Category: BPreviews

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BPREVIEW: Rita Ora @ O2 Academy Birmingham 16.05.18

BPREVIEW: Rita Ora @ O2 Academy Birmingham 16.05.18

Words by Eleanor Sutcliffe

On the 16th of May, Rita Ora will be performing at O2 Academy Birmingham as part of The Girls Tour coming to venues across the UK.

Doors open at the O2 Academy Birmingham from 7pm, with tickets priced at £33.70 (plus delivery fees) – as presented by SJM Concerts, Live Nation and AEG. For direct gig information, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

**At the time of writing this gig was close to selling out, with only a few tickets left via Ticketmaster and other outlets. Please ensure you buy from a reputable agent**

Rita Ora rose to mainstream music fame back in 2012, after appearing as the guest vocalist on DJ Fresh’s No1 single ‘Hot Right Now’. In May that year, Ora – who had been working on material for her debut album – released her debut single, ‘RIP’, which also entered the charts at the top spot. Then in August, Ora completed the hat trick with ‘How Do We (Party)’ which again debuted at No1 – making her the only artist of the year to have three consecutive releases at the top of the UK Singles Charts. Rita Ora’s self titled debut album, Ora, came out in August 2012 again reaching the No1 spot on release.

Winning huge industry attention, Rita Ora, who signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label in December 2008, attracted support slots from many major artists such as Coldplay and Drake. Clear that Ora was a pop force to be reckoned with, since those somewhat meteoric beginnings she has toured from England to Australia, recorded with artists from Tinie Tempah to Iggy Azalea, and won pretty much every award you could think of including Best British Breakthrough Act at the 2013 BRIT awards.

Rita Ora has further enjoyed a solid career on screen, appearing as a judge on several high profile TV talent shows and staring as Mia Grey in the Fifty Shades… film trilogy

However, every silver lining has it’s cloud and Rita Ora’s music career took a hit in 2015 after she filed a lawsuit against Roc Nation seeking release from her contract. Settling this in early 2016, Ora signed to Atlantic Records in 2016 – releasing her first single on the imprint, ‘Your Song’, in May 2017.

Rita Ora’s latest solo single, ‘Anywhere’, was released in October 2017, following with a track with Liam Payne from the Fifty Shades Freed soundtrack, ‘For You’, in January 2018 ‘For You’. A further collaboration with Cardi B, Bebe Rexha, and Charli XCX, ‘Girls’, is set for release on 11th May – paving the way for Ora‘s long awaited sophomore studio album, which fans can hope to see released in autumn 2018.

‘Anywhere’ – Rita Ora

On the 16th of May, Rita Ora will be performing at O2 Academy – as presented by SJM Concerts, Live Nation and AEG. For direct gig information, including venue details and online tickets sales, visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2academybirmingham/rita-ora-tickets 

For more on Rita Ora, visit www.ritaora.com

For from the O2 Academy Birmingham, including all further event listings, visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2academybirmingham

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BPREVIEW: Slam Dunk Festival 2018 (Midlands) @ NEC 28.05.18

BPREVIEW: Slam Dunk Festival 2018 (Midlands) @ NEC 28.05.18

Words by Eleanor Sutcliffe

On the 28th May, Slam Dunk Festival 2018 will be coming to the NEC in Birmingham for the Midlands date of the 3-day festival.

Doors open at the NEC from 12:30pm, with tickets are priced at £54.80 plus booking fee – as presented by Slam Dunk Ltd. For direct information on Slam Dunk Festival 2018, including details on all the events happening across the UK, click here. For a direct link to online ticket sales for Slam Dunk Festival 2018 (Midlands), click here.

Starting in 2006, Slam Dunk Festival has grown over the years into an inaugural part of every pop punk and rock fan’s calendar. With 6 stages hosting countless bands, and thousands of fans flocking to sites across the UK year upon year, it’s been promised that 2018’s line up will be the pinnacle of the festival so far.

Slam Dunk Festival 2018As per usual, the festival is being split into 6 stages – ensuring it can cater for any fans tastes, be that acoustic or pop punk. Headliners this year include Good Charlotte and Jimmy Eat World, who are both making their debut Slam Dunk appearances at the 2018 festivals, alongside Taking Back Sunday, Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes, and Sleeping with Sirens.

