Brum Notes Magazine - June 2015

June 2015

www.brumnotes.com music and lifestyle for the west midlands

June 2015

free

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Thurs 6th Aug • £17.50 adv

Kate Voegele and Tyler Hilton

Sat 15th Aug • £12.50 adv / £40 VIP 10.30pm-3.30am • £4 / £5 adv Over 18s only - Proof of age required £3 early bird tix available

Thurs 13th Aug • £4 adv

Taylor Caniff

Sat 19th Sept • £12.50 adv

Weds 20th May • £15 adv

Ozric Tentacles

Sat 23rd May • £13.50 adv

Rx Bandits & Circa Survive

The Movielife

+ Gnarwolves + Apologies I Have None

Sat 20th June • £8 adv / £6 conc.

6.30pm-10pm

A Rock & Pop Concert

Organised by Solihull Music Service

Sun 21st June • £25 adv

Fri 11th Dec • £25 adv

Fri 18th Dec • £21.50 adv

The Bluetones

The Darkness

Shed Seven

6pm - 10pm

6pm - 10pm

Blast of Our Kind 2015 Tour

+ Inspiral Carpets

The English Beat

Weds 3rd June • £5 adv

Sat 15th Aug • £10 adv

Tues 6th Oct • £15 adv

Sat 6th June • £6 adv

6pm - 10pm

Weds 30th Sept • £16 adv

Annihilator + Harlott + Archer Sat 3rd Oct • £28 adv

“Weird Al” Yankovic

Wheatus 15th Anniversary Tour Fri 9th Oct • £10 adv 6.30pm - 10pm

Eliza And The Bear Weds 14th Oct • £23 adv

Major Lazer

Fri 16th Oct • £20 adv 6pm - 10pm

Editors

Tues 23rd June • £17.50 adv

Sun 25th Oct • £23.50 adv

Thurs 25th June • £29.50 adv

Primus - An Evening With Sat 27th June • £4 adv 11pm - 3am • over 18s only

Space Invader

Punk Rock Club Night ft. Eric Melvin “The Melvinator” DJ set

Sat 27th June Sun 28th June • £25 adv 6pm - 11pm

NOFX & Alkaline Trio + Lagwagon + Farse (Sat) + Templeton Pek (Sun)

Mon 29th June • £20 adv

Tony Visconti & Woody Woodmansey with Glenn Gregory and Marc Almond

perform David Bowie’s ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ + Morgan Visconti + Jessica Lee Morgan

Sat 18th July • £35 / £37.50 adv 9pm - 2am • over 18s only

Beres Hammond & Bunny Wailer

‘The Bombs Won’t Listen’ Mini Tour

Sat 26th Sept • £21 adv

Sun 18th Oct • £22.50 adv

Dead Kennedys + Slagerij

The Smyths

The Selecter

Lilly Singh

A Trip to Unicorn Island World Tour

Sat 12th Dec • £12 adv

Sun 13th Dec • £16.50 adv

featuring Dave Wakeling

6pm - 10pm

Sound Affects 35th Anniversary Tour

Sikth

Electric Six

Sun 24th May • £12.50 adv

Fri 19th June • £18.50 adv

From The Jam

6pm - 10pm

Weds 2nd Dec • £12.50 adv

Sat 3rd Oct • £18 adv

presents Earls Court ‘75 Revisited A night of Rock History recreated

Sat 21st Nov • £22.50 adv

Fri 11th Dec • £15 adv

A tribute to American Rock Legends

+ From Indian Lakes

Boot Led Zeppelin

Fuse ODG

UK Foo Fighters

10pm - 3am • over 18s only

Propaganda A Level Results UV Party

Sat 21st Nov • £16.50 adv

Kid Ink

There & Back Again

Thurs 20th Aug • £17 adv

+ Harry Alexander + Duchess + No Tomorrow + Abbi Baker

Slim Jim Phantom Of The Stray Cats

Fri 26th June • £5 adv 6pm - 10pm

Sat 12th Sept • £10 adv

Sat 27th June • £7.50 adv

The UK’s no.1 tribute to the music of Paul Weller

Amarantus

;Fri 18th Sept • £11 adv

Orchard Hill

+ Torous + The Black Hounds + Black Diamond + Avalon

Tues 30th June • £10 adv

Doomtree

Sat 31st Oct • £17.50 adv / £67.50 VIP

+ Red Light Room + Harmfool + Tides Apart + Seasons

Thurs 5th Nov • £22.50 adv

Death Cab For Cutie Fri 6th Nov • £28.50 adv 6.30pm - 10pm

Happy Mondays

The Modfathers

6.45pm - 11pm

Sat 4th July • £6 adv

Dappy

The Complete U2 Experience

Sam Ostler

Ella Henderson 6pm - 10pm

U2 360

Respublica

Weds 8th July • £11 adv

Area 11

Sat 11th July • £6 adv

Brendon Manders + Pierre + Merkage

6.30pm - 10pm

Definitely Mightbe

Oasis tribute - 20th Anniversary of “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?”

Fri 25th Sept • £24 adv / £12 early 7pm - 10pm • over 18s only

The Burlesque Ball UK Tour

National Burlesque Club Dance Party

Sat 26th Sept • £6 adv 6.45pm – 11pm

Fire Red Empress

+ Glass Bullet + Vicious Nature + Sister Shotgun + Tyrannosaurus Nebulous

Sat 3rd Oct • £10 early

Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches 25th Anniversary Tour

Mon 13th July • £17 adv

Sat 7th Nov • £13 adv

+ Dendera

(A Tribute To Slipknot) + Skies In Motion + Rise of Athena

Quadrophenia Club Night

Sat 18th July • £15 adv / £25 VIP

Fri 30th Oct • £11 adv

Over 18s only

Big Screen Film Show with DJ Drew Stansall (The Specials) + The Atlantics (playing the movie hits)

Weds 11th Nov • £16 adv

Ella Eyre

Sat 14th Nov • £17.50 adv

Everything Everything Thurs 19th Nov • £22.50 adv

Of Monsters And Men

Anvil

Jake Quickenden Sat 25th July • £6 adv 6.45pm - 11pm

Slaughter Horse

+ VeXXen + Inthroes + Secrets of Mariana + Samsara

Weds 5th Aug • £12.50 adv / £40 VIP

Hollywood Ending Thurs 13th Aug • £12 adv 6pm - 10pm

A Wilhelm Scream

Knotslip

6.30pm - 10pm

The Clone Roses Sat 7th Nov • £11 adv

Antartic Monkeys Fri 11th Dec • £12 adv 6.30pm - 10pm

The Doors Alive Fri 18th Mar 2016 • £22 adv 6.30pm - 10.30pm

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox

16-18 Horsefair, Bristol St, Birmingham, B1 1DB 2

Doors 7.00pm unless stated • Venue box office opening hours: Mon-Fri 12pm-4pm, Sat 11am-4pm • No booking fee o n cash transactions

Brum Notes Magazine

ticketweb.co.uk • seetickets.com • gigantic.com • ticketmaster.co.uk

CONTENTS

The crowd at The Sunflower Lounge for God Damn. See the review on P24.

Photo by Andy Watson Brum Notes Magazine Unit 12 The Bond 180-182 Fazeley Street Birmingham B5 5SE info@brumnotes.com 0121 224 7363 Advertising 0121 224 7363 advertising@brumnotes.com Distribution StickupMedia!

0121 224 7364 Editor: Chris Moriarty Album Reviews Editor: Dan Owens Arts Editor: Dan Cooper-Gavin Food & Drink Editor: Kitty Sadler New Music Correspondent: Guy Hirst Writers: David Bentall, Lyle Bignon, Tom Clabon, Andrew Gutteridge, Sidney Pinsent, Ben Russell, Poppy Twist, David Vincent Photos: Andy Watson, Sam Wood Cover illustration: Charlotte Audrey Owen-Meehan Design: Adam Williams, Andy Aitken Twitter: @BrumNotesMag Facebook: www.facebook.com/ BrumNotesMagazine Online: www.brumnotes.com

Regulars News 4-5 Fresh Talent 6-7 Food & Drink 20-21 Album Reviews 22-23 Live Reviews 24-25 What’s On Guide 26-31 Features John J Presley 8 &U&I 9 Lunar Festival 10 BE Festival 11 The Pop Group 12-13 Supersonic Festival 14 Festival Calendar 16-18

All content Š Brum Notes Magazine. Views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Brum Notes Magazine.

While all care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of content, Brum Notes Magazine will not be held liable for any errors or losses claimed to have been incurred by any errors. Advertising terms and conditions available on request.

June 2015

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Get a taste of the Midlands’ finest food and drink, as Independent Food Fair returns

news

Historic studio launches crowdfunding campaign to secure future Highbury Studio, the historic analogue recording studio based in Kings Heath, has launched a 60-day Pledge campaign aimed at securing a sustainable future for the heritage building.

Supporters can pledge to buy a limited edition two-disc vinyl album featuring new songs captured at the studio by Birmingham artists, all recorded on 1ins tape to be transferred to 180 gram vinyl with no digital interface.

Other investment options include rehearsal or recording time, mentoring with studio staff and bespoke private parties based on the history of the building.

Bands and musicians confirmed to appear on the release include Alternative Dubstep Orchestra, Goodnight Lenin, Little Comets, Naimwa Jazz, Roland Gift and The Old Dance School.

Duran Duran, Stephen Duffy, Ocean Colour Scene, Broadcast, Ruby Turner, Jo Hamilton and James Summerfield are among a long list of Birmingham groups, musicians and singersongwriters who have recorded and rehearsed at Highbury Studio.

BRAND NEW BRUMNOTES.COM IS NOW LIVE! We’re excited to be able to reveal our brand new website to the world… The all new www.brumnotes.com site is now live, offering a much improved viewing experience across all platforms. We’re also overhauling the content available online to give you the best mix possible of music, nightlife, style, food and drink, news, reviews and a comprehensive what’s on guide.

We’d love to hear what else you want to see on the new site. Hit us up on facebook.com/BrumNotesMagazine or on Twitter @BrumNotesMag with your suggestions. Check out the new site now at www.brumnotes.com.

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The studio, on the site of a former cricket bat factory, was originally established in 1980 by drummer and producer Bob Lamb and is now managed by experienced music industry figure John Mostyn.

For more information on the Highbury Studio Pledge campaign, visit www.highburystudio.com.

Brum’s burgeoning independent food and drink scene will be showcased in tantalising fashion, with a two-day celebration.

Expect everything from street food to fine dining and from craft ale to cocktails during the Birmingham Independent Food Fair, which has expanded to cover two full days from September 12-13, taking place at Millennium Point and also outside at the adjacent Eastside Park.

More than 4,000 visitors are expected over the course of the weekend, with attractions including tasting sessions run by Loki Wine, live music, a ‘cocktail theatre’ and fully-stocked craft beer bar, as well as indoor and outdoor stalls run by some of the city’s best loved independent restaurants and traders.

Tickets will be released in June at www.bhamindfoodfair.co.uk. Traders interested in taking part are also invited to visit the website for more information.

ROLL UP FOR DRIVE-IN MOVIE HORRORFEST Start your engines…drive-in movies are heading to Brum. We’ve had luxury sofa cinemas, hot tub cinemas and rooftop cinema experiences, and now the industrial backstreets of Digbeth are set for some Grease-style date nights as part of a cult film festival.

The 42nd Street to Paradise film festival runs takes place on June 26 and 27, paying homage to the Grindhouse movies synonymous with New York’s 24nd Street. Day one features a Drive-in Cinema at the Rainbow Arena from 7.30pm, with screenings of Terrorvision (1986) and Deadbeat at Dawn (1988), accompanied by DJs and food served up by Digbeth Dining Club.

Day two involves ditching the wheels for more cult films, this time at the Mockingbird Theatre in the Custard Factory from 3pm-10pm, with screenings of 1970 splatter film The Wizard of Gore and Italian cop action flick Violent Naples (1976), as well as merchandise stalls and Q&As with special guests, including cult horror actor Ian McCulloch.

Tickets cost £10 per person for the drivein cinema on Friday night or £15 per person for the all-day screenings at the Mockingbird Theatre on the Saturday.

Visit 42ndstfest.com for more details.

Keep the Faith - Northern Soul fans to get dedicated venue in Brum A brand new venue dedicated to Northern Soul and Motown will open in Digbeth next month.

The Night Owl, said to be the first specialist bar of its kind in the Midlands, will boast a sprung wooden dancefloor and some suitably vintage-inspired decor, as well as a state-ofthe-art soundsystem.

The venue, named after the classic Northern Soul record by Bobby Paris, will open its doors in Lower Trinity Street on Friday, July 17. Fridays will be purely Northern Soul, while Saturdays will feature DJs playing a broader range of Motown, soul, funk, ska, 60s RnB and more.

The bar plans to open seven nights a week and offer a wide range of events, including all-dayers, under 18s events and live music.

Follow @nightowlbham on Twitter for more updates.

Brum Notes Magazine

June 2015

5

fresh talent

MALARKEY facebook.com/MalarkeyBand WORDS BY GUY HIRST

It’s unlikely you’ve heard a band exactly like Malarkey before, their musical makeup is just too bloody weird for a coincidental replication. With Tama Bedward’s (aka Juggernaut) roughneck dancehall vocals atop a delirious dub-ska-punk freak show, the Birmingham six-piece nail down a chemistry and sound that they can honestly call their own.

Their debut album, Kebabylon, is due out July 17 release and they play at Big Vibes at the Hare & Hounds on June 19. We spoke with Kyle Amps (guitar and vocals) and Juggernaut (vocals) to find out exactly how we’re living in Kebabylon.

“Free, that’s the best word for it,” agrees Jugga, “you can freely think, freely talk about what you wanna talk about and get your point across. Our differences go better together than I ever thought they would have, that’s why Malarkey stands out for me.”

“It refers to the sort of people that are full of fucking bullshit,” says Kyle. “Like those who bring that wave of drunken chaos every Friday and Saturday night on Broad Street, where you can get the shit beaten out of you. It doesn’t make sense, it is all malarkey and it’s fucked up,” he says. “Malarkey baby,” Jugga chortles.

This oddball mix of influences is their unique selling point – it’s ridiculous, hilarious, alarming even.

