Committee Recommendations

Chris Whiting Band at The Rainbow

Last year’s UK Music report, ‘Destination UK’, was the ‘most comprehensive study ever undertaken on the power of music as a tourist draw’ and the first of its kind to quantify the economic value of ‘music tourism’ to the country’s regions. It also laid down a challenge to public bodies, locally and nationally, to ‘realise the potential of this considerable economic asset’. And the Scrutiny Committee that I chair in Birmingham has responded to that challenge, coming up with a series of recommendations for city council approval – in our scrutiny report ‘Destination Birmingham‘ – that I hope will send out the clear message that we see popular music as being of huge importance to the cultural and economic life of our city.

We felt it important to focus the review on ‘popular music’ – difficult though that is to define – rather than classical music, for a number of reasons. Firstly, there have been several attempts over the last few years in Birmingham to make more of this ‘cultural asset’ – however, much of it has been ad hoc and has lacked the formal support of our city council. In contrast, classical music is widely valued and recognised and is supported and promoted with public funds.

There has also been little done in terms of quantifying the economic value of popular music to Birmingham – unlike classical music and cultural activities in general. However, with the UK Music report showing that major concerts and festivals in the West Midlands result in an annual spend of over £138m and our own research showing that five independent festivals alone in the city bring over £5m into the local economy every year, clearly this is an area worthy of serious attention.

We also wanted to focus on popular music because of its diversity and appeal to such a wide range of people. Birmingham is one of the youngest cities in Europe and although this is a huge generalisation, popular music is often the culture that younger people are most interested in and it is sometimes seen as undervalued. And the success of our bands – whether from the past – such as UB40, Black Sabbath or Duran Duran – the present, or the future – such as The Arcadian Kicks and The Carpels - adds greatly to the international profile of the city. You only have to look at cities like Manchester and Liverpool to see how popular music helps in terms of marketing a city as a culturally exciting place for people to visit and set down roots. This indirect value is hugely important. The success of its local bands in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s, led to Manchester University being one of the most sought after universities in the country, boosting the city’s media and creative industries and generating huge interest in its musical heritage.

We followed three particular lines of enquiry during the course of our review:

Firstly, heritage: One of UK Music’s recommendations in ‘Destination Music’ is that ‘tourism authorities and LEPS should capitalise on the unique musical strength and heritage of each region’. And we know that from our own experience here in Birmingham that musical heritage can be a significant component of the tourism industry. Last year’s Home of Metal exhibition produced by Capsule and held in the city’s main museum generated £1.6m for our local economy and attracted an unprecedented level of media coverage. It was covered in every paper from the Sun to the FT, was broadcast on the BBC and CNN, and the subject of a 30 minute documentary on Sky. Many commentators expressed surprise that we hadn’t shown off this element of our past before, with The Sunday Times reporting: ‘this is Birmingham. They do things indifferently here.’ And ‘Brummies don’t like to shout about what they do’. Yet, clearly, there is much that we could be shouting about. As well as heavy metal, Birmingham is the birthplace of British reggae and bhangra, home to some huge international bands, and a city where significant music events have taken place. Our report, then, comes up with a number of recommendations as to how we can better celebrate the diverse musical heritage of our city.

The second area we looked at was in relation to the current industry: what are Birmingham’s strengths and weaknesses; where are the gaps? At the heart of this issue are the creators and performers of music and whether they are able to flourish here in Birmingham. We know that there is a quantifiable ‘music industry’ in this city, including a range of promoters, venues, and festivals; artists, labels and managers. What we lack, however, are the crucial support networks that have national recognition and support by the industry in comparison to other cities. A local, unsigned band made it very clear to us that this strong support structure is often needed to enable a band to grow and reach the next level. The absence of this support can mean that many bands with aspirations leave the city as the lack of infrastructure and necessary contacts hinder progress. Unlike some other cities, there is no discernible voice advocating for the independent sector in Birmingham – yet co-ordination and the ability to articulate the sector’s needs is vital if we want to help support new bands and retain talent here.

Finally we looked at what our city council could do practically to help. Very few of the people we spoke to asked for direct funding from the council and everybody saw the dangers of us being in the position of ‘talent spotting’ or ‘picking winners’. However, it’s clear that we ought to be doing more to support this sector particularly with regards to setting a strategy and priorities, as well as providing a clear point of contact within the council for those wanting to put on events or gigs, or develop their music business in Birmingham. This role could involve providing support for funding applications, helping establish better links with the media to improve coverage of local events and taking responsibility, with our partners, for providing business advice. Several years ago our council took the decision to install and fund such a point of contact for those to come and film in the city and the key recommendation from our report is that we create a similar role, a ‘Music Birmingham’, for the popular music sector. This would send out the clear message that we recognise the huge value of popular music to our city.

