Ben Lowe recently completed a documentary on stand-up comedy, learning the art and doing a gig at his (then) local pub, The Station in Sutton Coldfield (which is home to The Comedy Junction). It features interviews with Johnny Vegas, Jo Brand, Ed Byrne, Jack Whitehall, Russell Kane, Rhod Gilbert, Shappi Khorsandi, Lenny Henry and others and … [Read more…]
Arts & Business are organising a match-making event to pair up willing volunteers with arts organisations who could do with a helping hand. They say: Come and join us for a glass of wine and mingle with representatives from theatres, museums, festivals and galleries who would love your help this year bringing cutting edge art to … [Read more…]
Those crazy cats at Stitches and Hos: On Friday night our knit graffiti faction struck at the heart of a Birmingham suburb. We met after night fall and covered 48 safety bollards surrounding a roundabout in a rainbow of knitting. There are photos of the dastardly deed here and a slideshow of photos from Sparks68 … [Read more…]
A nod to Leonardo Morgado for flagging up this one. Speakers include Sarah Ballard, literary agent whose clients include Julian Barnes and Blake Morrison, Catheryn Kilgarriff of independent publishers Marion Boyars, and Luke Brown of Birmingham based Tindal St Press. Performers include poets from Nine Arches, Dan Holloway of Year Zero Writers, and stand-up philosopher Matthew Hammond. Tickets here and more info here.
The line-up for this year’s Birmingham Comedy Festival is out. Two comments from my esteemed colleague Ian Ravenscroft (who knows his comedy): Is there anything that grabs your attention?
A thing from a couple of weeks back with a neat summary of events from The Hearing Aid: Here’s a (very) brief potted history. Group of Bearwoodians reckon there should be more live music in Bearwood. Groups meets in pubs and bars. Quite a bit. Not a lot happens. Group has a bit of a … [Read more…]
Chris Bates of Skyhook TV has put together a trilogy of music videos featuring DJ Switch, the 3-time DMC champion and member of the Alternative Dubstep Orchestra (I still love that video from Highbury Studio) who, just the other week, performed at the Symphony Hall with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (available on iPlayer … [Read more…]
The Wig is: A newly formed experimental art group in Birmingham, working initially with a “making do” philosophy. We’re looking for like minded artists to join our endeavour, please contact Sonya or Chris for details That’s Sonya Russell-Saunders and Chris Clinton. They’ve got a space on Great Tindal Street that they opened up for a … [Read more…]