Having recently completed a UK tour, alt rock band PVRIS will be back in Birmingham performing on the Jägermeister Stage – along with State Champs, Knuckle Puck, Four Year Strong, and Southampton’s horror rock band Creeper. To read our Birmingham Review of when PVRIS came to the O2 Academy Birmingham, click here.

The Monster Stage will be home to bands such as Twin Atlantic and Moose Blood, while the Fireball Stage will host Slam Dunk favorites Zebrahead and Reel Big Fish.

However, it’s the smaller stages where many of the festival’s gems really lie – with up and coming bands such as Holding Absence, Loathe, Stand Atlantic and Astroid Boys all making appearances at this year’s festival. The acoustic Key Club Stage is looking to be a belter too, with Birmingham’s Luke Rainsford performing alongside Speak Low If You Speak Love and an extra stripped back set from Four Year Strong.

The rounding off the night will be the Slam Dunk Festival 2018 after party, hosted by Birmingham’s alternative club night UPRAWR – held in the Genting Arena Forum from 11pm to 3am.

So a bit to keep you busy on the Bank Holiday, and with an uber strong line up of the scene’s great, good and going to be HUGE tickets are likely to sell out. You might want to scrap your pennies together a little quickly – this year’s Slam Dunk Festival is looking to quite possibly be the best yet.

On the 28th May, Slam Dunk Festival 2018 comes to the NEC in Birmingham. For direct information on Slam Sunk Festival 2018, including details on all the events happening across the UK, visit www.slamdunkmusic.com

For a direct info and online ticket sales for Slam Dunk Festival 2018 (Midlands), visit www.gentingarena.co.uk/whats-on/slam-dunk-festival

For more on the Slam Dunk Festival 2018 after party – hosted by UPRAWR, click here.

For more from the Genting Arena, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.gentingarena.co.uk

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BPREVIEW: Opulence Presents Mother’s Meeting with Charity Kase @ Bar Jester 28.04.18

BPREVIEW: Opulence Presents Mother's Meeting with Charity Kase @ Bar Jester 28.04.18

Words by Emily Doyle

On Saturday 28th April, Birmingham’s party collective Opulence launch their brand new night, Mother’s Meeting. In honour of the inaugural event, Opulence are bringing avant garde queen and Instagram darling Charity Kase to Birmingham, for a night of performance at Bar Jester on the Queensway in Birmingham City Centre.

Doors open for Opulence Presents Mother’s Meeting at Bar Jester from 9pm, with performers scheduled to go on stage from 10pm. Tickets are priced at £4 (adv) and £4 (otd) – for direct event information and links to online ticket sales, click here.

BPREVIEW: Opulence Presents Mother's Meeting with Charity Kase @ Bar Jester 28.04.18London based artist Charity Kase gained recognition when they carried out the ‘365 Days of Drag’ challenge, a feat that won Kase the Queen of the U.K 2017 Award through WERRRK.COM. This saw the 21-year-old art student produce a new look every day for a year.

The completed gallery can be found on their website, where looks inspired by horror films and children’s toys nestle alongside the abstract and the political. Each character comes with their own snippet of a story, which could be a taste of what live audiences can expect at Mother’s Meeting. Kase’s art also spills over into their own DIY clothing label, Upperkase.

As part of their mission to showcase Birmingham’s diverse drag culture, Opulence have laid on an impressive line-up of support acts. Opulence’s own Jay Andre, Dahliah Rivers, Jenna Davinci, Yshee Black and Nora Virus will also be taking the stage, while Elliot Barnicle will be serving up his bold, graphic looks from the DJ booth. Altogether, the Mother’s Meeting crowd can expect another fresh addition to Birmingham’s burgeoning drag scene.

Opulence Presents Mother’s Meeting at Bar Jester on Saturday 28th April, with Charity Kase as the headline act – joined by a troupe of Opulence’s own performers. For direct event info and links to online ticket sales, click here. 

For more on Charity Kase, visit www.charitykase.co.uk

For more from Bar Jester, visit www.barjester.co.uk

For more from Opulence, visit www.facebook.com/opulencebirmingham

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BPREVIEW: Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival @ REP & other venues 27-29.04.18

BPREVIEW: Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival @ REP & other venues 27-29.04.18

Words by Helen Knott

Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival is a weekend-long partner to the full ten day festival, running mainly at REP from Friday 27th to Sunday 29th April. Further events are also being held at the High Street branch of Waterstones, Birmingham & Midland Institute, and the Curzon Building by Millennium Point.

