A Supersonic 2008 round-up

So the krautrock legends of Harmonia brought Supersonic 2008 to a suitable end – by turns soothing, pulsing and hammering.  My review (to go up on Birmingham Live) is almost finished but music reviews are a little constraining content-wise so here’s the other stuff.

Overall it was a fantastic weekend.  The whole thing was impeccably organised, the atmosphere was friendly, the rain stayed away and I saw loads of great bands, a couple of really interesting talks and the odd film.  The mix of bands was perfect – complimenting and contrasting each other to a bafflingly excellent extent, now I stop to think about it.

Higlights were:

  • Efterklang
  • The stir fry beef in oyster sauce on Sunday night (when I realised just how hungry I was)
  • Yukio Fujimoto playing a beautiful tune using three calculators with a hushed crowd packed around him
  • Parts & Labor
  • Being able to hop between stages so easily
  • Nosferatu with live score written by Grandmaster Gareth (Mistys) and Matt Eaton (Pram)
  • The map in the programme specifically pointing out where cake could be purchased
  • Being able to drop into Steve Gerrard‘s studio/office, right in the middle of the Custard Factory (here I am on video, although Red Sparowes drown me out)

Low points were:

  • Few and far between
  • A lack of red wine.  Didn’t vex me too much cos I was driving but the singer of Oxbow wasn’t happy and when he’s not happy everyone knows about it
  • Actually I hear the beer situation wasn’t great either
  • Although there was no lack of appreciation, he crowds were often a little inert – there was little in the way of dancing/moshing/general kinetic involvement.
  • Gravetemple turned up later than advertised and then bored me to tears
  • I missed the Friday

So the pluses were many and good; the minuses were few and piffling.  On the very slim chance that Lisa or Jenny from Capsule (or anyone else involved in organising the festival) happens to read this I’d like to say a hearty congratulations and a big thank you.

I’ll now be spending the next week or so compiling as much content (blogs/reviews/photos/videos) as possible in the Created in Birmingham Supersonic 2008 collective memory.  I’ve started already but I’m sure there’s plenty more to come.  I might even talk through the process of gathering all that info at some point.

Finally, and more for personal reference than anything, here’s a list of what I saw:

Saturday – Cath & Phil Tyler, The Owl Service, The Courtesy Group, Magnetophone, Efterklang, 7 Inch Cinema (films), The Heads, Oxbow, Fuck Buttons, Battles, Harvey Milk.

Sunday – Einstellung, Max Tundra, Parts & Labor, Yukio Fujimoto and Brian Duffy (talks and performances), Earth, Red Sparowes, Fucked Up, Nosferatu (film with live score), ZX Spectrum Orchestra, Gravetemple, Harmonia.

Arriving at Supersonic 08

Today I’m down at Supersonic in the Custard Factory.  I’ve just got here and can’t believe my luck – Steve Gerrard (who’s snapping for Rock Sound, Terrorizer and Birmingham Live) has a studio right by the outside stage which makes a perfect base for writing up reviews, adding to CiB’s Supersonic collective memory post and generally kicking back.  Best of all the sofa’s nice and comfy.

I’m in the interesting (read slightly awkward) position of not having a clue about most of the bands playing.  It’s nice to check out some new stuff but it makes reviewing a little tricky.  Still, with one thing and another at the moment it makes for a welcome distraction.

Of the bands playing today, I heard a bit of Cath & Phil Tyler and The Owl Service are onstage doing their 60’s folky thing just now.  Later on I’m planning to catch Efterklang, Oxbow, Fuck Buttons, Battles and Harvey Milk, but then the best laid plans, etc and so on…

Here’s the view I have from my sweet setup here:

The Flyover Show

I had a pretty incredible day on 31 May.  It started and ended at the Hippodrome with some Fierce Festival events – Motionhouse’s Underground early on and then the Courtesan Tales later.  More on them later.

Between those two I went down to one of Birmingham’s least celebrated spots – underneath the Hockley Flyover – to catch the Flyover Show.  This was the brainchild of Soweto Kinch – top jazz saxophonist, MC, producer, writer, poet and all round general legend.  I’d been banging on about the event since I heard about it, giving it a few bumps on CiB and chewing my friends’ ears off too.

The event was also the perfect excuse to interview Soweto for the first CiB podcast so earlier in the week I’d had the privilege of him making me a cup of tea round at his flat while Frankie conducted her first CiB interview.

Anyway, it sounded like an ace idea and the line-up was pretty good too.  Ty and Bashy being good names on the hip hop side of things; Soweto and Andy Hamilton being great quality jazz names – all for free.  I got down at about 4.30pm, stayed til the end and loved every second.  There was an amazingly good atmosphere with loads of families down there and the whole thing ran seamlessly from one impressive act to another.

Soweto Kinch was onstage most of the day and even took part in the youth theatre group’s performance – something that I started watching with polite curiosity but finished watching with something closer to awe.  Some of the kids involved in that were just incredible.

Here are some of my photos from the day:

Best of all there was no trouble.  There were worries before the event, what with the whole postcode rivalries thing, but nothing happened so it’s not something I’m going to dwell on.

I heard a rumour that they might try to put on a similar event some time.  I really hope so because this one achieved exactly the lofty aim it was trying to.

There are loads of pics of the day on the BBC’s site and The Birmingham Post have a review. Oh, and typing this has reminded me that I need to check out Zena Edwards who was incredible and who I’d never heard of before.