Sigil Radio Celebrates Pride Month in Birmingham with Grassroots Collectives.

Recently, as part of the Pride Month celebration, a Birmingham community radio, Sigil Radio, held a varied programme of DJs, music producers, musicians, queer activists and allies. Their aim? To shine a light on the queer communities and grassroots collectives of Birmingham within the music industry, enthusiastically reshaping the queer scene and culture of Birmingham.

“This Pride Month, we’re shining a light on the grassroots collectives across Birmingham who are building queer spaces and growing community from the ground up” says Poppy Ringrose, co-founder of Sigil Radio.

The programme offered a fresh spotlight for many artists wanting to sidestep corporate events and sponsorships, creating a safe space for political, historical and creative expression, alongside support for Palestinians, fundraising and support for other causes and minority societies.

Wanting to create space for queer people all around the globe – and artists who usually do not receive much exposure, in every nook and cranny of every city, not just in city centres and ‘gay streets’, collaborators of the show aspire to remind us that we can take up space!

“When Pride is so often packaged and sold, it’s important to use our platform to amplify the people doing the real work of creating inclusive spaces” adds co-founder Tom Eagles.

So, here’s a review of what the programme had to offer and what new, amazing artists you can discover by listening to the broadcasts!

Fruit Punch with SpitXL and Eric Scutaro, DJ Mix and Interview

The first broadcast I had the pleasure and opportunity of watching was Fruit Punch hosted by the DJ and producer SpitXL and dance artist as well as founder of Queer Side, Eric Scutaro. The broadcast offered a DJ session as well as an interview with both artists, enabling us to discover them as well as Eric Scutaro’s charity organisation that the founder himself explained was created with queer people within hip hop communities in mind. He created Queer Side with hopes of bringing underrated and underground artists onto a scene, give them a platform, but alongside hosting more prominent figures, also give them inspiration to achieve equally amazing things. Indeed, both hosts proceed to explain the need for collaboration and financial support for such events and organisations to allow a freedom of expression and creativity for the sake of cultural production and voicing.

The Fruit Punch broadcast highlights queer events going on in Birmingham that are made with love for the community as well as the artistry of making music and other forms of craftsmanship, such as dancing, performing etc. In line with their motives and aspirations to put Birmingham on the map and loop people in on the fun the city has to offer, the hosts offer a diverse and colourful arrangement of songs that encourage promotion, media coverage and event booking for both the artists and grassroots collectives of Birmingham.

The emerging artists and songs of Birmingham also create space for other queer people aiming to find their place in the world. Eric Scutaro and SpitXL hosted a fun session to learn from but also to jam to. Here’s a taste of what their session had to offer, mixing all kinds of musical genres and styles that will likely appeal to a huge variety of audience and allowing the audience to discover new horizons of the sonic world.

Kicking the session off strong with some smooth R&B sounds, we discover an up and coming artist from Birmingham, Czafari. Blending all kinds of silky genres, SpitXL befittingly says: “Czafari’s voice is reminiscent of Erykah Badu, really soft and smooth like honey”. Coming out of a period of motherhood, Czafari is back making new music and performing in various venues around Birmingham.

Eric Scutaro offers us another great jam session with Lazy Flow and the amazing title Ma Chatte, a legendary queer club classic. Lazy Flow is a French artist that Eric is bringing to Birmingham for his upcoming events, and I can attest, from someone who has heard Ma Chatte live, that it will be a memorable moment for the people attending.

Another artist of the session was El Sam – a Syrian, genre blending artist, that immediately reminded me of Troye Sivan’s hits such as Take Yourself Home. El Sam offers some great smooth vocals and groovy melodies that are sure to get the dance floor moving for many.

If you’d like to find out what other artists you can discover from the Fruit Punch session, give them a listen through Sigil Radio on YouTube and make sure to also check out their Instagram @fruitpunchbrum for all kinds of activism and events they have going on to become a supporter yourself!

Wile Out with DJ Jedi and Just Soriah, DJ Mix

The Fruit Punch broadcast was followed by an amazing duo DJ Jedi and Just Soriah, blending all sorts of electronic music, from bassline to R&B, even starting off the session with Afrobeats paying a great homage to some cultural heritage and making space for cultural representation.

