Tag: 2008 (Page 2 of 15)

COLOUR BRING AUTHENTIC BLUES TO BIRMINGHAM, Charlie Parr + Support, Tuesday 24 February, 8:30pm, The Victoria, John Bright Street, Birmingham

COLOUR Presents: Charlie Parr + Support
Tuesday 24 February, 8:30pm
The Victoria, John Bright Street, Birmingham
COST: ?4

On Tuesday 24th February, Colour will host their first live music event in Birmingham, following on from several years of success in Wolverhampton. Headlining the event will be renowned Minnesota folk-blues artist Charlie Parr. It will take place at The Victoria, a recently refurbished Victorian pub at the heart of the city centre.

Charlie Parr

Charlie has toured the UK several times before, astounding audiences with his contemporary take on American musical tradition. His rousing, heartfelt songs speak plainly of the darker places ordinary folks often lose themselves and of the hope that gets them through.

Lawrence Matkin of The Irish Times said:

“This is music that pulses and breathes, rhythms that sway heavy and deep, like fruit swung low on an autumnal tree; music that utterly captures the America of shunting trains and rolling plains, of home-made hooch and
Piedmont blues.”

Charlie counts among his fans Alan Sparhawk of Low and comics legend and aficionado of the blues, R. Crumb. He is touring in support of his new album Roustabout, which is released on 17 February on Misplaced Music.

More on Charlie Parr: Official Site

Colour

As well as stunning live music, the event will also feature Colour’s distinctive hosting style, with projected vintage slides, homemade cakes and DJ sets featuring folk, Americana and leftfield indie new and old.

For more information on Colour visit wearecolour.com
Colour_feb24_eflyer

For photographs, interviews or quotes, email colourpromo@gmail.com

LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY 20th-23rd May 2009

Here’s some news just in

I am writing to let you know the second Liverpool Sound City takes place May 20th to 23rd.  www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk

Last year we welcomed an audience of over 25,000 people and put on over 300 bands in over 20 venues.

We brought in speakers from over 10 different countries and held a world class conference in the amazing 4 star superior Hard Days Night Hotel.

This year we have teamed up with Musexpo and British Underground to deliver an even bigger and better conference and a brand new initiative called The Trial which will take place in the Victorian Law Courts of St Georges Hall.  We will welcome over 400 business delegates from all over the world.

The theme as ever will be the mavericks, new thinkers, entrepreneurs, chameleons, svengalis helping to shape the modern music business.  Effectively the DIYers!

We will present over 400 bands in 30+ venues and we will host parties and events with over 10 different territories including USA, Canada, France, Italy, Norway, Japan, China, Ireland, Caribbean and Nigeria.

Speakers confirmed so far include:
-Steve Schnur, Worldwide Head of Music & Marketing, EA Games and President, Artwerk Music Publishing.
-Jamie Nelson, Head of A&R, Parlaphone (UK)
-Benjamin Groff, Sr. VP, Kobalt Music Publishing (USA)
-Ajax Scott (MD, Woodshed Media, UK)
-Frank Takeshita, General Manager, Creativeman (Japan)
-Mike Walsh, Head of Music, Xfm (UK)
-Steven Stewart, Nokia Music
-Stephen Taverner (manager of Ting Tings)
-Andy Hipkiss, AAA Media
-Joe Taylor, A&R Field Recordings and Nuxx Music Publishing
-Sarah Stennett, Partner SS Law (represents Sugababes, Keane)

Zeitgeist artists confirmed so far include:
Little Boots, Black Lips, Biffy Clyro, Glasvegas, White Denim, Deerhunter, Screaming Lights, Sound of Guns, Hot Melts, Courteeners and many more every week.

We would love you to take part in the Sound City experience.  We have some amazing deals that allow you to host panels, get your artists involved, put on your own event or party or just simply come along to Liverpool for 4 days and 4 nights to DIY for!

www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk 

All the very best
David J. Pichilingi

LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY!
20, 21, 22, 23 May 2009

www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk

International Urban stand-up comedy show brought to you by JEP Entertainment Ltd

If Anyone is after a Sponsorship Opportunity

International Urban stand-up comedy show brought to you by JEP Entertainment Ltd

The Real Deal Comedy Jam has established itself over the past 5 years as the no1 urban stand-up comedy show in the UK.  It offers not only a night of live entertainment and stand up comedy, but is also recognised as an event that has obtained a loyal fan base.  The show has a history of consistently producing hilarious nights of fun and laughter.   This is a great event not to be missed which always attracts audiences 1000 plus.

