CiB Year in Review: August

A daily look at the last 12 months

August and everyone seemed to go on holiday, as people do. But a busy month all told.

The Birmingham Carnival took place in Handsworth. In what was becoming a trend there were noise complaints which might jeopardize its future.

Magazines were launched: The kids from Fused grew up and published Blink while Bearded was a newcomer on the scene.

Kamakazi started their well received 444 Club night at the Rainbow featuring 4 bands for £4 til 4am.

A new venue, Sui Generis, got planning permission to open on Adderley Street, Digbeth. No news since that I’ve seen but they’ve got three years to open it.

Building on the events that took place around Five Ways over the year Friction announced Reality Estate, transforming a housing estate and it’s residents into a large scale performance for one night only.

artlounge put on shows over the autumn.

The Outcrowd’s Supersonic art show was blogged.

The Emocion Flamenco festival was announced.

Pudelskern came to the Festival of Xtreme Building bringing with them “some flowers from the Austrian alps to the Heart of England” along with “spaceship, performers, light installations, a parallel universe, sculptures and structures”.

The Fireworks creative office / studio complex opened in the Jewellery Quarter.

Andrew Dubber’s 20 Thing You Must Know About Music Online was published as a book.

Many videos were spotted online from the Fierce Festival.

The Sunday Flea Market at the Custard Factory began giving artists and related types a space to sell their wares.

Dave Harte mashed up photos of Birmingham with Woody Allen’s Manhattan producing this gem:

Them Lot and Monsters Monsters had art shows at the Custard Factory

Second Home’s The Animal Book animated short greatly entertained.

The Island Bar continued to establish itself as a music venue running their own Acousticfest.

The Creative City Awards winners were posted along with a rather swish video. I’m still in a state of bemused shock from the whole thing.

An intriguing video piece called Bleep ‘n’ Grind was found on YouTube.

Getting help from the City Council was a rather handy email doing the rounds that I re-pubished.

With less that a month to go promotion for Artsfest started to stir with a Top 10 attractions. Quite a lot of comments on this post too.

The Festival of Xtreme Building published their mid-term report.

Ctrl-Copy was an online art exhibition asking questions about copyright and ownership of images in relation to Art.

Fused magazine did their regular spotlight on UCE fashion graduates.

The Academy’s OnSong Festival was scheduled for September.

The Jug of Ale venue and pub was rumoured to be closing but those rumours were exaggerated. I made another note, this time in black marker, never to listen to Barnard again.

Martin Mullaney gave a mini lecture on the history of graffiti in South Birmingham on YouTube. Oh yes.

One of the more consistent thing in 2007 was Little Chris and his Brumcast podcast of new Birmingham music. He contacted me asking for advice on getting some help with it and I obliged with a post.

Midas were “banned from the charts” after they decalared SIM card sales at gigs as sales of their music which could be downloaded with the credit on the card. Or something. It was all very complicated. But they got more publicity that they would have by actually getting into the charts so I guess it all worked out okay.

Profiles in August included Debut, Sara Fowles, Johnny Foreigner, Gemma Quarterman, Hot Spunk, Mamma Matrix, Robot, Carp, Peanut and Stuart Estell.