Why is the Midlands so lacking in gigs?

[Condi]

Something I've been wondering - why is the Midlands so poor for gigs/music events when compared to other areas of the country? There is a website called Resident Advisor (ra.co) which lists club nights and DJ gigs all over the world, split down by region.

London has 1700 listed events
Manchester has 383
Leeds has 161
Bristol has 101
Brighton has 60

Birmingham has 39
Nottingham has 16

Brighton has 280,000 people living there, while Birmingham has over 1.1m and a much larger number in a wider catchment if you include Solihull, Wolverhampton, Walsall, etc, and yet Brighton has 50% more listed events than Brum.

I've been wondering this for a while, why is Birmingham/the Midlands so devoid of culture, music, art etc? The place just seems to have no personality about it, whereas the likes of London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Brighton etc seem to have much more identity.

[Tom8]

Strange considering so many great bands and musicians have come from the west mids area. It is true though rarely see much, certainly not in pubs. The NEC used to be a significant venue but now not so much, maybe lost out to the O2 in competition.

[vixen1700]

These towns are coming like a ghost towns, all the clubs have been closed down.

Bands won't play no more, too much fighting on the dance floor.

[PistonBroker]

I was under the impression it was still pretty good, tbf. Certainly better than down here in Zummerzet!

As a teen in Worcestershire in the 90s we always did well. Wolverhampton Civic, Wulfrun, Aston Villa Leisure Centre, the NEC . . . then off to Uni in Leicester so suddenly the legendary Nottingham Rock City was close by. Saw FNM and Korn there (separately!).

My brother gigs around Stourport, Kidderminster etc and never seems short of gigs. He was reeling off the acts coming to some venue I'd never heard of in Kiddy and it sounded like they'd got some good stuff coming along.

Just googled - 45 Live.

[Mazinbrum]

Condi said:

Something I've been wondering - why is the Midlands so poor for gigs/music events when compared to other areas of the country? There is a website called Resident Advisor (ra.co) which lists club nights and DJ gigs all over the world, split down by region.

London has 1700 listed events
Manchester has 383
Leeds has 161
Bristol has 101
Brighton has 60

Birmingham has 39
Nottingham has 16

Brighton has 280,000 people living there, while Birmingham has over 1.1m and a much larger number in a wider catchment if you include Solihull, Wolverhampton, Walsall, etc, and yet Brighton has 50% more listed events than Brum.

I've been wondering this for a while, why is Birmingham/the Midlands so devoid of culture, music, art etc? The place just seems to have no personality about it, whereas the likes of London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Brighton etc seem to have much more identity.

Is this events per month, night or what?

[Giantt]

Not many bands do 'full' UK tours like in the 80's when I was a kid in Carlisle,city hall used to get some decent gigs,just over in Newcastle,city hall n Mayfair always had big bands on, doesn't seem to be so much in Newcastle now, luckily living in Camden these days definitely notice bands n artists playing round here and not much else, even smaller artists just starting out seem to do one or two show case gigs?

[mikeiow]

Feels like plenty of bands and artists play around Leicester and Nottingham - DeMontfort Hall, The Musician, The O2, Rock City, Royal Concert Hall as examples of venues we often go to. Something on most nights at all of those.

You mention club nights and DJ sets…that isn’t something I would know or care about though

[Alex Z]

The Midlands still seems pretty well served for gigs, though not as much as London, Liverpool or Manchester.

Birmingham has The O2 Academy and Institute, The Asylum and others.
There’s KK’s plus the Civic & Wulfrun in Wolverhampton, then smaller venues like Katie Fitzgeralds in Stourbridge.

[ChevronB19]

Giantt said:

Not many bands do 'full' UK tours like in the 80's when I was a kid in Carlisle,city hall used to get some decent gigs,just over in Newcastle,city hall n Mayfair always had big bands on, doesn't seem to be so much in Newcastle now, luckily living in Camden these days definitely notice bands n artists playing round here and not much else, even smaller artists just starting out seem to do one or two show case gigs?

Carlisle is pretty dead compared to the past, but amongst the million tribute bands the old fire station puts on some good stuff, albeit not ‘high profile’. Think Hugh Cornwell, Electric Six etc.

In the 80’s I saw the smiths, the mission and the damned at the sands centre (the only big venue after the market hall closed down). Even then, a big band was a rarity. In the 60’s they had all the stuff like the Beatles, stones, who etc. Newcastle is a problem due to trains.

There’s a few good small(ish) festivals (not something I personally enjoy) like Solfest, Kendal Calling (nowhere near Kendal).

Of course there was the R1 ‘big weekend’ which had the Foo Fighters and Lady GaGa.

[the-norseman]

I've been to quite a few gigs in the midlands recently, Birmingham & Wolvo.

I've got Foo Fighters at Villa Park and some more gigs at KK's this year as well.

[macdeb]

I sort of know what the OP says, though times have changed and I've seen many bands around Brum and surrounding areas in the past. But I'm being nostalgic thinking of The Odeon New st where I saw Black Sabbath supported by Van Halen no less, then Elton John, Gary Numan, Quo, Japan. Saw Nine Inch Nails at Wolverhampton civic hall, and Micheal McDonald. Seen Massive Attack at o2 (old night out) and that's a cool place still and seeing Darius Rucker there this month. Seen Go West and Don Williams at B'ham 'symphony hall' and that's a pretty good place. But sadly things have changed mostly in favour of stadiums which for me loses the intimacy. OK, I've been to NEC few times for Depeche Mode (x5) The Cure (x4 and once at Cornwall Collisium for there warm up 'Wish' tour which was epic as you could almost touch them) The latter is my point, I don't myself care much for huge stadiums where I can only see a band nowadays behind some knob heads' phone! Why do they feel the need to do that? It ruins it and I hark back to the days of being searched at venues for cameras (and bombs in Brum' at the time) which was fine. Now, I much rather stick to good pub venues and to see bands playing 'live' no backing tracks which is karaoke to me. Or local festivals, two of which worth a mention here and that's 'Blackwell festival' and the 'Glastonbeoley' festival in Redditch of which my own band 'Take Cover' are playing (shameless plug I know) and all proceeds go to charity. Anyway, rock the Funk on for 'live' music!

