City News

Live music is set to break out like a rash across the city throughout this autumn, when Birmingham Rocks 2006 gets underway this week, running through to the end of the year.

Organised by Big Bear Music of Edgbaston, Birmingham Rocks 2006 was born out of need, for although many bemoan the lack of live music venues in Birmingham, few actually do anything positive about it. Birmingham Rocks 2006 has set out to demonstrate that it is really not that difficult to arrange live gigs.

With no less than TEN venues aboard that are not usually associated with live music, alongside other venues who have increased their number of gigs, Birmingham Rocks 2006 will showcase some 100 performances over 90 days in 19 venues with the vast majority of performances free to the public.

There are no music barriers in Birmingham Rocks 2006 with inclusions so far for Rock, Blues, Electro, Indie, Jazz, Punk, Nu Metal, Rhythm & Blues, Swing and Manouche.                   

Whereas the loss of high-profile dedicated music venues such as The Fiddle & Bone and Ronnie Scotts [and to a lesser extent, commendable but less-acknowledged ventures such as the thrice-weekly Scruffy Duffy’s] presents a problem that has yet to be properly addressed, the complaint about lack of venues is spurious.

In fact, there never were venues, just people who felt passionate enough about a band, a style of music or even just wanted to earn a crust promoting live shows. There are plenty of good, under-used and available rooms around now, just as there were in the past – and there are certainly a bunch of extremely talented bands out there.

Sadly, there is a chronic lack of individuals on a mission to present live music, prepared to facethe risk and to take on the workload that such ventures call for.

Now Big Bear Music is delighted to find and to work with a new breed of music promoters who see live music as a good way to attract new high-quality audiences to their own venues, while at the same time making a significant contribution to the cultural offer of this city. People like Andy Titman of The Green Room, Adam Bowker of Bar Risa, Robert Morrison of Hotel Du Vin, Karen Sherwin of The Wine Republic, Rob Fisher of La Tasca, Jess Griffiths of The Garden House, Liam O’Connor of The Kerryman. They line up alongside established live music providers Ian Ross Mackenzie at The Living Room who is significantly adding to his existing programme and Olivia Harris at Brindley Place, who has agreed a wide and varied programme for the Water’s Edge site. Roy Davis at The Madhouse Rehearsal Studio is opening his doors to the public for a series of live shows, while The Bulls Head, Spotted Dog and Scruffy Murphy’s will present additional performances. Ansell Burrell at The Rope Walk is embarking on a series rock performances and for the first time The Irish Club is venturing into jazz.