The hosts provided a great programme, and brought fun and exciting energy into the studio. Pumping out some new tunes, they balance out the energy with some well-known dance classics remixed, like Rihanna. If you want to discover some new mixes but also belt out your favourites, this is a great broadcast to tune into!

Hooker Club with Dan Lee, DJ House Mix

One of my personal favourite sessions was given to us by the one and only Dan Lee in the house (pun absolutely intended). I am a huge fan of listening to DJ sessions in my spare time and Dan Lee kept me hooked and entertained with an absolutely sensational theme back to front.

Fluid and effortless transitions, awesome beats and fun vibes accompanied the entire hour of the session, continuously evolving in vibe whenever I thought it couldn’t get better. For any house fans, this is the ideal DJ mix to blast.

PLUGHOLE with FKA Tits and PSYCHO-SIS, DJ Mix

Once again pleasantly surprising us with lively, entertaining and stimulating energy in the studio, the DJs and hosts of this programme offered another grand majority of musical variation, experimenting with genres and sounds, taking us on a journey across the universe of the electronic genre.

PLUGHOLE promotes itself on their Instagram page (@plughole_party) as a “New queer night club in brum by & for the queers”, and I would highly encourage to loop in on their events to discover a new, queer representative and queer owned performance organisation.

Peppa x LILITH Q&A and DJ Mix

The last session I tuned into from Sigil Radio was hosted by LILITH and Delano (Peppa). The duo, with amazing chemistry and vibes, led a deep diving conversation about the music scene of Birmingham, not only the venues that they would recommend attending for events, but ones they themselves enjoyed playing and hosting.

LILITH, aside from DJing, is also a founder of Lustrous (Sonic Lustre) in Manchester. Their Instagram (@lustrous.mcr) page introduces themselves as such: “Meet Lustrous – a new party brimming with locally sourced artistic and musical ideas, embracing the brilliance of expression, bright energy of clubland, and contributing to the growth of safe spaces in Manchester.” Lustrous events seek to promote underground artists as well as ensure safe spaces of expression.

Delano, a resident of Jungyals and Gays (@jungyalsngays) that desribes itself as a “multi-genre, inclusive, safe space to rave” is also a founder of a monthly radio PEPPA & The People, a space that celebrates “creativity in underground music”.

Their insight as two business owners and entertainers was heavily focused on the behind-the-scenes of it all and I commend their critical approach towards events and musical venues, offering an insight into the things that they would like to see improved. Their refreshing input suggested more enriched and upgraded sound systems, heavier investment, but most notably, the need for more shared and unified spaces for people of all backgrounds and preferences. Both hosts agreed in the sentiment that venues and locales offering events should curtail their rivalry. Dare against the commercial and trendy, collaborate and celebrate together. In their view, the audience equally needs to encourage a mutual curiosity, respect and integration between such spaces.

The Q&A session was followed by a lively and genre-blending DJ mix. Just as with previous sessions, tuning into this one did not disappoint and gave a perfect taster of what booking these DJs might offer.

Celebrating Pride with Sigil Radio

Sigil Radio has created an amazing opportunity for so many underground artists, performers, producers, collectives and organisations to promote their craft outside the corporate lens. Their Pride Month programme has represented people from the entire LGBTQ+ spectrum, allowing so many people around the UK to resonate and seek to take up space in the creative industries they dream of, without feeling alienated.

Sigil Radio is successfully both reshaping the queer representation in media, but also placing Birmingham on the map as a hotspot for opportunities and creative events.

Sigil perfectly embodied the spirit of Pride Month. We can only thank them for the support they provide to queer, trans and other minority groups, while allowing so many to take up space on the main stage, continuously inspiring future generations and pushing for positive change around the country.

I would recommend to both check out the sessions listed in this article as well as to tune into any other events they may be offering until the end of this month, and after, as they offer a wide variety of

content and their representation of queer and/or minority communities does not simply end when Pride Month does.