[vixen1700]

An old mate from school is headlining on the Saturday night at this little festival in Birmingham soon.



Up there with some of the most horrible music imaginable.

[Hammersia]

Think those figures are way off, Brum and the area has loads going on, even Milton Keynes does.

[Condi]

Hammersia said:

Think those figures are way off, Brum and the area has loads going on, even Milton Keynes does.

They're not way off at all, they're directly from the website.

Maybe the difference is that everything mentioned so far has been rock/guitar music, whereas RA does dance/electronic music, but it's a pretty complete listing site for those genres.

It also very much reflects my experience of being in the Midlands and having to travel to gigs, usually either London or Manchester. Just thinking about the "famous" or big nightclubs, London has Ministry of Sound, XOYO, Fabric, E1 etc, Manchester has Warehouse Project, Brighton has Concord. They tried to do something similar in Brum, called Crane, and within 3 months of it opening someone was stabbed and the place lost it's licence. The only other one I can think of in Birmingham is the Hare and Hounds which is a very small venue although does get some good DJs from time to time.

[Hammersia]

Condi said:

Hammersia said:

Think those figures are way off, Brum and the area has loads going on, even Milton Keynes does.

They're not way off at all, they're directly from the website.

Maybe the difference is that everything mentioned so far has been rock/guitar music, whereas RA does dance/electronic music, but it's a pretty complete listing site for those genres.

It also very much reflects my experience of being in the Midlands and having to travel to gigs, usually either London or Manchester. Just thinking about the "famous" or big nightclubs, London has Ministry of Sound, XOYO, Fabric, E1 etc, Manchester has Warehouse Project, Brighton has Concord. They tried to do something similar in Brum, called Crane, and within 3 months of it opening someone was stabbed and the place lost it's licence. The only other one I can think of in Birmingham is the Hare and Hounds which is a very small venue although does get some good DJs from time to time.

Right, so you're talking about a specific genre you didn't mention in the OP.

To conclude that "Birmingham/the Midlands so devoid of culture, music, art etc" as per your original statement, when Brum has one of the best concert halls in the country, Shakespeare Stratford is a few miles away, loads of other theatres, two really good acoustically O2 venues....

(I'm not even from the Midlands)

And you mention Brighton in the same breath? Brighton? The English Brighton?

Edited by Hammersia on Thursday 4th April 16:45

[rustyuk]

Condi said:

Hammersia said:

Think those figures are way off, Brum and the area has loads going on, even Milton Keynes does.

They're not way off at all, they're directly from the website.

Maybe the difference is that everything mentioned so far has been rock/guitar music, whereas RA does dance/electronic music, but it's a pretty complete listing site for those genres.

It also very much reflects my experience of being in the Midlands and having to travel to gigs, usually either London or Manchester. Just thinking about the "famous" or big nightclubs, London has Ministry of Sound, XOYO, Fabric, E1 etc, Manchester has Warehouse Project, Brighton has Concord. They tried to do something similar in Brum, called Crane, and within 3 months of it opening someone was stabbed and the place lost it's licence. The only other one I can think of in Birmingham is the Hare and Hounds which is a very small venue although does get some good DJs from time to time.

I think they meant that the figures on the website are not accurate, which is probably the real reason.

It lists the Midlands as having less events than Birmingham and searching for Sheffield and it has one event for tomorrow. Looking on Google that seems wildly inaccurate.

Edited by rustyuk on Thursday 4th April 16:50

Edited by rustyuk on Thursday 4th April 16:59

[5pen]

The numbers, if accurate are very surprising, but as far as gigs go, I’m not familiar with the Midlands scene at all.

What is it like for venues? Does it have a variety of venues with capacities in the 150 - 3000 range? That’s the sort of places most events will be booked for.

Brighton is very good in this regard, from pubs with a decent separate room (Prince Albert / Hope and Ruin) up through smaller dedicated venues like Komedia, Patterns, Chalk, Concorde 2 (300-800ish) and bigger stuff like the Dome (1700ish) and the Brighton Centre which can be configured for up to 5000.

[mikeiow]

Hammersia said:

Right, so you're talking about a specific genre you didn't mention in the OP.

To conclude that "Birmingham/the Midlands so devoid of culture, music, art etc" as per your original statement, when Brum has one of the best concert halls in the country, Shakespeare Stratford is a few miles away, loads of other theatres, two really good acoustically O2 venues....

(I'm not even from the Midlands)

And you mention Brighton in the same breath? Brighton? The English Brighton?

Exactly!
As I said above: “ You mention club nights and DJ sets…that isn’t something I would know or care about though”

Plenty going on in the East Midlands….maybe not so much club nights & DJ sets!

[ChrisPackit]

There used to be quite a 'scene' coming out of Stourbridge, with the Wonder Stuff, PWEI and Neds so am surprised that there's not more going on down there? I travelled to Brum a few months ago to the O2 to watch Wonder Stuff, and was a top gig!

C

[abzmike]

vixen1700 said:

These towns are coming like a ghost towns, all the clubs have been closed down.

Bands won't play no more, too much fighting on the dance floor.

Very good....