Had another great night at Bohemian Jukebox last night. I was chatting with programmer and promoter Ben Calvert before the gig about the joys of visiting and potentially living in Bristol – if he does ever move away, Birmingham will have lost an indispensible figure from the music scene.

The small room (actually its only marginally smaller than the other room, but has much cosier and intimate vibe) at the Hare & Hounds once again made for the ideal setting for a great evening of acoustic music.

I had the pleasure of kicking things off. I’ve once again reshuffled my set – drawing on the experience of playing live over the last few years and noticing which songs I enjoy most live, also making a conscious decision to avoid too many introspective lyrics in the set. The uplifting instrumental Gudonya is now back in the set.

I missed Banksa’s set but had caught a few of Rowena and friend’s tunes earlier in the sound check – she plays guitar well in a folksy style, with a hint of bluegrass at times, and there were some nicely done two part hamonies.

Next up Erinn Williams, whom I’ve seen at Bohemian Jukebox once before and had enjoyed so much I asked Ben to put us on the same bill on her next visit (she’s from LA but tours regularly). I wasn’t disappointed, the undistorted electric guitar she plays provides a great, rich backdrop in a style that brings to my mind minimalist rhythms and trip hop warmth. She has the skills to pick out a melody in the guitar over a picked rhythmic background with considerable sensitivity and phrasing. As well as rhythm there’s some very interesting and effective harmonic changes in evidence too.

Vocally Erinn can produce a strong clear tone then effortlessly, say, at the top of a rising phrase, throttle back into her head voice and allow a controlled vibrato to creep in or come back still further to a breathy softness. Very effectively done – she has some operatic training in her past and it shows in the great control she can exercise seemingly effortlessly.

The overall experience of Erinn’s performance is greater than the sum of these ingredients, thanks to an instinctive grasp she has of communicating – or creating, an emotional experience through her music – with shades of dark and light throughout.

Finally, Frankie Ward and friends comprise the outfit Get Frank, here appearing as a full band albeit with the drummer experimenting with bongos as an alternative to a full kit. Frankie is a talented young performer and is generally active on the Birmingham creative scene – onstage there were hints of nerves but also a big bag full of confidence and charm – I would think in a very short time she has what it takes to be a top notch performer. She’s a good songwriter offering witty lyrics and lively, tunes embracing both pathos and humour she has a rich, versatile voice.

In the rest of the band, Sebastian Bonfiglioni was noticeable for some sensitive sax playing and some intricate and lively guitar solos.

A great end to a fine evenings musical entertainment and good company – the only thing that could have improved it for substantially would have been an extra 20 odd audience members, so if you want to make the next gig even better, get on down there on July 9th – you wont regret it.
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Great to have a nice big preview from that tireless champion of the Birmingham Arts scene, Terry Grimley at the Birmingham Post.

Alleluia chorus to Arabic chants

May 29 2009 By Terry Grimley

Terry Grimley meets the promoter behind a concert mixing Christian and Islam music.

The baroque splendour of Birmingham Cathedral will play host to the sounds of ancient Islamic music in an innovative concert tomorrow night.

Called “Musituality”, it is a collaboration between St Mary’s Schola, a capella group drawn from the choir of St Mary’s, Moseley, and Birmingham-based Islamic ensemble Aa’shiq al-Rasul.

Between them, their repertoire ranges from Thomas Tallis to John Rutter and from ancient Sufi chant to contemporary Arabic material.

The concert follows on from a successful collaboration between the two groups at the Moseley Festival.

Musician and promoter Richard Batsford, who will also be performing some of his reflective solo piano compositions in the concert, explains how the project came about.

“There are three of us involved, who are myself, Amran Ellahi and Mick Perrier, who is organist and choirmaster at St Mary’s Church in Moseley,” he says.

“Mick and myself first became known to each other when he recruited me for St Mary’s choir when I was nine. That was when he first started at St Mary’s, and he recently celebrated his 30th anniversary there.

“I met Amran, who is the driving force behind Aa’shiq al-Rasul, via a colleague on the music scene, Andrew Dubber, when I was looking for a Qawwali group for a Project X event I was helping to organise.

“For the last three years I’ve been producing an event called Music by Candlelight at St Mary’s which is part of the Moseley Festival. It’s a wide range of music that’s appropriate to a church. Aa’shiq al-Rasul were the major act at the last event, and St Mary’s Schola also took part.

“Aa’shiq al-Rasul were very well received and there was a really nice atmosphere at the concert. We were particularly inspired by the coming together of Islamic and Christian elements in a Christian building, and the three of us wanted to take it further.”

However, he emphasises that tomorrow night’s event is a concert, not an act of inter-faith worship.

“The title Musituality, as you might have worked out, is a compound of music and spirituality.