Although they’ve been a band for three years their current line-up has only been in action since January 2014. There’s just one track on the album built from the ground up by all of Malarkey’s current members, and quite naturally, it’s their favourite track. “Unknown Designs,” they say simultaneously. “We promote love and good vibes, so that song really talks to me,” Jugga continues, “but all the tracks have their own little style of character.

We wanted to to give something for everyone so they can go ‘this part is for me’, you know? Some people like the badman thing as well, but we’re always up for keeping it positive.”

Kebabylon opens with Ain’t No Party Like A Malarkey Party, best described as a nightmarish reggae cyclone, and it isn’t a far cry away from their tempestuous live sound either.

“Our live shows are one thing we do well,” affirms Kyle, “so it would have been a shame not to emphasise on that. We always go for the stuff that makes a good live show, the dancehall rhythms do that, but experimenting is definitely our modus operandi at the moment. We’re all really appreciative of everyone else’s niche and willing to fuse them together, in that sense our writing is totally free.”

“We literally cherry-pick elements from everything we like,” Kyle continues, “so if we hear a really good acoustic tune with jangly guitar, I’ll do something similar around those chords, or if there’s a cool beat, we’ll put it into 7/4 or something.”

“We played our first show with Tamar and Jake (Cunningham, Bass) at the Actress & Bishop, without rehearsal or anything,” says Kyle, “people were going crazy, a guy was waving a light saber around, ecstatically buzzing, doing handstands

and stuff.” “Then we were like ok...this works,” Jugga chimes in, “I could see our potential then.”

For many, Digbeth is Birmingham’s cultural epicentre, and it’s a place that Malarkey are proud to call their gigging homeland. “Digbeth is a family thing,” Jugga confirms, “Jam Tidy, Lobster, Friendly Fire Band – we’re all in the same struggle. The people are very appreciative on Digbeth side too. You go certain places and the audience know what they like, but in Digbeth it’s like everybody just wants to see what’s going on. They don’t want something that’s been done before. You want something new? Go to Digbeth. Wanna hear something you’ve heard on the radio? Go to Broad Street.

It gives a lot of opportunity for a lot of different bands and different mindsets, to you know, mix and grow together.”

“You’ll have to come see why there’s no party like a Malarkey party,” Kyle says when asked about his lyrics, “it’s nonsense that makes so much sense.

One thing we get a lot is, ‘I don’t like ska, punk, reggae or dancehall…but I liked that.’” Jugga relapses into his 10th bout of laughter, “but they liked ‘em all together! Malarkey baby.”

Malarkey baby indeed.

See Malarkey live at Big Vibes at the Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, on June 19 and at their album launch, Wagon & Horses, Birmingham, July 17.

ONES TO WATCH BYRON HARE

THE HUNGRY GHOSTS

KATALEPTIC

MALPAS

Load up the VW camper and head west,

Garage rock so raw it sounds as if it’s

There’s a brutal death metal scene on your

Birmingham duo Ali M Forbes and

or rather, to Digbeth. These 21st century

booming from a haggard ghetto blast-

front doorstep thriving at Scruffy Murphys.

producer Andy Savours combine their

proggy flower children have nailed down

er, it’s all suave blues-filth on speed. The

Formed in 2008 and having supported

talents to create totally elated acous-

a 60s summer of love vibe while embrac-

Hungry Ghosts support Chilean elec-

beasts like Fleshgod Apocalypse, Blood

tic and electronic playgrounds, whereby

ing the catchy sensibilities of modern pop.

tronic-psych mavericks Föllakzoid, who

Red Throne and Cerebral Bore, savage

loops, swelling synths, totally inoffensive

After releasing their Sleep On The Fire EP

arrive on the heels of their album enti-

five-piece Kataleptic are well-versed

falsetto vocals and trip hop amalgam-

(Death & Glory Records) and a three-track

tled III and boasting a collaboration with

performers who embrace an enduring play-

ates into something akin to ultra-hypnot-

concept EP called Byron Hare 1968, the

legendary German electronic maestro

heavy-or-die mindset, possessing a tech-

ic-dream pop. Malpas are one of those

band are moving strongly into the festival

Uwe Schmidt, who assisted in fully flesh-

nical ingenuity and physical perseverance

bands on record where organic sounds

season 2015 and beyond. This show sees

ing out their synth arrangements. From

that only death metal seems to demand.

indistinguishably merge with more robotic

the Redditch six-piece play alongside Bad

straightforward fuzz to obscure thump-

Enter only if lover of extreme nihilistic

intentions, how this translates live, howev-

Grammar, Electric and Hyena. Recom-

ing and glitchy synths, look no further.

misanthropy, the colour black, Hobgoblin

er, will be incredibly intriguing. Recom-

mended tracks: Something Surreal,

Recommended tracks: Love Song, Hare

ale and flesh related lyrics. Recommended

mended tracks: Under Her Sails, Us

Carburettor Crush, Metaphorical Political

On The Mountain

tracks: Flesh, Synapse, Lythronax

Afloat, Promise, Charlemagne

The Rainbow, June 19

The Sunflower Lounge, June 7

Scruffy Murphys, June 4

Hare & Hounds, June 10

6

Brum Notes Magazine

PLAYLIST

CALL ME UNIQUE MONEY MONEY MONEY

soundcloud.com/brumnotes WORDS BY GUY HIRST

DORCHA INKLING Elephantine vocalist Anna Palmer spearheads a new collaborative project, Dorcha, to bring her more adventuresome, technical and personal songwriting to light. With reverby Grouper-esque piano swells, melancholy-yet-playful vocals and decorative motifs, Inkling stands out as the most emotionally provoking track on the Black Streams album. This is not Elephantine’s high-octane rock‘n’roll, it’s a solid art piece hosting classical instrumentation with an off-kilter approach, and a voice to fall helplessly in love with. Black Streams is out now. dorcha.bandcamp.com

THE DESTROYERS VORTEX CANNON

O JU PE LY NI 17 NG th

Birmingham’s mega-weirdo-folk squad The Destroyers release a new EP, Vortex, marking their first release without ringmaster poet Paul Murphy. However, Vortex Cannon boasts the same giddy circus clown sound that’s bound to

make a live crowd flail heedlessly. With punchdrunk brass and woodwind sections, inexplicable ultra-silly lyrics and an instrument called a hurdy gurdy (gotta love that), it’s very much business as usual for The Destroyers, which is being insane – joyously, hopelessly and prevailingly insane. Vortex is out now. thedestroyers.co.uk

ANDY OLIVERI SHE BETS ON WILD HORSES It’s heart-warming acoustic fingerstyle with heartbreaking lyrics. ‘I won’t raise my voice, I won’t raise my children, in the arms of that woman,’ bemoans Oliveri. Choosing to believe these words adds a devastating emotional weight to this track. But even if it’s not true, the concept of surrendering yourself to love, laying out seemingly solid foundations, nurturing it for years, then having it brutality levelled is incredibly real, and Oliveri reflects this very well. She Bets On Wild Horses comes off the Pay Your Respect to the Rose album, out now. soundcloud.com/andy-oliveri

This isn’t a tune about the shallow joys of moolah, it’s the complete opposite. Money is the antagonist, the soul destroyer, the defiler, the corporate rapist. It’s a lamentful track – angry, beautiful, true. Call Me Unique’s striking souljazz vocals with added scat-aggression are as expressive as they are pitch perfect, and with just stripped down percussion and keys as backing, it’s the layered harmonies, outbursts and subtle distant vocals of Call Me Unique that make up most of Money Money Money.

It’s a testament to how a voice can be captivating in itself. soundcloud.com/callmeunique

MUTES HOLY TERROR Holy Terror comes off Mutes’ upcoming Starvation Age EP, due for release on June 29. It’s an odd track whereby the first minute-and-a-half is like some violent Sonic Youth tribute, and the four remaining minutes break into voiceless ambient ripples. It’s a bipolar contrast that hits like a psychedelic comedown, the mayhem is over, now all you can do is stare vacantly into the distance.

The Japanese call this vacant gazing ‘boketto’, something that the larger portion of Holy Terror is well adept for. soundcloud.com/mutes-1

THE

NIGHT OWL

THE MIDLANDS’ ONLY NORTHERN SOUL & MOTOWN BAR

• SPRUNG WOODEN DANCE FLOOR • • NORTHERN SOUL ALL NIGHTERS • • MOTOWN SATURDAYS • & MORE /nightowlbham

nightowlbirmingham

@nightowlbham

Nightowlbirmingham@gmail.com

June 2015

17–18 Lower Trinity Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B9 4AG

7

No Tricks John J Presley brings his gritty brand of stripped-down blues back home to Birmingham this month, alongside a new EP that captures the rawness of his live sound. He speaks to Guy Hirst about the beauty of simplicity.

“It’s recorded, it’s done, it’s ready to go,” reports John J Presley on his forthcoming EP White Ink, due out this month. “I’ve never had a truer recording, put it that way. The second I heard it, I knew that this was my sound. There’s no jiggery-pokery. We could preamp, compress, have a little reverb, but that’s it. Everything’s recorded live – the guitar, Fender Rhodes, vocal, harmonium. It’s so basic, it’s the most basic recording I’ve ever done. I am happy.”

This passion for capturing live grit branches from Presley’s firm conviction that who you are live is who you should be on record, and the ability to create, should be cherished most of all.

“Yeah, being able to create is most important, it’s a necessity rather than a pastime almost. I’m grateful that I have the time to do that now. And live, live is important. If you don’t play live then what are you? It’s where you develop, it’s where you are who you are, it’s the outlet, it’s like a painter painting a picture.”

White Ink, then, should be an accurate depiction of Presley’s picture. The EP Was recorded on analogue tape in one eight-hour session at East London’s Toe Rag Studios, on their one day off from touring, with a 411 mile journey to Glasgow ahead of them the following day.

“It was killer man,” he laughs, “but Toe Rag Studios was a beautiful place to be. It has a lot of history to it. The White Stripes recorded their Elephant album there, and all the gear’s from the 50s and 60s.”

8

Nearly everything written about John J Presley includes comparisons to Jack White, Nick Cave, The Kills and Tom Waits, but they don’t offer a totally fair direction, John J Presley sounds like John J Presley, and what that is exactly, couldn’t be easier to find out – just go listen.

“The second I heard it, I knew that this was my sound.

There’s no jiggery-pokery.”

“Yeah, it drives me nuts,” he says on these persistent comparisons. “It’s a necessary evil because when you first come out everyone needs some sort of reference point to base their opinion on, rather than listening and making up their own mind,” he continues, “music journalism is necessary, but can be evil. What annoys me most is some little kid, in a room, writing about you, saying negative shit about something he doesn’t understand. I’ve played in other bands that have received scathing reviews. I’m like ‘fuck, this kid doesn’t know a thing man’, how can you even possibly quantify what this guy’s doing? Negativity annoys me. It’s so easy to be negative, until you do it yourself you can’t criticise someone else.”

Though John J Presley’s music can certainly stand alone, admittedly, he is a massive fan of Tom Waits.

“I love Tom Waits, you can’t go wrong. When you first hear him you like ‘what the fuck is that?’ I

remember playing an album on a long, long drive.

I listened to it from start to finish. If you were ever stuck in a creative blackspot, listen to Tom Waits.

He’s so minimalist but so beautiful in places. I love Swordfish Trombones, when I was in one of my first bands, it was all I listened to.”

In 2013 and 2014, there was word that a debut album would surface, but it never did, and with Presley now at home with Vital Records, an album is looking likely.

“There will be an album next year, Vital records are looking after us nicely. The guy’s there are just on it, proactive and actually love what you do, you’re not just another number,” he continues.

“With that album I did a few years ago we spent ages producing it, all the takes done separately.

You lose that energy and that kind of feel. I wasn’t amazingly happy with it. We could have put it out DIY but It would have fell on deaf ears, you gotta know the right people. The industry can be soul destroying, you’ve just gotta have really thick skin to carry on,” he says. “But it was so long ago it may as well have been another lifetime.

Along with a European tour that takes him to Switzerland and the Czech Republic, Secret Garden Party and beyond, it also sees the Birmingham native return home. “I love touring,” he says, “I haven’t played Birmingham for two years, I’m absolutely stoked to come back.”

John J Presley is live at the Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, on June 17.

Brum Notes Magazine

Photo by Richard Kiely

UNCUFFED

Post-hardcore rockers &U&I return with a brand new EP and a headline spot at the next month’s rebooted Off The Cuff festival. Guy Hirst talks to guitarist Thomas Peckett about their long relationship with the festival at The Flapper, Birmingham’s unique music scene and performing Peter Andre songs to a throng of bridesmaids.

What does Off The Cuff festival mean to &U&I? One of the first ever shows that we ever did was at Off The Cuff post-Blakfish [their previous outfit before forming &U&I]. Every time we did it was just really good, and then it went quiet for a while, a shame because Birmingham’s got loads of cool stuff going on, it was nice to have such a consistent festival [celebrating it]. The Flapper is our go-to place to gig whenever we play Birmingham and the festival opens people up to local music that they may have missed.

The whole inner-city festival thing is awesome, it doesn’t have to be all camping and overpriced beer.

Tell us more about the new four-track Merci EP. Robert (Wiseley, drums) came up with the name of the record, it was such a good idea. We had so much fun at 2000trees Festival last year, people came out and went crazy but it was like, ‘ah, this feels bad that we haven’t got anything new to give them.’ So yeah, Merci is literally a thank-you record. We had two songs we’d written ages ago, so when we came to do the EP, we could just re-work ‘em and iron out any creases, and then we wrote two brand new ones as well, [our latest single] Stamp being one of those. It was just good sitting in a room with Wiz and Richard (Lee, bass and vocals) arsing about like we normally do.

How do your songs change from concept to record?

We write these riffs and they’ve got wicked vibes, but then we come to track it, stuff like the click will take it out of it’s natural swing or rhythm.

We don’t let [the recording process] dictate our music, but it does sort of keep it in line, which we’re quite glad of.

June 2015

You’ve become immortalised as puppets in the video for Stamp, please elaborate.

I met with Ollie form Betterfeelingfilms and said: ‘What ideas have you got that doesn’t actually involve us being there?’ We play as much music as we physically can, we love doing it, but because we’ve all got really different [and time consuming] jobs, it’s difficult to get us all in one room.

“We won’t stand behind a barrier cos we don’t wanna speak to you. If you ever want some new friends, come see a &U&I show.”

