Influential magazine chronicling the Brum Beat era in the 1960’s
Celebrating Birmingham's Popular Music History
Celebrating Birmingham's Popular Music History
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I ran two music columns for Dennis’ Midland Beat and gave him front pages such as the Rolling Stones photo reading MB.
Does an archive exist of old issues?
Hi John,
There are a number of issues I understand in the Library archive. I may be wrong on that but I’m sure someone told me they were there.
I found this pic (front page) of Midland Beat magazine – Issue 45 (1967) . Thought it would be good to have it on here! (How do I go about uploading the pic?)
The archives at Birmingham Library have approx 90% of the published issues of Brumbeat on file..you can view them but you have to book..slight problem is that that the archive is closed until September 2013 when the new library opens.
There seems to be a little confusion between Midland Beat – something I never saw – probably because I was too young and Brum Beat (Late 70s – 80s) that I seem to have around 80% of at home. Which one do the library have? If I ever get a scanner working again, are there any particular things this archive needs from it?
Hi William, yo are right, the Library of Birmingham definitely has Brum Beat (or had, let’s hope they have kept them following their move). I think they also have some Midland Beat as well. I’d love to scan complete issues of Brum Beat, a pain staking job but it would be a great resource for the archive!
Trouble with scanning Brum Beat is that most scanners are A4 and BB was more than twice that size for most of its run. I’ve been checking through the old issues for material relevant to another history project to scan so if there’s anything particular you’re looking for, I can maybe get some things scanned and sent over.
Looking at the set again, 80% was probably optimistic.
For what it’s worth, I could probably scan whole issues except for the problems of page size – apart from that it wouldn’t be the first time.
William, are you talking about Midland Beat or Brum Beat? Brum Beat I thought was A4 size (i’ve got a few of them with me here).
For the first few years Brum Beat was newspaer size. Since I don’t have the copies to hand, I can’t give exact numbers but the first issue is from 1980 (I assume – mine start at no. 2) and they were still using the newspaper format after issue 100. They then moved to half that size and finally added glossy covers. I think they were going to start charging when I stopped getting copies.
I was the Derbyshire correspondent for Midland Beat for a time in the Sixties, when I worked for Raymonds News Agency in Derby. It was my job to produce a round-up of up of news concerning the leading groups in the area but the relationship ended ignominiously when I left my copy in the tray for postage to MB and had it sabotaged by a colleague with a somewhat off-centre sense of humour. He invented a group and wrote into my report that they had been signed up by Decca Records after going down a bomb at a wedding reception attended by a top deejay. The group’s name – Sydney Whippe & The Bleeding Buttocks. The top deejay? Tug M’Groyne. The editor of Midland Beat was not amused and I got a letter terminating our arrangement on the grounds that I was “not taking things seriously enough.”