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An evening with Gilles Peterson at Birmingham Town Hall

Birmingham’s Town Hall has finally reared up from the dust with great resonance, after lying dormant for over a decade. When the Town Hall last closed its doors in 1997, it created a gargantuan void in the city centre, something you just ‘passed by’ without a second thought. However, after a long overdue refurbishment, the Town Hall once again opens it doors to both young and old of the city and what better way to celebrate than with an evening hosted by internationally renowned jazzmeaister ‘Gilles Peterson’.

We arrived early and were welcomed by a group of smiling staff, shuffling from door to door ensuring punters knew exactly where they should and shouldn’t be. The building has been revamped from floor to ceiling with impeccable taste, there are no rough edges here, the stunningly ornate architecture has been emphasised with subtle but effective lighting. The acoustics in the main hall are truly grand and significant thought has gone into this prestigious project.

Warm Up With Leftfoot

First up was DJ Adam Regan, a stalwart of the Birmingham dance scene, with sound experience in hosting dance music events. His night ‘Leftfoot’, has brought many great names to Birmingham and he has represented the city on an international stage. Adam’s current ventures encompass the trendy ‘Bull’s Head’ in Moseley and the gritty ‘Hare & Hounds’ in Kings Heath.

Adam’s warm up started off to an empty hall (when I booked my tickets the gig appeared to be far from sold out which was slightly worrying.) Gilles Peterson quickly shuffled on stage to speak with Adam, looking out over a vacant dance floor, with disco lights zooming back and forth, they shared a joke and Gilles disappeared again. The thought did cross my mind whether Gilles would actually play if it was only to a few dozen people?

Birmingham is a funny place, the old heart of the city centre was ripped out during the architectural experiments of the 50’s and 60’s. This removed many small buildings in the city centre. Where other cities have benefited from the retention of these intimate streets with cosy restaurants, bars and clubs, Birmingham’s “village” feel just isn’t there, hence Brummies often  stay local during week nights. The busy times tend to be at weekends and a Wednesday night in Brum could be hard work for the most experienced of promoters.

Summary and Bruce Q

Gilles introduced the first band and people started to mill around the front stage. Summary are a 9 piece modern jazz group from Brum, they started nervously but who could blame them. Gilles Peterson was watching from the side, a man accustomed to watching some of the finest jazz musicians in the world. It’s an immense stage with huge cavernous walls and ceiling from which all manner of audio and lighting equipment dangle, perhaps creating a feeling of loneliness for anyone on stage.

 The group soon warmed up, with the MC complimenting the unique singing talents of Naomi Blake. Taharka MC was fast and concise, with his rhymes dropping in and out. The band played an eclectic set, and finished to a rapturous applause from a crowd now filling up the large dance floor. I spoke to Naomi afterwards and she may be collaborating with U.S. turntablist ‘Madlib’ in the near future, which would be a massive stepping stone for the talented Brummie songstress. Watch out for ‘Summary’, a band hotly tipped for success by Gilles Peterson.

Bruce Q (of Liquid Fusion), took control of the decks for the next slot. The hall was really filling up by now and it was nice to see a wide variety of people in attendance. We spoke to two guys who had some incredible moves, a combination of street and jazz dance. I was astounded to discover that the one guy was 50 years old.

Sugarbeats sweeten things up

Next up came Birmingham-based septet ‘Sugarbeats’, a Gilles Peterson favourite and it’s no surprise considering they are veterans of the Birmingham Conservatoire (as well as the Medicine Bar). Sugarbeats owned the stage with an easy and sometimes intense presence. Tight, fast and competent musicians, tenor ‘Ed Johnston’ kept the songs accessible with his uplifting, swinging vocals. The powerhouse of the band was ‘Rob Norman’ on keys, his lightning fast strikes of his organ left many people watching simply stunned. The band have played along side Gilles before and also renowned DJ ‘Norman Jay’.

The band finished and left the stage, Gilles offered the crowd an encore and Sugarbeats returned for a finale which literally raised the roof of this magnificent music hall - another one in the bag for the Sugarbeats.

Gilles Peterson Vs Break Dancers

The last slot was covered by Gilles P who took to the record decks with dexterity. Gilles (an Arsenal football fan), has a passion for his music which radiates, his confidence and knowledge of soul, jazz and funk is possibly unrivalled in the world. Gilles has unearthed some absolutely classic breaks over the years, some call him the founder of Acid Jazz and he is renowned for digging deep in the record vaults of every label. As you can imagine, his DJ sets tend to go down a storm and this is no exception.