The show will be undertaking its first tour of the UK in 2009 and will be in Birmingham on Saturday 28th February 2009 at the internationally famous Alexandra Theatre. Showcasing a cast of famous comedians from both the UK and the USA, this show will feature 2 headline acts from the US hit shows ‘Def Comedy Jam’ and the Nick Cannon’s ‘Wild ‘N’ Out’.

We target a multicultural audience aged 18 upwards. Further research has proven that a large majority of our cliental are repeat customers, who welcome the opportunity to hear from us when we have up and coming events and promotions.

So what does this all have to do with you?

Well we are offering you the opportunity to be one of our selected promotional partners. Wouldn’t your brand benefit from being associated with feeling good?  If you take this fantastic opportunity to promote your business at our event, the promotional work that we will be carrying out will elevate your business and push your company into the forefront of our audience which can be anything up to 1300 people at the show, all fit into the category of being people with ‘expendable incomes’, and a further 100,000 people plus through our marketing campaign. Your brand will benefit from being associated with one of the ‘coolest/trendiest’ events that Birmingham has to offer. Our aim is to maximise your exposure and return on your investment.

So why spend money on marketing and brand awareness in these turbulent times?

We’ll as most economist will tell you, when the economy in on a downturn it is important to stay ahead of your competition and in the forefront of your customers minds.  The Real Deal Comedy jam can help your company/organisation to do this.  During our marketing campaign, we reach out to the whole of the West Midlands through various means including leafleting in the city centre, leaflets through the post, emails, web-marketing, radio, texts, magazines/newspapers, posters A3/A2/B1 and Billboard

Packages have been tailored to suit companies of all sizes giving you the opportunity to pick what best suits your business. We will offer advice on all packages to make sure you get the best return.  Additionally if there is anything you would like to do at our show that is not listed above we would be happy to discuss this with you.
N.B. There are only spaces in the programme with a 100K distribution, including attendees to Bristol, London & Bham show. Prices start from as little as £150!

We will also keep you updated with the marketing progress and any new opportunities to market your company.

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be happy to assist.

Nzinga Graham-Smith
PR/Marketing Officer
JEP Entertainment Ltd
____________________________________
The Real Deal Comedy Jam Show is coming to a TV screen near you soon……
Click Link to view Trailer – www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4994ah0aDg
————————————————————
QUEEN OF THE CROP©
…in PR, Consultancy & Event Planning
MUSIC | ENTERTAINMENT | ARTS
c/o: (Reception), The Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Birmingham B9 4AA

A Vision for the Music Industry in the West Midlands by Clare Edwards June 2008

This report was commissioned primarily to inform potential investment in the West Midlands music industry by Advantage West Midlands between 2008 and 2011.

In particular this report suggested options for projects to be included in the Audio and Music Programme of Activities that is outlined in the Screen, Image and Sound Cluster Plan 2008 –2011.

To do this the report included:
1) A Brief Evaluation of the Music work undertaken by Digital Central

2) An Overview of the Region

3) A Suggested Outline of Activities

The report was compiled using a number of sources of information:

1) Minutes and Documentation from the Digital Central project at Birmingham City University (BCU)

2) Reports, Strategies and Planning Documents for music and the creative industries both National and Regional.

3) Interviews with Music companies, freelancers and organisations and agencies that support the Music Industry

This approach was adopted to gain as many views as possible and to set them against the current context for music. The ambition for this report was to try to set out a  vision based on the needs of the industry as a whole to try to build consensus around a package of support for the forthcoming Audio and Music Programme of Activities.

A Brief Evaluation
This section will look at the work undertaken by Digital Central so far and look at the opportunities that arise from thefirst phase of activity (2005 –2008).

Background
Digital Central was a regional development project funded by Advantage West Midlands that worked to help the West Midlands to be nationally andinternationally recognised for its digital media and music sectors. That includes Film, Television, Animation, Interactive Media, Computer Games, Digital Imaging, Music and Radio. Digital Central developed and supported activity against three key strategic themes: networking, showcasing and innovation.

From 2008/9 the funding from AWM that was spent on Digital Central will be split into three pots.

The first will be aimed at support for Film, Television, Animation, Interactive Media, Computer Games and Digital Imaging and will be administered by Screen West Midlands.

