There are plenty of people trying to do good things in Birmingham - the SOUNDkitchen people, the publishers of Dirty Bristow, even Capsule who, despite my lack of love for them, at least bring bands to the city who otherwise wouldn’t even stop at a local service station as they travelled to a more interesting city. Then there’s Artsfest, doing its best to put on as many local artists as possible over its two day run.
And increasingly these people are (mostly) anti-clique, welcoming new writers or musicians or artists into their folds - Aaron Andrews of the much missed We Are Birmingham shop for example, a man who tried his best to give local artists a stage, for example, or Andy from Radio Black Forest, or the group behind SOUNDkitchen….all individuals who’ve worked tirelessly to give the creative community in England’s second city a shot in the arm, a focus to gather around.
But what do they get in return? A city that apparently doesn’t give a shit. Really, the people of Birmingham seem completely disinterested - give them a place to buy brilliant work by local artists and they just ignore it until it goes away, put gigs on featuring local acts and they don’t bother coming out to see what’s going on. Now, this might be down to the incredibly short sighted lack of provision of late night public transport, something that effectively shuts the city past 11pm for those not wealthy enough to get a taxi home - where other cities in the UK with far smaller populations can support numerous gigs and events in a single evening, Birmingham struggles to find audiences for anything that isn’t high profile or mainstream.
I wanted to try and help, I really did, and I tried to put gigs on that I thought were as good as they could possibly be, and I found venues (such as the Lighthouse in Wolverhampton) who were willing to take a chance on experimental music, but no-one bothered to come to the shows beyond a small, loyal, handful. However, the venues aren’t charities, and there’s only so many non-attended shows that they can put on.
So, I give up. I gain nothing by trying to put things on in Birmingham other than stress and anxiety. I’ll no longer be promoting shows in the West Midlands, instead I’ll be (rather selfishly I’m afraid) concentrating on getting gigs for Thee Moths.