“Each group will perform their own music separately. At one stage we were looking at trying to create a whole new piece of music, but there is going to be one piece at the end where we combine the Alleluia chorus with Arabic chanting, so there will be a coming-together at the end.

“We very much want to take the collaboration further, and we’re looking to do it again next year at a still bigger venue, perhaps the Town Hall. On a smaller scale we would like to try to take the programme, possibly with workshop things attached, to schools, churches and mosques in Birmingham and beyond.

“There is a general movement among churches to open up to music and other artistic events. They are beautiful buildings and prime community spaces.”

* Musituality takes place at St Philip’s Cathedral on Saturday at 7.30pm.
Tickets cost £8 (£7 concessions and groups of four and above).

Following on from the success of the Project X Presents production Music Is Not Pollution (845 youtube views and counting) – a short documentary we made in order to highlight issues of Noise Abatement in Digbeth and elsewhere, I was invited to the presentation of the results of the Digbeth Area Noise and Nuisance Study.

The study was commissioned by Advantage West Midlands – a regional development organisation I know surprisingly little about given that they are involved with vast amounts of funding. They presented the results of a study made by Atkins – a major independent consultancy firm – into the noise issues in Digbeth.

The results were somewhat inconclusive – essentially they provided a report detailing the economic identity of the area and a detailed study of noise levels in the area. Bizarrely, they pointed out that C weighted noise ie the bass frequencies is the band that really carries and is hard by their nature to dampen, and yet their highly detailed noise map of the area didnt include this area of the sound spectrum due to some issue with a lack of standardisation in how such information is measured. A questionner from the floor stated, not unreasonably, that this could be said to effectively invalidate their whole report.

They made some somewhat vague but potentially useful suggestions as to how things might move forward in the future, but little or no strategy for how to resolve the disputes that currently exist such as the Rainbow and Spotted Dog versus someone complaining in the Abacus development.

I was left with the overriding conviction that the Abacus should never have been built, at the very least, not in the way that it was – but we are stuck with the fact that it is there and somehow we have to deal with it. Otherwise it looks dangerously as tho the simplest “out” for the Council is going to be to dampen the noise in the area which might ultimately spell disaster for the Rainbow and the Spotted Dog.

At least with the Rainbow theres the chance that the council (or someone) might find funds necessary to seriously sound proof it – (this seems more likely than the council retrospectively applying the building regulations correctly to the Abacus) – but how can you soundproof the Spotted Dog when a) a lot of the noise comes from the garden and b) the windows of the pub are beautiful stained glass.

Anyway, the report offers the Council the chance to look at their position and prepare a holistic, sensible and conciliatory response. We await with interest.
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A rather beautiful little film from the Project X team in response to the continued threat to the music and wider community in Birmingham. Save our Pubs!!

In Moseley and Digbeth, very small numbers of people who happen to live near centers of musical activity might be in real danger of closing down venues which are of benefit to thousands. Its an absurd situation, but all too real for those involved.

Big thanks to Anthony Davies of Last Phoenix Films for the superb editing and graphics.
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The dust has barely settled on Project X at the weekend and Im straight into the promotion of a new event coming up at St Phillips Cathedral Birmingham on Sat May 30th.

I’ve been meeting regularly for some months now with my friends Mick Perrier and Amran Ellahi and this is the fruit of our efforts. Mick and I have a long history – he recruited me to join St Marys Church Choir over thirty years ago and he is still the Organist and Choirmaster there. I’ve now put on a number of concerts at the Chuch (not least one of the venues in the recent Project X event) with his help and cooperation.

Amran is the driving force behind Aashiq Al Rasul – a successful and brilliant Muslim faith group playing either acoustic (rousing vocals and exciting percussion) or sometimes as a full band. I met Amran via a curry with Andrew Dubber of New Music Strategies fame in one of the many synchronous moments that have characterised the Project X experience (we were looking for a Qawwali band to collaborate with myself and a Einstellung (a heavy instrumental guitar band).

I also invited Aashiq to perform at one of my annual Music by Candlelight concerts at St Marys where they were a great hit and the sight of Christian, Muslim and other people all clapping happily along together was inspiring and joyous.

Soon after Amran contacted me and suggested we had a model that was worth progressing. At some point in the meetings we created the name “Musituality” – a compound of the words “music and spirituality” and we decided that Birmingham Cathedral would provide an iconic and beaitful setting.

At one point we also got Padmakumara of the Birmingham Buddhist Centre onboard who suggested we apply for a small grant from the Roger Hooker Memorial Trust and we have also received support from the Prevention of Violent Extremism fund.

and now, some months later, here we are – excited to announce:

Musituality – Music in the Spirit of Harmony – Sat May 30, 7.30pm, Birmingham Cathedral.

Click here for tickets (£8 or £7 concessions or groups).

