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.