypically Scandinavian girls are your type) doesn’t hurt to make a few jaws go slack around the room, but it was her breezy confidence and strong voice that helped her take the evening by the scruff of the neck.

Read the rest of this entry »

End of week head-clearance

And breathe out… I’m taking a bit of time to reflect while I munch on some pasta. This past week has been hectic and brilliant for several reasons:

• I’ve been invited to a recruitment day for MediaSnackers.
• I’ve been hired by BCU to blog on their New Generation Arts Festival, covering the ‘online interactive’ aspects of the work being presented.
• The Fierce Festival stuff I’m working is amazing
• I picked up my new bike
• I fixed my broadband connection, which had gone a little wonky

Music-wise I was less hectic than the previous week, only seeing Duffy and Foals.  Duffy was ok – very talented but a little bland.  Foals were fantastic though, despite being fashionista magnets the atmosphere at the gig was great.  I’m off to see Infadels tonight and then that’ll be it for a week and a half.  I’ll be posting up the reviews from the past couple of weeks soonish, so you’ve been warned.

Tomorrow I’m off to the Punch Records music marketing course. We’ll be covering radio promotion in the morning and partners &  sponsorship in the afternoon. It’s the last one I’ll be able to make it to because unfortunately it’s going to clash with some frenetic Fierce-related activity – the website goes live on Thursday.

On Tuesday I’m off to Alton Towers for a conference called ‘Using Digital Media in Marketing and Communications’ which is being organised by the folks at ideasforlife.tv.  Speakers include Dr Adam Rutherford (science journalist), Anthony Lilley (from Magic Lantern) and Dr Jon Salkeld (from QinetiQ).  There seems to be quite a strong corporate slant to the programme so it’ll be interesting to see where they take things.  Plus they’ve left time for rollercoasters afterwards.  If it’s worth blogging my notes I’ll do so.

At some point I need to fit in some presentation planning, content writing for my new website and my birthday.  One thing at a time though – I’ve got a gig to get to.

Looking forward on a Sunday night

I’ve just got back from seeing the oh-so-lovely Tina Dico at the Glee Club.  I’ll get the review for that up tomorrow but for now, suffice to say that she’s much better live than on record.  And very beautiful.

Tomorrow I’ve got the second day of the music marketing course.  Unfortunately I can only make the morning session but as that’s on plugging tracks to TV, clubs, colleges and universities I’ll live with it.  The afternoon will focus on guerilla marketing which will be a little less relevant for me (I think/hope).  I’ll definitely be posting about that.

In the evening I’m seeing MGMT who I’ve been hearing lots of good things about.  On Tuesday I’ve got a break from live music but from Wednesday I’ll be seeing Laura Marling, The Levellers and perhaps Envy & Other Sins on consecutive days.  Phew!  I’m not complaining though.

Before seeing Tina Dico I went along to the first Birmingham Live meet-up.  It was good to meet Steve Gerrard and Dave Allen again and to meet some others, including Bianca Barrett whose work I like.  There seems to be a good flush of enthusiasm about the project, I guess it’s just a question of trying to keep that up.

Excitingly I’ve just heard a couple of new tracks from Culturedeluxe signing Young*Husband and they’re better than the last single we put out.  The next release will be something to look forward to, especially as Steve Lamacq played the last one on R2 the other week.

Another busy week then.  However, right now it’s almost midnight and in all my comings and goings this evening I’ve not yet eaten.  I’d best go rustle something up.