They wrestled girls out the crowd and stuff. If a band’s been particularly aggressive and given the bouncers some extra work they can’t pin that on every band and say ‘all music is shit, their fans are arseholes.’ You just can’t tar everyone with that same brush.

There’s a great video of you playing Peter Andre’s Mysterious Girl at a wedding, is this at all surreal to you?

[Laughs] I wouldn’t say it was surreal, but it’s certainly fun. Doing weddings is just one of those things we do for friends and we have had the occasional booking before. What’s definitely surreal is that we’re playing my own wedding in a couple of weeks along with Tangled Hair [who’re also playing Off The Cuff].

In what ways does Birmingham’s music scene feel unique to you?

We’ve done shows with Them Wolves, God Damn, Youth Man and guys like that, it’s all such diverse styles of music, none of them are at all identical, but when we play together there’s always such a good appreciation of each other, everyone’s like, ‘I get can get behind this, this is good fun.’

What’s most important to you as a musician?

Since 14 I’ve always been in bands, we met in school and started Blakfish and then &U&I. We love what we do, even though we’ve got jobs and work 40 hours a week, we still make time to make music together, that’s definitely the most important thing. It’s just good fun to hang out and meet people who come to see us play, we’re quite a personal sort of band in that sense. We won’t stand behind a barrier cos we don’t wanna speak to you. If you ever want some new friends, come see a &U&I show.

You recently had some trouble with some bouncers. Tell us more.

It all got a bit crazy, they obviously thought they were doing their job, but they were out of their jurisdiction really. They were just needlessly chucking people out of the venue. People weren’t losing their shit and smashing the place up or anything, they were just getting into the music.

&U&I headline Off The Cuff on Sunday, July 26, at The Flapper, Birmingham. Off The Cuff runs from July 25-26 and also features Dinosaur Pile-Up, Tangled Hair, Them Wolves, Frauds, Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam and many more. Visit www.theflapper.co.uk for more information.

9

arts & culture

BE Festival

Trampolining Spaniards, experimental German psychiatry, bittersweet Italian dance and a British homage to Yoko Ono. It can mean only one thing – it’s time for this year’s BE Festival. Dan Cooper-Gavin catches up with festival co-director Miguel Oyarzun to preview this year’s line-up.

Few festivals – no matter what the discipline – are as vibrant, ambitious and downright uplifting as BE Festival. Conceived in 2010, the annual programme of cutting-edge European theatre has become one of the most essential elements of Birmingham’s cultural calendar, and Miguel Oyarzun’s enthusiasm for the 2015 edition is infectious. “We’re very excited,” he beams. “This year’s programme is brilliant.”

There are 20 shows in all this year, from a total of nine European countries. While the bill is as edifying as ever – including a Tunisian/Italian examination of the Arab Spring and a French physical-theatre piece exploring mankind’s relationship to violence – Miguel emphasises how accessible and inclusive the programme is. There are plenty of circus-inspired pieces, as well as a special family-friendly trampoline show, Collage, out on Centenary Square. And complementing the dramatic programme is a strong offering of live music, including a performance from ex-Steel Pulse man Basil Gabbidon.

BE Festival has a distinctive format. Typically, each night features four short plays by companies from across the continent, with the pièce de résistance being that the audience can dine with the actors during the interval. “The relationship that is created between the audience and the artists, it’s like a temporary community created during the festival,” says Miguel. “It would be very easy for us to grow in terms of audiences and space and do it bigger, but we try to keep it as it is, because although we’ve grown every year, it feels that we wouldn’t want to lose that intimate feeling that the audiences have. There’s something about the independent festival scene in this city – you get to meet the artists, you get to meet the staff, you 10

get to feel part of it somehow, and that’s something quite unique. So it’s a balance to be found.”

Spending its formative years based at the Jewellery Quarter’s AE Harris factory space, in 2014 the festival took up residence at its salubrious new home of The Rep. Rather than bowing to convention, Miguel’s team turned the venue inside-out, with the performances taking place in spaces normally considered to be behind the scenes. “It overpassed all our expectations, it was a great success and the space worked fantastically,” he says. “We really had a good time with the team at The Rep, and they want it back, so we’re doing it again this year. It was an intervention of the space.

On a philosophical level, it’s great to use those big institutions, and this is a public building, it’s great for the audience and for the people who pay the taxes to be able to see the space inside-out and use it fully. The whole space is open and people can see where the money is going, how theatre is made, how the arts are made.”

As ever, competition for inclusion on this year’s bill was fierce. “This always happens,” says Miguel.

“At the beginning it’s easy and very exciting, and suddenly you look at the shortlist and you go, ‘Gosh, we’ve got 40, and we need to cull this into half.’ That’s what’s most difficult.” The result is a programme of an eye-wateringly high standard.

Here are some of the standout highlights:

Show A full version of the madcap winning play from last year’s festival, courtesy of Italy’s Antonio Tagliarini.

“It’s a show about how to create a performance,” explains Miguel, “and the way he portrays that is very, very intelligent. It’s a topic that could be inwards-looking, but he manages it not to be. He

dances, he transforms into different characters, he does a lot of clowning, a lot of participation with the audience. Very funny, very, very smart.”

Collage A special free performance of an award-winning piece from Spain’s Bot Project, taking place out in Centenary Square before Wednesday night’s bill. “They use a massive trampoline, there’s a lot of jumping, and a great soundtrack,” says Miguel.

Translating Lola A frank examination of sex and femininity from the Netherlands’ Margo van de Linde. “She invites a Spanish woman on stage who had to leave Spain because of the crisis. She decided to move to Amsterdam and work as a prostitute to support her family. That story is told with live translation, so there’s a translator on stage. It’s a great performance, fascinating.”

O No! After presenting the anarchic Beating McEnroe at the festival last year, the UK’s Jamie Wood returns with this high-octane homage to Yoko Ono. “Really, really fun, audience participation. It’s funny.”

Athletes “The dance we bring this year, the quality’s incredible,” says Miguel. Athletes is a fine example – an examination of a futuristic dystopia from London-based Italian choreographer Riccardo Buscarini, and the 2013 winner of the prestigious Place Prize.

BE Festival takes place at The Rep, Birmingham, June 23-27. For more information, visit www.befestival.org.

Brum Notes Magazine

Sun Ra Arkestra

As Lunar Festival returns to Nick Drake’s home village in Warwickshire, David Vincent runs through the highlights.

Friday, June 5 Tinariwen have quickly outgrown the simplistic ‘world music’ label as their infectious and trancelike rhythms filter into rock and indie. Current album Emmaar saw the band record outside of Africa for the first time. Relocated to the mythical Californian desert area around The Joshua Tree, their American experience has (thankfully) not ruined their ‘desert blues’. Swirling and hypnotic, its textures shift slowly and captivatingly.

Formed in LA in 2008, quartet Allah-Las fuse West Coast garage rock with elements of Latin percussion and electric folk. Worship The Sun has seen the band compared to The Byrds, Love and textured 80s Brum indie heroes Felt, while 60s instrumental cover No Werewolf drips with surf twang.

Zervas & Pepper hail from Wales but with a sound that harks back to the West Coast and Laurel Canyon scenes of the late 60s and early 70s, and the close harmonies of Crosby, Stills & Nash – although the smooth sounds are often hiding an unexpected darkness.

The Fall should need no introduction. Formed in Manchester in 1976, a seemingly constantly shifting membership has produced a monumental back catalogue, with the forceful Mark E Smith the only permanent presence. It’s the consistency of their discography that surprises, with the just-out SubLingual Tablet (their 31st studio album) something of a modern highpoint – from the opening mosh of Venice With the Girls, to closing Quit iPhone.

Saturday, June 6 The Wilko Johnson revival continues to gain pace.

And justifiably too. As guitarist with Southend-onSea pub rockers Dr Feelgood, Wilko was responsible for some blistering British RnB cuts in the early/mid-70s. Studio albums Down by the Jetty June 2015

and Malpractice are great examples, but it’s arguably in concert – and 76’s live chart-topper Stupidity – where Wilko really shows his chops. Having just beaten cancer, Wilko’s tentative return to live performing comes in the wake of his hugely successful team-up with The Who’s Roger Daltrey, Going Back Home. Expect a ‘greatest hits’ set as Wilko performs with Blockheads’ bassist Norman Watt-Roy and drummer Dylan Howe.

The Pretty Things are also enjoying something of a revival. Born out of the same British blues scene that gave us The Rolling Stones, and with strong links to Led Zep, the band never achieved anywhere near the same fame as their contemporaries, yet their ‘lost’ 1968 magnum opus, SF Sorrow, is now regarded as a pioneering Brit psych classic.

Fresh from a sell-out date at The Institute, Public Service Broadcasting’s instrumentals are filled with surprise and wonder. If they have their screens with them, look out for their excellent Geoffrey Went Too Far cartoon, warning of the dangers of excessive (and annoying) mobile phone waving at gigs. Classic.

If any one act epitomises Lunar’s bill, is has to be Jane Weaver. Her remarkable The Silver Globe is a slow-burning and beguiling release that pulls in such disparate influences as psych folk, krautrock, space rock, prog, experimental electronica and film, all contained with assistance from Badly Drawn Boy, David Holmes, Andy Votel, Suzanne Ciani and Cybotron.

Further down the bill, Nigerian Afrobeat/soul pioneer Orlando Julius’ collaboration with London’s The Heliocentrics offers the kind of team-up you’d expect to see at Mostly Jazz Funk & Soul Festival (much like Sun Ra Arkestra on Sunday).

Sunday, June 7 In a solo career spanning 35 years, songwriter (and surrealist painter) Robyn Hitchcock has forged a consistent, though cult, career, away from the glare of the mainstream. Reflective, occasionally quirky, and regularly compared to Dylan, Lennon and Syd Barrett, his back catalogue includes cracking songs about everything from geographical landmarks, masculinity and love to cheese. His recent solo album (his 20th), The Man Upstairs, was recorded with Nick Drake and Incredible String Band producer Joe Boyd, and mixes original material with stripped down covers of Dylan, The Doors, Roxy Music and Psychedelic Furs.

Complementing Friday’s Goblin appearance, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s soundtrack work has influenced everyone from Pink Floyd to The Prodigy to Portishead. Fifteen years after the unit was decommissioned by the Beeb, they’ll be revisiting classic TV and radio themes.

Closers The Bootleg Beatles have played to more people than the actual Beatles, with their faithful renditions of The Fab Four’s hit-list winning them the thumbs up from George Martin. For Lunar they’ll be performing a 1966-1970 based set, a period characterised by Tomorrow Never Knows, Sgt Pepper, Dear Prudence, Here Comes The Sun and Get Back.

Lunar Festival takes place in Tanworth-InArden, near Solihull, from June 5-7. Adult Tickets £39 per day or £89 for all three days, including camping.

See www.brumnotes.com for an interview with Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, who perform on the Friday.

11

Mad World

An acknowledged influence on acts as diverse as Massive Attack and Sonic Youth, postpunk pioneers The Pop Group are back with a vengeance. David Vincent catches up.

To describe The Pop Group’s reformation as a welcome return seems something of an understatement as Citizen Zombie, their first studio album in 35 years, has been greeted with almost deafening praise.

“I’ve been shocked by our re-entry across the world…mad!” cries a clearly surprised Mark Stewart, vocalist and co-founder. “It gives you hope, it gives you strength.”

The Pop Group’s career was relatively brief the first time around, but eventful. Formed in 1977 in Bristol, the band’s roots lay in the pre-punk sonic 12

batterings and swagger of Suicide, The New York Dolls and The Stooges.

“I remember chatting to Ian Curtis [Joy Division’s singer], and also the guys from the Jesus & Mary Chain, and it was the same. When we were all 12–14, we were into [Iggy and The Stooges’] Metallic KO and saw the New York Dolls on the TV. So that zeitgeist all happened before [punk].

The land wasn’t barren. Seeing the New York Dolls on the Old Grey Whistle Test blew people away,” recalls Stewart.

The Pop Group’s sound and ethos developed

quickly. In 1978 they were the first unsigned act to feature on the front cover of the then-weekly NME, with their debut album, Y, arriving in 1979.

A successor, For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?, followed a year later, along with the We Are Time compilation, and that was it. Career over, members slipped off into Adrian Sherwood’s O-U-Soundsystem, Rip Rig + Panic, Pigbag, Maximum Joy, The Slits and PiL. But their taut, eclectic mash-up of politicised punk, free jazz, avant garde, funk and dub – think Pere Ubu, Funkadelic, Captain Beefheart, Television, Patti Smith, Sun Ra, John Cage, Dennis Brum Notes Magazine

Bovell – has continued to resonate across the decades, feeding into genres as diverse as trip hop and industrial.

The Pop Group’s reputation hit a high in 2010 when The Simpsons’ Matt Groening invited them to reform for All Tomorrow’s Parties (ATP).

Having remained friends since the band’s demise, members “started talking,” formulating the idea of a programme of re-releases, limited yet well selected live shows, and new material – all of which has taken some five years to see fruition.

The energetic Citizen Zombie arrived in March, rapidly followed by the Versions Galore EP (for Record Store Day). A second new album is taking shape and there are ‘new’ archival releases and re-releases now scheduled.

“It got to the stage where people from Nine Inch Nails to Massive Attack to Nick Cave were all asking, why isn’t this stuff available? So we said if we do it, we set up our own label, we sort out the distribution,” explains Stewart of the gap between ATP and Citizen Zombie, and the re-releases. “So there was a lot of backroom stuff going on, positioning, who would do what, strategic planning.

There’s a five-year plan, we were biding our time.

I was still doing my solo stuff while we were talking to producers. Then Paul [Epworth, producer] came on board. Now, we’re completely ready to

23 to 27 June “The country’s quirkiest showcase for new European theatre” The Guardian

go, we’re playing strategic gigs, and there’s a new album ready… we’re climbing higher and higher.”

Among those carefully chosen live appearances for Stewart (vocals), Gareth Sager (guitar, sax), Dan Catsis (bass) and Bruce Smith (drums) is a slot at Supersonic Festival in Birmingham.

“…it was like watching these weird psycho animals being born, like there was a black hole on the middle of the stage. We pull off in all these different directions, with backwards solos, improvisation…and the audience was just freaking out.”