The lights go way down and everyone is moving as Gilles works the crowd, suddenly a space is filled by a spinning shape, several guys start an impromptu break dance performance and a crowd form a half circle in front of the stage, right under Gilles’s nose. He looks a little surprised, these guys are awesome. ‘Back flips’, ‘head spins’ and ‘windmills’ result in the spotlight falling on the dancers rather than Gilles for a short time, which is a little strange and he applauds them for their efforts.

Gilles Peterson Vs Sound Problems

At one point, the grooves mysteriously die suddenly, Gilles is stood there and jokes “they spend all this money and they can’t even get the sound right.” People look a little bemused and the breakers take a breather. The crowd reforms, a few people try and heckle Gilles but it’s all in a days work and the sound returns with great relief to all. This discontinuity actually allows Gilles to reclaim his thunder and the party continues to roll, someone jumps up and darts back stage followed by security but Gilles isn’t phased.

The party finally ends at 11:30pm, which is probably about right on this occasion, as spirits were a little high with some of the crowd, all credit to Gilles and Adam Regan for pulling this unusual gig off. Everyone we spoke to admitted the end result was a £15 very well spent. Final thoughts, in future it might be worth alcohol being restricted to the bar. I couldn’t help but wince at a glass of red wine which had been spilt over the brand new beige carpet.  Also, the marketing of such events by the Town Hall need to be dynamic, to ensure the future hard work of promoters is rewarded by a high attendance. Thanks to Natalie Walcott for photos and Gilles for the mug shot at the end and for shaking so many sweaty appreciative hands.

In The Place To Be!

When Birmingham inventor Alexander Parkes demonstrated the first plastic or ‘parkesine’, in 1862, little did he know that nearly a century later his new invention would be the main ingredient in the manufacture of vinyl records. Previously in 1840, John Wright and the Elkington brothers had been awarded the first patents for electroplating in the city, now an essential process in the manufacture of vinyl disc masters.

By the 1950s lateral cut disc records had been perfected and were being made increasingly popular as a music format for Jazz bands in America. In Birmingham swinging jazz all-nighters took place at the Town Hall, Teddy Boys and Teddy girls rocked and rolled at venues such as Alex Hoopers and The Star Ballroom on the Stratford Road and party goers jived to coffee bar jukebox 45’s along Broad Street and Five Ways.

Rock, blues and soul took the city by storm in the 60s and cover bands such as the Modernaires played the Ritz in Kings Heath. Sometimes during band intervals someone would play records to fill the gap, certain venues like the Tudor Club (now Oceania) and the West End Ballroom gradually played more and more records with disco DJs starting to emerge in the mid to late 60s.

New York, Detroit & Birmingham?

The 70s brought radical change with DJs playing the Rum Runner (influenced by New York’s Chic power-disco and made famous by Duran Duran) but it wasn’t until the 80s that the DJ craze really took off. Disc Jockeys copied the Hip Hop style from New York with DJ competitions such as the DMC mixing championships inspiring DJs such as ‘Sparra’ (DMC champion) to take to the wheels of steel, Birmingham producers were amongst the first to release UK Hip Hop records. Raregroove was also popular in the city with DJ Dick and Sean Williams playing similar styles to London’s Norman Jay. Acid house and techno became a natural progression from electro for Birmingham’s underground music fraternity.

One of the most influential dance record labels in the world during this time was Network/Koolkat records based at Stratford House. In 1988, Neil Rushton (label boss and manager of ‘Inner City’) compiled and supervised the release of an album that would change the course of dance music forever, “Techno - The New Dance Sound Of Detroit”. It brought to light the futuristic sounds of Detroit masterminds like Derrick May, Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson. The compilation is now considered to be one of the major keystones in the history of techno music.

“Network Records was a shining light for Birmingham, at least the ones that knew it was in Birmingham, I’d say every Detroit techno pioneer visited Stratford House at some time. Judy Nanton worked at Network, also a regular at the Powerhouse in Birmingham around 86, the constructive Trio were Birmingham’s pioneer house DJs and used to play at The Powerhouse.” - Martin Red

Acid House - Rave

The Warehouse style raves that were sweeping the nation took place in the city. Biology was an early all-nighter at the Hummingbird (now the Academy) soon followed by Spectrum which had roots in London.

“I had a friend from London who phoned me in the morning telling me he was in Birmingham. He was very surprised he ended up in Brum, he thought he was gonna get on a coach which would take him to the m25, but he ended up in the Hummingbird instead.” - Martin Red

Car parks, factories and legal venues such as the Institute (now the Sanctuary) and Coast to Coast buzzed with techno and house, even the Dome didn’t escape with ‘Land of Oz’ on a Wednesday. One of the Midlands most notorious dance promotions was Shelly’s in Staffordshire, part promoted by Birmingham resident Martin Red and made famous by Network’s ‘Altern 8′ who once performed an impromptu gig on the back of a huge HGV outside.

