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.

[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.

[Condi]

entropy said:

Would be helpful to know what genres OP is into.

I did a quick internet search and techno staying strong in the Tunnel Club in Brum.

"Dance music" for want of a better phrase, encompassing house, techno, trance, disco, DnB, jungle, rave etc.

As for Tunnel Club, it still exists and somewhere I've been, but has 6 events advertised between now and end of October (https://www.tunnelclubbirmingham.co.uk/events), and while there will be others no doubt booked in the meantime there are only 2 events in April and 2 in May which isn't much of a full program, compared with what you would get in London (MoS, Fabric, XOYO, Drumsheds etc) all of which have a program of Friday and Saturday nights, or Manchester (Depot Mayfield, Joshua Brooks) with lots of guest DJs and performers.

There seems to be more for the rock, metal and indie lovers than the electronic crowd, that's all. I'm just a bit lost as to how come such a big city has such a crap electronic scene, and when someone did try and do something (Crane) within 3 months it was closed down after a bloke got stabbed. The 2 guys who murdered him were given minimum sentences of 24 and 25 years today, for what it's worth. XOYO have opened a club in Digbeth and they are giving it a good go to be fair with some DnB nights and decent names.