swordfish

Links for 8 July 2011

Chris Unitt — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:57:30 +0000

Birmingham Loves Photographers
“The idea will be that each month the group will get together for tea/coffee and a chat at 6/8 Kafe in the City Centre, and pairs will be drawn. Each pair will then get together in their own time and take a photo of each other”
Historic Dale End venue to reopen in Autumn | Counteract
Three rooms with music and club nights. So the temporary arts venue thing fell through then. I wonder who’s backing this and what sort of bands/nights they’ll get down there, what with the Academy and Institute behemoths already battling it out
The Hearing Aid: Plenty more Swordfish (and gigs) in the city
“after a little renegotiation with an understanding landlord, they’ve decided to stay open”. That’s good news
Shorts on Walls Open for Submissions
Get yer animations in. Venue and date for the event itself TBC
Pilot Returns « Stan’s Cafe Theatre Company
“11th August will see Pilot Night return @ A E Harris, co-Piloted by Stan’s Cafe”. One day I’ll make it to one of these
Radio To Go: In the Treehouse
“Two soundcloud files: a two-part documentary. I try to tell the story of an evening at Paul Murphy’s Songwriter’s Cafe”
A free Bristow e-book: Concrete and Cocktails | Dirty Bristow
“Can you drink in all of Birmingham city centre’s independent hostelries in one day? Yes of course, although it might not be sensible.” A free ebook for your delight

Rizla Re-Crafted

Alex Jones — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:49:09 +0000

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!

More record shops closing

Chris Unitt — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 10:09:18 +0000

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.