The second will support the Business Futures programme and the final pot will be aimed at support for audio and music and will be put out to tender so that it can be delivered by the most appropriate organisation(s).

Evaluation
After reviewing the documentation from the project such as reports and minutes from meetings it is clear that Digital Central has achieved many things during its two years. It is not in the scope of this report to comment on the non-music activity of Digital Central other than to say that the screen and new media sectors do seem to have a more coherent strand of activity in the project.

The music projects that have been supported were all worthwhile and in most cases very successful. Digital Central’s role in these projects varied, sometimes simply adding a small amount of funding support to match a great deal from elsewhere
through to projects where Digital Central took the lead and funded the projects entirely.

Feedback from those in the music industry that I interviewed was mixed. Some of this was due to the high expectations placed on the Digital Central project from the outset set against the relatively small budgets that Digital Central had to implement the many ambitions people had for it. Other issues came out of the way the project progressed and some individuals’ personal experience of applying for funding through the scheme. These are addressed below.

Impact
Digital Central has had a number of successes that will leave a lasting impact on the local industry:

The Research
A significant strength of Digital Central was its ability to utilise the academic assets of Birmingham City University. As a result a number of helpful reports and studies were published during the project. Amongst the music based research there were three reports that in the end formed a box set of music reports. The first one was ‘Making Money out of Music’ by Professor Tim Wall. This was a very useful document outlining how the music industry makes money and how the international market relates to regional music activity.
The second document ’20 Things You Need To Know About Music Online’ by Andrew Dubber is equally helpful and continues to be quoted by people I meet as useful.

Simon Harper’s collection of views from members of the region’s music industry ‘Music Matters –a regional profile’ was equally useful and was a good basis for this report. This booklet concluded that the priorities for the regional music industry going forward were:

Working Together
Working with public bodies
Promoting the West Midlands
Working internationally
Capitalising on our heritage

All of these areas are considered again in this report as they came up as key themes in the interviews I conducted with music industry professionals. However, for those of us who like to read these documents they are very useful but
for the vast majority of music industry practitioners their impact is less tangible at this stage. There is a feeling now amongst those I interviewed who had engaged with Digital Central, that the focus of the next phase (i.e. the Audio and Music Programme of Activities) should focus on action leading from those report findings.

Venue Development
The venue development project was very simple: To look at what venues needed to do to improve their ability to host live music and to help a number of venues make those improvements. There was an interesting and helpful music venue survey that lead to a report that informed the funding process. Despite a reasonably small response to the survey this project was successful as it had a very clear vision behind it and garnered good support from the industry.

Projects
Digital Central was able to support a number of important and successful initiatives in
the region including:
supporting Capsule to hold the Metal Symposium and a subsequent project on music heritage
enabling music companies to go to MIDEM and to San Francisco for a games conference
Events like Birmingham Jazz Festival, Gigbeth and Rootsville were also supported

Issues for Digital Central
Letting committees get in the way
The most important issue that has arisen from my observations and from people I have spoken to on this subject is the lack of strong direction for the music work that DC undertook. This may well be in part due to a sensitivity that has arisen from the perceived ‘ in fighting’ in the sector. This led to DC holding a series of consultative meetings and forming a number of groups to try to steer the direction of the music work. This approach took in the views of a very diverse group of sector specialists and so there was no shortage of ideas and no real mechanism to prioritising them. DC should have taken a stronger lead so that the parameters of these discussions could be more clearly defined. A common observation was that many projects started and then stalled because of apparent changes of direction during the project. This lead to disengagement by many industry partners and some mistrust that was a result of a simple lack of clarity. Also from the minutes of one of the meetings there was concern raised by those on the committee about the admin spend of the project –however they also wanted those on the committees to get paid for their time. This model was obviously unsustainable but perhaps came out of frustration from those ‘consulted’ that their time was not being well spent.

Lack of joined up planning
Many of the businesses I interviewed observed that Digital Central seemed to operate in isolation to other similar projects, possibly missing out on opportunities to make the Digital Central budget go further through strategic partnerships. This is backed up by interviews undertaken with key agencies during this research that almost universally felt that they had very little involvement in Digital Central and so had not found ways to add value to the project through the work that they were
doing. Most had praise for some elements of the projects work but felt that their own lack of knowledge of the project as a whole was probably evidence of a general lack of a joined up approach.

To download and read the rest of the report click here

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