Birmingham Mail
10/30/2024
Lyle Bignon
UK & Europe music industries, NTE, media, PR consultant
United Kingdom
Night Time Economy (NTE) Ambassador (Birmingham) for the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA)
United Kingdom
Night Time Economy (NTE) Ambassador (Birmingham) for the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA)
Music experts estimate how much Glastonbury headliners such as Beyonce, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones were likely paid in the past.
Visiting Birmingham, London and Paris over the last week, one of the many Covid-related consequences was very apparent across all three cities: live music - as we knew it - is still painfully absent from our lives.
Ever wonder where your twenties disappeared to? Stepping through the side entrance to the newly renovated Rainbow Pub in Digbeth, missing pieces of a lost decade started to trickle back down neural pathways as overgrown as the track atop the unused railway viaduct further down Adderley Street.
The 2019 general election got everybody talking. From politicians to TV broadcasters, to journalists and families, the vote took over conversation at a time usually spent talking about the soap Christmas specials and what you want from Santa.
Artists, music industry figures and fans have paid tribute to 2-Tone pioneer Ranking Roger, vocalist with successful Birmingham ska bands The Beat and General Public, who has died aged 56. A statement from the band yesterday reported the artist, real name Roger Charlery, passed away 'peacefully at home...surrounded by family' on Tuesday 26 March.
Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterestshares2-Tone pioneer Ranking Roger, who sang with successful Birmingham ska bands The Beat and General Public, has died aged 56. A statement by The Beat reported the artist, real name Roger Charlery, passed away 'peacefully at home...surrounded by family' on Tuesday 26 March.
This interview was conducted by Birmingham-based music PR, consultant and journalist Lyle Bignon for this Riffs Vol. 2 Issue 2. Discussing the topic of music criticism and Anna Palmer's experience and opinions of being critiqued, this interview was undertaken during the cover shoot and was envisaged as being more of a conversation with disruptions and interventions, inviting contributions from both Anna and Ian Davies, the photographer.
National music promoter and venue operator DHP Family is to open a new music venue in Birmingham in 2018, according to plans announced today.
Ariana Grande live at Genting Arena Birmingham Thu 18 May 2017
Ocean Colour Scene, Editors, The Twang, Higher Intelligence Agency, Victories At Sea, Dorcha, Jaws, Superfood, Goodnight Lenin, Health and Efficiency, Table Scraps, Blackash, and The Americas are amongst Birmingham acts confirmed to play a brand new city centre music festival later this year.
Kasabian live at O2 Academy Birmingham Thursday 13 April 2017 for Metro
An historic South Birmingham pub is to relaunch as a live music venue and late night bar this weekend.
A brand new 1000 capacity electronic music venue located on an historic industrial site in Digbeth Birmingham is set to open in March 2017.
An exhibition documenting the underground Northern Soul scene in Birmingham and the Midlands, hosted at Birmingham City University's Parkside Gallery, has opened to the public.
'It Flew By', the second full-length album by the Birmingham-based electro swing band and UK festival favourites The Electric Swing Circus is out now on Ragtime Records.
Birmingham noise-pedallers Mute have revealed a track from their forthcoming debut album, set to be released in summer 2017 through FOMA Records.
Legendary Black Sabbath guitarist and proud Birmingham supporter Tony Iommi has written and released a piece of music celebrating his home city.
A new event aiming to bring together Birmingham's creative community, food lovers and free thinking individuals over good food, launches at the Zellig building in Digbeth on Saturday, December 10th.
Punk rock duo Slaves head back to the Birmingham this autumn for a live show at the city's O2 Academy.
A one-day urban arts festival is set to return to its location underneath an infamous road interchange in Birmingham for its sixth year this summer.
The US pop megastar Prince has died at his Minnesota home, aged 57. A statement from the artist's publicist confirmed the death in a statement to news agency Associated Press around 6pm GMT on Thursday 21 April. The tragic announcement follows the news earlier this week that the multi-instrumentalist and singer was rushed to hospital with flu following an emergency plane landing.
The US music artist Prince has died at his Minnesota home, aged 57. A statement from the megastar's publicist confirmed rumours circling the web were true in a statement to Associated Press around 1815 GMT on Thursday 21 April 2016.
Album number two from Teleman delivers a few subtle but significant changes; essentially though, it's business as usual for the wonky-pop quartet. Happily, the quirky musical moments that characterised the London band's 2014 debut Breakfast are sprinkled over Brilliant Sanity, resulting in 11 pleasingly playful songs.
A new opera production involving around 100 volunteers is expected to take up temporary residency at an historic former music venue in Birmingham next week.
Arc Vel, Faux Palms, Health and Efficiency and Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam are among Birmingham acts set to feature on the first release from a new city record label.
Digbeth live music venues Alfie Bird's and The Oobleck has announced it has closed with immediate effect. The venue, which opened in 2014, issued the following statement via Facebook late afternoon on Monday 7 March: "As some may have been aware by now, we have some bad news to communicate.
On the morning of Monday January 11, 2016, music fans woke to the news that David Bowie had passed away aged 69. The artist's official Facebook page was updated around 6.30am GMT with the short statement: "David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer.
The news that David Bowie passed away at the age of 69, surrounded by his family and friends, filtered through on Monday morning. It sent the internet into meltdown and spawned warm tributes from his fans in London, New York and right across the world.
