Exploring the challenges and opportunities for emerging musicians during Covid-19 - Scott Garrett explores the issues.

Hannah Taylor, live performance artist and facilitator, is one the many residents in the Midlands who has been shielding since March. Working from home, she was commissioned by Creative Black Country in May to run a project called ‘Fragments’.

Live music and performance has been hit really hard during the pandemic but that doesn’t mean people have stopped performing, playing and recording. We asked Head of MAS Records Scott Garrett to give us the lowdown on the musical talent from across the Black Country that we should be looking out for and supporting.

"Come on Home" was written by Ben George right at the beginning of lockdown when full restrictions were just about to be set in place. Ben's brother, Sam, performed and recorded the intimate track from his shark-themed lockdown bedroom as his voice was best able to faithfully evoke the bitter-sweet sentiment of the lyrics.

I need to bounce off someone to get to the nub of what I’m trying to say. To get to the real truth of my thoughts. Especially now that we are all self-isolating. I could argue that I’m still thinking the same way I thought three months ago. Because we’ve been forced to stay in one place, whereas before I chose to stay in one place.

This month Birmingham-based theatre maker Graeme Rose will be releasing a seven-part series of true-crime podcasts that investigate the story of his Great Uncle’s unsolved murder in Quinton.

Rising From A Pandemic - Written & read by Al Barz and commissioned by Bostin News Content Editor Heather Wastie.

Tim Brinkhurst with artist Fokawolf… If I go out there and keep putting fake posters around then hopefully it brings questions in people such as, if that’s fake what else around me could be fake? And if that has tricked me, what else in society has tricked me?

If you are working on a project grant application, or are about start one, for a creative project based in the Black Country and would like some advice then we are offering 20 minute sessions on the 23rd and 30th October.

Sound artist and producer Tim Brinkhurst has produced 5 sound pieces for Bostin News that speak of and share creativity. The first is A Cough Or A Question. Listen or read.

In September 2019 16 members of Mossley Big Local community group walked to local Sneyd Reservoir to take photographs of the landscape which they later used as reference to make into drawings and paintings. Our co-editor Heather Wastie commissioned Alex Vann to produce a song and video. See the video…

‘Stay Up Your Own End’ was a series of six online events, each providing a platform for poets of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities to share their work. Held on Monday evenings on the Prattlers Facebook page, fellow poets were encouraged to write about some aspect of life in their part of the Black Country.

£200,000 has been awarded to Creative Black Country to create a new, inclusive art and culture project linked to the Commonwealth Games, following a collaboration between Olympic legacy funder Spirit of 2012 and Birmingham 2022.

Join CBC Monday's at 4.00pm via ZOOM or Facebook to hear fast-paced inspirational presentations from creative practitioners and speakers who will share their work using 20 images with just 20 seconds to talk through each one.

We will be taking part in this year’s Black Country Business Festival and organising three very different events.

Fancy something a bit different... Grab a 15 minute free performance on the telephone by poet ADRIAN EARLE, Storyteller PETER CHAND or by singer SAM FRANKIE FOX during the first three weeks of September 2020.

Luke Perry’s Corridor of Colour was a beautiful outdoor gallery of bunting made by Luke, with the help of his neighbours, that lined his street and the High Street in Wollaston.

We’ve collated all of the 20x20 Dudley videos of our 6 speakers who joined us during August. Take a look below and get inspired by their very different stories, practices and creative knowledge.

In 2017 the Chamber set up the Black Country Business Festival, a showcase of the range of businesses that proudly make up the Black Country. The now, annual event promotes the area’s investment potential and enables the local business community to collaborate and share best practice.

It’s strange to think back to the start of the year when our main concerns were which venues could we host community engagement events and when best to schedule them for maximum take-up (remember those days before the words ’social distancing’ became part of our everyday vocabulary).