On Saturday Electric Carnival is taking over half of Digbeth – the HMV Institute, Custard Factory, Air, Heath Mill Lane car park and the Rainbow venues – and they’ve got space for 9,000 people (1,500 more than last year). That’s kinda big.

Via Digbeth is Good, who also have a map of road closures for the more logistically minded.

@artistsmakers fingers crossed by end of month should have carling academy Brum, ex club/venue, ex cinema. As they say watch this space!

Watch that space indeed. Oh, and thanks to Julia for spotting that tweet.

Speaking of the old Academy, how are they doing at their new place? Comparing the listings of upcoming shows at the Record Shop Institute in Digbeth and the Phone Company Academy on Bristol Street, it looks to me like the former is getting the bigger names in at the moment, while the latter has a surprising number of tribute acts and bands living on past glories turning up in the next few months. Is that about right or am I off the mark?

The days were getting longer, which was probably just as well for Rhubarb Rhubarb, who seemed to doing loads. Birmingham presented its final bid for the City of Culture and we crossed our fingers. Temper filled the streets with fashion icons. We looked at the trailer for Soulboy and discovered the blog for Reuben Colley Fine Arts.

The Arts Council announced a 0.5% cut in funding to RFO’s. Boo. We found some familiar faces in Synth Eastwood’s video tomfoolery from the Flatpack Festival. Treasured at the MAC looked good.

Bright Space started looking for people to get involved in Platform and I asked ‘Does Birmingham Future interest you?‘ and got a fairly resounding ‘Um, who?’. Theatre folk came together and spoke easy, the newly opened Zellig hosted the Bass Festival’s Fight The Power exhibition and there was talk of verbalising and visualisation.

Creative Republic launched Invisible City and Marketing Birmingham released a new promotional video for the city that featured a host of creative talent.

Birmingham promoters, Leftfoot, will be bringing their 10th anniversary year to a close with a string of live soul gigs, starting tonight with NYC disco pioneers Metro Area, followed by veteran producer and DJ Bonobo and Motown superstars Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.

Since launching at The Medicine Bar back in 2000 Leftfoot have played a huge role on Birmingham’s soul scene, Adam Regan, explains the ethos behind the music;

We started out promoting under the name Leftfoot because it seemed to represent the leftfield music we were in to.

I’ve always booked artists I’m passionate about. By making sure our production and hospitality values for live shows stay high, both those on stage and those in the audience share an amazing live experience.

Join in the celebrations at the following shows:

3 December – Metro Area
The Bull’s Head from 9pm – 2am
Tickets: £5 on the door

12 December – Bonobo
HMV Institute from 7pm
Tickets: £15 adv, order online or call 0844 248 5037

17 December – Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
The Library, HMV Institute Birmingham from 7pm
Tickets: £18.50 adv, order online or call 0844 248 5037

He’s also one of the dancers who jumped on stage with KRS-One at the HMV Institute recently:

Speaking of Down By Law, they’re running the second room at Mama Feel Good’s Christmas Get Down at that new place called PST on Saturday 11 December. Facebook event here.

Speaking of musical Christmas bashes, I’ve just spotted the line-up for the Brum Notes/Speech Fewapy Christmas do on the Victoria’s website:

FRI 17th BRUM NOTES & SPEECH FEWAPY RECORDS CHRISTMAS PARTY – The Traps, Calories, Cajole Cajole, Tom Peel, Greg Bird, plus DJ sets from Malpas, Tantrums, Victories at Sea, Speech Fewapy and This is Tomorrow – 7.30pm, FREE
On Facebook: BRUM NOTES

• Invisible City‘s final event, Media Circus, takes place on 29 Oct at Fazeley Studios. With entertainment, music, drinks, performances and digital displays, along with the winners of the Invisible City categories to be announced. Fancy dress is along the lines of Victorian Circus.
• CBSO’s Friday Night Classics: Nightmare on Broad Street takes place on 29 Oct, 7.30pm at Symphony Hall, with a pre-concert talk at 6.15.
• Town Hall host a Halloween Silent Movie Special with the 1923 classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame on 31 Oct at 7.30pm.
• Black Country Living Museum are holding Halloween at the Museum on 30 & 31 Oct from 6.30pm – 10pm, with opportunities for psychic reading and trick or treating along the cobbled streets.
• Take a guided tour of Aston Hall, exploring the ghosts and legends on 31 Oct at 7.30pm. Full of spooky surprises, this is not suitable for children of a ‘nervous disposition’.
• Halloween Night at the Museum Collections Centre invites you on a spine tingling trail for a chance to see some of the scariest objects not on general display, join the tour on 29 Oct from 6.30pm – 9pm.

Since Halloween falls on a weekend, it would be a crime to let an opportunity to get dressed up go unmentioned. Most weekend club nights will be welcoming heavy eyeliner and fake blood, on the only occasion where you can get away with wearing a bin liner, here’s a few that stand out;

• Jocko Homo will be hosting The Victoria’s Halloween festivities from 9pm with free entry.
• Face present their Halloween Bash at Cellar Door, the Rainbow, with house legend Emerson Todd.
• Hare & Hounds are holding House of God Halloween Party with horror makeup available on the night.
• Eddie’s Rock Club will be dishing out a free shot for the first 100 people through the door, and a £50 prize to the best dressed.
• The fourth Electric City event at HMV Institute is Spectrum’s Halloween Fancy Dress Special, with Sub Focus and Stanton Warriors live.
• The Curates Egg presents a Halloween special at The Old Wharf on 31 Oct, with live music from Nightingales, The Courtesy Group and Black Carrot.

Plus outfit inspiration is provided by this month’s issue of Area for how to pull off a creepy-but-cool costume, with just the right amount of effort to keep your street cred.

The website’s up for the HMV Institute and tickets are on sale for a few of the gigs, the first one being Gong (wow – now that’s a website) on 20 Sept. It’ll be interesting to see the push and pull between this place and the Academy.