And this isn’t about the city council saying for one minute that it has any particular expertise with regards to the workings of music industry. What the city does have, however, are extensive networks, contacts and clout and given the huge importance of this sector – culturally, economically and as a way to improve perceptions of the city – the council has an important role to play in terms of finding out what the industry considers to its priorities and then being responsive to them. And sometimes of course, this may simply be about us getting out of the way. I hope that other councils across the UK pick up the challenge.

Destination Birmingham Report

Music Week 

NME 

Birmingham Post – Birmingham needs a ‘music tsar’

Birmingham Post – Black Sabbath

Classic Rock – Sabbath Day?

Loudwire – Sabbath Day?

Gibson

Guitar World

Uncut

Created in Birmingham

As the panel members got up to speak, it became clearer: the launch was about inviting businesses to invest in a fund to help make initiatives like the Curzon Square Museum Quarter actually become reality and, given the involvement of the LEP, about linking cultural development to wider economic growth in the region. And crucially, there does appear to be some extra money on the table from the city council with £5m being earmarked for ‘cultural regeneration’ in the city.

This is to be welcomed, especially at a time when the huge savings that the city council is having to make mean difficult decisions are being made with regards to funding. What concerns me, however, is this: given that there were less than a dozen representatives from the ‘independent sector’ at yesterday’s launch (from a delegate list of 116 people), and much of the ‘mood music’ at the event was around cultural assets like the Symphony Hall, the Hippodrome etc, how do we ensure that this £5m gets to be evenly distributed amongst both big and small organisations?  For example, one of the ideas coming out of the popular music review that my committee is conducting is for there to be a ‘development fund’ for local bands, so they can actually be paid – or ‘topped up’ – a modest amount for performing in small venues. Given the scarcity of cheap (and legal) sites to put up posters and the regulations around leafleting, it’s difficult for bands to sell tickets outside of a loyal circle of family and friends. A fund to help bands promote future gigs and help pay for rehearsal space would go a long way towards providing encouragement as much as anything else. This wouldn’t take a huge amount of money, but supporting musicians at the onset of their careers could be one of the best investments we make given the huge importance that popular music has in improving people’s perceptions of a city and sustaining jobs. Details of the £5m fund will become available next month and I hope that this is where at least part of the substance of yesterday’s event lies and that the allocation of the money will be truly representative of the whole of the cultural offer in Birmingham.

I can’t remember a museum exhibition that’s been the subject of so much diverse media coverage.

And it’s firmly cemented our reputation as a city with a rich musical heritage.

One of the best articles was in The Sunday Times. Despairing at our previous failure to shout about the role we played in creating heavy metal the journalist summed it up thus:

‘This is Birmingham. They do things indifferently here’.

There’s a lot of truth in that. We’re far too humble about our history, far too reticent in shouting about what makes this city great. The people behind the Home of Metal exhibition have made significant progress in helping us shake off that indifference.

Sadly in ten days time the exhibition comes to an end. It would be fantastic if it had a permanent home, somewhere in the city centre. We don’t stop being the ‘home of metal’ at the end of September and we shouldn’t stop shouting about it then, either.

This ought to be a model that can be transferred to other parks across the city, though of course if you’re going to hold a festival near to where people live, you’ve got to keep the neighbours on side. I get the impression that they get round this at Moseley primarily because the organisers are wise to it and approach the issue sensitively, but also because the event is professionally run, with adequate levels of security and a sensible 10.30 p.m. curfew. And, crucially, because the park is privately owned, any money raised by hiring it out is ploughed right back in to making improvements. If we want more events like this to be held across the city in our public parks (and I believe we do) then at the very least we need to ensure that money raised locally is invested locally, and not diverted into a central council pot. After all, people are much more likely to put up with some inconvenience if they know that events such as these will help fund improvements in their local neighbourhoods. And at time when the council doesn’t have a huge amount of cash to spread around, changing the way it does things (as well as providing help with publicity) is an inexpensive and effective way of showing its support.

