On Saturday 16 April, Speech Fewapy Records are putting some bands on in record shops as part of National Record Store Day.

Swordfish Records, Temple Street, Birmingham – 1pm (Click here for map)
Ali Forbes (Malpas)/The Traps/Tom Peel/Victories At Sea

Polar Bear Records, York Road, Kings Heath – 3pm (Click here for map)
The Traps/Vinny and The Curse/John Presley/Black Heart Generator

More info on Speech Fewapy’s site.

On 20 November, The Hare & Hounds and Birmingham Jazz will be welcoming the Grammy nominated Christen Scott Quintet to Birmingham.

Considered somewhat jazz pedigree, as the nephew of saxophonist Donald Harrison, Scott has become one of the great innovators of his generation as part of an achingly cool new wave of contemporary jazz artists. He arrives at the Hare & Hounds in support of his new album ‘Yesterday You Said Tomorrow’.

Tickets are £13 (£10) and are available online via theticketsellers, by calling 0844 870 0000 or in person at Polar Bear Records, Kings Heath.

]]> http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/2010/10/18/rizla-re-crafted/ Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:49:09 +0000 http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/?p=7608 [Read more...]]]> Rizla re-crafted is coming to Birmingham on 12 November, as part of their national competition to find the best remix of the Mystery Jets‘ next release, ‘Show Me The Light’.

UK garage scene legend, MJ Cole, will be dishing out inspiration by hosting a free interactive workshop on the art of the remix at the Hare & Hounds from 4 – 6pm.

Along with that, the Mystery Jets, plus Simian Mobile Disco, Friendly Fires, MJ Cole and Le Corps Mince de Francoise, will be performing and DJing live at the Rainbow Warehouse from 9.30pm – 5am. Tickets can be bought online or at Swordfish Records, Polar Bear Records and Zen.

The closing date for Rizla Re-crafted is 20 December, and will be judged by a panel including the Mystery Jets, and will win a Hercules RMX professional MP3 DJ mixer.

Registration for the workshop is supposedly at www.rizlarecrafted.co.uk – which doesn’t actually seem to exist, so if anyone can give an update on that, that would be much appreciated!

There’ something poignant about Record Store Day coming round on 17 April with two of Birmingham’s independent record shops about to call it a day. With Tempest and Swordfish on the way out the only ones left vaguely near the city centre (that I know of) are Hard To Find Records and The Diskery. Oh, there’s a few things in the CiB shop too.

HTFR and Polar Bear are the Birmingham record shops taking part in Record Store Day.

I can’t mourn Swordfish and Tempest too much as it’s a while since I’ve bought anything from either of them (although over the years I’ve spent a large amount of money I didn’t have in both of them). Still sad though.

While we’re talking about closed down music-related places, the Academy has (presumably) done quite well by being relocated to Bristol Street while last year the planned works on Martineau Galleries were put on hold. The Oasis shopping centre has had a 5 year stay of execution. It’s hard to imagine who might step in and make use of the Academy over the next few years.

If anyone’s got any smart ideas then the letting agent is Alder Grimes and Gooderham and they’re on 020 7836 7826.