When talking about music culture in Birmingham, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone more knowledgeable and well versed in the topic than Jez Collins. For almost 18 years, Jez’s non-for-profit Birmingham Music Archive has sought to explore, catalogue and praise music made in Birmingham.

Speaking with Jez, we discussed the diversity of music in Birmingham, the identity of its music culture, the direction of the Birmingham music scene, as well as the upcoming projects for the BMA.

 

What was the first record you bought?

I actually bought two records at the same time, the first was ‘Dreaming’ by Blondie on 7 inch, and I bought an album called A Tonic For The Troops by the Boomtown Rats, whose lead singer was Bob Geldof and went on to do Live Aid. I bought them in 1978 in Kings Heath in a shop called Preedy’s. Those memories are baked into my consciousness, and I’ve still got them somewhere [motions to the wall of records behind him], Boomtown Rats is up there, and Blondie might be down there, I think. 

My mum was Irish, so we always had Irish music on in the house. My mum and dad were big Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and the Byrds fans – that sort of Americana Folk. I’d always spend summers with my cousins [in Ireland] and my cousin Shock turned punk in ’77, so he would go to buy records, and we’d listen to them religiously. 

 

Did the mix of those cultures – Irish, Punk, Americana – inspire you to set up the BMA?

…I started the BMA as a website and asked people just to tell us what was important to them

No, no, that was all from a love of music. I read a lot of music papers, Melody Maker, NME, loads of different magazines, and on TV as well, and they never really spoke about Birmingham and the music that came from the city, they talked about Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow.

I went to the Central Library one day, not the one that’s there now, and I was interested to see if they had any sort of display about local music and the bands that came from Birmingham and they didn’t. So, I had a meeting with the director there and asked if they would be interested in starting up an archive and having a display, and then people can learn about it and borrow the music so it’s a lending library. They said to me that they were really keen but had no money for the project, so I started the BMA as a website and asked people just to tell us what was important to them. 

 

Do you think it is difficult to characterise Birmingham’s music scene as it has a lot of different sounds, as Manchester had Madchester, Leeds had Post-Punk, London has Grime, electronic and jazz?

To unpack that, I would push back against this because there are always multiple communities and multiple voices, so cities never have one sound, they are always multiple. But Manchester is particularly well known for its monocultural music like The Smiths, New Order, Happy Mondays, Joy Division, absolutely fantastic bands but basically white men with guitars. 

Liverpool is synonymous with the Beatles, and I think it’s difficult to get above that noise. For cities and for marketeers that’s great because it’s very neat, but it doesn’t allow other voices and other music to be heard, and that is particularly true for women and for people from minority ethnic backgrounds, so it tends to be a dominant narrative and a bit of a catch-all.

…people say, ‘hold on our music’s not just about Sabbath’, you know we’ve got this amazing violin music, or we’ve got amazing reggae music and jazz

I’m also going to contradict myself a bit by saying that if you ask people now about Birmingham’s music, they will say Black Sabbath and metal, and I think Birmingham is definitely the birthplace of metal but it’s also the birthplace of Bhangra music. I’m having lots of conversations about this so people say, ‘hold on our music’s not just about Sabbath’, you know we’ve got this amazing violin music, or we’ve got amazing reggae music and jazz. 

I think Birmingham is unique in terms of any other city in the UK, and that doesn’t mean other cities didn’t have multiculturalism, but there is something in the way, particularly post-war, how the city was rebuilt and how those communities settled into Birmingham, from Afro-Caribbean, African, South Asian, Irish, and how they genuinely lived and worked together and that infused into our music making.

 

What is the most valuable thing you have learned when running the BMA, did you articulate these ideas before setting it up?

I think it’s been an ever-evolving learning experience that is still revealing the incredible breadth of music and how individual communities have contributed, and how that had developed into what I think is this unique music offer that is still going on today. It goes back to saying that there’s not one dominant sound or narrative, they’re all equal whether it’s the smallest band in a pub or a venue that’s long gone or it’s Black Sabbath.

 

What are you currently working on for the BMA?

We have just done the Ozzie [Ozzie Osburne: Working Class Hero exhibition at Birmingham Museum running until 18th January] and we are in the middle of a really big project with the Town Hall, it’s 191 years old and it’s having the first renovations since 1997, so we are finding their archive and recreating that online for the Birmingham Music Archive. 

…there is an absolute goldmine of brilliant music being made. What we need to do is create the infrastructure that allows those creators to make a living out of it.

We’re creating an installation, similar but not the same as the one in the Bramall [on campus there is a timeline in the Bramall Music Building of all the bands that played at UoB which Jez created]. This is going to be a big installation of about 3,000 pieces of archive materials that are going to go into the BMA and we’re relaunching the website on 15th December. 

We’ve just started the creation of a mobile app for Heritage Trails so people will be able to download that for free and go on their own tours and find out a bit more about music. We have other projects lined up, like I’d like to do a project about 100 women musicians in Birmingham, but the big one we are working towards [is] opening an immersive Birmingham music experience in Digbeth. That takes all the things I’ve said, and we can deliver that as a Black Box immersive experience. However, this is an extremely challenging environment in terms of funding. We get some funding but not for others. We want this to be one of Birmingham’s stories that it tells the world because it’s a really great story. 

 

Where is the music scene in Birmingham heading?

I do a monthly playlist on Spotify of artists from Birmingham and across the region. October’s playlist had 165 newly released songs. The quality of music is absolutely incredible, every month there are all different genres. I think the music of Birmingham and the Midlands is in really good health. There are some incredible artists coming through, Rubii, Kofi Stone, Harry Houlton, Molly XO, Maya Randall, Eva Lazarus, Bryony Williams. 

So whatever music you like, there is something in there for people. So, it’s not so much ‘what’s the scene?’ but there is an absolute goldmine of brilliant music being made. What we need to do is create the infrastructure that allows those creators to make a living out of it. Whether it’s DIY or touring or recording options. I think in the Midlands we lack that infrastructure. I’d like us to grow that infrastructure to support those musicians. The associates, the managers, the bookers, they can grow and flourish and keep that money in the Birmingham region and support the next generation. 

 

The BMA relaunches its website on 15th December. You can see the work of the BMA in the Bramhall Music Building café where Jez has catalogued all the bands that have played in the Guild over the years. Listen to the playlist curated by Jez of October’s new releases here. 

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