Tag: 2007

The Flyover Show Saturday 29th May 2010, Underneath Hockley Flyover, Birmingham

Flyover Show III

Soweto Kinch’s music & arts festival returns to Birmingham’s Hockley flyover
May 29th 2010 / Hockley Flyover (underneath), Birmingham / 12noon – 9pm / Free admission

Soweto Kinch Productions is proud to announce the return of Birmingham’s Flyover Show on May 29th 2010.

Now in its third year, this innovative event will once again transform the underbelly of North Birmingham’s Hockley flyover into a vibrant community inspired festival of music and arts.

Running from 12noon to 9pm on May 29th, the Flyover Show is a unique event of cultural expression, celebrating generations of black British music and art.

Daytime performances will come from; Hanifa, CRC, Kashmir, Rochelle Robertson, Leeanne Stoddart and Notebenders.

Whilst evening on the main stage presents; Speech Debelle (Mercury Music Award 2009), Soweto Kinch (MOBO Best Jazz Act 2003 & 2007), Zena Edwards, Eska, Tan, Roxanne and Bridgette Amafoh.

The Flyover Show III combines the best of international black music with established and homegrown UK talent, providing an important platform for burgeoning artists.

The show will also feature vignettes, poetry, dance and graffiti from new and emerging voices that aim both to entertain and challenge perceptions.

A family friendly festival, The Flyover Show III continues the organiser’s philosophy to make high-art readily accessible to inner city communities.

The Flyover Show III will explore the specific theme of black female identity.

The Flyover Show III will bring together generations of black female artists who have made significant cultural contributions, and whose work has helped to reshape black identity.

Discussing the artists booked to perform at the Flyover Show III, founder and organiser Soweto Kinch explains, “they’ve validated a way of being, beyond the glut of R+B/Soul Divas, booty shaking backing dancers or any other stereotype which the commercial mainstream often finds more palatable.”

The Flyover Show III is also responding to the growing number of young black women becoming swept up in destructive gang culture.

The recent Female Voices in Violence report from ROTA (Race On The Agenda), one of the UK’s leading social policy think tanks, consolidated concerns about young women involved in violence, pacing it firmly on the government’s continuing agenda.

The Flyover Show III will showcase inspiring black female artists, encouraging young black women to express themselves with creativity and pride.

For more information and press enquires please contact Ed King – edkingfreelance at yahoo.co.uk

The Flyover Show was created and founded by Soweto Kinch.

Soweto Kinch is an award winning musician and creative. For more information visit www.soweto-kinch.com

The first Flyover Show was held underneath Hockley Flyover in North Birmingham in May 2008. The second event was held in the same location in June the following year.

The Flyover show III receives funding from Birmingham City Council and Arts Council England.

The Flyover Show is a flagship project of Soweto Kinch’s recently formed charity Uprizing,

Speech Debelle won the 2009 Mercury Music Award for her debut album ‘Speech Therapy’.

Speech Debelle is the first female artist to win the Mercury Music Award in seven years, the last being Miss Dynamite in 2002.

For more information on Speech Debelle visit www.speechdebelle.com

Flyover Show III – Volunteers wanted
Soweto Kinch’s music & arts festival on the hunt for enthusiastic helpers – limited places available
May 29th 2010 / Hockley Flyover (underneath), Birmingham / 12noon – 9pm / Free admission

Soweto Kinch’s community inspired music & arts festival returns to Hockley Flyover on May 29th 2010.

Now in it’s third year, this unique urban event is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help out on the day. Anyone wanting to apply as a volunteer should email Clare Edwards at clareedwards at mac.com

Responsibilities will include stage management support, managing stalls/art activity, liaising with the general public and assisting the artists performing.

Previous experience is not necessary as full training will be provided. Applicants must be over 16 and passionate about being involved in Birmingham’s most innovative urban party.

Headlining the event is 2009 Mercury Music Award winner Speech Debelle, alongside Soweto Kinch (MOBO Best Jazz Act 2003 & 2007), Zena Edwards, Eska, Tan, Roxanne and Bridgette Amafoh.

Daytime performances will come from; Hanifa, CRC, Kashmir, Rochelle Robertson, Leeanne Stoddart and Notebenders.

Running from 12noon to 9pm on May 29th, the Flyover Show will once again transform the underbelly of North Birmingham’s Hockley flyover.

Combining the best of international black music with established and homegrown UK talent, the Flyover Show is a family friendly festival inspired by the organiser’s philosophy to make ?high-art? readily accessible to inner city communities.

