Hi rhubarb radio Community of Interest

As some of you may know, in addition to my involvement with rhubarb radio, I am a director of ‘DAISY’ (Disability Arts Inspired Social Enterprise), which aims to enable talented people with disabilities to develop as Artists with a capital A, very much in the vein of Outsider Art: though I personally don’t like this term.

Engaged generally, in disability issues; for sometime I have been thinking about the accessibility of rhubarb radio’s programming for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.  From the very outset Birmingham’s leading Social Media exponents have sought to craft the rhubarb radio as a social media platform which could expand the capacity for participation and access to the culture of the city.  That said, given that our primary output is audio, serving people who are deaf or hard of hearing presents us with some difficulties.

During our live audio streaming of the Hello Digital 09 event and quite rightly, a number of issues relating to disability access have been passionately raised via the blog post PeskyPeople.  Some of the issues raised invited the event to consider whether it was possible to have made the audio more accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing.  Again rightly, the point was also raised that it shouldn’t be the job of people with disabilities to organise their inclusion in events or services.

I felt sad to learn of the experiences expressed in the blog post and further so when considering the many people who are deaf or hard of hearing visit such events online.  Ever the optimist, I took to thinking we at rhubarb radio could better address our difficulties in this service area, and how the creative capital of rhubarb radio could possibly meet this problem head on.

Obviously, I can offer to the event organisers the facility to apply a voice to text treatment to the audio archive for the event and then apply that to the website

Beyond this, I believe, requires a far more creative response. I recently returned from an UrbanLab conference organised by Citilab in Barcelona, in which motivated digital creative’s from every discipline came together in a spirit of fun, curiosity and creative endeavour, to apply their collaborative knowledge, skills and experiences to a problem expressed from within the community that required a digital technological solution.

The intention was not necessary to arrive at a complete solution but rather to advance the solution.  With no expected commitment beyond the time frame of the event, first the problem was fully explored and clarified, it was then divided up into relevant solution areas and again relevant creative’s applied themselves to working together for creative digital solutions to the problems that presented. The event was a real delight, engaging, refreshing, enlightening etc.

I am wondering whether there might be interest and motivation out there among our creative and academic communities to attend a rhubarb hosted CreativeLab event; aimed to better enable people who are deaf or heard of hearing to have access to live audio such as radio. There seems to be a fare amount of research, initiatives and innovative approaches out there along with some unresolved software.

Let me know what you think. If members are happy I shall progress the idea with who ever comes forward.

It strikes me, if we could get a decent audio to text translation all manor of things become possible: live text from live audio facility can be switched on and off; Text can reasonably be translated in to the full range of community languages and community language text could easily be re-streamed as text to digital audio; Text to Braille also becomes possible for those who might need it.

Some of you will know that rhubarb radio is currently exploring the possibilities of enabling people to create tags within our listen again audio streams. An audio to text facility could offer us additional benefits in this area by better enabling us to create jump points or auto tags within our streams. The list of benefits to our all round service would be many, and obviously there are much wider applications beyond the rhubarb project.

It may be that at this point in the development of digital technology it’s just not possible, but if all that is achieved through a CreativeLab event, around the issue of disability access to audio, is that we advance towards a solution by one more millimetre it will be worthwhile.

Daniel Cremin

Get them while they’re hot (in the virtual, print out an email sense).

where and when:

The Irish Centre (The Connaught Bar)

Saturday 12th September

10pm – Late

the line-up:

Urban Sunrise feat Wahfish (EMP Records)

Capoeira Renascer (C.Mestre Israel / Capoeira Dancers)

A Woman of No Importance (Extract from Oscar Wilde’s Play / Ay Mango! Theatre)

Boogie Dave and Roskoe (Dubstation)

Skeleton and Dolhasz (Beat Suite)

Whomanity (Whomanity)

Olbi i (Version Galore)

Royal (Open Beats)

More details, ticket links, even some tunes or vids if we can dig them up, coming soon.