“People who programme festivals like that take a risk, they are petri dishes that make things happen,” says Stewart, who is particularly looking forward to checking out the Supersonic collaboration between Dylan Carlson and Kevin Martin. “The Bug vs Earth – they’ll make such a mutant child.”

While the studio-bound Citizen Zombie acts as a solid focal point for the re-energised and Pop Group, it’s the live shows that really excite Stewart.

“Mind-blowing,” he declares, struggling for words to describe the live experience. “I’m quite picky about what I do. I can’t call this Pop Group stuff.

It’s mad. Like being in a stealth fighter in the middle of a hurricane – it’s being pulled in so many different directions. I saw some footage of the band for the first time the other day and it was like watching these weird psycho animals being born, like there was a black hole on the middle of the stage. We pull off in all these different directions, with backwards solos, improvisation…and the audience was just freaking out.

And we were feeding off that. If the audience gets into it, and we get into it…that horror film, Phantasm…it’s like that.

“I don’t want to put a name to it,” he stutters. “All the freaks come out, all these alternative minded mad people, in a room, it’s prehistoric…and something happens.”

The Pop Group play Supersonic on Friday, June 12. A split 7ins single with Sleaford Mods, Nations/Face To Faces, is out June 18 via Freaks R Us.

Meera Syal’s much-loved novel bursts onto the stage for the very first time

9 to 24 October

ld r o w m i er e pr e

Birmingham Repertory Theatre, in association with Theatre Royal Stratford East, presents

Anita And Me

By Meera Syal Adapted by Tanika Gupta

Box Office: 0121 236 4455 Online: birmingham-rep.co.uk June 2015

Registered in England 295910 | Charity No.223660

13

Wildbirds & Peacedrums

Out of This World

Liima

Holly Herndon

Richard Dawson

With Supersonic returning to Birmingham this month, Table Scraps drummer Poppy Twist looks ahead to the city’s most adventurous festival.

ADVENTUROUS! DIVERSE! These are words used to describe Capsule’s now-notorious Birmingham music festival as it heads for its 12th year. Not yet a teenager, Supersonic has nonetheless become a destination for the weird, the outlandish and the experimental.

This year’s line-up, spanning four glorious days (Thursday June 11 to Sunday June 14), is set to be all the festival is known for, and then some. Case in point: the opening gala (disclaimer: it’s not officially called a gala, I just like that word) will be from the Will Gregory Moog Ensemble at Birmingham’s Town Hall. Will, the less visible, non-eponymous member of synthpop darlings Goldfrapp, is now at the helm of a 10-musician retro-technophile’s wet dream; this is an absolute must see for Moog-ites and those with an affinity for unusual orchestras.

In usual dazzling and ambitious style, Saturday night promises a choice of two headliners to satisfy Supersonic’s hybrid crowd. American composer Holly Herndon is currently blurring the line between the human and the technological through her music more adeptly than anyone else right now – her implosion of underground club music, pop and sound art looks over the edge at the future.

For fans of daring collaborations, The Bug vs Earth will be too exciting to miss, and not only because it makes its debut at Supersonic. Kevin Martin and Dylan Carlson are both long-established figures presiding over the fringes of heavy music and together they’ll be dealing a blow of brutal electronica.

Also on the bill, and with an effusive late-90s endorsement from Purveyor of Quality™ Nick Cave uploaded to YouTube for posterity, dub-fleckedpost-punk pioneers The Pop Group recently

14

resurrected with the rollicking Citizen Zombie.

The album sounds exactly like you’d expect from a band cryogenically frozen in the 80s and recently warmed up in the microwave – it’s Marmite but that’s the joy of Supersonic.

Moving on, and citing the film work of body-horror aficionado Cronenberg as inspiration, Elizabeth Bernholz AKA Gazelle Twin is masterfully adept at conjuring the monster within. Clad in a skincoloured mask and a blue hooded two-piece that one could liken to the sartorial choices of a bank robber, Bernholz is lyrically black metal, but takes the horror-music crossover to a place that is exhilaratingly new and now.

future jazz outfit Tomaga, globetrotting experimentalists Flamingods, Lowest Form break-away Apostille, sax-and-organ wielders Sex Swing, and Ravioli Me Away - who kicked ass at Supersonic’s Xmas Cocktail. From Denmark we have quintet Selvhenter, part of the prolific Copenhagen-based collective Eget Værelse. Representing Northern Ireland we have the very Velvets-y Woven Skull, and Indiana’s Circuit des Yeux will offer the extraordinary, rich baritone voice of Haley Fohr.

An amalgamation of Efterklang and eccentric percussionist Tatu Rönkkö, Scandinavian fourpiece Liima have already spent an idyllic summer residency at Finland’s One Festival. The resulting ambient sound tapestries evoke lying next to a babbling brook with the sun on your face, a rather pleasant auditory experience (and also the most pretentious thing I have ever written).

There’s also plenty to marvel at and participate in beyond the stonking musical line-up. How about signing up for a rare participatory session with Six Organs Of Admittance’s Ben Chasny, or the opportunity to build a synthesiser at a Dirty Electronics workshop? An exhibition at Millennium Point explores the history of programmable instruments through the museum’s collection of Victorian music boxes and tabletop organs and A Folded Path, a pedestrian speaker symphony, offers the opportunity for the audience to participate in a piece of music tailor made from the sounds of Birmingham’s streets.

Portland psych-rockers Eternal Tapestry also grace the line-up, fresh from releasing their 2015 album Wild Strawberries. Themed around fruits and vegetables local to the secluded spot in which the album was jammed (not a pun) out, their shtick is all that is great about psych: chance-taking, freewheeling and hypnotic. Now, I bloody hate boygirl duos, but Happy Meals’ ‘thing’ is a frankly gorgeous meeting between squelching synth lines and a French-pop chanteuse. They hail from (you guessed it) Glasgow.

Finally, to close on the Sunday, songwriter Richard Dawson has curated Delight Is Right, an afternoon of performance featuring retro-Ethiopian artist Afework Nigussie, Czech street musician Jiri Wehle, Angharad Davies, Rhodri Davies and Phil Tyler. The final curtain on Supersonic will offer an enchanting mash-up of ethnic, traditional, experimental and medieval music with folk narration. Supersonic’s wunderkabinett of delights and rollicking good time is definitely not to be missed.

Be there!

The line-up, frankly, is huge – so let me whir you through the rest. In the south-east corner we have

Supersonic Festival takes place from June 11-14.

Tickets from www.supersonicfestival.com.

Brum Notes Magazine

June 2015

15

FEST MIDLANDS As festival season kicks off, we look ahead at what the region has to offer, taking in music, clubbing, film, food, theatre and more, and select a few more goodies for you to look forward to if you fancy venturing a little further beyond Birmingham. David Vincent gets out his diary.

JUNE LUNAR FESTIVAL

June 5-7, Tanworth-In-Arden, Warwickshire Why attend? The eclectic sister festival to Mostly Jazz and Moseley Folk sees headline appearances from desert blues nomads Tinariwen, Brit RnB hero Wilko Johnson and various outsiders. See our preview feature earlier in the mag for more information. www.lunarfestival.co.uk VALEFEST 2015

June 6, University of B’ham, Edgbaston Why attend? The largest student run festival in the UK is right here, in Brum. Among the acts appearing for the 11th instalment are Charlie and the Funk Factory, Friendly Fire, Ghouls and Dark Stares. Headlining are the reggae/pop infused Will & The People. www.valefest.co.uk

from Dead Sea Skulls, Regale, Ed Geater and more. facebook.com/jjmstudios ALSO: A FESTIVAL OF IDEAS

June 19-21, Park Farm, Compton Verney, Warwickshire Why attend? A boutique festival from the creators of Salon London explores a headscratching array of ideas, from dark matter and Norse mythology to British songwriters and artists’ muses. Includes a guided ‘smell walk’, scratch orchestra, an Indian food banquet and philosophy breakfasts. www.also-festival.com STILL WALKING

June 19-July 5, various venues, B’ham Why attend? A chance to discover more about the city with guided tours to unexpected places. Urban exploration. www.stillwalking.org

SUPERSONIC FESTIVAL LTD EDITION 2015

BE FESTIVAL

June 11-14, various venues, B’ham Why attend? The festival “for curious audiences” brings us Will Gregory Moog Ensemble, The Pop Group and more, all forming one of the UK’s most adventurous musical experiences. See P12-14 for more detail. www.supersonicfestival.com

June 23-27, The Rep, B’ham Why attend? Border-crossing theatre and art festival which aims to blur the boundaries between artist and audience. Read more about it on P10-11. befestival.org

RAVE AGAINST RACISM

June 26-27, Alfie Bird’s, B’ham Why attend? Dance ‘til you drop to a mammoth line-up of more than 100 DJs including Bentley Rhythm Ace, Mr Switch, Free School and Sam Redmore, all uniting against the far right. theticketsellers.co.uk JULY BOXSTOCK

July 3-4, The Green Room, B’ham Why attend? Cigar box guitar bash featuring Chickenbone John and lo-fi punk-blues oneman-band Hollowbelly. www.southsideblues.co.uk GODIVA FESTIVAL

July 3-5, War Memorial Park, Coventry Why attend? One of the UK’s biggest free festivals has always attracted some decent acts, and this year is no exception with appearances from Slaves, Fun Lovin’ Criminals and The Beat (Fri), The Wombats and grime artist JME (Sat) and enduring Britpoppers Embrace (Sun). Plus funfair, comedy, stalls and family stuff. www.godivafestival.com

BIRMINGHAM CARIBBEAN FESTIVAL

June 18-20, Centenary Square, B’ham Why attend? Gastronomic delights from the Caribbean, plus various calypso, soca, jazz, gospel, reggae and RnB acts take to the stage. The entertainment’s free. birminghamcaribbeanfestival.org

Moseley Folk Festival

JJM WEEKENDER

June 19-20, JJM Studios, Walsall Why attend? Proving that seemingly unfashionable Walsall has its own music scene to be proud of, the new live club nights at JJM Studios have a real underground vibe. Its first ever weekender will include appearances 16

Brum Notes Magazine

God Damn. Enough said. macbirmingham.co.uk/event/ one-beat-festival/

Mostly Jazz and Blues Festival

OFF THE CUFF

July 25-26, The Flapper, B’ham Why attend? It’s back, featuring Dinosaur Pile-Up (Sat), &U&I (Sun), plus Tangled Hair, Them Wolves, Tigercub, Frauds, Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam and more. theflapper.co.uk AUGUST V FESTIVAL

BIRMINGHAM JAZZ & BLUES FESTIVAL

SHOCK AND GORE

July 3-12, various venues, B’ham Why attend? Though light on ‘name’ acts and tending to prefer trad stylings over the cooler side of contemporary British jazz, there’s nonetheless plenty going on as the longrunning citywide festival promises around 175 events at 40 venues. The majority are free and many are outdoors, so if the sun’s shining, it’s win win. www.bigbearmusic.com/festival-2015/

July 17-23, The Electric Cinema, B’ham Why attend? Horror and fantasy celebration, with new films, the odd classic and buckets of blood… www.shockandgore.co.uk

August 21-23, Weston Park, Staffordshire (+ Hylands Park, Chelmsford) Why attend? Usual spread of big names including Kasabian, Sam Smith (presumably if he’s well enough), Calvin Harris, Stereophonics, old timer Tom Jones, Paloma Faith, James Bay, Mark Ronson, Example, Chvrches, and our very own fast-rising DJ star-in-waiting Hannah Wants. Plus top comedy courtesy of The Glee Club. vfestival.com SHAMBALA

July 17-August 2, various venues, B’ham Why attend? Performing arts-based festival specialising in 1hr Edinburgh-style shows. birminghamfest.co.uk

August 27-30, secret location, Northamptonshire Why attend? Renowned and relatively intimate rural festival that places a strong emphasis on people, participation, independence and sustainability. Roni Size, Ibibio Sound Machine, The Jungle Brothers and Zun Zun Egui are among the guests. www.shambalafestival.org

SIMMER DOWN FESTIVAL

CREAMFIELDS

July 19, Handsworth Park, B’ham Why attend? North Birmingham’s reggaecentric free festival typically boasts a sunny mix of Jamaican and UK based acts, plus local talent, workshops, community cricket and plenty of Caribbean food. Jerk chicken?

You betcha! facebook.com/simmerdownfestivals

August 28-30, Daresbury Estate, Cheshire Why attend? With no Global Gathering this year it’s down to club brand Cream to keep the party dancing. Line-up includes Aviccii, The Chemical Bros, Annie Mac and Alesso. creamfields.com

BIRMINGHAM FEST

MOSELEY FESTIVAL

July 3-12, various venues, Moseley Why attend? Annual community arts fest with gigs, DJs, food, tea and cakes in the park, talks, vintage fair, Street Fair (July 4), workshops, singing on the village green, brewing competition… www.moseleyfestival.org.uk MOSTLY JAZZ FUNK & SOUL FESTIVAL

July 10-12, Moseley Park, Moseley Why attend? Supremely cool with a hint of nostalgia, the crowd-pleasing Mostly’s mix of grooves and beats is a summer winner. This year’s edition welcomes weighty jazz/soul/ blues voice Gregory Porter, reunited 70s Brit funk icons Cymande, rap pioneers Sugarhill Gang, The Furious Five and The Pharcyde, plus Roy Ayers, Soil & Pimp Sessions, Jimi Tenor, the remarkable James Hunter Six and Craig Charles on the decks. mostyljazz.co.uk

June 2015

FUSION FESTIVAL BIRMINGHAM BEER BASH

July 23-25, The Bond, Digbeth Why attend? Progressive beer festival with pop-up tasting sessions, talks, presentations and opportunities to chat to micro-brewers. birminghambeerbash.co.uk ONE BEAT FESTIVAL 2015

August 28-30, Cofton Park, Longbridge Why attend? Good question. Poptastic/ dance three-dayer in the heart of Brum.