The show will also feature vignettes, poetry, dance and graffiti from new and emerging voices that aim both to entertain and challenge perceptions.

For further information on the event visit www.soweto-kinch.com and click on The Flyover Show III link.

Limited places are available and those interested should apply ASAP.

The Flyover Show 2010

How does Iron Man Records choose it’s artists and how does it promote them?

An article about Iron Man Records, Birmingham writtten by JANINE LABUSCAGNE BA (HONS) Media & Communication, University of Central England, 2007.

“…..There are two kinds of music – good music and bad music.  Good music is music that I want to hear.  Bad music that I don’t want to hear” Fran Lebowitz, Metropolitan Life, 1978

The objective of this study discusses promotional strategies generated by the independent record label, Iron Man Records.  The research examined the use of the Internet as a free marketing tool and how traditional methods of running a label did not have an affect on Iron Man.  Discussing this, I examined the theoretical areas of music industries, promotion and punk in order to understand and gain a solid background for the development of my research.

Conclusions are then put forward after conducting a participant observation, that social networks play the biggest part in promotion for the label.  Findings throughout the research have been put forward about the different strategies used in the process of online promotion, as well as more general suggestions for further research.

‘De muziek is de geleende creativiteit en motivatie in ons leven’ (translated from Dutch), music is the borrowed creativity and motivation in our lives.  The music industry has had one of the biggest influences in our lives and on our culture.  An example of this would be Wall (2003) and Anderson’s (2006) statements which look at popular music as the: “soundtrack to our lives” (2003; 1) and that “we are consumed by hits – making them, choosing them, talking about them, and following their rise and fall” (2006; 2).  The world of the music industry is one which has been forced to make changes because of the constant development of new technologies.  These changes are in order to keep fans consuming the product that is for sale – music.  Britain is a nation of music lovers and we buy more music than any other country – four units per capita each year (IFPI Recording Industry in Numbers 2002).

The music genre known as punk, has been around since the late 1960s, when unemployment was a prominent social feature in Britain.  It would appear that we are currently witnessing a re-evolution of the music industry and punk’s DIY (do-it-yourself) ethos within independent record labels.  Beyond the development and creation of music, technology has created an impact on the production, distribution, and consumption of ‘Iron Man Records’ music.  “Record companies see the other media as promotional avenues for their music” (Wall 2003; 111).  There are many new and different social networks such as MySpace, MOG and Flickr which will be one of the main areas of focus for the research.  These social networks have evolved on the Internet and the trend displayed by many bands in choosing independent record labels, such as Iron Man Records, above major record labels demonstrates what Barrow and Newby argued about how the music industry:

“Without popular recording artists there would be no music business and without record companies there would be no musical product to be bought in the shops” (1995: 2-3).

The research question, ‘How does the punk music label, Iron Man Records, choose its artists and how does it promote them?’ is a significant topic in the industry to investigate.  The independent label has not been explored in depth before, although academics have looked at similar areas of the music industry.  The study will look at how relationships are being built between a record label, the music industry and bands.  The study also looks at what steps are being taken to promote and market Iron Man Records music. Read more here: Click link for full article on Iron Man Records

What is your view of the West Midlands’ music industry? by Mark Iron Man Records

What is your view of the West Midlands’ music industry? In particular, what are our strengths and weaknesses?

Here’s something I wrote in 2007, if anyone would like to take the title of this blog post and write their own version then please do, the more thoughts and opinions the better. I don’t know it all, I am only familiar with my small area of activity within the so called “Music Industry.”

Written by Mark Iron Man Records, Birmingham, June 2007

Wikipedia defines the Music Industry as “the business industry connected with the creation and sale of music. It consists of record companies, labels and publishers that distribute recorded music products internationally and that often control the rights to those products. Some music labels are “independent,” while others are subsidiaries of larger corporate entities or international media groups. The world music market is currently dominated by the “big four” record groups, Sony BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner, each of which consists of many smaller companies and labels serving under different regions and markets.“ (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_industry) As far as the West Midlands is concerned, I would suggest that The music industry is a term most people use to describe a range of music-related businesses and organisations including community groups and not-for-profit organisations and others such as Musicians’ Unions and writers’ copyright collectives and performance rights organisations.

In order to look at the West Midlands Industry I sometimes find it helpful to imagine what the “West Midlands Music Industry” might consist of (in general terms) in a simplistic, imaginary world and then look to see if this is demonstrated to be true in practice.

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