Monthly Archives: August 2007

SIM lock-out

Stourbridge band Midas have had their single ‘Red Shoes’ removed from the top 20 due to what the compilers OCC (Official Chart Company) say are sales that are “not eligible for the chart”. According to The Stirrer this has something to do with them selling pre-loaded SIM cards. How you sell music on SIM cards is a mystery to me (maybe Andrew Dubber will explain for us?) – as is why anyone buys music that’s not on vinyl, CD or downloadable – but now USB flash drives are okay for the chart and the chart is awash with 50-year old recordings what should it matter?

Jug Of Ale Not to Close

Showing why blogging isn’t journalism – apparently the Jug isn’t closing. Sorry to scare people unduly, still you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone and all that, celebrate the Jug of Ale!

The Brummie GLC?

if you like Goldie Lookin Chain or Biz Bizley, then you should definitely check out Fraz ‘n’ Gus and their awesome tracks such as “West Brom”, “Moseley”, “Northfield Nan” and “My Old Man”. Fraz and Gus are two born and bred Brummies who have been living in the area all their lives. Fraz (Faisal Rashid) plays in local bands covering all kinds of genres and was once described by fellow brummie Malcolm Stent, as the only Pakistani Scotsman who thinks he’s an Irish Brummie.

You wait fifty odd years

And then you can watch blurry unsaturated footage of some buses on You Tube. Been scratching my head as to where the main vantage point for this was, but I can’t quite place it (some might be filmed from opposite where the Square Peg is now, maybe?).

One of Brum’s (and England’s) most loved toilet circuit venues, The Jug of Ale in Moseley, is to close in around six weeks – to be pulled down and replaced with 100 much needed (hem hem) flats. The pub was sold in June of last year and now the owners have sold on again, according to those in the know. The venue is well loved and as Russ says “there are so few venues; fewer still that a DIY promoter can just go out and hire; fewer still that a DIY promoter can hire without having to pay an excessively high room-hire fee or have to deal with ridiculously awkward people”. Personally seen bands there that when on to be massive, and some that were (I thought) massive anyways, hello Big Frank. With flats built in Digbeth and about to be built in Moseley impinging on the live music in other venues it’s one disaster after another for the DIY music scene an the moment. Shutting venues to build flats destroys the reasons that the places are attractive to live in – we’ve got to do something about this trend. EDIT: Maybe this is a rumour after all –...

That’s September covered then

Russ L’s Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands. Amongst the music there’s a Tortoise MOT day.

The song remains similar

When is a festival not a festival? When it’s a series of gigs that don’t seem to have much connection and might of happened without the On Song Festival. Some gems there though, Alabama 3 are a fantastic band (hardly ‘songwriters’ in the sense they seem to be trying to imply) and I’m from Barcelona too. There’s talk of “symposiums, workshops and showcases in Birmingham to discuss current song writing and broader industry issues” but no details as yet. Created in Birmingham as ever on the scene.

"What Was Lost" longlisted

Friend of BiNS Catherine O’Flynn’s novel “What Was Lost” has made it onto the longlists of two awards: the long-running Man Booker Prize, announced earlier this month and now also the Guardian’s First Book Award, announced today. The Guardian prize rewards the best new writing from all genres and allows readers’ groups to play a part in deciding the result. This year the groups are based in Waterstone’s stores.

Faggots, penguins and chips

As Brummies, most of our first experiences of the wonder of penguinos would have been at Dudley Zoo, but I doubt they were as weird as this game – Frozen Faggot Fight. I love its almost willful disregard of reality and shoehorning of black country offal-based foodstuffs into a quite christmassy game. As an aside – The Mighty Quo are playing Dudley Castle

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