MACE (Media Archive for Central England) are currently working on The Full Circle Project, which will run for 3 years as they hunt down hidden or forgotten film footage and home-movies from the past 100 years, created by people of the Midlands.

The aim is to make these materials accessible to the community so that they can be widely enjoyed by future generations and used for research, in exhibitions, screenings and education work.

Our concern at MACE is that films and videos are disappearing fast.  We want to stem the tide by working with organisations across the midlands to help them find and ‘save’ their local community’s moving image heritage.

For more information on the Full Circle Project, contact Mace or visit their website / blog for full details on what they do with donated film, and the local organisations involved.

Here are some of the photographs uploaded to Flickr so far:

You can read first hand accounts of the 4am experience by Pete Ashton, RachelCreative, Nicky Getgood, Citizensheep and Jon Bounds.

Did you get up at the ungodly hour for the project? Please be nice pop your story or link into the comments.

If you spot a review, some photos, film or whatever (or produce something yourself) then let me know in the comments.  I’ll be searching out what I can and hopefully we’ll collect together some interestingness.

First up the Birmingham Opera Company website and the Birmingham Opera Design Brains Trust blog which has profiles of the people involved and sneak previews from July when rehearsals were going on and the building was being prepared.

Reviews

• Guardian
• The Times
• Birmingham Post
• John Mostyn
• Ennuyer.net
• Metro
• Pete Ashton
• The Stirrer
• Whatsonstage Midlands
• The Observer
• The Telegraph
• The Independent
• Andy Pryke
• Russ L

Photos

• chai wallah
• Birmingham Post
• Pete Ashton

[Update, 29 July 2008]  I’ve noticed very little new stuff recently so I’m going to stop actively searching and have unsubscribed from my automated updates.  However, if you produce/come across any writings/photos/videos/whatever about this year’s festival then please mention them in the comments and I’ll update this post.

On with the good stuff then…

Capsule/Supersonic themselves

Here’s the Supersonic website itself.  If you had a good time at the festival you can say thanks to the Capsule ladies, Lisa & Jenny, on this Capsule blog post.  Here’s the festival catalogue, digitised.

Previews

• Birmingham Mail
  
• Metro (and again)
• Drowned In Sound
• Cows Are Just Food (general plus pt 1 – Oxbow, pt 2 – Noxagt, pt 3 – DJ Scotch Egg, pt 4 – Cath & Phil Tyler)
• Strange Attractor
• Girl Aloud
• Fact Magazine
• 4Talent
• BBC
• Birmingham Post blog and interview with Capsule
• Vice and Vice Festival Previews (reproduced on Name Me Someone Thats Not A Parasite)
• The Quietus with podcast interview
• Itchy Birmingham
• The Guardian Guide
• Safe Concerts
• Prime Objective

Blogs

• Chris Unitt (here and a roundup)
• The Hearing Aid (Friday, Saturday and Sunday)
• Digbeth Slacker
• Ben Neal (Friday)
• Pete Ashton – Twitter roundup and further blog post
• Birmingham: It’s Not Shit
• Catnip
• Peapods
• Catherine Bray
• Prime Objective
• Digbeth Is Good
• French (here and here)
• Cows Are Just Food (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
• Safety in Numbers
• Tatsu001
• thegrotto.tk
• Man Walks Into A Bar
• 7 Inch Cinema
• Surely
• cc media
• Damon Allen Davison
• I shook the royal throne
• The Mark Out
• nos Açores não há açores – dia 1, dia 2, dia 3
• marmite_clock Live Journal
• Chris Hathway (with photos)
• one man dan’s dump
• Birmingham Live
• Outcrowd Collective
• Russ L

Other websites/mags

• Drowned in Sound (plus a passing mention of Supersonic ruining the single reviewer’s appreciation of pop music)
• Guardian
• Culturedeluxe
• 4Talent with interviews with Rolo Tomassi and Fuck Buttons
• Bearded Magazine
• Itchy Birmingham
• Southern Records
• Kerrang (magazine scan)
• Heathen Harvest
• ninehertz
• Rock Sound (magazine scan) pt 1 and pt 2
• Terrorizer (magazine scan)
  
• The Wire (magazine scan)
• Rock-A-Rolla (magazine scan) pt 1, pt 2 and pt 3
• Zero Tolerance (magazine scan)

Fora

• Xltronic
• Collective Zine

Social networks

• Last.fm Supersonic event
• Twitter – ‘supersonic’ search on Summize
• Supersonic 08 Facebook event
• Supersonic MySpace

Photos

• Supersonic Flickr group
• abrinsky
• Midge Diabolik
• Terekhova
• compact col
• bibamatt
• malcolm8
• Peapod
• kukulaka
• Catnip
• shrinkwrapped
• sloejoe
• Bunny Bissoux
• lamentables
• Techno Self Harm
• marxs_beard
• JohnJohn2004
• pennymcconnell
• Damon Allen Davison
• shot2bits
• foxtrotyankee
• Sumlin
• possible_area
• Pete Ashton

Video

• Montage of the weekend by blaahhrrgg
• Harvey Milk – Crush Them All, The Anvil Will Fall (excerpt), A Maelstrom Of Bad Decisions
• Kikuri (and again)
  
• Justice Yeldham
  
• Thrones
• Gravetemple.  Plus more from YouTuber righteousharmony here and here and from jungliemonkey in pt 1, pt 2, pt 3 and pt 4
• Fucked Up
• Noxagt
• Oxbow
• Fuck Buttons
• Asva (pt 1, pt 2)
• Parts & Labor – Fractured Skies
• Battles – Tras, Tonto
• Red Sparowes
• DJ Scotch Egg – start of set and more
• Maruosa and a little more
• Transitional
• Earth – pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4 and pt5
• Harmonia
• Orthodox
• The Heads

If you’re interested about the process of pulling together all this info as quickly/easily as possible then I’ll be writing about it at chrisunitt.co.uk shortly.  By shortly I probably mean ‘in a month or two’.