It should be a beautiful evening – hope you can make it.
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Have a click on the amazing poster below to see it in all its detailed and delightful glory!
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I enjoy visiting the Kitchen Garden Cafe in York Road, Kings Heath – in fact I’m there weekly for meetings with Mick Perrier and Amran Ellahi about our Musituality project.

Many moons ago I also occasionally went to The Retort – a somewhat anarchic cabaret show in Moseley.

Now, the good people behind the Kitchen Garden Cafe have brought the Retort back – somehwat calmer in tone apparently these days, but Im sure no less fun, and they’ve kindly invited me to play at it on Sunday May 3rd.

They bill it as: “The usual eclectic mix of Music, Comedy, Poetry and Cabaret in Suburbia. This month’s show is compered by the fabulous Brian and Krysstal, legends of the London Cabaret scene, who had the audience in stitches in the April show. If you saw them last month I’m sure you’ll be dying to see them again (they have plenty more material so it won’t be a repeat).

More comedy comes from local girl Annette Fagon and newcomer Zane Cohen. We have Poetry, Comedy and Music from former Birmingham Poet Laureate Spoz, music from Emma Black “Emma’s long dark tresses & pretty crystalline voice still doesn’t prepare you for her soothing, hypnotic guitar work, which is fused with a folk outlook.” Manchester Music, plus David Gibb “modern pop-folk that’s bright and infectious…he’s got great commercial possibilities and he’s someone that, given the right help, could easily make this all work” Steve Lamacq BBC Radio 2, and Rich Batsford “Inspired by Philip Glass and Steve Reich, his music displays amazing beauty in repetition and minimalism. Definitely a performer to keep your eyes on.” B’ham Evening Mail Tickets £7 (£5 conc.).

The latest incarnation of Project X Presents is about to bear fruit. I’m pretty much full time on it now and will be for the next two weeks, but its all good fun and shaping up to be a great event.

For this one, the emphasis has shifted somewhat to art exhibition – with displays of art from midday in three main spaces – St Marys Church, Moseley Exchange (at the Post Office building) and Upstairs at the Cross Bar, but theres performance too, with music in the Church (songs from Laura-Louise, Chris Tye and myself) and the Exchange building (classic jazz from the Ralph Allin quartet) and a full Project X style programme in the Cross, not to metion physical theatre on the streets and a few surprises here and there.

Check out these great flyers from Charly Machin and please, spread the word:

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Last year as part of the Project X Presents event Digital Dystopia, a very beautiful dance piece was devised to two new pieces of my music. Excerpts from the second have been edited into this lovely video – please check it out:

For more information on how this all came about check out this blog post on the Project X site which gives a bit more info. Its clever stuff!
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Great gig last night as the Sunflower Lounge – which since opening in 2002 has remained one of the few reasons you’re likely to want to go drinking in Birmingham city centre.

It was opened by Paul Cook – the resident for many years in the small room at Snobs nightclub – the spiritual home of Birminghams Indie community. He played a terrrific selection of 60′s, 70′s Northern Soul, Mod and Indie (often spinning a Beach Boys tune for me when he was me wander in) and the Sunflower Lounge reflects his taste and style.

A great little venue for a gig too – we sat watching the first acts from raised area at the back with a great view onto the bar below, the musicians in front of the big windows and the street behind. The night is called the Sunflower Sessions and is ably run by the lovely Tom.

We missed the Humdrum Express as we’d gone out to grab some dinner, but Ive reviewed him on this blog before. Ian was very kind in shouting out a request for Jobbery before I’d even started and he later confessed to shedding a tear to it. Interesting cos its more of an angry song than a sad one, but the feeling of what he referred to as “those wasted lives” obviously strikes a chord with him.

The rest of the evening was a showcase for Frizz records – a friendly label East London label with a great ethos and several talented musicians. Each chipped in at some point, playing on one anothers songs, so sometimes there was clarinet, percussion and some great backing vocals. In particular Joy Joseph‘s voice was a stand out.

I then played – a bit groggy from a heavy weekend partywise, and feeling the nerves a bit shortly beforehand, but quickly settling in. Im getting the hang of confidently and clearly addressing the audience from the start which really helps. The set is definitely the best its been yet in terms of quality and structure. Theres just one more song I want to add to it which has had the music and an idea for a chorus written for along time, but needs finishing as I’ll want to put it on my first album of songs. Overall the set went down well – even getting a small standing ovation.

Finally David Garside began – a little tentatively at first, but soon hitting his stride. He’s a good gutarist as evidenced from some soloing in the earlier group set and I thought he was probably strongest when playing guitar with a colleague backing well on piano – a good full sounds and some great harmonies as well. The last couple of big numbers had a terrific warm, summery feel to round off a really enjoyable night.

Marc Reeves, editor of the Birmingham Post was in the audience which was great (and testament to the delights of Twitter). The local music is scene is going to need all the support it can get from the local papers following the unfortunate news that listings magazine Whats On recently ceased to exist.
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