Pete Ashton, Birmingham-based weblogger extraordinaire, has come up with a what I think is a brilliant idea: he is Going Deaf For A Fortnight. In his own words:

Okay, this is the start of a 14 day series of posts, Going Deaf For A Fortnight in which I go to a gig in a small venue in Birmingham every night to see bands I mostly have never heard of before and then write about them here. By the end of it I expect to have attained a good overview of the Birmingham small gigs scene, to hopefully have discovered some good tune-smiths and to probably have descended into a nightmarish Gonzo-style meltdown. We shall see.

At the time of writing he’s half way through and he’s posting some great stuff. If you live in Birmingham and enjoy live music then you really should check out these posts (Clare and Dave? Ever read this?). He’s building up a fascinating snapshot of the live music scene in Brimingham and spicing it up with his own observations and commentary so it’s not just about the bands themselves but contains observations on stuff like the composition of the audiences and the techniques used by the bands to promote themselves in the age of the internet.

And it’s not just reviews. He’s photographing the gigs and posting the photos to a set over on Flickr, and he’s just put a podcast of music by bands he’s seen online. Interesting stuff and a great example of what you can do with your weblog – personal publishing from the underground music scene! The only drawback, at least from his perspective, is the cost so he’s soliciting for donations from people who’ve been enjoying the series (Pete, if you ever read this, I’m unemployed and skint right now – hence the token donation), so if you fall into that category perhaps you could help him out.