John Birmingham Cup 2013

Subject: John Birmingham Cup 2013
From: GUEST,Mo Bradshaw
Date: 29 Apr 13 - 05:08 AM

The next heat of the John Birmingham Cup for new unaccompanied songs will be at Upton Folk Festival, Sunday 5th May at 3.30, in the back room of the Kings Head. Entry forms will be available from the Festival office. Please note, there is an entry fee of £5.
The competition is a legacy of John Birmingham who was a regular at the Cumberland Arms in Newcastle. It is song competition rather than a singing competition and is for songs that can be sung in an informal setting such as a pub; unaccompanied, with or without a chorus, but with the ability to move the listeners.
The heat winner will go on the the final at Whitby Folk Week, and the ultimate winner of the competition receives a cash prize, according to John's wishes.

Subject: RE: John Birmingham Cup 2013
From: r.padgett
Date: 29 Apr 13 - 01:34 PM

Short notice Mo where are the main advert and rules posted for this please?

Other heats? held when where and how many (heats)

Just interested

Ray

Subject: RE: John Birmingham Cup 2013
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 30 Apr 13 - 05:42 PM

See this post from last year

Also check out:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-John-Birmingham-Cup/188284354541923?sk=info&a

and Shepley Festival JCB heat Sunday 19th May

Tried to find a list of when & where the rest of this year's heats will be, but couldn't... though I feel fairly safe in saying that there will be one at the Cumberland Arms in Newcastle (if it hasn't already taken place), and that the last heat -- and the final -- will take place during the Whitby Folk Week in August.

Subject: RE: John Birmingham Cup 2013
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 12:16 PM

Congratulations to Vikki Fielden on winning the John Birmingham Cup at Whitby with her song "April Fool" and to Kirsty Bromley, winner in the under-25 section with her song about a mother and child. There were some great songs in the final and it is good to witness such strong writing. The competition rules stipulate that the songs must be performed without accompaniment which encourages a focus on the words and language - and on a good tune too!

I hope more people will think about writing songs for next year's event - especially in the youth section.

Matthew

Subject: RE: John Birmingham Cup 2013
From: GUEST,maggi
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 07:49 PM

Very well done to Vikki & Kirsty. Do the scores of the songs get published?

Subject: RE: John Birmingham Cup 2013
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 09 Sep 13 - 07:08 PM

My thanks to Matthew (who placed second himself in 2012 - IIRC (or was it 2011?) - for a brilliant song!) for being so kind as to post his congrats here - since Vikki Fielden and I happen to be the same person... and to Guest, maggi.

Scores of the songs don't get published, although there is a link to the 2011 winner (Jerry Simon) singing his winning song on the JBC facebook page (see link in my post above) (and there's even a pic of me with Shepley heat JBC judges Elly Lucas and Damien Barber - for anyone who's curious about what a Yorkshire Yankee actually looks like). There's a chance that - eventually - there may be links there to my and Kirsty's songs as well... maybe.

However, anyone interested in hearing the winning songs can PM me; a friend of mine recorded the entire final and I can send you an mp3 - and would be happy to send along words as well.

As for Kirsty's song, I wouldn't take the liberty of sending it along without her permission, of course, but I can easily get in touch with her to see if she's OK with that.

Subject: RE: John Birmingham Cup 2013
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 12 Sep 13 - 02:11 PM

A friend of mine (Mudcat's own @sirovedout) posted a "video" (i.e. an mp3 with some photos added) on Youtube, so anyone interested can see/hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ0icMkKCl0.

Will post the words later...