Remember if you spot something Supersonic 08-related on the internet (or just want to say what you thought of the festival) then please use the comments below to let me know.

A couple of months later (on 15 May) Danny received a threatening email from Surface Unsigned which worried him. After a weekend of checking that CiB had done nothing wrong, the original post was amended and an addendum was posted.

Danny blogged about it, then Pete blogged and I blogged. Then a lovely thing happened – the blogging community of Birmingham showed their support. As ever, BiNS and D’Log were quick on the scene.

Cat Bray was amused. Russ L made me laugh. Goodfaf Central chipped in. Birmingham Alive put up a banner. Simon Gray posted on his blog and on The Stirrer forum where an interview with Surface was promised ’soon’ (as if that forum and the comments section of an increasing number of blog posts didn’t give them enough space to reply/apologise).

And the blog posts did increase, with contributions from Brenda Dada, Bobbie Gardner, Si Hammond, Mabblog, The Careless Gene (aw, one of my faves), Graphiquillan, Art Stalking Ana and New Folder. Andrew Dubber pondered pay-to-play on New Music Strategies while Antonio Roberts got visual.

Dave Harte got forensic on his Birmingham Post blog, revealing who was behind Surface, shortly before the interview on The Stirrer appeared with the representative of Surface asking not to be identified (hello to Jay, probably). The interview discussed pay-to-play but not sending unnecessarily aggressive emails. Dave Harte cross-posted to his own blog, where dp wisely commented that

it’s interesting watching this thing unfold, partly because it’s going through phases, where the first reaction was indignation, then organised criticism, then more reflective stuff

Widening the social media net, several people tagged the story on delicious including Joanna Geary and Catnip, who deployed the word ‘nastygram’ to devastating effect.

Then things started moving away from Birmingham. First to Oxford (OxfordBands), then Yorkshire (fictions) and then on to the national music site Culturedeluxe.

By the end of the day Danny was feeling much happier.

But it didn’t stop there, with Ben Neal (who once played at Surface) saying hi. The Getgood Guide got with the LOLspeak. Stef examined what Surface should perhaps have done (executive summary – anything but what they did) and even the Daily Mirror’s forum received the good news. Paul Thewlis threw a link in, as did Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From. Dunc from the Autumn Store says we don’t need battle-of-the-band contests.

And so on.

Today’s the day we’re supposed to take down the original post. We’re not going to, obviously – Danny’s still not even received an apology.

However, as far as CiB’s concerned I intend to draw a line under the matter with this post (the comments are still open of course). It’s been fun but we’ve made our point. I for one would rather turn my attention to the many positive things happening in Birmingham (although every time I Google ‘Surface Unsigned’ I stare hungrily at all the forums that appear).

I’d just like to say thanks to those who have offered support, kind words and legal advice over the past few days. You’re beautiful people.

[Later: They’re doing the collective memory thing themselves, which is refreshing to see.]

Blog posts

Joanna Geary – “The night summed up what Birmingham is capable of when it pulls its cultures and its talent together”
Robin Valk – “A vibe that took me back 40 years, bolstered with 21st Century commitment and technology.”
Andy Pryke – “Multi-faceted box of delights”
Pete Ashton (that’s me) on Matt Murtagh’s Wings of Brum photos, to which Rob Horrocks commented “This is very much what Project X Presents is all about. People pushing what it is that they do in a supportive environment. The whole is far greater than the sum of the parts and all that.”

Photos
Please tag projectxpresents if you’re using Flickr.

Project X account
Matt Murtagh’s official photos
Also, Matt’s Wings of Brum photos used as a backdrop from Einstellung’s acoustic set. Prints are available.
Pete Ashton’s Through the Viewfinder photos.
Marc Reck (115 photos!)

Other
Scan of the Birmingham Post review.

More to come – links in the comments as usual please.

First up, there’s a group on Flickr for you to add your photos. All are welcome.

Conference
David Nikel reports and Dunc Autumn Store responds on the subject of promoters.
Robin Valk is interviewed by The Stirrer at the conference about the state of local radio. Discussion thread follows.
Andrew Dubber reports on his own panel involving six 14 year old girls being quizzed by industry figures about how they consume music. Fascinating stuff.

Opening Ceremony and Thursday night
Birmingham It’s Not Shit reviews the opening ceremony and cites the blitz spirit along with liking the multi-genre supergroup aspect.
The Hearing Aid wonders where everyone was.
Danny Smith critiques all the acts.

Friday night
David Nikel is liveblogging from the Nightingale venue.
BiNS reviews the bands by checking out their shoes.
The Hearing Aid did the Barfly.
Danny Smith catches a few bands

Saturday night
BiNS reviews the bands using graphs. I wish I’d thought of that.
Andy Pryke checks out Misty’s and Shady Bard.
Danny Smith does the rounds and seems pretty impressed.

General
BiNS offers constructive criticism and lists a few favourite things.
Anthony Herron reports on the conference and Friday night at the Sanctuary.

More to be added – leave links in the comments as usual.

• Art Stalking Ana (with photos)
• Andy Pryke
• Tom Lennon
• The Concept (with photos)

Any more?

Rich Batsford went to the Friday night party.

Viggy La Q visited on the Sunday.

Charlotte Carey reports on the Michael Wolf talk.

Stef Lewandowski promises a series of posts: Moving Type Found is the first.

Any more reports, leave a comment.