Is anyone else out there blogging about Birmingham’s music scene? The Blue Whale Blog used to be my main place for that kind of thing but that’s been quiet for a while. BrumNotes and Counteract do a decent job but there must be more (especially non-indie stuff) out there.

I’m just going to copy and paste the information:

The scheme intends to encourage writing practice within the West Midlands, giving a platform for new writers to gain public exposure, experience and professional development, whilst simultaneously promoting arts activity in the region to a wider audience.

The writer will receive 3 half-day mentoring sessions from the This is Tomorrow team:

• James Smith (focus on research, planning and editorial).
• Lorena Munoz-Alonso (focus on artists interviews / features).
• Josephine Breese (focus on reviews and writing style).

In addition the writer will have two half-day mentoring sessions with Sally O’Reilly which will focus on writing practice.

The writer will be expected to produce three pieces of critical writing (as detailed below), which will be published on www.thisistomorrow.info and www.weareeastside.com

• A review of Flatpack or Fierce Festival (500words), March 2011
• An interview/feature on a West Midlands based practitioner or artist-led organisation (1000 words), June 2011
• A review of all, or a part of The Event 2011 (1000 words),  October 2011

Application process

Applicants should send:

• A short letter of application stating why you have applied for this opportunity and what you hope to gain from it.
• Two examples of critical writing (around 500 words each).
• An up to date CV

To: jamessmith.lon@googlemail.com

Deadline: Friday 14th January 2011

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

If you’re not familiar with Fierce they’ve been responsible for some of the most weird, wonderful and worrying live art presented in Birmingham over the past… well, ever.

The event was covered by this is tomorrow who’ve collected together audio, video and some photos, including this interview with Laura McDermott:

and this general summation of the whole thing:

Strikingly, the artistic-directors do not know the content of the next festival, due to commence in February 2011. Over the next ten months audiences will be able to follow the development of these projects as they emerge in response to a series of visits to the city. The fruition of these journeys will culminate in the festival.

The Fierce Festival Caravan of Artists 2010-11 (as they’re calling it) includes Eitan Buchalter, Sheila Ghelani, Stan’s Cafe, Plan B, Lundahl&Seitl, Quarantine, Jeanne van Heeswijk, James Webb, Kira O’Reilly, Dominic Johnson, Manu Luksch & Mukul Patel, Denis Tricot and EXZYT.

A nice touch was the loyalty cards they handed out to everyone who attended. Some super sleuthing tells me that dates for forthcoming Fierce events are:

• 24-26 April 2010 – Fierce Interrobang 1: Regeneration
• 24-26 September 2010 – Fierce Interrobang 2
• 11 November 2010 – Fierce Countdown
• 22-27 February 2011 – Fierce Festival

And if you don’t know, now you know.