Other late 80’s promotions that embraced the new acid house and rare groove phenomenon included Chuff Chuff, Dial B, Salvation, The Bottle and Rococo. These were served by pre-eminent DJs Nathan Gregory, Bill, Dick, Lee Fisher and Moneypenny’s promoter Jim Shaft Ryan.

“Birmingham had a core of dedicated clubbers very early on who were willing to travel to Manchester and London as well. Mega Active arcade catered for this scene and one stall was The Depot which became a national outlet for rave ticket sales and mix tapes helping to distribute dance music across Britain. ” - Jim Shaft Ryan

Reggae pirate radio stations began scheduling rave DJs for Friday and Saturday nights. Reggae has always been big in Brum and the city’s soundsystems were called on for dance events. Reggae record shop ‘Summit’ started selling rave and techno such was the demand.
Pure and Tempest were respected dance record stores and the first “record bar” called ‘Global Grooves’ opened in the Arcadian with the now infamous ‘Hard To Find’ records hot on their heels. DJ and Mix Magazine often cited Miss Moneypenny’s, Wobble, C.R.E.A.M. (prior to Liverpool’s Cream), Chuff Chuff, and Fun among the top ten house nights in Britain with the Nightingale, Tin Tins and Que Club keeping it underground.

Notable Midland DJs to emerge from the clubs include Steve Lawler, Tony Devit, Scott Bond, Lisa Lashes, Patrick Smooth and Carl Cox to name but a few. The city even exported brands such as Moneypenny’s to Ibiza, Gatecrasher to Sheffield and Sundissential to London. Early bars included 49er’s, Notes and Marco Polo.

Rave Of The Future

The music scene remains diverse as ever and dance music is still thriving. If you’re looking for glamorous house nights out in the second city then check out Miss Moneypenny’s, Gods Kitchen and Fuel. If electro house is your bag then ‘B1′ at Chic and ‘Switch’ at Moonlounge may be worth a look with ‘Mud’ and ‘If’ after parties taking place at Bushwackers and Boho Rooms respectively.

Digbeth continues to spearhead the alternative dance scene in the city with Shaanti and House of God bringing ethnic beats and techno breaks to The Factory.
The “free party” scene is still going strong also, with Atomic Jam about to celebrate their 12th birthday at the Medicine Bar and electro breaks night ‘Trigger’ taking over the Rainbow club. Bam Bam takes place every 3rd sat of each month at the Rainbow importing deep disco and Balearic beats and if the city centre is not up your street then sample the Bulls Head in Moseley or Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath for jazzed up night ‘Leftfoot’ which recently hosted Gilles Peterson.

Birmingham Jazz… nice!

It may have been in America that early jazz or ‘jass’ music was first forged but Britain adopted the music lovingly and Birmingham played it’s part in this dance craze.

Pioneers of modern jazz

Two of the earliest jazz players were Ronnie Ball and Douglas “Dougle” Robinson, both born in the city during the 1920’s. Ronnie was a successful pianist and a stalwart of the early scene. Douglas played alto sax, clarinet and flute and performed with jazz legends Bert Ambrose, Tito Burns, Teddy Joyce and Ronnie Scott.

Tony Kinsey from Sutton Coldfield is a composer arranger and musical director. Tony and Ronnie Ball, gained great recognition in London as two of the earliest British “modern Jazz” pioneers. Tony played local gigs with pianist Ronnie and later received drum tuition in New York from Cozy Cole. He regularly led his own quintet accompanying visiting American stars including Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Oscar Peterson, Ben Webster and Harry “Sweets Edison. Tony also played with John Dankworth, Ronnie Scott, Tommy Whittle, Tubby Hayes and Arnold Ross and has recently been awarded the Worshipful Company’s Senior Jazz Medal for his contribution to jazz.

The only Ronnie Scotts outside London

Rock ruled Brum in the 60’s and early 70’s but jazz still found it’s place amongst psychedelic and progressive fusion bands such as Galliard and Ghost. During the 70’s BBC’s Pebble Mill studios sometimes scheduled popular trad artists of the time such as Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball and Cleo Lane for live shows. The 1980’s gave rise to Nick Millward, (of Kenny Ball’s “Jazzmen”), and King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys who formed in nearby Walsall. The band are now one of the most popular jazz and swing bands in The World.