Block out the time in your diaries…

(storming flyer too)

Tickets now available here.

Call for volunteers

This year we are taking part in Birmingham’s biggest & most vibrant cultural festival: ArtsFest!

We are aiming to offer a range of live Artsfest feeds from around the city.

We are also hosting the Afterparty from:  the Irish Club, in Digbeth:

Saturday 12th September

10pm – 4am

Birmingham Irish Club

16-20 High Street Deritend

Irish Quarter

Birmingham

B12 0LN

Ask it! Stand

We will also have an Ask It! Stand on Saturday and Sunday on New Street, where we will be able to provide visitors with information about rhubarb radio and the Artsfest afterparty. The stand will offer us the opportunity to advertise the range of shows on rhubarbradio.com, our key service areas and volunteer opportunities. We will also be able to have a small selection of rhubarb merchandise on display (and for sale) on the stand.

Join us at the festival:

We are now looking for volunteers who would like to join in with the event and help out during the two days.

We are looking for:

• People to steward the afterparty event on Saturday evening 8pm – 4am.
• People to man the Ask it! Stand on Saturday and/or Sunday.
• Afterparty ticket sellers on and around the Ask it! Stand.

Please send in a short description of how you would like to get involved

E-mail : janet.rooms@rhubarbradio.com

LIVE BOX GOES OUTER NATIONAL

BIRMINGHAM’S LIVE BOX SPARKS ANNIVERSARY BUZZ The Live Box with Soweto Kinch marks its ninth anniversary with a stunning line up of musicians and performers from across three continents.

High priest of neo-funk Anthony Joseph and his Spasm Band will kick off the four month anniversary fest – celebrated at venues in Birmingham, Leicester and London The new season also includes performances by Deodata Siquir, the Scandanavia based lion of African Jazz; Soweto Kinch returns as emcee of the Battle in the Box – the raucous open night spots for the brave and the talented; there will be music from songwriting talent Michael Olatuja, whose compositions – according to one critic – “speaks a potent language that soothes the soul.”; Jamaican born singer, dancer and songwriter Sparlha Swa bring to the event a flavour reminiscent of Joni Mitchell and Tracey Chapman. There will also be performances from spoken word artiste and Whitbread winning author Patrick Neate ; Pianist Robert Mitchell – hailed by the Guardian as “A young virtuoso of McCoy Tyner-like precision”, and, Hoxton based jazz education scheme Jazz Alive.

Developed by three-time MOBO Award winner Kinch, the Live Box has been – over the years- a launching pad for a broad range of artistes from across the Midlands and beyond. Originally based at the Drum in Aston – but now branching out with performances across Europe- the project offers both emerging and established artists the opportunity to develop and perform their work. It also provides a space for audiences of all ethnic backgrounds, ages and cultural tastes to interact and relax. Rappers, dub-poets, jazzmen and torch singers have all shone on the Live Box stages. Some very famous and long established performers have performed too – jazz greats Wynton Marsalis and Cleveland Watkiss included.

Yet according to Kinch, a key aim of the Live Box is to nurture “the brilliant raw, the vulnerable gifted who without support would probably do something else.” Handsworth Clarinettist Shabaka Hutchins; neo-soul songstress Julie Dexter, also from Handsworth but now decamped to Atlanta to record and produce, and the striking London based singer-songwriter Eska Mtungwazi are among many to have honed their performing skills at the Live Box.

The 2009 season starts September 12th with shows in London and Birmingham until December 13th. Check http://www.nucenturyarts.co.uk/livebox/ for full details.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT ROY @ SGP ON 07814677875 OR DON @ NU Century Arts ON 07956876328

Good write-up, Danny. It was an exhausting but educational experience for all of us.

It’s my pleasant duty to thank the core team of volunteers, in random order:

Jenny Tate, Justin Kasey, Titchy-B, Danny Smith, Amanda Gaynor and Richard Summerfield. I could not have been more pleased with the co-operation, enthusiasm and flexibility shown by everyone over the weekend. Some were in for the long haul, some were unable to be; some were able to air their talents, some were in a more supporting role. The details didn’t matter: what mattered was the team spirit and the way everyone worked together.