Facebook TwitterA new opera production involving around 100 volunteers is expected to take up temporary residency at an historic former music venue in Birmingham next week.
Aspiring Birmingham music professionals aged 14-20 are being offered the opportunity to learn more about touring and venue management in the lead up to a week celebrating the UK's live industry.
Where will you discover most of your new music in 2016? Chances are that it will be a lot of places. Music discovery is as variegated as it has ever been, with music publications not necessarily dominating the fore in the wake of music streaming's growth (Apple Music, Spotify, and their respective playlists), global supra-word-of-mouth thanks to Twitter and Facebook in conjunction with YouTube and SoundCloud, and the continually spreading influence of forums and other similar media, like Reddit.
John 'Brad' Bradbury, drummer with ska pioneers The Specials, has died aged 62.
We're reporting live from a week of BBC Music: Live in Birmingham music industry events across Birmingham, including workshops, panel discussions and live showcases.
Actress, The Gaslamp Killer, !!!, Omar Souleyman, Lamb and of Montreal are amongst the first wave of acts confirmed for the 2016 edition of London festival Convergence.
A weeklong programme of workshops, panel discussions and live performances opens in Birmingham this week, with a Q&A hosted by BBC R1 and 1Xtra DJ Charlie Sloth.
Pop megastar Prince is set to announce a 'Naked and Pure' solo tour across the UK and Europe later this month, including a date in Birmingham, according to reports by Spanish newspaper El Pais.
That East India Youth didn't figure on the shortlist for this year's Mercury Music Prize came as a shock to many in music media. In William Doyle, British music has a genuinely inquisitive, hard-working and critically acclaimed artist.
A new clothes boutique selling recycled and up cycled clothing by-the-kilo has opened its doors to the public in Kings Heath.
One of Birmingham's longest-running reggae events has announced it has relocated to a new home. Jam Jah Mondays, which was established in 2001, has relocated from The Bull's Head in Moseley to The Dark Horse nearby.
by The 405 ( Google+), 08 July 2015 What are the best albums this year so far? It's a question that evades even the most decisive of musical minds because, well, it's not an objective thing: how do you measure the "best"? Is it what most people like?
A month-long celebration of Birmingham's unseen rich and diverse architectural heritage has launched in the city. The 2015 Hidden Spaces 'Unlocked' programme offers a diverse range of events that aim to reconnect people of all ages with the city's rich heritage. A series of fascinating talks, over a dozen open buildings, a handful of walking tours and two ...
Birmingham future disco duo Free School, cutting-edge Brighton composer, producer and musician Gazelle Twin, and London-based roboticist and sound historian Sarah Angliss are among twelve artists selected to take part in a series of explorations around sound later this month. The Moog Sound Lab Residencies, hosted at Birmingham City University's Parkside campus in partnership with Supersonic ...
A Northern Soul and Motown bar thought to be the first of its kind in the UK for decades is set to launch in Birmingham with two all-nighters in mid-July. The Night Owl on Lower Trinity Street in Digbeth is the brainchild of superfan Richard Priest and business investor Arith Liyanage.
It begins with the sound of guitarist Thom Edward unlocking the gates and doors to the lockup in Wolverhampton's Horsley Fields that he and drummer Ash Weaver have rehearsed in for the five years or so of God Damn's existence.
In an interview last year, the singer and multi-instrumentalist Eska Mtungwazi described an exchange with the composer and producer Matthew Herbert in which he had laid down the challenge for her to 'go away and write music that sounds like what it feels like for ESKA to be alive today.'
As hard-working bands go, God Damn deserve a goddamn medal. Super industrious, with a ton of live shows in pubs, living rooms, festivals and record stores under their belt, the Wolverhampton sludge metallers have had just enough time to grab fresh pants before heading back out on the road following a gruelling UK, European and US tour.
1994 was a big year for music. The radio-friendly rock of Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Soundgarden had the edge in the US and UK charts; Kurt Cobain's suicide, Oasis vs Blur, Michael Jackson's marriage to Lisa Marie Presley and the Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge world tour all dominated the headlines that year.
If 2010 debut Becoming A Jackal was the occasionally naïve but unquestionably brilliant introduction to the talents of one Conor O'Brien, then 2013 follow up Awayland was the assured confirmation of a new exciting voice in Irish indie-folk.
"I'm on the number 36 - the bus of doom." Jason Williamson says when Fused gets through on a dodgy line. "It takes me to work and back every day...it's not exactly a fucking holiday camp is it?"
Saturday 18April marked the eighth annual Record Store Day, and we asked you for photos and experiences of the event. Here is a selection of our favourites
On 2013's Big Inner, Matthew E. White distilled the diverse ingredients of funk, country, soul, gospel and pysch-rock into such a heady and astonishing record that it was difficult to imagine a follow up of equal value.
An online search for LCD Soundsystem, their three studio albums or the film of the band's swan song Shut Up And Play The Hits turns up hours of lengthy soundbites on the influential musical project, along with pages upon pages of photos of the sole founding member and songwriter in his trademark white office shirt, suit jacket and unkempt hair - a figure of note in New York's rebirth as a global hub for leading edge music and culture during the 2000s.