Seb from Robot vs Dinosaur mentioned the topic of putting up posters round Birmingham to me the other day (mainly if I knew any good spots), so I thought it was about time I covered that topic in a bit of depth – once again in the hope that having this type of information readily available will make it easier for people who want to start up nights of their own.

Weirdly, I get the impression that posters are relatively rare in Birmingham when compared to other cities (we do a good line in stickers though). I was wondering if this might be to do with a relatively low amount of independent shops.

Over the last few years several spots have been and gone (the Post Office in Selly Oak which allowed me a prime spot in the window onto Bristol Road has become Selly Oaks 28th Estate Agent) where as some have remained firm favourites of mine. Things do change, frustratingly from month-to-month depending on who you ask.

One thing that can happen frequently is someone will say something like “just give them to me and I’ll put them up later”. If you’ve got blu-tac then offer to put it up there and then and save them a bit of time, I say this because there have been times when I’ve handed posters over and they’ve vanished so it’s best to see if you can pop it up before you leave.

It goes without saying (but I will do anyway) that the best places to put posters are in locations where people who are likely to enjoy your event will go. Record shops I find to be good locations, but be creative. I like putting posters in vintage clothes shops and laundrettes but you might think of something I’ve not.

The holy grail of poster positioning is to get one of your posters facing the street where people walk past, and if you can stick one on the back covering the inside then that’s perfect. Places near venues are good, though some have deals with the venues not to put up posters for other events (the news agent close to The Academy only has posters for Academy events).

One thing I have to growl (grrr) about here is please please please never take someone else’s poster down unlss the event has passed. Obvious, but people do. There is nothing more frustrating in this world than seeing a big A3 glossy poster replace one of yours in a matter of days, especially if you’d hand made it like the early Autumn Store posters were.

Time for an “if-I-could-change-one-thing” moment. I do wish there was cross-pollination of posters between venues, so that as much information as possible is available to people. I’m partially thinking of that massive wall in the Academy as you go in, that would be a brilliant wall to give over to local promoters and have it filled with posters (for aesthetic reasons as well as local music reasons). After all Academy size bands don’t just pop up over night, they play gigs in local pubs first, put on by local promoters, and watched by local people and supporting this whole system is essential if anyone wants to fill a large venue like The Academy with gig goers.

Anyway, here’s my “core” poster list though if you see posters up somewhere not on here then ask them if you can put them up. There’s probably more, I’m still on the how-to-promote-bands learning curve too, but please let me know of any I’ve not covered and I’ll put it on this list. I’m off to do some postering in most of these places this week so this will hopefully be updated as I go along.

City Centre
Tempest Records – 2 posters
Oasis – fill the walls with posters!!
Swordfish Records – 1 poster
Music and Video Exchange – 1 or 2 posters

Moseley & Kings Heath
Retro Bizarre – 2 posters for the changing rooms (though I went back today to find it not open – has it shut down?)
Jibbering Records – 1 poster
Polar Bear Records – 1 poster
There are a few sandwich shops and takeaways which have posters too

Selly Oak (used to be really good, now less so)
Mud – 1 poster
Woodstock – 1 poster
Café Face – 1 or 2 posters
Liquor Locker (I used to put 1 poster outside but there was a very high risk of it going walkies so I stopped)
Selly Sausage (the posters have to be approved with a mysterious ticket agency)
Tasty Pastry (though yesterday I was told that they were taking all the posters down)

Old School Daze have also kindly put my posters up in the past.

Digbeth
I’ve been meaning to have a good sniff round The Custard Factory for ages.

Sadly, I’ve not found anywhere in Harborne, Bearwood, or places to the north of the city centre (places around Aston Uni & BCU would be particularly helpful)

Oh, and don’t forget to put some up in the venue!

Edit 04/02 - Rehearsal rooms are good places to put posters up!

Fatback Studios
Madhouse Rehearsals
Muthers Studio
Rich Bitch Studios
Robannas Studios

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