I’m also grateful for Daniel Cremin’s help in securing artist interviews and Paul Hadley’s assistance with the quite intensive preparatory work needed.

I had better not take up the readers’ time mentioning everyone else who was of assistance, such as the guest commentators who helped us on the day, but you can hear some of them on the highlights of the broadcasts which Danny mentions above.

I’ve certainly learned a lot from the experience.

Kevin

By Danny Smith

Last weekend it was my honour to make up part of the team from Rhubarb Radio to cover arguably the most forward thinking music festival in the world. Excuse me if I sound all dewy eyed about it all. I suppose my brain is going through the same post traumatic stress and backwards rationalisation that a front-line M*A*S*H surgeon goes through to convince themselves they made a difference and the war was worth fighting in the first place. Getting to cover the festival was a big coup for our fledgling station and the patchy group of volunteers did our best and produced something more professional and bigger outfits would have been proud of.

Friday was tough; because we needed permission from the individual artists and not all the artists gave us permission to stream their sets, there was the occasional gap – none as big as the gap on Friday. From the start of our coverage at six, till the first act we could stream at one in the morning. For unplanned and improvised chat and a playlist collected on the spot we did a sterling job. Sod that, we did a sterling job for a planned show and it was totally due to the fast thinking of Ritchie Summerfield on the desk and the extensive music knowledge of Justin Casey that kept it coherent even while fighting through the deep resonating doom notes of Sunn o))). When Venetian Snares came on it was a big relief, and that is the first time that that act has ever been described as such (more on that later).

Saturday was easier and although not all of the acts gave us permission to stream them, there was still enough time to run around soliciting more permission, grabbing interviews, small stress related nervous breakdowns and even to check out some of the acts. Food over the weekend came in the form of crisps and drink was smuggled Stella. Sunday was easier still, but it had to be as most of us were running on fumes, although I have since found out that after I left at about nine at night the hard-core stopped extra grabbing more interviews and even exclusive performances.

I am extremely proud of what we produced and listening back the quality is surprisingly high. But like a swan, what you see is slick and elegant but underneath the water we were paddling like bastards.

Here are my highlights;

Venetian Snares – Dark and frantic Drum ‘n’ Bass that was so brutal and so fast that it had more in common with Gabba Techno in some places. The unpredictable overlaid beats relentlessly gave you no pause for breath, intercut with short samples of speech that had to be processed sublimely before the next beat struck. It was a whirlwind of chaos and noise that, like chaos, from the outside had no discernible pattern, but from the inside, made sense. He grabbed the mosh pit and didn’t let go, and I thought he was going to kill some of them – dance them to death like religious dervishes. Little Chris, a far braver and more importantly, drunker, man than I said it was “the friendliest mosh pit I have ever been in” but from the outside it looked like a post apocalyptic gang war rather than the Wiggles concert that Chris thought he was in. Picture a speaker being plugged into an army of robots brains as they encounter humans for the first time and try and download all of our media output for the last fifty years – that’s what it sounded like, but better.

Master Musicians of Bukkake – Wasn’t really that weird at all, unless you think that five gay bee keepers from space creating building musicscapes fronted by the Swamp Thing grunting and screaming into the mic was weird. Then it was very weird indeed. Blurring the line between music and performance art the gig had more of a 60’s art happening feel to it.

Iron Lung – This was the fist act I caught at the weekend that was completely to my music taste. Raw post metal up your arse, Strong and aggressive as a crack smoking pit bull with the best singing drummer since Phil Collins. But not just angry noise, the technical skill of the band lends strength to the sound making it about more than volume and aggression.

zZz – Pronounced as it sounds, like a bee. I know because we were lucky enough to interview them. By far my favourite band all weekend. Playing a criminally early slot they attracted more of a crowd anybody has a right too that early. For a two piece their sound is big and complex, and although they deny the direct influence, the organs, vocals and aggressively sleazy tone all bring to mind the Doors. Ok, so the Doors without the faux LSD influenced mysticism and overt dandyism. What you’re left with is a complicated and, in places, quite dancey sound driven by big pounding kettle drums and deep crooning voice singing laments of loss, sin and ecstasy.

