The Power of the Flip Cam (via Benjamin Ellis)

So last night we (me and Tom) joined the cast of Interactive Cultures and Amplified to take part in the social meejaising of UB40′s Rainbow Roof fundraiser in Birmingham. The event itself was great fun and we managed to get a real feel for what the Brummie live music “movement” was about – despite having to head home not much longer after UB40 took the stage (either survive on Red Bull or miss work in the morning..) With the choice of Rhubarb Radio’s immaculate live stream of the gig, and the post-mortem collection of photos, videos, audio boos and tweets from the band – we didn’t need to worry too much about not being able to catch up with it later on.

For me, Two things struck me about last night:

1) In the pub before, we were chatting about the Music as Culture theme with Jez – and it got me thinking about my own experiences with gigs and the like. I’ve rarely went to a gig in Leicester (lived here 2.5 years)- and certainly haven’t been to nearly the same amount of gigs that I used to when I lived in/near Glasgow. It’s just not in my focus anymore – when even just a few years ago I would spend quite a bit of money on cds and gig tickets – and at a peak, it would be 2-3 gigs a week (at least one a month). I’m aware that Leicester has some what of a music scene (Summer Sundae, few little venues and more recently Twesta promotions) – but with the demise of the Charlotte (which I found out today has had plans filed for its demolish in favour of new student flats (meh), less than 3 months after it reopened again) – it’s another knock to a city with a rather confusing social scene. It’s not as if people don’t want it, it just doesn’t smack you in the face when you arrive.

@brian_condon, me and @discombob (via @benjaminellis)

I’m no expert here – but I was a consumer, a fan, someone who was genuinely interested in a local music scene and Glasgow was my city, gigs were something to do, something to look forward to and bring friends together- and now I’m not and I don’t even know where to begin in Leicestershire. I wonder what happened there and after last night, I would like to, at least, try and rectify that. Certainly, community drives the involvement – and for the first time in ages, I actually left feeling like I wanted more. So, in this case, Birmingham is certainly doing something right – and to mess with the smaller city centre venues – in favour of yet more empty carcasses of new build flats, occupied by people who knew what they were getting when they decided to live in the centre of the 2nd biggest city in the UK – would be a bad thing.

The audience members I interviewed were saying the same thing. Can watch them here and here.

Turning the camera back on to the media (from Benjamin Ellis)

2) The second point probably relates more to my research interests – and perhaps reinstalled my original enjoyment for using new media to subvert traditions. Alongside coverage from national and local news channels – there was also journalists from the Independent, the BBC and a man with a rather large tv camera – all hanging around, looking for a story. I was approached, twice, by journalists – and both times wasn’t allowed to be interviewed because I was there for meeja stuff myself. Of course, Tom wasn’t – he was coming along for the gig, so poor Tom got asked a bunch of questions about stuff he didn’t really know nor care about – to which he answered “yes” “no” “it’s a good thing” “uh hum” – taken down in short-hand and had this picture taken for a voxpop. Riveting. (sorry Tom )

Of course, the real interesting story is the fact that the community media (the band, the university, the radio station and gig venue) were all working together to increase the visibility of the cause (the purpose of the gig) and to help give the audience a voice – and on top of that, if they liked it or not – the audience were watching the gig through the screens of digital cameras, mobile phones and some even had their own techy-looking kit to capture the event- to share with their network, be it online or off.

A couple of crafted voxpops were trumped by a room full of people, doing their own thing. That’s pretty damn awesome. Birmingham, bring it on!