By way of a recap: last week, Birmingham’s Town Hall reopened it’s doors after more than a decade of sitting derelict at the top end of New Street looking like a jilted bride’s abandoned wedding cake. A week-long festival of events are currently being held to celebrate its reopening, which on Monday featured an evening dedicated to the city’s experimental music scene. The former home of the CBSO, Birmingham Town Hall dates back to 1834 and over the years has played host to legendary bands like Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones. It’s a fine example of neo-classical civic architecture [...]

In my last post I mentioned how eager I was to get involved with GDFAF - or 'Going Deaf For A Fortnight' - my friend Pete's hard-core gig-going initiative that seamlessly combines muso evangelism with the anti-lethargy ethos of the classic TV show 'Why Don't You'. That was on Wednesday, already midway through the first week of the fortnight. I haven't posted anything on here since then, so you might assume that I've spent the last few days doing it large and moshing like an eejit in a variety of salubrious sticky-floored local venues.Well, you'd be mistaken.Do you want to [...]

My good friend and erstwhile gig-pimp Pete Ashton is currently on Day 4 of his mammoth Going Deaf For a Fortnight extravaganza. To those unfamiliar with GDFAF, the concept is simple: over a two-week period you go out and visit as many local music venues as possible. Preferably while a band is playing, and preferably one a night [although a night off is permitted].It's Pete's brain-child. He first did it in 2005 as some sort of masochistic-social-breaching -experiment-type thing and over 14 consecutive nights he went 13 gigs. I met him shortly afterwards and it wasn't a pretty sight. He [...]

In a move that has shocked political and media pundits alike, Prime Minister Gordon Brown today announced that the Labour Party’s next Party Political Broadcast will be a “high-octane, adrenaline-fuelled epic” featuring the cult 1980s action movie icon Chuck Norris. Bearded black-belt Norris – who shot to fame in a string of straight-to-video classics like ‘Delta Force’, ‘Lone Wolf McQuade’ and ‘Delta Force 2’ – will play the role of a maverick Labour Party activist canvassing the mean, suburban streets of Kanye East, a troubled but fictional marginal constituency. In the 5 minute film Norris will be seen to [...]