All the listening available here: http://www.rhubarbradio.com/live/events/archive/2009/7/default.aspx

The heats of the first ‘Comedy Callback’ competition were held on Saturday at Jongleurs, Broad Street, and we broadcast live from the venue (see: http://www.rhubarbradio.com/live/events/comedycallbackday1.aspx ).

Thirty aspiring comedians were chosen from over fifty entrants to appear live at the heats, each performing five minutes of stand up to our team of judges that included Scott Hempel, Manager of Jongleurs and Broad Street Manager, Mike Olley.

Three hours of heats and an hour of deliberations later the Comedy Callback finalists were decided upon:

Gary Colman is an exciting new act on the comedy circuit who is quickly gaining a reputation as a strong opening act. He has been described as “a hilariously funny, cheeky story teller; absurd, surreal yet all true”.    

Okse combines his two loves, comedy and painting. To high acclaim he released a collection of his artwork “The Art of Comedy” and now takes his deserved place on the stand up stage. Okse is described as “one of the worlds new sensational talents”.

Simon Jones our Welsh bundle of charm, Simon turns the problems he encounters in life into a unique brand of observational comedy with deadpan delivery. Simon is summed up in one word “hilarious”.

Andrew Ryan has quickly established himself as one of the most exciting new comics climbing the comedy ladder, being described as “funny, funny, funny” and “one to watch, for sure”.

Simon Feilder returned to the comedy stage in 2008 and is full of excitable energy delivering his own brand of surreal, self-deprecating comedy. Simon has been summed up as “a stand out stand up act”.

Lou Chawner has been performing on the comedy stage February 2005. His confident style of storytelling, original material and unique style sees him described as “Cool, crude, and very funny”.

Our six finalists now proceed to our grand final on Saturday August 1^st where they will perform in front of Maria Kempinska, Founder and Creative Director of Jongleurs Comedy Club, and comedian Frank Skinner for a chance to win the coveted prize of a contract with Jongleurs. As you would expect, we’ll be broadcasting live from the final too.

Caroline Ashton, Marketing and Communcations Manager for the Broad Street BID and organiser of Comedy Callback said “The standard of competition today was high. We had 30 contestants that we had to whittle down to six finalists and it was a difficult task for the judging team. All the comedians here today could have held their own in our final. I’m excited for the final and to see who our judges pick as our first “King of Comedy Callback”.

To get your tickets to attend the final of Comedy Callback and see Frank Skinner presented with his Walk of Star honour please visit www.jongleurs.com.

For further information please contact Caroline Ashton, Marketing and Communications Manager, Broad Street Business Improvement District at caroline.ashton@broadst.co.uk,  or telephone (07722) 447 496.

Rhubarb Radio are delighted to welcome our newest Rhubarbarian, Chris Downing, aka Little Chris of Brumcast, to the team.

Over the past three years, Chris has produced and presented over 100 regular Brumcast podcasts, which promote local and unsigned acts, and attract listeners worldwide. His podcasts have been featured on the Birmingham Post website, and Post editor Marc Reeves is a big fan. He also recently did a two-part special featuring artists from next weekend’s Supersonic festival, which will also be covered extensively by Rhubarb Radio.

Brumcast will be live on Rhubarb Radio on Mondays from 8 to 9pm and also available to ‘listen again’.

Chris is well-respected in the local music scene and it’s great to have such a passionate and dedicated music fan on board! We’re sure he will find many new listeners via Rhubarb and enjoy the new live aspect of his shows. You will be able to interact with Chris during the show via Twitter and email.

Read more about the Rhubarb Radio Brumcast show.