Jazz continued to simmer on a low heat, with the West Midlands favouring more acid jazz grooves which were popular with revelers at nights like Brothers & Sister and Fungle Junk. Since the demise of Ronnie Scott’s on Broad Street, Birmingham’s venues have been thin on the ground. Jazz is fighting back in full reprise though. New venues and home grown talent are standing up heralding an exciting future for jazz  funk devotees in the region.

Nu Jazz, Acid Jazz and Jazz Funk?

New contemporaries of Birmingham include Perry Hemus of Woodland records, multi instrumentalist Sowetto Kinch, Gilles Peterson acclaimed Sugarbeats, soulfull singers Chrissy van Dyke, Lupa and Lizzy Parkes, rap funksters Munchbreak, and fellow West Midlanders Will Holland (Quantic) and Russ Porter who now reside in Brighton. Other tasty tunesmiths are Central City Groove, Silverchét, Julian Argüelles, Toyin Kinch, Tim Amann and Alan Davies. Members of Cantaloop study at the Conservatoire and Unity Gain Theory collaborates with Wayne Lotek of Roots Manuva fame, The Walsall Jazz Orchestra also play Brumside.

Many distinguished musicians coast their way through Birmingham’s Conservatoire for professional tuition and the possibility of a rewarding future in Jazz. Other local organisations to “jazz it up” include Birmingham Improvisers Orchestra (BIO), Birmingham Jazz, Big Bear Music Group, BASS music, UKvibe.org and the Birmingham Jazz Festival.

Venues in the city comprise: The Yardbird, for international performers and DJ nights ‘Foundation’ and ‘Funk Box’, the Medicine bar, home to ’Leftfoot’ hosted by Different Drummer records, The Rainbow, presenting ‘Bam Bam’ and ‘Munchbreak’ (with live band), The Cross and Bull’s Head in Moseley, The Jam House and The Boiler Room in the Jewellery Quarter, The Mac at Cannon Hill Park, Atticus in Bearwood, The Drum (home to live box) in Aston and CBSO, Waterworks & NIA in the city centre.

Gilles Peterson, Sowetto Kinch and the Town Hall

An exciting prospect for Birmingham’s jazz scene is the reopening of the 18th century Town Hall which was home to Birmingham’s classical Triennial Festival that spanned over one hundred years, not to mention performances by the Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Bob Dylan and The Beatles. The Town Hall was also a stage for jazz. A live CD box set “Boppin’ With Scott” is available, with two performances recorded in 1948 by an ensemble including: John Dankworth, Ronnie Scott, Jimmy Skidmore, Bernie Fenton, Jack Fallon and Carlo Krahmer.

An impressive line up has been penciled in for the two week long reopening festival in October 2007. Saxophonist Andy Hamilton moved to Brum from Jamaica in 1948 and has since performed along side many jazz greats and has entertained ever since his first musical instrument - a “sax” made from bamboo. Andy will be playing for audiences in the Town Hall as will his saxy friend Sowetto Kinch. Other acts to watch out for during the festival include Ruby Turner (who now supports Jules Holland), Sugarbeats band, Kurt Elling, Cleveland Watkiss and acid jazz pioneer Gilles Peterson.

Birmingham Music Scene

Although Birmingham has often promoted an industrious image, music has always pulsed through the heart of the city. From concrete urban landscapes to leafy suburban sprawl, the city continues to inspire some powerful musicians and bands.

Radio Caroline, The BBC and ‘A Whole Lotta Love’

Since the late 1950’s, young Birmingham Rock n Roll wannabes played along to the same American R&B records as the Beatles, Kinks and Rolling Stones, but the Brummie twang wasn’t really picked up on by the media until the mid 60’s.

Radio Caroline used the Fortunes ‘Caroline’ as their signature tune, The Move became the first bad boys of pop and provided BBC Radio 1’s first record ‘Flowers In The Rain’,
The Spencer Davis Group kept on running and The Moody Blues gave us ‘Knights In White Satin’.

“The whole scene in those days, was known as the ’Birmingham group scene’ and lots of musos, would meet after gigs, at such places as the Cedar, Rum Runner, Opposite Lock, Rebecca’s and after at Alex’s Pie stand, there was great camaraderie, and I just hope the present musos have something similar!” - writes Keith Law of 60’s Brumbeat group ‘Velvet Fogg’.

One such music venue to fuel this scene was ‘Mothers’ in Erdington, one of John Peel’s favourite nightclubs during the late 60’s. ‘Pink Floyd’ recorded much of “Ummagumma” there (Nick Mason being born in the city), The Who performed “Tommy”, Steve Winwood’s ‘Traffic’ staged their debut gig and ‘Black Sabbath’ aired some of their earliest songs.

