The citizens of Birmingham are currently being asked to comment and contribute to The Big City Plan, a project led by the city council that aims to steer the development and direction of our city centre over the next 20 years. There is also a plain English version of the plan online, created by a group of Birmingham bloggers, which might be useful to some.
It’s possible that asking for public input is merely the council paying lip service, and that plans will continue along a predetermined… Read the rest
Categories: Apropos of Nowt,Birmingham,Collaboration
Tagged: Big City Plan, Birmingham, Duran Duran, HP Sauce, Metal, Regeneration, Ziggurat
- Published:
- January 23, 2009 – 11:55 am
- Author:
- By Craig
Roll up, roll up for the first FOTS-POD of 2009, which also happens to be the one that takes the tally of podcasts into double figures. However you do the maths, this means we have now unleashed almost 7 hours worth of music and swearing to a disinterested interweb. Makes you proud, doesn’t it.
Episode 10 is a more sedate affair than previous releases. Executive Producer Robson and Craig are found here in a pensive, post-New Year mood and engage in discussions on subjects including Rock Climbing in Cornwall, How The Gulf Stream Keeps Britain Warm and Why The Beatles Aren’t in iTunes. Indeed, it’s not until the alcohol kicks in… Read the rest
Categories: Birmingham,Collaboration,Music,podcast
Tagged: Beatles, Cornwall, Dylan, Gulf, iTunes, mp3, Music, podcast, Springsteen, Stream, Ween
- Published:
- January 21, 2009 – 7:52 am
- Author:
- By admin
It’s almost the end of 2008 and End-of-Year lists will be popping up all over the interweb, so here’s me adding mine to the growing online pile
Mine is a random mixture, shown in no particular order, of some of the cool/weird things that happened to me in 2008. It also has some of the things the band got up to, some of the music I happened to like and also just a little bit about some of the interweb doohickeys that caught my eye.
Here goes…..
1: THE RISE OF FLEET FOXES
This time last year no-one had heard of them, then back in March Campbell played me… Read the rest
Categories: Apropos of Nowt,Birmingham,Collaboration,Images,Internet Doohickeys,Live,Music,podcast
- Published:
- December 29, 2008 – 12:12 pm
- Author:
- By Craig
Me and the missus saw Public Enemy last night in Brum. It was the only UK show of their current tour during which they are playing the whole of “It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back“. It was pretty awesome as it goes. They even told the crowd when we were entering Side 2, but I think most folk there knew the record well enough to know that. It was a joy to hear those tunes played live again.
Chuck and… Read the rest
Categories: Apropos of Nowt,Birmingham,Live,Music
- Published:
- December 4, 2008 – 3:24 pm
- Author:
- By Craig
This is me performing a version of Rio by Duran Duran from the recent Songwriters Cafe event at Birmingham’s Orange Studio. The event was a reunion show for a much-missed former fixture of the Birmingham music landscape….
In 1997, when Buick 6 was but a mere twinkle in my eye, I was a regular performer at Paul Murphy’s “Songwriter’s Cafe” – a bi-weekly Sunday afternoon music event held in Birmingham city centre bar that saw performances from local artists and singers as well as visits from some more well known folks such as Read the rest
Categories: Birmingham,Collaboration,Live,Music
- Published:
- November 16, 2008 – 1:48 pm
- Author:
- By Craig
Now, here’s a strange thing….
Campbell was recently rummaging around at home and managed to unearth some long lost Podcast source material. It was recorded on the afternoon of Saturday 25th August 2007, which was the day before the launch party for our debut album “Lighting & Electrical” and therefore should have been a day for much joy and japes.
However, on the evening of the 25th and just a few short hours after these recordings were made, we all went out to the pub and this awful thing happened to Campbell. It was a stupid, dumb, horrible and… Read the rest
Categories: Birmingham,podcast
- Published:
- November 12, 2008 – 3:10 pm
- Author:
- By admin
A new Friends of the Stars Podcast is unleashed to a disinterested interweb today.
It’s the 5th in our irregular series and is entitled “Run, Robson, Run”, and this time the boys cover such diverse subjects as Industrial Action, The Legacy of The Birmingham Half Marathon and, controversially perhaps, which of the 4 Cafes on York Road in Kings Heath provides the best breakfast fry-up. It is, as you’ve no doubt come to expect, cerebral stuff indeed…
At around 26 minutes this one is a wee bit shorter than the others,… Read the rest
Categories: Apropos of Nowt,Birmingham,Music,podcast,Promotion
- Published:
- October 31, 2008 – 8:10 am
- Author:
- By admin
Here are some things that were captured on Friday….
Anna singing with Dorian Wood (USA) on his song ”Watsonvilled”…
..and some photos from the night.
There are many more photos to see in this handy Friends of the Stars / Dorian Wood FLICKR set
Friends of the Stars
Dorian Wood (UK)
Dorian Wood (USA)
There will be some audio to come just as soon as Dorian USA gets home to California and makes it Interwebable.
Were you at the show? Leave a comment below with your thoughts…
Categories: Birmingham,Collaboration,Images,Live,Music
- Published:
- March 25, 2008 – 5:51 pm
- Author:
- By admin
Lots of Birmingham sites have posted this over the last few days. I’m happy to join in.
It’s all part of the Keep Digbeth Vibrant campaign, something I support completely. If you’re unaware of the back story then it goes something like this:
Property developers build far too many Luxuty 1 Bed Apartments in and around the city centre of Birmingham. As soon as the buildings are constructed they become massive, gigantic twat magnets. Idiots are strangely compelled to purchase their identikit boxes at hugely inflated prices and once installed they throw themselves whole-heartedly into the Modern Urban Living Dream. The Modern Urban Living Dream… Read the rest
Categories: Apropos of Nowt,Birmingham
- Published:
- March 16, 2008 – 12:28 pm
- Author:
- By admin
DORIAN WOOD (USA)
DORIAN WOOD (UK)
FRIENDS OF THE STARS
+ STEP OFF DJs
Doors open 7pm, £3 entry
The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham
******************************************************************************
In the late 1990s in California Dorian Wood decided to track down his worldwide namesakes using the interweb and eventually got in touch with Birmingham-based Dorian Wood. Finding someone who shares your slightly out-of-the-ordinary name on the other side of the globe would be one thing, but to find out that you are both involved in the creation of strange and beautiful music is something quite altogether different.
On Good Friday 21st March 2008 we are… Read the rest
Categories: Birmingham,Collaboration,Live
- Published:
- February 27, 2008 – 10:58 am
- Author:
- By Craig
