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.

More music news for Birmingham – hoorah! I heard about The Music Quarter a little while ago and it’s good to see it up and running now. Natalie, the site’s editor, is a BCU student and this, I gather, is to be the focus of her year-long project.

Of course, this raises questions about whether/how the site will last longer term (or indeed whether it’s sustainability matters).

Now, not wanting to sound spoiled, but indie/rock music seems to be looked after – I’m enjoying the Blue Whale Blog, fr’instance. Who’s writing about the city’s bhangra, hip hop, reggae, dance music, etc and digging up the gems there?