1. Digby Fairweather (trumpet). Festival Patron and the only one of the Team of 1984 to play in this year’s version.
2. Enrico Tomasso (trumpet). Trumpet player with an authentic jazz pedigree, as a 7 year old famously played to Louis Armstrong on the tarmac at Leeds Airport. ‘I’ve not seen so much talent anywhere’, commented the great man.
3. Robert Fowler (tenor sax). Original and powerful soloist on tenor sax, baritone sax and clarinet. Played with the Pasadena Roof Orchestra and Alan Barnes’ Octet.
4. Art Themen (tenor sax). British Jazz Award winning, ex-orthopaedic surgeon (!), played with Alexis Korner, Mick Jagger and Jack Bruce.
5. Mark Nightingale (trombone). Ex MYJO and NYJO trombonist who has worked with international stars including Ray Brown and Clark Terry.
6. Ian Bateman (trombone). Versatile trombonist and member of Acker Bilk’s Paramount Jazz Band. Regular player with the Ronnie Scott Big Band.
7. Jim Hart (vibes). Talented drummer, pianist and vibes player. A regular with Sir John Dankworth’s bands.
8. David Newton (piano). One of the country’s most versatile and talented pianists. A regular winner of British Jazz Awards.
9. Dave Green (double bass). Freelance bassist and member of the Chris Barber Band. Played with Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins and Sonny Rollins.
10. Ralph Salmins (drums). One of the country’s most accomplished jazz drummers. Played with everyone from Madonna and Bob Dylan to James Moody and Jimmy Wetherspoon.
11. Val Wiseman (vocals). West Bromwich born singer, closely associated with the Billie Holiday tribute ‘Lady Sings the Blues’. Numerous recordings under her own name.

Tickets £10 (0121 454 7020 or 0121 454 1860)

His band last night was also extremely impressive. With Gareth Williams on piano, Laurence Cottle (I think!) on bass as well the hugely talented Mark Mondesir on drums, the crowd knew from the off that it was witnessing something very special. And it was great to see Pee Wee and band clearly enjoying themselves in the somewhat incongrous setting of Star City.

GREAT BRITISH JAM SESSION HEADS RECESSION-BUSTING BRUM JAZZFEST.

The Birmingham International Jazz Festival is set to celebrate its first quarter of a century in the same way it all started, with an All Star Jam Session.

Back in 1984 Birmingham-based independent record company Big Bear Records organised a jam session, in Cannon Hill Park, featuring the dozen top UK jazz musicians of the day. It was a sell-out, the recorded album won “Jazz Album of the Year” and before the sun went down, Big Bear and the City Council had agreed to launch the Jazz Festival the subsequent year.

So it is only to be expected that the main feature event of the 25^th Birmingham International Jazz Festival will see another amazing array of the top British jazz talent, eleven of them, onstage together at The Botanical Gardens on Thursday 9^th July at 7pm.

It has been many a year since such Jazz Galacticos, poll winners to a man, have been on one stage together. Digby Fairweather, Festival Patron and the only one of the Team of 1984 to play in this year’s version, will lead affairs on trumpet, alongside Enrico Tomasso, also on trumpet, Robert Fowler and Art Themen, tenor saxophones, Mark Nightingale and Ian Bateman, trombones, Jim Hart, vibes, David Newton, piano, Dave Green, double bass, Ralph Salmins, drums and Val Wiseman, vocals.

Between them, they have clocked up appearances alongside the biggest names in the music biz including those of Frank Sinatra, George Shearing , Henry Mancini, Benny Goodman, Humphrey Lyttelton, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Buck Clayton, Charlie Watts Quintet, Count Basie Orchestra, Van Morrison, Robbie Williams, Madonna, Bjork, Macy Gray, Sheryl Crow, Elton John, Elvis Costello, Diana Ross and Bob Dylan.

With 180 jazz festival performances in 70 venues across the City with 90% free to the public, then Birmingham is not the place to be this summer for anyone who doesn’t like jazz.

Europe’s biggest free jazz party will take place in shopping centres, arcades, bars, museums, hotels, cafés, on the streets, even on canal boats and the City’s tour bus while zany Chicago Beat Poet Steve Steinhaus will be making unscheduled appearances on commuter buses delivering his very hip, cool poetry.

Star City will be presenting three important jazz names whose normal environment is Symphony Hall or Town Hall, but it will be free to see Kenny Ball [Friday 3^rd], Alan Price Set [Saturday 4^th] and Pee Wee Ellis Band [Sunday 5^th].

                                                          For further information please call 0121 454 7020

Address: PO Box 944, Birmingham, B16 8UT 

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