It was also during this interest in the city that Jimmy Page recruited Robert Plant and John Bonham from The Band Of Joy to form Led Zeppelin.

A Handsworth Revolution, Punk and ‘Girls On Film’.

The 70’s reinforced the city’s heavy rock sound, as Judas Priest thrashed, Ozzy of Black Sabbath allegedly bit the head off a bat and electronic pioneers ELO graced the nations airwaves with no Christmas ever escaping the scary beards of Wizard.

The more political sounds of Jamaican Reggae and Ska manifested in UB40, Steel Pulse, Musical Youth and the Beat, reggae sound systems and blues parties bubbled underground, with artists such as Joan Armatrading and Pato Banton finding new fame.

Closely tied to the reggae revolution was Punk. The Prefects, Killjoys, Dansette, Sussed, GBH and Toyah contributed to this music scene, then came heart throbs Duran Duran whose videos included half naked models, one of which Simon Lebon later married much to the disappointment of my older sister. Dexy’s Midnight Runners sang ‘Eileen’, Stephen Duffy wanted you to kiss him and Fine Young Cannibals had chart success singing ‘it’s not the way it used to be’.

Brumchester, Brit Pop and NME’s best band of 2007.

While the early 90’s spot light fell on Madchester the Charlatans formed in nearby Walsall, Ocean Colour Scene donned their Moseley shoals with Dodgy ‘coming out for the summer’ of Brit Pop. Rave and House dance acts also emanated form the city with Network Records bringing us Altern-8 and Detroit Techno.

Recent years have seen the rise of Jamelia, West Heath bard Mike Skinner, pop rockers the Editors and electro pioneers Broadcast. NME faves ’The Twang’, who feature regularly on Jo Whiley’s Radio 1 sessions are gaining popularity as are ’Mistys Big Adventure’ and the ‘Guillemots’ (aka Fyfe Dangerfield).

It would be easy to imagine that these popular musicians emerged as islands of talent, cautiously peeping out amongst a sea of dirge, but this really has never been the case. For every Duran Duran there were dozens of bands doing the same thing, for every Mike Skinner there are hundreds of kids mashing up quality demo tapes.

John Peel gave a voice to this underground, and since his death a large void appeared which seems to have been filled in part by the recent popularity of Myspace, this offers rarely heard of ‘demo tape artists’ a chance to reach a large audience in an instant… back this up with a resurgence of live music venues and you have ‘a scene’ reminiscent of the 60’s beat era.

Tomorrows vanguards?

Indie rock bands to watch out for in 2007/8 include the likes of Copter with their zany outfits and 50’s sci-fi videos, The Scarlet Harlots play colourful, fast and furious indie and Johny Foreigner and Distophia take influence from California’s ’Pavement’. Other popular groups are.. Envy & Other Sins, The Readymades, James Rea, The Computer Club, Sunset Cinema Club, Destroy Cowboy and Don’t Move, with the brilliant ‘Mayday’ who could be described as a psychedelic Stone Roses-cum-Artic Monkeys.

The Mobsters, Attica State and Mr Derry stay more in line with Brum’s traditional heavy guitar riffs while dance acts range from Herbliss, DeWolfe, Jim Grin, Single Cell Productions, Slackers Delight, Soldat, The House Breakerz and Snorkie whose music is used by the BBC.

If you’re looking for cool Acid Jazz grooves then Sugarbeats often play the Yard Bird, Perry Hemus runs his own label and Munchbreak ’nice it up’ at the Rainbow in Digbeth.

Vincent Gould, John Nappier, Richard Burke, Vijay Kishore, Gary Nock and Ben Calvert are gifted solo artists and dub reggae lives on through Friendly Fire, Overproof, Jam Jah and G Corp who can be found in venues around Moseley.

Hip Hop holds very strong roots in Birmingham. ‘Jump’ rap crew performed live on UK T.V. as early as 1980 with the city featuring heavily in 80’s Graffiti documentary ‘Bombing’, today urban artists include Moorish Delta, Polar Bear, Nahomi Mighty, Ecks, Roc1, Madflow, Juice Aleem, Wayne Lotek, Sonny Jim, Percy Filth, EYEBS, Mr Dialysis and University of the King’s while Audio Dakoos and Juttla wave the flag for UK Drum n Bass, if Psychedelia is your thang… check out Betty and the ID, Seeland, Windscale, Black Egg, Kate Goes and The Courtesy Group.

Birmingham’s music scene has never looked healthier.