Project X Presents

Plans are afoot for our sixth event to take place in the Spring of 2010 – watch this space for news as it comes.

Meanwhile, we are also working on further documenting our event of Saturday May 9th 2009 – when we made an Xhibition of ourselves in the place with a reputation as Birmingham’s beating cultural heart – Moseley Village. We celebrated the rich vibrancy of Moseley whilst also questioning whether its artistic reputation is fully deserved, or is it now more the province of commuters, shoppers and late night drinkers looking for an alternative Broad Street.

We offered an exhibition of a number of local artists featuring new work from legendary cartoonist Hunt Emerson, a new photographic composition from our favourite of the many talented local photographers – Matt Murtagh, plus fine art from Mandy Kasafir, Nisha Grover, Gabriella Gardosi, Matt Robinson and a number of Project X regulars alongside interactive installations from our inhouse design team, Object X.

If you made it, we hope you enjoyed it!

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I've just updated my biography page on my website. I'm posting it here as well. It's after the (read more) jump link.

Now here's the thing. You really can get a lot done if you have enough time to do it in. But you also need some luck, help when it's most important (you won't know when that is), a bit of persistence, and the right people to work with. You never do it all on your own.

Robin Valk has worked in Radio for over 40 years.

While at University he helped launch University Radio York.

After graduation, he spent a year trying to break into radio, and eventually got a job offer from WPHD-FM in Buffalo, in upstate New York, who felt they could use an English accent on their Progressive Rock FM format. There were very few English broadcasters in the US at the time, and English music, especially Rock music, was much more important and relevant to a US youth audience in the 70s than it is now. Robin stayed at WPHD for just over a year, during which time the station went to #1 in the Buffalo market.

Returning to the UK, Robin joined the new Independent Radio sector, moving to BRMB Radio in Birmingham for the station launch - he was the first DJ on their books - again working as a Rock dj. Robin’s stint coincided with music developments throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s: the end of ‘traditional’ rock, the arrival and departure of punk rock, the Two-Tone movement centered in Birmingham and Coventry, and the growth of corporate rock and international megastars in the 80s and 90s.

Robin presented shows for BRMB in all specialist and mainstream formats, and interviewed just about everybody there was to interview. Under Robin’s direction, BRMB embarked on a series of recording sessions of local bands, and this kick-started the careers or artists like UB40 and Ruby Turner. There was also close involvement with the CBSO, as Robin was by now presenting Classical shows.

At the end of his time at BRMB, Robin was Head of Music for BRMB-FM and the legendary Gold station XTRA-AM, Group Head of Research for all stations in the Midland Radio Group, and a noted Selector expert in the UK.

After Capital Radio bought the group in 1993, Robin launched the Radio To Go partnership (now Radio To Go Ltd), and embarked on a consulting career. This took him to Bulgaria (Selector training at FM-plus, Sofia), Scotland (Scot FM, where he built the database and implemented Master Control), Sweden (Selector training at P4 radio) and back home to Birmingham, where he produced shows for Radio 2.

This then led to a five year stint at the BBC, implementing playback software and building a digital library, and producing Overnights for Radio 2 from Birmingham – 25% of the output – where he quadrupled the listening figures.

When the Radio 2 Overnight shows returned to London, Robin took on training and database development for RTE Lyric FM, where he trained staff in programming and scheduling at the Limerick-based national Classical music and Arts station. This overlapped with more consulting work for Swedish Radio, work with a number of European stations, and Program Director responsibilities at Riviera Radio in Monte Carlo. Following his work at the BBC, Robin was invited to join New York-based Radio Computing Services, the makers of Selector, by the company's founder, Andrew Economos, and this led to a very long stint with RCS.

Robin has authored online help and produced training videos for some of RCS’s leading products since 2000. Robin retrained the entire programming staff of the UTV regional network of stations in 2007/8. The newest client on the Radio To Go client roster is Coast 106 in Southampton.

Robin is now acknowledged as one of the most experienced Selector programmers in Europe, with a huge range of format and market experience.

Robin still presents occasionally, and was last seen behind the decks, aged 59, at a very alternative Project X Presents event in Birmingham. PXP are a loose collective of artists, dancers, poets, sculptors, performance artists, lighting engineers, designers and musicians who mount six-monthly events in alternative venues. He is a big supporter of local music talent in his city.

Robin is based in Birmingham, which has proved to be an excellent city from which to build a National and International production and consultancy business. Robin speaks passable German, and is fluent in French.

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Lil Ms Vix Buzzfox

Ms Vix Buzzfox

Bursting from the ether realm called the Über-Vixen Dimension, flame-haired, singing and guitar-playing rock goddess Vix is perhaps best known up until this point as the lead singer/songwriter of all-girl band We’ve got Fuzzbox and we’re gonna use it!!

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