With Justin Bieber on the first night (Fri) and McBusted closing (Sun), the best day is Saturday, with Rudimental, Labrinth, Clean Bandit and Ella Henderson. thefusionfestival.co.uk

July 25, Mac, B’ham Why attend? Highlighting some of the best emerging bands from the region and further afield, including The Magic Gang, Kioko, Cold Ocean Lies, Faux Palms and the bomb that is 17

OCTOBER

Fierce

BIRMINGHAM COMEDY FESTIVAL

October 2-11, various venues, B’ham Why attend? Solid mix of TV names and emerging talent, including the Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award 2015. www.bhamcomfest.co.uk FIERCE

October 7-11, various venues, B’ham Why attend? Live art festival famed for its more controversial performances. Inspiring, challenging, often bonkers. wearefierce.org BIRMINGHAM LITERATURE FESTIVAL

BIRMINGHAM GIN FESTIVAL

August 28-30, The Bond, Digbeth Why attend? The UK’s largest gin festival, with over 1,000 different gins. If you thought gin was just gin…think again. Dark Chocolate, Mint and Strawberry, Rhubarb and Ginger and all manner of exotic infused tipples are there for the tasting. www.ginfestival.co.uk SUMMER IN SOUTHSIDE

August 30-31, various locations, Southside, B’ham Why attend? Two days of free outdoor theatre, circus, dance and performance. summerinsouthside.tumblr.com SEPTEMBER

Polyphonic Spree and the legendary Monkees – famed for their many 60s pop hits, but now also revered for their country rock, psych and experimentation. moseleyfolk.co.uk CITY OF COLOURS

September 12, Digbeth Why attend? Over 100 street artists transform Digbeth into a giant outdoor art gallery.

Plus b-boy and beatbox battles, film screenings, music, workshops... and colour colour colour! www.cityofcolours.co.uk

October 8-17, various venues, B’ham Why attend? Leading authors peddle their latest titles and discuss their work, plus a range of writing workshops, conversations and performances. www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org ALL YEARS LEAVING

October 23-24, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath Why attend? Curated by new music champions This is Tmrw, expect an envelope-pushing mixure of under-the-radar woozy indie, alt-rock, psych and post-punk, with Speedy Ortiz and Money two of the acts expected to be officially announced soon. facebook.com/allyearsleaving

One Beat Festival

FESTIVAL NO 6

September 3-6, Portmeirion, Wales Why attend? Four days in the inspired setting for the cult 60s TV series The Prisoner, featuring disco diva Grace Jones, Belle & Sebastian, Young Fathers and Ghostpoet. festivalnumber6.com MOSELEY FOLK FESTIVAL

September 4-6, Moseley Park, Moseley Why attend? The festival celebrates its 10th anniversary with another line-up that continues to challenge the definition of ‘folk.’ Opening night (Fri) sees blues/psych adventurers Spiritualized, the coolly mesmerising Anna Calvi, and skuzzy Du Blonde (aka the reinvented Beth Jeans Houghton). A revived Idlewild and ex-Supergrass chap Gaz Coombes follow (Sat), with the closing night (Sun) finding folkies The Unthanks, cult/choir The 18

Brum Notes Magazine

June 2015

19

The Dark Horse 145 Alcester Road, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 8JP www.darkhorsemoseley.co.uk

Cuisine: Price:

Smokehouse, Pizza, Burgers Mains £10-£15, Pizzas from £7, Mondays: full rack of ribs, house beer & Old Fashioned for £15

Atmosphere: Food: Service: Overall:

This city isn’t short of nice pubs making nice food.

One such specimen, The Dark Horse in Moseley, is of good breeding stock: craft beer, solid Midlands provenance and connections to iconic mega-pub The Prince of Wales. Cool but unpretentious, it draws in the full gamut of the suburb’s young professionals: beards to hiking boots and everything in between.

The pub’s unique selling point is its smoker, to which it commits wholeheartedly – this is not just barbecued meat. With its accomplice, a ‘secret’ coating that can’t be called a glaze because it’s precisely the opposite, it makes for brilliant chicken wings: serious, savoury, six-hours smoky. They taste of bonfire night, with a crackling warmth that doesn’t show itself upfront but builds in the back of the throat and between the ears. In an understated way, they taste like nothing we’ve eaten before, their deep roundness so different from the usual sweet-sharp-spicy-salty spectrum.

Ribs from The Dark Horse, Moseley

20

0121 449 6300

But an austerity that worked so well on the wings made for pork ribs that couldn’t shake off a feeling that something was missing. A generous portion of enormous, sturdy ribs that dare you to wear that meaty Joker’s smile. Tender, too, almost ready to fall off the bone. Yet it was hard not to fantasise about the possibilities of a glossy, sweet top note to that sober, matt chord. Avoiding the alltoo-common, one-dimensional barbecue sugar rush, it’s a restraint that’s to be admired – and is evidenced beautifully later in a perfect affogato (bonus points to The Dark Horse for serving the nicest two-ingredient dish known to man).

But a rack of ribs begs for a caramelised stickiness that the accompanying mini-pot of sauce couldn’t provide.

Peel back the (often dubious) USP in these pubs and it’s usually good pizzas and mediocre burgers that are doing the majority of the work on the menu. Garlic bread – soft and bouncy, and generously flavoured – told us the pizzas were likely good.

The burgers were fine, roughly as good as a pub burger gets – but that’s not a compliment. Once you’ve squeezed a whole head of roast garlic into the mix a la Ottolenghi, or made a secret cheese pocket, or inhaled a steamy street food burger, a moderately well-cooked lump of mince doesn’t really get you going. A mess of glassy onions is a nice thought but not caramelised enough to add value. Perhaps just a personal gripe but lettuce under meat is unsettling. Chorizo and halloumi make for decent bolt-ons but frankly it’s not a remotely ambitious creation in flavour or in structure. In a city full of burgers there’s disappointingly little innovation.

The Dark Horse’s real selling point is that it’s a really nice space to do your thing. It’s not too

tucked in at the edges: pub and music venue blends into dining blends into open kitchen and miscellaneous prep corner. Drinking and eating intermingle on dining chairs and sofas. There’s been no top-down imposition of ‘buzz’, just the creation of somewhere to be – unselfconsciously and unhurriedly.

Service is conducted with the same frankness, absence of judgement and simplicity. The active encouragement of doggy bags is declared before we’ve even begun. Drinks, too, are faultlessly wellchosen – a crisp ale that sings with strawberries and cream and tropical fruit, and a lager that is fruity up front and sawdusty after (both Mo’s) – and well-made, a dusty, nutcracker-Christmas Old Fashioned washing down those November ribs perfectly.

In their bio, The Dark Horse tells us “we don’t always get it right but we try”. It turns out this isn’t just PR speak: after the meal the manager talks to us about the imminent new menu, and how their current menu isn’t as inspiring as it could, and should, be. Despite all the rave Tripadvisor reviews the management is self-aware and self-critical, recognising a lack of flare that’s well within reach.

The Dark Horse is a great pub. It serves nice food.

Maybe next time it’ll be brilliant.

Kitty Sadler Brum Notes Magazine

YumNotes #1: Ross & Ross’s Clafoutis

Food editor Kitty Sadler introduces the first in our new series of recipes, brought to you by some of the best chefs from the Midlands food scene. This month, it’s a classic French dessert with a twist…

The Roadhouse Birmingham, Wharfside Leisure Complex, Lifford Lane, Stirchley, Birmingham, B30 3DZ | 0121 246 2273 // www.theroadhousebirmingham.com

THU 4TH Main Room: TOM WALKER BLUES NIGHT (£TBA) Live Lounge: ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC with HELEN JONES (FREE) FRI 5TH Main Room: THE QUO + AKA + THE 4 ROSSIS (£5) SAT 6TH ROXY MAGIC: a tribute to Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry (£8) SUN 7TH M2TM – BLOODSTOCK FESTIVAL SEMI FINAL PART 2 Ft: SILENT JACK + INFINIUS + THE MIGHTY WRAITH + VEXXEN + CREEP… PLUS special performance from GEHTIKA (£4, 5pm Doors) TH THU 11 Main Room: TBA Live Lounge: ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC with TIM WALKERDINE (FREE) FRI 12TH DURAN — UK Duran Duran Tribute Show (£6) SAT 13TH TREVOR BURTON BAND and MODS & SODS (£6 ADV / £8 OTD) SUN 14TH ROCK & METAL ALL DAYER (3pm Doors) THU 18TH Main Room: LADY GREY plus supports (£TBA) Live Lounge: ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC with IAN BEVAN (FREE) FRI 19TH HELLS BELLS – The UK’s Best AC/DC Tribute (£8 ADV / £9 OTD) SAT 20TH THE STYLE COUNCILLORS (£10) SUN 21ST M2TM – BLOODSTOCK FESTIVAL SEMI FINAL PART 3 Ft: OPHEON + KILL FOR TROPHIES + RUSTLUNG + THE FACE OF RUIN + SECRETS OF MARIANA… PLUS special performance from ERADIKATOR (£4, 5pm Doors) THU 25TH Main Room: SPITTING FEATHERS plus supports (£TBA) Live Lounge: ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC with AIDAN BYRNE (FREE) SAT 27TH ** PRIVATE PARTY ** SUN 28TH METAL EXTRAVAGANZA Ft: THE MIGHTY WRAITH + GUTS FOR GLORY + ARAMANTUS + ENEMO-J + ALMOST EASY + 11:11 + BUZZARD + PELUGION (3pm Doors, £TBA) TUE 30TH SCHOOL OF ROCK & POP SHOWCASE LIVE LOUNGE OPEN MIC COMEDY ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC EVERY MONDAY W/ EVERY THUDAY HANNAH SILVESTER

MAIN GIG ROOM OPEN MIC EVERY MONDAY W/ BEN DALBY

All listings are correct at time of print, however, they are subject to change at any time so please check website or call the Roadhouse Team before you travel. Please note: We are strictly 18+ on Friday & Saturday Nights

Outrageously easy both to make and to ‘test’ far too much of the batter in the cooking process, this should be your go-to pudding for entertaining. Although our version wasn’t quite picture-perfect, the dish nonetheless has a great impressiveness to effort ratio. Plus, everyone loves a ramekin. Ross & Ross use ground almonds in their version of this classic French dessert, which yields an extra textural dimension and a soft, angelic flavour. Use any seasonal fruit that takes your fancy – we used raspberries (£1 for two punnets at the Bullring Markets, by the way).

400g fruit (eg blackberries, raspber-

2 eggs

ries, peaches)

2 egg yolks

50g ground almonds

250ml double cream

2 tbsp plain flour

Zest of half a lemon (optional)

100g golden caster sugar

Serves 4-6

To make the batter, whizz together all of the ingredients except for the fruit. Place the fruit – chopped if necessary – into four-to-six ramekins (depending on the size of your dishes and how big you want each pudding to be) and pour over the batter. Bake at 190C/375F/gas mark 5 for 10-15 minutes, until set, slightly risen and delicious-looking.

Ross & Ross are Cotswolds-based caterers that can occasionally be spotted crashing Brum’s street food scene but are more frequently found running five-course pop-ups in pubs around the region and putting on seasonal banquets in idyllic surroundings (The Orchard Feast runs from July 24-26, over the fourth weekend of July; tickets £45 adults/£12.50 children).

Visit www.rossandrossfood.co.uk for more.

June 2015

21

album reviews

Everything Everything Get to Heaven Out June 15 (Sony)

Prior to the release of jitter-pop band Everything Everything’s third studio album, the group prewarned fans that the release would take them out of their comfort zone. In fact, speaking about the album ahead of the release, frontman Jonathan Higgs said it was formed by world events, even going as far as to state: “If you put out a record this year and it’s all smiles, then I think you’re a liar, basically.” And while the album’s not all smiles, it

FFS FFS Out June 8 (Domino)

Let’s face it, supergroups are almost always crap, which is perhaps why the birth of Franz Ferdinand Sparks (FFS for short) has come upon us largely unknown. Sparks and Franz Ferdinand might be a puzzling collaboration, and the outcome is exactly that, but in its own beautiful way.

FFS don’t hesitate in freaking you out with Johnny Delusional, which features groovy bold synths that loiter between dancefloor filler and the soundtrack to your uncle dancing at a wedding. The nifty rhythm of Call Girls, driven by Russell Mael’s unmistakably haunting vocals, is as brilliant as it is disorienting, before being beautifully softened by the sweet lullaby of Little Guy From The Suburbs.

It’s a blistering start full of fearless and confident songs that brim with bright ideas and never feel like a cluttering of ideas, each one a lucid moulding of wonderfully coherent pop.

Save Me From Myself seems slightly too anxious among songs like So Desu Ne, its classical piano hooks and thick synths simple yet luscious to the ears. Another notable accomplishment of this record is its production, which gives the technically weaker songs punch and purpose, a credit 22

is certainly not as gloomy and apocalyptic as one would expect from the above statement.

The 2011 Mercury Prize nominees offer glimpses of hope in the form of some sunny and upbeat tracks showing that life is indeed worth living, the falsetto-voice of Higgs offering up a critique of the modern world across a highly-experimental album.

It is full of the band’s now-standard guitar intricacies, fiddly afrobeats, electro blips and even some rapping that Dizzee Rascal would be proud of.

Despite being a bit slower than previous releases, Get to Heaven sees the band evolve further, pushing and pulling themselves into different spaces and shapes to before.

to both bands’ understanding of writing a good pop song.

Ron Mael’s sharp humour, which is showcased throughout the album, seems to catch up with him on the humpty-dumpty The Power Couple, which is quickly forgotten by the time that album highlight Collaborations Don’t Work rolls around.

Unashamedly self-aware, FFS seem to revel in their own pretentious comedy while still managing to maintain a cinematic pop sentiment that never leaves the core of the album.

FFS’s debut is a shock to the system to those who believed it would end up another piece of deferential supergroup mush. The end result is something much more intriguing and unpredictable than that, instead it’s a cool piece of art pop.

Sidney Pinsent

Girlpool Before The World Was Big Out June 1 (Wichita)

Upon the 2014 release of their coarse self-titled EP, Girlpool set themselves up as two shrillvoiced, sick-of-your-shit teens capable of bringing misogyny to its already creaking knees with a fiery blend of minimal fretwork and lyrics that did

Part-recorded at the Manchester Central Library during the group’s artist residency in November 2014, Get to Heaven is a truly infectious and thought-provoking listen.

Ben Russell

absolutely everything but beat around the bush.

So it’s somewhat surprising that their debut album doesn’t go for the jugular quite as often as you’d expect. Instead, the girls spend the duration of Before The World Was Big filing down the sharper edges of their eponymous release and grafting some studio meat onto their once skeletal approach.

Still very much dealing in lo-fi, the main difference here is that, this time around, the duo’s distinctive harmonies set out to soothe rather than shock.

