The Night Owl
The Night Owl are holding regular live stream DJ sets and colourful cool Cocktail Classes online, so keep checking their Facebook page each week for regular updates here.
SUPPORT THE NIGHT OWL: Crowdfunder – https://bit.ly/3cnYIbT
To buy The Night Owl merchandise email clare@nightowlbirmingham.com
TRMNL ARTIST TAKEOVER: 003 KARRÉM
Local Techno/Dance promoters TRMNL have a third Spotify installment with resident Karrém. who has put together a playlist of some of his top picks.
With music from Traumer, Shonky, LOCO DICE & more. Listen here spoti.fi/2TorjXw
The TRMNL team also have a new record out, available 03.06.2020.
TRMNL-001 East End Dubs
A1. What’s Goin On
B1. Talk To Becky
B2. Do It R!ght
Relentless grooves, tight stepped basslines, spacey pads, skippy percussion & characteristic Dubs sampling.
Pre-order and previews www.trmnl.co.uk/label
#thisisTRMNL
Isolation Station
Many will know of Dean Sunshine Smith from his Balearic house ‘Great Outdoors‘ events at The Lord Clifden in Hockley. Dean has been DJing and promoting his nights in and around Brum for quite some years. However, not one to rest on his laurels, Dean has set up a Facebook group (here) and created a brand new radio station site named Isolation Station which he aimis to stream 24 / 7 – 7 days a week. Check out the live stream here:
The Sunflower Lounge
Started by Snob’s legend Paul Cook all those years ago, it’s great to see Brum’s underground Sunflower Lounge still going strong.
They have been sharing a wealth of live streams from musicians bedrooms and lounges to their Facebook feed. The livestream is part of their ‘Gig in ur Lounge’ series – raising money for the venue, as they’ve been hit hard by the COVID-19 situation. The guys are also donating 10% of everything to the NHS! If you enjoy the stream, please consider donating anything you can! There are also gig tickets and merch as rewards! https://bit.ly/SunnyVsCovid19 – well worth a decko for some acoustic airwaves here.
Lock Down Brum
Lock Down Brum has launched on facebook and instagram aiming to lift community spirit
Lock Down Brum is an online community existing across Instagram and Facebook who’s aim is to bring together the people of Birmingham during the COV19 pandemic which has resulted in many residents being forced to work from home. Featuring regular live stream musical performances, virtual weekly quizzes, comedy and more.
The team have been busy updating a lockdown playlist with their favourite sounds from the city and (slightly) beyond. Have a listen on Spotify here or check their Facebook page here.
Here are a few West Mids tunes from their list:
Brum Radio Podcasts
You can enjoy some OFFICIAL Brum Radio A-List presented by Danny de Reybekill which features an hour of the best original new music from in and around Birmingham, UK.
June kicks off with Danny playing brand new tracks, born in the middle of the UK, from:
Crest Glider
EKKAH
Swampmeat Family Band
AND there’s great locally-born music from Reuben James // KIOKO // Sam Hollis // Alex Ohm // Spoort // Ed Geater // Future Fires // Cariss Auburn and lots more.
Featured Album is ‘Adjust The Sun’ from indie-folkers Gathering Tides
The show also includes the crowning of an OFFICIAL Track of the Week from a 100% local playlist.
LISTEN LIVE on the website brumradio.com every Saturday at 2pm.
LISTEN AGAIN to the latest show and past editions at the Brum Radio website A-List page
Willie’s Cult to Jimmy Powell – A Brumbeat Short Story
After a brief email exchange with local musician Alan Shepherd regarding our article ‘Birmingham’s Oldest Recording Studios Rock On‘ (Hollick & Taylor), Alan has kindly reminisced in a nice little exclusive on his memories of the local and UK music scene in the late 1960s.
It was 1967/68! I play sax and joined a Coventry soul/pop outfit called ‘Willie’s Cult’ (‘Cult’ was the buzz word for bands in the 60s!), named after Willie Morris, the bass player. We played the usual youth clubs. One afternoon I was in Willie’s house when the phone rang – it was Jimmy Powell from West Heath. Willie passed the phone to me – Jimmy wanted a band for that night at a University somewhere. We’d heard of him and saw him play at the R&B night at the Leofric Hotel in Coventry. So we motored off and met him in the dressing room – compared which songs we did (Midnight Hour, I Got a Woman, usual R&B stuff), went on & backed him with no rehearsal. He was professional to pull it off!
Read the full story here.
Henry’s Virtual Blueshouse
Since Henry’s Blueshouse moved to its temporary online home, they couldn’t let the lockdown pass without asking the erudite and original Mark Harrison to do a socially distanced set.
Watch Mark deliver his Blues Lives set with songs about the blues life and world, with accompanying chat.
You can also catch the Blues Talkin’ feature where Jim reminisences of the one armed giant of a man that was Big John Wrencher – both videos and a load of other great content are available via their youtube channel here and keep an eye out for their lie streams every Tuesday here.
Suki10c 8th Anniversary Livestream
To mark 8 years since Suki10c first opened their doors there’s a special 8th Anniversary Livestream on 1st June featuring 3 virtual rooms of diverse and entertaining musical styles. Here are a few short words about each room.
Flat 49:
After being responsible for the weekly carnage that took place in the now notorious Flat 49, Suki10c bring that same level of energy to the Birmingham club scene. Created by students for students
Chapel of Chaos:
Summer 2018 saw the launch of Chapel Of Chaos, a Birmingham party celebrating the sounds of mainstream hardcore, industrial, terror, uptempo, Frenchcore & gabber classics. Suki10c miss the days of HTID, Uproar & Slammin’ Vinyl having harder rooms, they miss the Technodrome at Helter Skelter, North, Species, Tomorrow’s World, Suki10c miss all of that…so they’re taking the vibe of that with today’s DJs & producers of harder edged music and are going to put UK gabber parties back on the map.
Boogie Dave Presents:
A series of events that focus on pushing the boundaries of Beats & Bass. If you like your Bass then this is the place.
More info here.