Tickets prices vary for all events, with some already sold out. For direct information on the Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival, including full programme details and links to online ticket sales, click here.

Organised and run by Writing West Midlands, Birmingham Literature Festival celebrates its 21st anniversary this year. And whilst the festival may have reached young adulthood, it continues to gather momentum each year with 2017’s edition featuring some of its biggest ever events – including Brummie comedian Joe Lycett and Jess Phillips MP (Yardley) in conversation at Town Hall.

2018 is a particularly interesting time for Birmingham Literature Festival, as the recent appointment of Antonia Beck as Festival Director marks the start of a new chapter (pun intended). It will be interesting to see what impact Beck, an award-winning theatre maker, has on the programming and direction of the festival in the coming years.

We’ll know more when the full October programme is announced, but on first sight the spring programme isn’t a massive departure from previous years – featuring a line-up of writer events, screenings and workshops, with a mix of star names (Alexei Sayle, Jenni Murray) and local authors.

There is, however, a particular focus on celebrating and championing female writers within the Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival programme. In the centenary year of women in the UK over 30 being guaranteed the right to vote, and with the #MeToo movement continuing to highlight the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, it’s a fitting theme for the festival. Discussions will include the gender bias in publishing, women’s place in history, and the #MeToo phenomenon itself.

Here are some of my picks of the events to watch out for this spring, all designed, as Beck puts it, to create, “a space to learn, challenge and be inspired”.

The Boy with the Top Knot screening @ The Studio (REP) 27.04.18The Boy with the Top Knot screening @ The Studio (REP) 27.04.18 / 6pm / Free (booking required)

Black Country writer Sathnam Sanghera’s critically-acclaimed memoir about a second-generation Indian man growing up in Britain, The Boy with the Topknot, was turned into a BBC drama in 2017. Here you can watch a screening of the adaptation, then join a Q&A with some of the key people involved – including director Lynsey Miller, screenwriter Mick Ford, and Sanghera himself. Sanghera is Guest Curator for the full festival in October, so watch out for hints of what he might have in store.

For more on The Boy with the Topknot, as featured in the Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival programme, click here.

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#MeToo: A Movement in Poetry @ The Studio (REP) 28.04.18 / 6pm / £8 (£6.40 concessions)

Fair Acre Press has published an anthology of new poetry featuring 80 female poets’ response to the #MeToo movement. The anthology, tilted #MeToo: A Movement in Poetry, includes work by Jill Abram, Helen Mort, Pascale Petit and Jacqueline Saphra, and includes a forward by Jess Phillips MP. At this event, poems from the anthology will be read by some of the poets themselves and by audience members in a thoughtful, and no doubt hard-hitting, response to an extraordinary movement.

For more on #MeToo: A Movement in Poetry, as featured in the Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival programme, click here.

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2018: The Year of Publishing Women @ The Studio (REP) 28.04.18 / 2.15pm / £8 (£6.40 concessions)

Back in 2015, the novelist Kamila Shamsie made a provocative suggestion – to counteract the gender bias in publishing and literary awards towards male authors, Shamsie suggested that 2018 should be the Year of Publishing Women with no new titles written by men.

Shamsie’s article has sparked much discussion and publicity, but only one publisher (And Other Stories) has taken up the challenge. In this panel discussion, the debate will be continued by Catherine Mayer (writer and co-founder of the Women’s Equality Party), Tara Tobler (Fiction Editor at And Other Stories) and Sian Norris (writer, founder and director of the Bristol Women’s Literature Festival).

For more on 2018: The Year of Publishing Women, as featured in the Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival programme, click here.

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A History of Britain in 21 Women with Jenni Murray @ The Studio (REP) 29.04.18A History of Britain in 21 Women with Jenni Murray @ The Studio (REP) 29.04.18 / 7pm / £10 (£8 concessions)

In her 2016 book, A History of Britain in 21 Women, Woman’s Hour presenter Jenni Murray tells the stories of 21 British women who have shaped the country and indeed, her own life. Each chapter focuses on a different woman, some of whom are well-known and others less so. For this event Murray will be in conversation with television journalist and presenter Sue Beardsmore. Expect plenty of anecdotes from Murray’s life, full of her trademark wit and warmth.

For more on A History of Britain in 21 Women, as featured in the Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival programme, click here.

For more on Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival, visit www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org

For more on Writing West Midlands, visit www.writingwestmidlands.org

For more from Birmingham REP, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.birmingham-rep.co.uk