Sure, there’s still the odd cerebral wallop, found on the likes of pulsating opener Ideal World and the big-eyed, big-hearted Cherry Picking, but this is an album very much tuned to the more sensitive and introspective sides of the girls’ personalities.

A record of reflection rather than protest, it opts for the gentle over the visceral – Nora’s deft strum is the most beautiful of acoustic dreams and the nocturnal thrill of Chinatown would be a real lighters-in-the-air moment in an alternate universe where the band’s playful melancholy was given the appreciation that it fully deserves.

Firsts also come in the most extreme of contrasts.

Crowded Stranger, a slow-burner that’s soon enveloped by surging guitar, is probably the heaviest they’ve ever sounded on record, whilst Pretty trades in strings and fretboards altogether for some haunting a capella vocals.

An album obsessed with trying to look at life through adult eyes as the innocence of youth Brum Notes Magazine

slips away, Before The World Was Big is a major milestone on the road to Girlpool’s artistic maturation. An infectious little triumph. Dan Owens

Midnight Bonfires Oxygen EP Out Now (Self Release)

Nobody sounds like Midnight Bonfires. With a beloved mandolin, David Langley’s unique falsetto and their electrified-folk-meets-indiefeel, the Birmingham five-piece have carved out a sound that is distinctly their own. But being distinguishable is just one achievement. Oxygen plays on their trademark style without compromising on songwriting innovation, and quite simply, their signature sound thrives in these new musical contexts, which is a separate triumph altogether.

Stand-out tracks Follow Me Back, Oxygen and Dear Lady are far more melancholy, melodically calculated and emotionally in tune than anything they’ve ever recorded before, but they achieve this in different ways.

Follow Me Back, for example, finely builds into a crescendo finale, Dear Lady is more levelled and melodic, and Oxygen is more stripped and rhythmic. It’s a testament to their songwriting to host three songs that share the same instruments, emotions and roots of talent, but that are expressed extremely diversely in each song.

For lively tunes more adept for rallying audiences, look to Misbehave and Existence, which are more akin to previous singles like Lights Out, Exhale, C and Wait. Melancholy, however, seems predominant throughout Oxygen.

But this isn’t an on-the-nose sobfest, far from it. They’ve managed to M entertain love and lust with subtle artistic clarity – the feeling is trans- Y mitted without really having to listen intently. It’s emotionally provocative, CM almost subliminally, and this is why it’s so beautiful, exciting and real.

But rallying audiences and playing emotively is something that MidnightMY Bonfires do equally well live, and while Oxygen doesn’t quite reflect this,CY a fully fleshed out album release almost certainly would. This EP is like a CMY checkpoint reflecting how much they’ve improved since 2012, teasing as to how they’re moving forward. But until that album and milestone, Oxygen K undoubtedly keeps Midnight Bonfires’ flame firmly ablaze.

Guy Hirst

Wolf Alice My Love Is Cool Out June 22 (Dirty Hit Records)

Wolf Alice have been spoken of as the next big thing for about two years now, and their debut full-length album My Love Is Cool shows a band attempting to come good on this hype. It’s an album full of echoes and guitar noises, which refuses to stick to one thing for too long. This manic eclecticism may appeal to some, but it does mean that the album somewhat lacks coherence. In many ways, My Love Is Cool is like a rollercoaster – it has its ups and downs and it doesn’t really go anywhere, but if you’re here for the ride, then it does the job.

It’s all breathy vocals and guitar noodling for the first few tracks, before shifting into schizophrenic pop punk gear for You’re A Germ. It starts to pick up here, and it’s clear that Wolf Alice work best when loud and with a give-no-fucks attitude, such as in lead single Giant Peach or screaming wall of noise Lisbon.

Wolf Alice are clearly full of creativity and talent, and it’s a shame that they currently lack the direction to properly channel this. The next big thing?

Probably. But maybe give it another couple of years.

Tom Clabon June 2015

23

live

GOD DAMN The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham 16/05/15

Bad Girlfriend frontman Connor Hemming is a gig photographer’s wettest dream. Like an ADHD kid on Pro Plus, he beats himself in the head, grips innocent onlookers by the scruff and forces ‘em to the frontline.

“Hi, we’re called Peace,” he ejaculates, before tonguing the microphone, lurching forward and catching his headstock on a girl’s dress, unfortunately coming loose. Wicked-as-fuck fast-chord-punk naturally suits Hemming having a seizure on the floor, but without the music this performance would be hilariously illegal. After using humans as mic stands and throwing cider on a vexedturned-applauding crowd, it’s clear that Connor Hemming would make a dreadful, quarrelsome and revolting girlfriend.

It is, however, difficult not to fall in love with Elephantine vocalist Anna Palmer, whose endearing lost voice croaks between songs and soars on them. It’s the first, and maybe the only vocal tonight that qualifies as being both beautiful and powerful. As Tom Ford appears like a guitar wizard in a raincoat, with arpeggiated awesomeness to boot, Elephantine are so far removed from how their name is defined – large, clumsy and awkward, they are anything but.

But god dammit, god dammit, god dammit, god dammit. God Damn are so damn good, damn. You can see in the blue of drummer Ash Weaver’s eyes that tonight is exceeding even their own expectations. This isn’t a stand-back-and-watch showcase, this is a violent spiritual homecoming to a city, and a scene, that’s always supported them. They play Vultures, Shoe Prints in the Dust, When the Wind Blows, but it almost doesn’t matter – they could play Twinkle 24

Twinkle Little Star in drop D at 300 bpm and still this basement riot would sustain.

Beaten, breathless and with a neck feeling like steel, somebody’s ass crowdsurfs overhead, vocalist Thom Edwards screams in the nucleus of the crowd and Weaver jumps on his drum stool just ‘cos it must feel damn good. “We only know Royal Blood Songs,” smirks Thom, “Royal Blood are shit mate,” an anonymous voice howls before they close with Nirvana’s Territorial Pissings. Man, this gig wasn’t intimate, it was mobbed, overrun and overwhelmed with hot-blooded-pissand-vinegar, and if anyone tells you different, god dammit, kill ‘em.

Guy Hirst | Photos by Andy Watson

The Maccabees, The Institute, Birmingham 11/05/15

With their fourth album yet to be released, the London five-piece are here to remind their fans of their presence and to treat them to a few glimpses of what’s to come. Reading like a greatest hits record, The Maccabees’ set stretched from their innocent beginnings through to some of their newest and more mature material.

Opening with the understated Wall of Arms, the band ease their way in following a threeyear absence since their last record, giving the crowd plenty of opportunity to indulge in the singalong favourites of Love You Better and the frenzy-inducing Precious Time.

They even manage to fit in Latchmere – their childhood homage to the wave machine of their local leisure centre.

Hearing lead singer Orlando Weeks sing of

verruca socks and heavy petting, it’s plain to see the transformation the band have taken, especially when comparing this to the more complex and ‘grown up’ sounds of Feel to Follow and Forever I’ve Known, taken from their last album Given to the Wild, which rightly earned them a Mercury nomination.

New single Marks to Prove It sounds refreshing yet still built with the same fervour reminiscent of their early material. Spit It Out on the other hand sees a darker side of the band emerge as guitars are stripped back in favour of the piano, while powerful WW1 Portraits is as serious as the name suggests, further demonstrating that The Maccabees are not a one-trick pony. As the jolting energy of X-Ray and No Kind Words brings the set to a close Orlando tells tonight’s audience of his anxiety over the whole encore process, fearing what sort of reception they’ll receive when they return to the stage.

But of course, they get a rapturous reception closing the show fittingly with the grand Pelican. With the release of their fourth album imminent anxiety may be ever-present for Orlando, but if the album is as much as a hit as tonight was, he has little to worry about.

Matthew Way

BELLE & SEBASTIAN Symphony Hall, Birmingham 10/05/15

While they may be approaching their 20th anniversary, and in the middle of a gruelling eight-month world tour, Glasgow’s indie heroes Belle & Sebastian don’t want for enthusiasm as they hit the stage at the Symphony Hall. Refreshed following a day spent Brum Notes Magazine

walking the Birmingham Canal and checking out the latest city centre redevelopment (Stuart Murdoch reassures us, “you’re nearly there”), the band, bolstered by the familiar horde of auxiliary players, launches into opener Nobody’s Empire with zeal. As on its parent album, Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance, the track offers us a new level of intimacy, as Murdoch recounts his years spent laid low with chronic fatigue syndrome.

As with all the new songs tonight, the performance is nothing if not accomplished, each track furnished with its own bespoke video backdrop. The domestic angst of Stevie Jackson’s Perfect Couples bursts with personality, while for The Power of Three, Sarah Martin eschews her familiar wispiness for an uncharacteristically commanding vocal turn.

New songs aside, tonight is distinctly old school, with every other track dating back at least 12 years. If She Wants Me has never been more seductive, There’s Too Much Love never more persuasive, Jonathan David never more bittersweet. Yet the biggest highlights are the very oldest songs. Debut album Tigermilk was a ragtag college project recorded while the band members were still strangers, with follow-up If You’re Feeling Sinister scarcely less lo-fi, so it’s a special treat when the all-conquering modern-day ensemble take on the old classics. We Rule The School is newly emboldened yet no less sad, while My Wandering Days Are Over and closing gambit Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying both feel like a lap of honour.

Murdoch also found time on his day off to attend a service at Birmingham Cathedral where the minister lamented the general election result. While Belle & Sebastian’s back catalogue may be lacking in the explicitly political, Murdoch’s response comes in the only way he knows – shrugging his shoulders and inviting audience members onto stage to shake their stuff. After all, girls in peacetime want to dance.

Dan Cooper-Gavin

brief respite from the relentless bombardment before the depth charge bass drops and the place goes off again, all lured in by a synth line that harks back to the era of the Jilted Generation album.

As Liam Howlett holds court behind his bank of keyboards, Keith Flint prowls the stage like an unhinged guard dog, until the opening wail of Firestarter summons him to the front. His pyromaniainspired growls under tufts of spiked hair are as convincing and deranged as ever. The Day Is My Enemy title track has an energy that proves that even after 23 years they’re still the best dance-punks around. Voodoo People is given a teasing start with the tempo brought down to a near-dub level before the shrill flute pre-empts the madness that takes hold.

One of the standout tracks of the night, Wall of Death, is an onslaught of beats, guitar and lights that combine to pummel the crowd into wilful submission. Medicine’s snakecharming intro entrances the crowd for a few short seconds before the merciless bass drop gets the room moving again. Smack My Bitch Up ends the main set in a typically berserk fashion, before Maxim orchestrates a human whirlpool for Their Law. On the evening of the general election, where people are electing their leaders, this track is particularly resonant. The Prodigy are as good as ever, it’s unanimous, and they’re still totally living by their own set of laws.

Andrew Gutteridge

The Prodigy

The Flapper, Birmingham

O2 Academy, Birmingham

BLKLSTRS 15/05/15

07/05/15

By the time The Prodigy walk on stage the venue is a hot house of anticipation, it’s no surprise that after opening salvo Breathe, MC Maxim sheds his fur-lined coat, whipping the crowd into an immediate frenzy.

With a backdrop of blue lights akin to neon flycatchers flickering in a deserted warehouse, Maxim, intensely bug-eyed, addresses the crowd as “warriors” and “my people” before Nasty is shot out like venom from their latest album The Day Is My Enemy. The intro of Wild Frontier, another new one, offers a June 2015

Sexwolf! singer Richard Phillips jumps straight off stage arching his back over the monitors whilst extensively testing the microphone’s output volume, leaving bassist Dan Mogg and guitarist Joe Lane to make the most of the stage. The songs are succinct and draw on heavy influences from classic-hardcore choruses to near-Slayerthrash solos. Sexwolf! back up huge aggressive riffs with charm and personality, which is quite disarming, but the music channels their aggression well on stage.

Next up is Men of Women, guitarist Jon Price

BLKLSTRS Photo by Sam Wood

splits his signal between both bass and guitar amps to get a huge variety of downtuned tones, making opener Black Russian an intimidatingly broad-toned stoner rock number, drawing on influences from bands such as Dozer and Fatso Jetson. The singing duties shared between Price and one man rhythm section Gareth Davies, whose held notes compliments Price’s short and powerful vocal bursts. Their final track The Little Death explores the earlier punkier sound that spawned the desert scene, reminiscent of the first few moments off Kyuss’s debut album.

Local favourites Them Wolves boast the weaponised tone of Greg Coates’ bass guitar matched with the effortless speed and precision of drummer Noel Campbell. Tovey and Coates demonstrate a complete disregard for conventional chords or scales that gives Them Wolves a unique sound. It’s discordant but memorable and even catchy in it’s own right. If you didn’t lose your hearing after this show catch at the Flapper at Off the Cuff Festival in July.

Headliners BLKLSTRS fill the venue with two minutes of just a bass drone, after which the Leeds quartet kick off with an old favourite, Trick Fuck. Guitarist Dante Beesley’s instrument has the paint worn away in all the right places, after years of furious downward strumming that gives the band a sound somewhere between very early Deftones and Shorty. Singer Billy Mason-Ward maintains eye contact with a stunned crowd, explaining that they may have “blown their load” starting with their best known song.

The crowd, however, are only too happy to prove them wrong, and the audience and the band is only silenced when Mason-Ward passes around a picture of Eddie Vedder holding Eddie Vedder holding Eddie Vedder.

Apparently this was the only thing BLKLSTRS asked for on their rider, which is conveniently indicative of how mad this band are to watch live.

David Bentall 25

gigs

Dead Kennedys

PICK

02 Academy 2, June 23 It is a rare pleasure to witness a legendary hardcore punk band as prolific as the Dead Kennedys. As a group who became a pioneering powerhouse with tunes like California Uber Alles, Holiday In Cambodia, Kill The Poor and Too Drunk To Fuck in the 70s and 80s, this is undoubtedly where every mohawk-leather-studded-geezer in the Midlands will be on June 23. The current line-up celebrates three original-era members East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride, DH Peligro, with Ron Greer on vocals after founding vocalist Jello Biafra left after an onslaught of incredibly messy lawsuits.

