It was good – the place was busy, there was a nice, relaxed atmosphere and the performers were an entertainingly mixed bunch. I’ve seen Polarbear a few times and usually enjoy his stuff so it was good to catch him again. I’d heard of Byron Vincent but hadn’t expected him to be quite so funny as he was. On the musical side of things, Tom Peel was a revelation, Martyna Baker was impressive and there was a young lady called Mahalia who blew everyone’s socks off.

Everything was admirably compered by Jodi Ann Bickley and Matt Windle, who were both very good too. A good night out, all told. Keep an eye out for the next one of these (if there is one – hopefully there will be).

The rest of the EP – two duets by Jodi and Poppy Tibbetts and a solo track by each – is worth a listen but this track grabbed me.

This is on tomorrow night at the MAC. Fatima Al Matar, Jodi Ann Bickley and Matt Windle all presenting new work.

More info via Apples and Snakes.

Congratulations were given to Raphael Selbourne for winning the 2009 Costa First Novel Award and we came across The Music Quarter, a new music blog.

Hustle made the move to the Midlands, we had a giggle with Kipple and the Emerging Festivals Fund was announced, with some of the fruits of that being revealed towards the middle part of the year. Leftfoot started their 10th birthday celebrations and our most popular post of the year was published.

Ian joined the CiB team, we got the first glimpse of WeVee and plans were announced for the CiB shop

We also waved hello to Jane Anderson, Mark Wilkinson, Lucy Pryor, Phill Blake, Helen Flanagan, Sarah Lynch, Jade Sukiya, Jodi Ann Bickley, Leon Sparkes and Luke Halliley.

We also said farewell to Neil Farrington.

OxjamBrum is fast approaching, the bands are ready to go, with 12 hours of live music coming from 40 local acts from 2pm onwards on Sat 16 October.

Tickets are only £6 and get you access to all the venues at any time. Advance tickets are on sale until Fri 15 October at midnight, but tickets will also be available on the door. The wristband exchange point on the day will be at The Yardbird, where you can also pick up stage times for all the venues.

Here’s a run down on who’s playing where;

The Yardbird – Doors 2:00pm
Nick Pride and the Pimptones
Frutaloka
Arcadian Kicks
Smileymic
The Bluebeat Arkestra
Alex Moir
Big Black Smoke
Benjamin Blower

The Flapper – Doors 3:30pm
Isolated Atoms
Malpas
Bronze Medals
This Burning Age
The Corsair
Shana Tova
Soni-quella

The Victoria – Doors 4:30pm
Tantrums
Sunset Cinema Club
Cajole Cajole
VS
Tom Peel
Savant
Pandas and People

Island Bar – Doors 4:00pm
(Silver) Souvenirs
Hot Monocles
Lady Fortune
Monster Monster
Death Ohh Eff
Jake Bullit
James Rea

The Prince of Wales – Doors 4:00pm
Scat Cat
Corrie Palmer
Tony Wille
Paul Murphy
Mike Smith

Café Blend – Doors 3:45pm
Vijay Kishore
Poppy Tibbetts
Jodi Ann Bickley
Mellow Peaches
Barnesy
Neil Ward
Michael James Butler

This is Jodi performing one of her lovely pieces ‘You Make Me Lose My Cool‘ to an improvised jazz soundtrack:

You can hear more from Jodi over on her Myspace page.