Dirty Bristow – getting to the fete – A brilliant map of Pubs of Digbeth by Jon Bounds to help people get to the Dirty Bristow Summer Fete at The Edge, Cheapside this Saturday 26th August. ‘Cos people navigate by pubs and roundabouts.’ Digbeth has far much more pubs than roundabouts!
Well it’s been a tad quiet gigwise recently but this Weekend brings a couple of doozies to the Digbeth back streets. On Friday at the Adam & Eve Birmingham Punk/Ska promotions have managed to land Citizen Fish (ft’ Subhuman’s Dick Lucas) for a night of genteel Anarcho Punk musings. With support from Meat hook an energetic capacity crowd is guaranteed so i’d suggest you get there early for the remaining tickets on the door. 6pm, £7:00
Meanwhile up the road at The Old Wharf the Punk’s Alive promoters line up yet another internationally flavoured gig with Monica & the Explosion (ft’ Sweden’s Monica Welander and the UK Sub’s Paul Slack), it’s certainly been getting very cosmopolitan on that stage recently.£5:00 in with support from I’m a Mess.
And finally, if your ringing ears and tinnitus needs topping up on Saturday there’s a Metal night at The Old Wharf ft. Adust, Cypher 16, Collision Process and more. Another excellent freebie gig from those awfully nice BSP people, 7pm till late.
I’ll probably be at The Friday Wharf gig, may make The Adam, will certainly be having a pint so keep ‘em peeled :)
(oh, and Saturday night i’m apparently running a ‘loop round the bendy wire buzzer game’ stall at The Dirty Bristow Summer fete The Edge, Cheapside, promises to be an ‘interesting’ night of weirdness with some quality written material thrown in to boot)
Having read your article on the Digbeth is Good website I have a few additions and comments that you and your group may want to consider. Starting with the end of your document ‘Regenerating Digbeth’ I believe the list of organisations and representatives may need to be re-evaluated with some important additions added, additions from organisations that play an important part in the ‘festival’ and events life of Digbeth.
Capsule, who run Supersonic Festival and The Flatpack festival play an important part in Digbeth’s diverse cultural life – these are specific, and internationally recognised festivals; Shout Festival, which is predominantly based around Hurst Street also adds to this diversity by using venues within the Digbeth area. If a holistic marketing programme is to be developed the reputation of these activities needs to be recognised and utilised.
Besides the research you have quoted there was market research done on the St Patrick’s Festival and Branding research undertaken on Digbeth by Students from Birmingham University College in 2006, 2007 and 2008
the Festival and the Forum should have this information. I have also attached a report which I was commissioned to write in 2006 by the Irish Forum concerning the Irish Quarter Cultural Strategy
this work was undertaken following discussions at the Irish Quarter Board concerning what the ‘Irish Quarter Offer’ was to be.
I have also attached a copy of the Irish Quarter Business plan submitted in March 2006 to the board; it was the discussion from this document that produced the commissioning of the cultural and venue development document.
While these document are ‘of their time’ there are still some elements that ring true. Any marketing needs to take account of the huge changes that have taken place in Digbeth since these reports:
The variety of pubs that now serve the area
The improvements in the Irish Centre and the development of The Institute.
The reports did not consider the developments along the Custard Factory (Devonshire House), Fazeley Street, Floodgate Street, the Bond, Ikon or Vivid, developments that have increased the diversity of provision as well as organisations and businesses that have established themselves in the area.
Whilst entertainment provision has increased over the past 2-3 years, so has the number of places to eat and stay in – while this has been alluded to in the past, it is now becoming an integral part of people’s visit to Digbeth, the ‘Digbeth offer’.
Lastly, whilst there are a large number of ‘creative and cultural’ organisations, there are also an increasing number of social enterprises being developed utilising the facilities and location of the area – these organisations can only add to the rich diversity of activity and provision offered in Digbeth.
contemporarymonkey – slave to the amazon – A brilliantly in-depth review of Sergio Vega’s ‘Paradise: Real Time’ exhibition at Ikon Eastside by a rather clever ‘any old monkey’ who is ‘having a go at contemporary art’:
In Vega’s current exhibition at Birmingham’s IKON Eastside, entitled, “Paradise: Real Time”, he underscores nature’s influence on one of its dependents: man. Through multiple, and very large, high definition video images, it’s apparent that the mother of all form, line and colour holds sway over us in not only what we build, and how we build it, but what we do when we’re not busy destroying each other. Tower blocks in urban landscapes mimicking palm forests. Brightly saturated clothing imitating tropical birds, and Birds of Paradise. Bee-like tribal dance rituals stirring up mini tornado clouds of dust. My take away is that, while the human race endeavors to suck the life out of the planet, we often don’t recognise the force of strength coming the opposite way.
I went to the latter end of the launch party of the exhibition last Friday evening with out-of-town visitor Phil O’Kane, who took the above photo and pretty accurately described it as ‘an artsy dj thingy with some of the most hip hipsters ever’. There was drinking, dancing and what seemed to be a new sport of beanbag diving. Kids today….
The Sergio Vega exhibition in on at Ikon Eastside until 5th September.
The Birmingham Post found out that BDO Stoy Hayward, administrators of bankrupt Concept Development Solutions, are in the process selling 106/Flynn House, 102 and 98 Moseley Rd – ‘although the details of the buyer have not been disclosed’.
What might be happening to the boarded up 94 Moseley Rd remains as mysterious as its owners Award Developments Ltd of Sparkhill, who don’t seem to have any contact details at all.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Saturday, August 21st, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Zen's Brindleyplace shop - moving to Digbeth Court
I’ve just been sent this news from ‘your Spiritual one-stop-shop’ Zen:
We are moving into 162-163 Digbeth court this weekend from our existing shop in Brindleyplace. We have been trading for 16 years and have a very established name in all things spiritual and alternative. We hope to bring many of our 5000+ existing customers with us and to encourage new trade there as well with our unusual blend of gifts, jewellery, crystals, legal highs, tarot, oracle, magic, music, buddhas, greeting cards and much more.
In addition to the ground floor shop we will be using our lower floor for tarot readings, palmistry and psychic readings which will be available everyday. We will open til at least 11.00pm from Thursday – Saturday and will be hosting courses and workshops during weekday evenings and at weekends. We are hoping to be open for the end of August.
You may have noticed that the paint job on Trident Housing owned Cherish House on Bradford St/Alcester St that started a couple of months ago has halted at about man-height. I’m unsure why.
There’s a little Filum fun at the Spotted Dog this coming Monday with Irish Destiny – ‘The Great Spectacular Film Of The War In Ireland’. A little clip from the old 1926 film is above. According to the Wikipedia blurb, the film has quite an unusual back-story in once being lost but then found again:
Irish Destiny is a 1926 directed by George Dewhurst and written by Isaac Eppel to mark the tenth anniversary of the Easter rising.
The film was considered lost for many years until in 1991 a single surviving nitrate print was located in the US Library of Congress by the Irish Film Institute’s Irish Film Archive who had the film transferred to safety stock and restored. The Irish Film Institute then commissioned a new score for the film by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin.
We’ll be watching it at 8pm in the Spotted Dog on Warwick St this Monday 23rd August. Hopefully see you then!