Stanley Odd

Sunflower Lounge, June 7 Scotland and hip hop aren’t commonly associated, but they should be, because for any hip hop enthusiast Edinburgh’s Stanley Odd will present something new, refreshing and relevant. Boasting politically conscious wordplay, superb live musicianship and general down-to-earth grit, the six-piece have boosted themselves from a rapidly burgeoning subculture to the worldwide plato. With Scotland’s political landscape radically changed post-election and austerity set to continue in Westminster, Stanley Odd’s commentary will be more valuable than ever – so grab yourself some knowledge and a fat beat.

Free School Hare & Hounds, June 26 The cosmic lambs are back with support from Hoopla Blue, Grafham Water Sailing Club and Field Harmonics. This show marks a new single release off their forthcoming album, due post-festival season 2015. The Birmingham duo are an electronic playground, emitting hypnotic transmissions with vintage synths, live drums and a bag full of futurist loops and samples. Check out their debut album Tender Transmission for a wicked insight, I’m Not Nintendo, being an incredible track.

Birds Of Paradise 2 26

Hare & Hounds, June 5 Curated and headlined by Birmingham jazzsoul-blues band Midnight Magpie, this event sees unmanufactured rapper Sic’Nis and discobeat-funk up-and-comers Karl Monroe grace the second ever Bird Of Paradise. Sic’Nis’s striking confidence and mad freestyle skills earned her support slots for hip hop legends Ghostface Killah, Akala and Immortal Technique, and rightly so, her lyrical talents are matched by her incredible onstage charisma. If the debut Birds Of Paradise is anything to go by, this should be jampacked, sweaty and a little sexy too.

Big Vibes

Hare & Hounds, June 19 Uniquely, every live performance at Big Vibes will be professionally recorded and released by Moseley/Digbeth DJ Will Itsasecret. But this isnt just a chance for a band’s live energy to be accurately represented on tape, it’s all about the promotion of positivity and cultural unity. Birmingham cumbia troupe Manos Pa’Arriba bring the Columbian genre to new audiences, while Nawima Jazz’s soul influenced afro-twang, Malarkey’s dancehall punk and Jam Tidy’s reggae hip hop reinforce an already thriving music scene. With late night DJ sets from Goosensei, OcAyunt and Will Itsasecret - it’s a feast-of-vibes.

House of Sound Rainbow, June 25

House of Sound is the latest seasonal event from Beatfreeks – a network that engages, empowers and equips young people to use creativity to change their lives. With pre-booked open mic slots and two feature artists per event, House of Sound definitely fulfils Beatfreeks’ manifesto as featured and potentially first time performers are embraced equally. June’s event sees bilingual Welsh folk singer Kizzy Crawford and ska-reggae band The Piratones headline. So grab a beer or a cup of tea, a front row beanbag and meet likeminded young creatives.

Conan + Khost + Ki + The Moth The Oobleck, June 6

If caveman battle-doom doesn’t mean anything to you then steer clear. But for lovers of glacially paced downtuned drones, tales of barbarian glory, macabre nuance and doom with hypnotic vocals rather than blunt guttural stabs, this is the place to be. Like all good doom bands, it’s all Black Sabbath worship, decadently bass heavy, intent on throbbing through every atom of your physical existence. You’ll have to surrender yourself to the uncompromising volume, as with other genre pioneers SunnO))) and Electric Wizard, if the music’s not pushing the legal boundaries of volume, it’s not worth doing. Earplugs advised.

Brum Notes Magazine

club nights

MOUNT KIMBIE

PICK

Hare & Hounds, June 5 With a touring schedule that’s predominantly festival-focused, Leftfoot and Shadow City pull in something of a coup with a rare, intimate DJ set from Dominic Maker and Kai Campos, aka Mount Kimbie. Still no word on the duo’s new, third, album – rumoured to be rougher, grittier and looser than 2013’s Warp debut, Cold Spring Fault Less Youth – so this could be your only chance to sample their ‘post-dubstep’ delights for a while. Support will come from Leftfoot, Shadow City and This is Tmrw DJ’s, bringing an eclectic mixture of disco, funk, house and techno, setting the vibe for a solid summer sendoff.

ONLY AFTER DARK – RUSTY EGAN Apres, June 6

The late-70s/ early-80s monthly retro club, returns with one of the unsung greats of UK clubbing, Rusty Egan. Bored of the rapidly developing clichés of London’s punk scene, Egan – and cohort Steve Strange – kickstarted a British clubbing revolution in the late-70s and early-80s at Billy’s and The Blitz. With a door policy just as harsh as New York’s Studio 54, and a panEuropean soundtrack heavy on electronic beats, Egan mixed Bowie with Germany’s Kraftwerk and Japan’s Yellow Magic Orchestra, along with choice cuts from Eno, carefully selected Euro disco and the newcomers from the burgeoning Brit electronic scene (Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Ultravox). Today, we might call some of it ‘sythn pop’, but back then, it was something far more harsh and urban – a glamorous and future-gazing response to a ‘broken Britain’ and the Cold War, with a strong message of self-expression. The history of British EDM and UK clubbing started here. Incidentally, we hear he’s been playing new Editors track, No Harm, a brooding, slow-building sequencer-led taster from their forthcoming album that owes much to that early scene.

SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL LAUNCH The Rainbow, June 13

Official launch party for Croatia’s Soundwave June 2015

festival courtesy of Shadow City and Mr Jangles.

The Courtyard is going to be one helluva sweatbox party as Birmingham-based, but globetrotting electro house DJ The Golden Boy mans the decks. The Eton Messy Records signee is back at the venue after May’s Colour Festival appearance, and will be joined by Reidy, Opyn, and Bastian.

Voted one of the top 10 Festivals in Europe by The Independent, Soundwave itself runs from August 6-10 in Tisno and features Jay Electronica, Slum Village, Mr Scruff and LTJ Bukem.

FALTYDL & FOTOMACHINE Alfie Bird’s, June 13

Ex-sushi chef and Radiohead opening act Drew Lustman, aka FaltyDL, has been releasing forwardthinking music for a variety of labels since the late00s, notably Planet Mu, Ramp, Rush Hour, 50 Weapons, Hemlock, Swamp81 and Ninja Tune, who put out Lustman’s fourth LP, In The Wild, back In August. His most recent release, on his own Blueberry Records imprint, is the retro-tinged Falty DL and Fotomachine Are Ren and Stimpy, a taut, cartoonish and boisterous techno homage to the 90s animated cat’n’dog characters featuring Brixton’s Fotomachine – the force behind the Ninja Tune distributed Technicolour Recordings.

BOOGIE DAVE PRESENTS DR ALEX PATERSON

Suki10c, June 15 Heading into the summer solstice with the ambient house pioneer, Dr Alex Paterson, a former roadie for punishing post-punk combo Killing Joke whose musical excursions as The Orb defined the genre. He’s since collaborated with such space cadets as prog rocker Steve Hillage, bassist Jah Wobble and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, creating cosmic, trippy, wafting tracks filled with sunshine and stars.

Forthcoming Orb album Moon Building 2703AD (out June 22) is described by the man himself as “…a solid piece of music that mutates into an eight legged lunar Land Rover and takes off into a cosmic horizon of a million sounds, patterns and textures. It spins the listener on his/her head, rewiring their brains to maximum capacity, then brings them home, sweet home.” With support from The Fantastic Laura B, Vin100 and Tronix.

BIGGER THAN BARRY vs LOVE THE LIFE Hare & Hounds, June 27 Promising a night of bad behaviour just as cheeky as their sell-out Boxing Day Party, BTB and LTL reunite for an ‘all night long’ rematch. Featuring resident DJs from both camps, including Dutty Webslinga, Guy C, Mickey Hollywood, Dead Cat + 1, DJ Len and DJ Mickey. Expect a whole heap of bass, hip hop, house, and garage goodness, as well as anything else that gets the crowd jumping.

And it’s free entry too.

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arts & culture

BE Festival

The Rep, June 23-27

PICK

Back for a sixth year, the jamboree of experimental European theatre has become a firm highlight of Brum’s cultural summer. Once again, The Rep is turned inside-out for a festival that confounds the norm at every turn. Each night’s programme features four short C shows from across the continent, with the audience invited to dine with the evening’s performers. This year’s highlights include a M spectacular outdoor piece from Spanish trampoliners Bot Project (pictured above), while the Tunisian/Italian Collectif Corps Citoyen present Mouvma!, a show re-examining the Arab Spring. Check out P11 for our interview with festival co-director Miguel Oyarzun. Y CM

MY

The Siege

The Rep, June 4-6 An unmissable show from Palestinian ensemble Freedom Theatre, a company based in the Jenin refugee camp, whose members have spent their lives under occupation. For their first UK tour, they call into Brum with this, the true story of 2002’s Siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Informed by real-life testimony from now-exiled fighters, we’re cast inside the church alongside soldiers, clergy and civilians, as the Israelis close in.

The Modernist Face

Barber Institute of Fine Arts, from June 5 The Barber’s latest collaborative show with the National Portrait Gallery, combining the paintings of Matthew Smith with the sculpture of Frank Dobson for a fresh look at British Modernism. The exhibition examines the cultural context of the period in question – 1920 to 1960 – with special emphasis on the relationship between the artists and their illustrious sitters, who included Roald Dahl and Jean Simmons.

Conjurer’s Kitchen presents Hannibal: Eat The Rude

The Electric Cinema, June 10 and 18 28

A special foodie event to mark the launch of the third series of Bryan Fuller’s acclaimed TV thriller.

In-between screenings of the first two episodes of the first Hannibal series, food artist Annabel “Lecter” de Vetten serves up tasty morsels inspired by the action – including stag antlers and raven feathers. To be washed down, no doubt, with a nice Chianti.

A Folded Path

Birmingham city centre, June 12-13 A special participatory audio work created by the Bristol-based outfit Circumstance, and forming part of the weekend’s Supersonic Festival. Sign up for one of the four performances and you and your 29 colleagues will each carry a location-sensitive loudspeaker along a pre-determined route across Brum, with the 30 different audio sources interweaving to form a soundtrack for the city.

A History of Us

Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, from June 13 A 44 metre-long spray-painted tableau in which the Oxford-based street artist Pahnl presents “A stencilled (sort of) history of the human race”.

It’s a fitting description, representing both the piece’s ambition and its playfulness. Stretching forwards from prehistory, mankind’s ingenuity is represented by the successive inventions of the See more at www.brumnotes.com

wheel, weapons, booze and predictive text, as the CY work builds towards a possible vision of the future.

CMY

The Look of Silence + Live Satellite Q&A

K

The Electric Cinema, June 14

An immensely powerful documentary from Joshua Oppenheimer, following on from his similarly hard-hitting The Act of Killing. The original film explored the anti-communist purge in Indonesia in the mid-60s, in which an estimated half a million people lost their lives. In this sequel, the family of one of the dead take their brother’s killers to task.

Oppenheimer is on hand via satellite for a Q&A after the screening.

Belgrade Theatre Unplugged 2015 Various venues, Coventry and Warwickshire, June 20-27

A range of rehearsed readings in unlikely locations across Coventry and Warwickshire, bringing to light the very early stages of the production process, as cast members perform in their civvies, script in hand. Venues include Coombe Abbey, the Nicholas Chamberlaine Almshouses in Bedworth, Kenilworth Castle and Rugby watering hole The Merchants Inn.

Brum Notes Magazine

June 2015

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what’s

on KEY TO LISTINGS l Music

l Club Night

l Comedy

MONDAY, JUNE 1 l Earl Sweatshirt, Library @ The Institute, Birmingham

l The Mirror Trap, The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham

l Manic Street Preachers, Civic Hall, Wolverhampton

l Roadhouse Comedy Night, The Roadhouse, Stirchley

l Jam Jah Reggae Sessions, Bull’s Head, Moseley

TUESDAY, JUNE 2 l Steve Ajao + Stewart Johnson, Kitchen Garden Cafe,

Kings Heath

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3

l MountainJam, The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham

l Best In Live Comedy ft Joe Lycett, The Glee Club,

Birmingham l 90s Disco, Ort, Balsall Heath

l Only After Dark ft Rusy Egan, Apres, Birmingham

l Ouse - Garden Party Extravaganza, Boxxed,

Birmingham l Shimmy Shimmy Ya, Island Bar, Birmingham

l Potion with Steve Jones, Jekyll & Hyde, Birmingham

l Cutting-Edge Burlesque, Library @ The Institute,

Birmingham l Heroes of House, LMG Warehouse, Birmingham

l Moschino Hoe, Versace Hottie, Spotlight, Birmingham

l Soul Steppers Summer Party, The Penthouse,

Birmingham l 15 Years of Shadow Demon Coalition, The Rainbow

Warehouse & Street, Birmingham l DJ Jordan Hot Wax, The Victoria, Birmingham

l Bruk Up with Garth the Boogie Bwoy + The Liquid

Kid, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath l Stupid Underground presents Guess Who’s Back

Party’, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath l Enter The Dragon Full Venue Takeover with Jem

Atkins, Bull’s Head, Moseley

l H EARD - live accoustic music, Island Bar, Birmingham

l Brand New, The Glee Club, Birmingham

l Atomic Kitten, The Institute, Birmingham

l All Tvvins, The Rainbow, Birmingham

l Young Fathers, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

l Charlie Dore, Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath

l Young Guns, The Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton

SUNDAY, JUNE 7

THURSDAY, JUNE 4

MONDAY, JUNE 8

l Nas, The Institute, Birmingham

l Admiral Fallow + C Duncan, The Rainbow,

Birmingham l The LaFontaines, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

l Jo Lycett + Caimh McDonnell, Mac, Birmingham

l Comedy Carousel ft Andy Robinson, The Glee Club,

Birmingham l Manilla Road Comedy, The Victoria, Birmingham

l Nas Afterparty, Gatecrasher, Birmingham

l DJ Magoo, Island Bar, Birmingham

FRIDAY, JUNE 5 l Discharge, The Actress & Bishop, Birmingham

l Dan Whitehouse & BJ Cole, The Glee Club,

Birmingham l Dub Pistols, The Oobleck, Birmingham

l Rozi Plain + Lexis, The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham

l Red Light Room + Paradise Circus + Semantics +

The Flat Back Four, The Victoria, Birmingham l Best In Live Comedy ft Joe Lycett, The Glee Club,

