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

They’re only interested in cities where there’s a wealth of creative talent and where they’re guaranteed a warm welcome and, to the immense credit of everyone involved in this festival, between 16 and 18th September the project is coming Birmingham, the first and only UK city that they’ve partnered with.

It’s a real vote of confidence in this city and given the ‘popular music’ review that we’re conducting at the city council, I particularly enjoyed this, from the Espirito Mundo website:

Birmingham is a hub for British culture, birthplace of groups such as Led Zeppelin, UB40, Duran Duran, The Beat, Steel Pulse, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. A strong underground culture around drum and bass, punk, reggae and dub, hip hop, graffiti, jazz, folk music, cinema and visual arts exists within the city.

Sent from my iPad

When the library closed in 2010, officers put in place measures to mitigate as much of the disruption as possible and the neighbourhood office and local history collection have now been relocated to a council owned building at 76 Holland Street. This has enabled the constituency to offer a walk in service with access to local history material and archives available by appointment. These services will be transferred back to the library once the refurbishment has been completed. The other libraries in Sutton have extended their opening hours and visitor numbers are up.

My colleagues and I have been working hard with officers to get this issue resolved, ever since we hit the problem with asbestos last year. (Indeed I’ve had two meetings with officers in the last two days alone on this issue and will continue to keep pushing until it’s resolved). At a time when libraries are being closed all over the country we’re putting a business case together to reopen the one in Sutton but it’s not going to be cheap. The work that needs doing is extensive and includes the removal of asbestos on each of the floors, replacement of the ventilation system and plant, new floor coverings, ceiling grids and electrical installations. Unsurprisingly given that the city has to save over £200m this year, and is having to make significant savings in every area of service delivery, it’s proving a challenge to find the £1.8m that is needed but we are determined to get the library reopened as soon as possible. There’s a financial need to make more efficient use of the space, as outlined here, but I’m keen to see as much of a library service provided as possible.

A design brief is currently being worked on, with a view to a business case being presented to the Council Cabinet. Once the detailed brief and costs are completed there will be a period of consultation with councillors and library users with a view to the library being reopened at the end of 2012. I’ll post updates on this blog as things develop.

Full public report:

BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL
PUBLIC REPORT
Report to: COUNCIL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
COMMITTEE
Report of: COPORATE DIRECTOR OF GOVERNANCE
Date of Decision: 6 MAY 2011
SUBJECT:
LIVE VIDEO STREAMING OF FULL COUNCIL
MEETINGS
Wards affected: ALL
1. Purpose of report:
1.1 To propose the live internet streaming of full Birmingham City Council meetings from
May 24 2011.
1.2 To report the findings of a trial run on April 5 2011.
2. Decision(s) recommended:
2.1 That the City Council allow live internet streaming of Birmingham City Council meetings
from May 24 2011. This feed will then be made available to external media
organisations.
2.2 That funding is identified for this new service.
2.3 That the entire meeting be projected onto the council chamber screens to allow
uninterrupted streaming
Contact Officer: Deborah Harries
Telephone No: 0121 303 4777
E-mail address: deborah.harries@birmingham.gov.uk
Signature:
Chief Officer(s): ……………………………………………………………
Dated: ……………………………………………………………
List of Background Documents used to compile this Report:
Nil
Audio Visual Streaming of City Council meetings.doc
Page 2 of 2
3. Relevant background/chronology of key events:
3.1 On March 22 2011 the Council Business Management Committee agreed to an internal
trail of web-casting at the April meeting of City Council and requested that the Corporate
Director of Governance report on the outcome of the trail.
3.2 On April 5 2011 we ran a test streaming of footage from the full Council
meeting. The dry run took footage from the existing cameras in the council chambers
was broadcast (password protected) via www.ustream.tv.
The findings:
a) Audio taken directly from the council chamber sound system was of high quality
when broadcast online.
b) Initial problems with the video quality were overcome by streaming footage
through Adobe Flash Media Live encoder.
c) We are in a position to begin live streaming of full council meetings from May 24.
d) The stream produced will be embedded on www.birminghamnewsroom.com and
can also be made available to the media for use on their websites.
e) By providing this feed we avoid the need for additional cameras in the chamber.
This approach is successfully used in Westminster to avoid disruption.
f) At the moment, footage from the cameras is only screened after oral questions,
with the city crest shown for the first part of the meeting. We recommend that footage
from the meeting should be screened throughout.
3.3 Going forward there are two options with ustream
1. Free service
Pro: cost
Com: ustream is free because it is ad-supported and we have no control over the
content of those ads.
2. Ad-free broadcasting
Pro: Still inexpensive (around £65 a month) and no concerns about inappropriate
ads.
Con: There is a cost, albeit minimal, and funding must be identified.
The ad-free service is the better option is the preferred option because it avoids the danger of
inappropriate ads being juxtaposed with serious political debate.

Result – Sutton Trinity – Con Hold