Birmingham l Lucha Libre, Bodega, Birmingham

l Supersonic Vague, Gatecrasher, Birmingham

l DJ T Bird, Island Bar, Birmingham

l Remedy with DJ Zebra, Jekyll & Hyde, Birmingham

l In: Session presents Cristoph & Him_Self_her, LMG

Warehouse, Birmingham l Propaganda, O2 Academy, Birmingham

l Bouncin’ Hard House Classics II, Suki10c,

Birmingham l Seedy Sonics Summer Party, The Rainbow,

Birmingham l Shimmy Shimmy Ya, The Victoria, Birmingham

l Young Culture Sound presents Reggae vs Hip Hop,

Wagon & Horses, Birmingham l Bird Of Paradise 2 ft Sic’Nis, Midnight Magpie + Karl

Monroe, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath l Mount Kimbie (DJ Set), Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

l An Evening with Sam Redmore, Bull’s Head, Moseley

SATURDAY, JUNE 6 l Sam Ostler, O2 Academy 3, Birmingham

l Jubilee Club ft Jaws, Temple @ The Institute,

Birmingham l The Bohicas + Dead Sea Skulls, The Rainbow,

Birmingham

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l Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, The Rainbow,

Birmingham l Follakzoid, The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham

l Metal 2 The Masses, The Roadhouse, Stirchley

l Rough Works - New Midland Comedy Material Night,

The Glee Club, Birmingham

l Fleetwood Mac, Genting Arena, Birmingham

l Roadhouse Comedy Night, The Roadhouse, Stirchley

l Jam Jah Reggae Sessions, Bull’s Head, Moseley

TUESDAY, JUNE 9 l James Riley, Ort, Balsall Heath

l Fleetwood Mac, Genting Arena, Birmingham

l The Silence, The Actress & Bishop, Birmingham

l Boxed In + Zola Blood, The Rainbow, Birmingham

l DIIV, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

l The Jewellery Quarter Comedy Club, The Rose Villa

Tavern, Birmingham

l Best In Live Comedy ft Mick Ferry, The Glee Club,

Birmingham l Lucha Libre, Bodega, Birmingham

l Supersonic Vague, Gatecrasher, Birmingham

l DJ Sam Redmore, Island Bar, Birmingham

l Remedy with Richie Taylor, Jekyll & Hyde, Birmingham

l Propaganda, O2 Academy, Birmingham

l Takin’ Care of Business, The Victoria, Birmingham

l Leftfoot vs Raw presents Mark Rae & Chris Read,

Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath l Mounlin Groove with Fergie, Ben Fisher, Nomad +

Andre Johnson, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath l Celestial Full Venue Takeover with Steve Kelley,

Bull’s Head, Moseley

SATURDAY, JUNE 13

l Supersonic Festival, Boxxed, Birmingham

l Will Gregory Moog Ensemble, Town Hall, Birmingham

l Declan Sinnott with Vickie Keating, Hare & Hounds,

Kings Heath l Nomad presents Mostly Comedy, Ort, Balsall Heath

l Jamess Acaster + Stuart Goldsmith, Mac,

Birmingham l Comedy Carousel ft Andy Robinson, The Glee Club,

Birmingham l Tiki Thursday, Island Bar, Birmingham

l Supersonic Festival, Boxxed, Birmingham

l Fires that Divide, The Rainbow, Birmingham

l An Evening with the Major Toms, Hare & Hounds,

Kings Heath l Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam + Fawn Spots + False

Grails, Bull’s Head, Moseley l The Trevor Burton Band, The Roadhouse, Stirchley

l Elton John, Banks’s Stadium, Walsall

l Best In Live Comedy ft Mick Ferry, The Glee Club,

Birmingham l Astrx presents: FaltyDL + Fotomachine, Alfie Bird’s,

Birmingham l DJ T Bird, Island Bar, Birmingham

l Potion with Missy R, Jekyll & Hyde, Birmingham

l Champagne Splash, Myyst, Birmingham

l Jah Shaka Sound, The Rainbow Warehouse,

Birmingham l DJ Steve Jones, The Victoria, Birmingham

l Topic Sounds (3pm-10pm), Wagon & Horses,

Birmingham l Killer Wave Club night with Joel Webster & Richard

Buckley, Bull’s Head, Moseley

FRIDAY, JUNE 12

SUNDAY, JUNE 14

l Supersonic Festival, Boxxed, Birmingham

l Judie Tzuke, Mac, Birmingham

l Winston’s Big Brother, O2 Academy 3, Birmingham

l Only the Good + False Pretence, The Flapper,

Birmingham l The Cadbury Sisters, The Glee Club, Birmingham

l R FX + Lampstack + Rook Crutches, The Victoria,

Birmingham l Osmosis, Wagon & Horses, Birmingham

MONDAY, JUNE 15

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 l Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, The Glee Club,

Birmingham l Andrew Jackson Jihad + Hard Girls, The Rainbow,

Birmingham l Little Barrie, The Rainbow, Birmingham

l Malpas + Arc Vel, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

l Counting Crows, Civic Hall, Wolverhampton

THURSDAY, JUNE 11

l Seun Kuti + Egypt 80, The Drum, Aston

l Nicky Schrire EP Tour, Cherry Reds, Birmingham

l Rock & Metal All-Dayer, The Roadhouse, Stirchley

l Roadhouse Comedy Night, The Roadhouse, Stirchley

l Jam Jah Reggae Sessions, Bull’s Head, Moseley

TUESDAY, JUNE 16 l Larry Carlton, The Glee Club, Birmingham

Brum Notes Magazine

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 l Stanley Odd, The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham

l John J Preseley + Table Scraps + Crawlin’ Hands,

Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

THURSDAY, JUNE 18 l Dead Belgian, Ort, Balsall Heath

l Room 94, The Rainbow, Birmingham

l Lady Grey, The Roadhouse, Stirchley

l Paul Sinha + Gein’s Family Giftshop, Mac,

Birmingham l Comedy Carousel ft Andy Robinson, The Glee Club,

Birmingham l Tiki Thursday, Island Bar, Birmingham

FRIDAY, JUNE 19 l The Movielife, O2 Academy 2, Birmingham

l TrueHeights, O2 Academy 3, Birmingham

l Police Bastard, The Actress & Bishop, Birmingham

l Hyena + Bad Grammar + Byron Hare + Electric, The

Rainbow, Birmingham l Archive + You Dirty Blue, The Sunflower Lounge,

Birmingham l Big Vibes with Jam Tidy, Malarkey, Manos Pa’Arriba

+ Namiwa Jazz Music, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath l JJM Weekender, JJM Studios, Walsall

l Best In Live Comedy ft Tiffany Stevenson, The Glee

Club, Birmingham l Moulin Groove, Amusement 13, Birmingham

l Lucha Libre, Bodega, Birmingham

l Supersonic Vague, Gatecrasher, Birmingham

l DJ T Bird, Island Bar, Birmingham

l Remedy with Steve Jones, Jekyll & Hyde, Birmingham

l T1 Official Birthday Bash, Myyst, Birmingham

l Propaganda, O2 Academy, Birmingham

l Young Culture Sound, Wagon & Horses, Birmingham

l Klone with Miguel Verde and Kubot, Hare & Hounds,

Kings Heath l Uber Free Entry Club Night, Bull’s Head, Moseley

SATURDAY, JUNE 20 l Edd Donovan, Ort, Balsall Heath

l The Moody Blues, Genting Arena, Birmingham

l Scott Revelle, The Flapper, Birmingham

l Money For Rope, The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham

l JJM Weekender, JJM Studios, Walsall

l Jools Holland & his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, Civic

Hall, Wolverhampton l Spacement Apes, The Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton

l Best In Live Comedy ft Tiffany Stevenson, The Glee

Club, Birmingham l Cassette: Martin Liberty Larner, Alfie Bird’s,

Birmingham l Payback Promotions + Big Bad 5th Birthday Bash ft

Jackie & Sheriff Kurtis, Club PST, Birmingham l DJ Lee Goodman, Island Bar, Birmingham

l Potion - Sounds from the South, Jekyll & Hyde,

Birmingham l Flava of the Oldskool, Myyst, Birmingham

l Dr Alex Paterson (The Orb), Suki10c, Birmingham

l Circles Presents Spearhead Double Header Part

1 with Utah Jazz, Riya + Mutated Forms, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath l M O D O with Miguel Verde, Bull’s Head, Moseley

l Take That, Genting Arena, Birmingham

l Dead Kennedys, O2 Academy 2, Birmingham

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24 l H EARD - live accoustic music, Island Bar,

Birmingham

THURSDAY, JUNE 25 l Primus, O2 Academy, Birmingham

l The Mighty Wraith + Valous + Dakesis, O2 Academy

3, Birmingham l Spitting Feathers, The Roadhouse, Stirchley

l Rob Rouse + Angela Barnes, Mac, Birmingham

l Best In Live Comedy ft Kate Lucas, The Glee Club,

Birmingham l DJ Sam Redmore, Island Bar, Birmingham

FRIDAY, JUNE 26 l John Legend, Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham

l Orchard Hill, O2 Academy 3, Birmingham

l David Arnold, Symphony Hall, Birmingham

l Free School (single launch) + Hoopla Blue, Grafham

Water Sailing Club, Field Harmonics, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath l The Railway Social Club + Dutch Cousin, The Sun at

the Station, Kings Heath l Best In Live Comedy ft Kate Lucas, The Glee Club,

Birmingham l Rave Against Racism, Alfie Bird’s, Birmingham

l Lucha Libre, Bodega, Birmingham

l The Silent Noise Terrace Rave, Chic, Birmingham

l Supersonic Vague, Gatecrasher, Birmingham

l DJ Steve Jones, Island Bar, Birmingham

l Remedy with Lee Goodman, Jekyll & Hyde,

Birmingham l Propaganda, O2 Academy, Birmingham

l Takin’ Care of Business, The Victoria, Birmingham

l Getting Away With It (On A Night Like This) Club

Night, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath l Cache with Niall Wolfe, Bull’s Head, Moseley

SATURDAY, JUNE 27 l NOFX + Alkaline Trio, O2 Academy, Birmingham

l Aramantus, O2 Academy 3, Birmingham

l Hive + Cat Like Thief, The Rainbow, Birmingham

l The Prellies, Wagon & Horses, Birmingham

l Best In Live Comedy ft Kate Lucas, The Glee Club,

Birmingham l Rave Against Racism, Alfie Bird’s, Birmingham

l Potion with Cold Rice, Jekyll & Hyde, Birmingham

l Amnesia House: The Reunion, LMG Warehouse,

Birmingham l Space Invader Punk Rock Club Night - Official NOFX

Aftershow Party, O2 Academy 2, Birmingham l DJ Steve Jones, The Victoria, Birmingham

l Barry vs Love The Life Free Entry Party, Hare &

Hounds, Kings Heath l Coloré, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

l Jam Hott with Ben Dunn, Bull’s Head, Moseley

SUNDAY, JUNE 28 l NOFX + Alkaline Trio, O2 Academy, Birmingham

l Alden Penner (The Unicorns) & Michael Cera, The

Rainbow, Birmingham l Metal Extravaganza, The Roadhouse, Stirchley

SUNDAY, JUNE 21 l Metal 2 The Masses, The Roadhouse, Stirchley

l Lilly Singh - A Trip to Unicorn Island, O2 Academy,

Birmingham

MONDAY, JUNE 22 l Take That, Genting Arena, Birmingham

l Idina Menzel, Symphony Hall, Birmingham

l Suzanne Vega, Town Hall, Birmingham

l Roadhouse Comedy Night, The Roadhouse, Stirchley

l Jam Jah Reggae Sessions, Bull’s Head, Moseley

MONDAY, JUNE 29 l Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey with Glenn

Gregory + Marc Almond, O2 Academy 2, Birmingham l Big Sean, The Institute, Birmingham

l MusicConnex Live Soul City Tour ft Carol Riddick,

Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath l Roadhouse Comedy Night, The Roadhouse, Stirchley

l Jam Jah Reggae Sessions, Bull’s Head, Moseley

TUESDAY, 30 JUNE 15 l Doomtree O2 Academy 3, Birmingham

TUESDAY, JUNE 23 l Faux Palms, Alfie Bird’s, Birmingham

June 2015

O2 Academy, Horsefair, Bristol St B1, 0844 4772000 The Institute, High St, Digbeth B5, 0844 2485037 NIA, King Edwards Rd B1, 0121 7804141 Genting Arena, NEC, Solihull B40, 0121 7804141 The Flapper, Kingston Row B1, 0121 2362421 The Victoria, John Bright St B1, 0121 6339439 Hare & Hounds, High St, Kings Heath B14, 0121 4442081 The Actress & Bishop, Ludgate Hill B3, 0121 2367426 The Sunflower Lounge, Smallbrook Queensway B5, 0121 6327656 Symphony Hall, Broad St B1, 0121 7803333 Town Hall, Victoria Sq B3, 0121 7803333 Kitchen Garden Cafe, York Road, Kings Heath B14, 0121 4434725 Alexandra Theatre, Station St B1, 0844 8472302 Bull’s Head, St Marys Row, Moseley B13, 0121 2567777 Island Bar, Suffolk St B1, 0121 6325296 The Jam House, St Pauls Sq B3, 0121 2003030 Ort, Moseley Rd, Balsall Heath, B12 The Asylum, Hampton St, Hockley B19, 0121 2331109 The Rainbow, High St, Digbeth B12, 0121 7728174 Adam & Eve, Bradford St, Digbeth B12, 0121 6931500 The Rose Villa Tavern, Warstone Lane, B18, 0121 2367910 The Yardbird, Paradise Place B3, 0121 2122524 The Glee Club, The Arcadian, Hurst St B5, 0871 4720400 MAC, Cannon Hill Park B12, 0121 4463232 Nightingale, Kent St B5, 0121 6221718 Scruffy Murphys, The Priory Queensway B4, 0121 2362035 The Wagon & Horses, Adderley St, Digbeth B9, 0121 7721403 Lab11, Trent St B5, lab11.co.uk The Moseley Arms, Ravenhurst St B12, 0121 7668467 Alfie Bird’s/The Oobleck, The Custard Factory B9, 0121 270 6665 Suki10c, Bordesley Street B5 Gatecrasher, Broad St B15, 0121 633 1520

WANT YOUR GIG, CLUB NIGHT OR COMEDY EVENT LISTED IN OUR MONTHLY GUIDE? Send details to: listings@brumnotes.com All details were correct at time of going to press. Check with venues before you set out.

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Brum Notes Magazine