# Brixton Buzz: Brixton club and gig listings service is now up and running!



## editor (Jan 17, 2012)

We're still putting the finishing touches to the site, but our fab, free listings site already has more Brixton events than anywhere else!

The full launch will be in Feb 2012 - with paaaarty! - but check out the hundreds of listings already up on the site here: http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/calendar/


----------



## TruXta (Jan 17, 2012)

Ooo, shiny! Very nice. Is this that site what was started last year but was a bit shit? I seem to remember some dude starting a thread on this. Or am I mixing it up with something else?


----------



## editor (Jan 17, 2012)

TruXta said:


> Ooo, shiny! Very nice. Is this that site what was started last year but was a bit shit? I seem to remember some dude starting a thread on this. Or am I mixing it up with something else?


Yep - me and the guy from NearToHear have collaborated on this. We've got loads more plans too - mainly focussed around promoting less well known pubs and gigs and trying to give non-groovy, non-Time Out approved nights some publicity too.


----------



## Crispy (Jan 17, 2012)

Nice one 

Week and Month vviews are pretty much useless though. You need a day-by-day format, like Timeout.


----------



## editor (Jan 17, 2012)

Crispy said:


> Nice one
> 
> Week and Month vviews are pretty much useless though. You need a day-by-day format, like Timeout.


This is the best there is. By* miles.* I have tried every wordpress plug in and the one we've got is the closest thing to a working solution so far. Most either look horrible, don't work on mobiles or have limited functionality.

There's loads more things I'd like it to do , but at least the agenda view on this looks great and that's good enough for me (for now).


----------



## Crispy (Jan 17, 2012)

That's fair enough. But Week view is no use at all for two reasons - 1: All events that finish in the early hours are shown at the top day later than their actual date. 2: More than one event on a day means they all sit on top of each other and are unreadable. I would just turn that off until you can make it work. Looks sloppy otherwise. Monthly view is a little better.

Not to disparge the hard work that's gone into this - the information is good


----------



## editor (Jan 17, 2012)

Another plug in we tried let us specify an 'end' time cut off time, so late events wouldn't appear into the following day. This can't do that.

There is no option to turn off individual calendar views. As you found out, Wordpress is great until you deviate one millimetre from the template.


----------



## Crispy (Jan 17, 2012)

Ah that's a shame  - well good luck with it all anyway


----------



## editor (Jan 17, 2012)

At one point I even considered doing it all my hand (like the offlineclub.com website). *That's* how pissed off I got with the whole thing and that's how much time it was all taking. This latest plug in offers some the best solution so far but it's still miles behind what I'd like.


----------



## Crispy (Jan 17, 2012)

So (seriously) put google adwords on urban75 and pay for what you want


----------



## editor (Jan 17, 2012)

Crispy said:


> So (seriously) put google adwords on urban75 and pay for what you want



It's not even about the money. There just isn't a good enough commercial plug in available anywhere, and I'd need an _awful_ lot of page impressions to finance the writing of a bespoke plug in.

We actually bought was supposed to be best one available (Events Calendar Pro, for $50) and it looked rubbish.


----------



## editor (Jan 17, 2012)

Anyway, despite its design and UI flaws, it's still the only place you can get such a fully comprehensive listing of Brixton events - there's 17 events listed for this Friday alone.


----------



## clandestino (Jan 17, 2012)

editor said:


> We're still putting the finishing touches to the site, but our fab, free listings site already has more Brixton events than anywhere else!
> 
> The full launch will be in Feb 2012 - with paaaarty! - but check out the hundreds of listings already up on the site here: http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/calendar/



HDIF is first Friday of the month at the Canterbury. If you could add us from Feb on that would be grand.


----------



## TruXta (Jan 17, 2012)

It mightn't be exactly what everyone wants, but it's fair to say it's by far the best (and only?) proper Brixton listings site. Well done, you two!


----------



## editor (Jan 17, 2012)

ianw said:


> HDIF is first Friday of the month at the Canterbury. If you could add us from Feb on that would be grand.


Of course we'll list you - please email brixtonbuzz@ gmail.com with the event details.


----------



## clandestino (Jan 17, 2012)

Done!


----------



## wemakeyousoundb (Jan 19, 2012)

Any chance that in future we might get access to edit events when line ups and other things change so it can be kept up to date or do we just email the above and heap more tasks on you lot?
I was thinking a lower privileged account (no admin rights) as it's a wordpress based site.


----------



## Crispy (Jan 19, 2012)

editor said:


> It's not even about the money. There just isn't a good enough commercial plug in available anywhere, and I'd need an _awful_ lot of page impressions to finance the writing of a bespoke plug in.



I thought you did have an awful lot of page impressions?


----------



## editor (Jan 19, 2012)

wemakeyousoundb said:


> Any chance that in future we might get access to edit events when line ups and other things change so it can be kept up to date or do we just email the above and heap more tasks on you lot?


 There is the ability to import Google Calendars. I actually tried it for the Grosvenor one but the listings were really jumbled: the dates went in OK but there was no address or gig details past the name.

If you want to set up a test calendar and input a few dates in a different (fuller) format I'd be happy to give it a go.

I'll also check permissions to let you add your own dates.


----------



## editor (Jan 19, 2012)

Crispy said:


> I thought you did have an awful lot of page impressions?


We do, but the cost of hand coded plug ins (and their maintenance) would be prohibitive. Besides, I don't think adverts should be inflicted on urban75 viewers to finance a plug in for another, albeit related, site.


----------



## wemakeyousoundb (Jan 19, 2012)

editor said:


> There is the ability to import Google Calendars. I actually tried it for the Grosvenor one but the listings were really jumbled: the dates went in OK but there was no address or gig details past the name.
> 
> If you want to set up a test calendar and input a few dates in a different (fuller) format I'd be happy to give it a go.
> 
> I'll also check permissions to let you add your own dates.


Just realised that as it's a plugin you might not get all the user levels you get on the basic wordpress, I'll wait for your feedback.

Well the calendar you linked to is the one we use for our events page and this is the best format for it.

I guess i could make a second one for linkage/leeching but I'd need to know exactly how to format it properly so it met your requirement, this''ll take some sitting down and instant communication  to get sorted in a timely manner, unless you can give me a template for the correct format to be used
Questions:
Does it just grabs details from the event's name or also look in more details section of it? (from what you said I'd guess the former)
Is it not possible to get it to show the location if the events comes from a particular google calendar?


----------



## editor (Jan 19, 2012)

I tested your current feed and just got the band names with no address or gig details. If I get chance next week I'll have an experiment.


----------



## wemakeyousoundb (Jan 19, 2012)

Makes sense as the calendar is to be displayed on the pub's website, so no address, on the events page if you click on the title/name of the event then more details and the flyer/poster appear (that's if the "promoter" has bothered to let us know any obviously...)
If you want to do some testing give me a call (after noon only though ) as I'll probably be on hand to see how we can tweak things our end to help.


----------



## editor (Feb 23, 2012)

The site's just had a redesign - http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/ - and we're throwing a big launch party on 2nd March with samba drummers galore!

Come on down!
http://www.urban75.org/blog/fri-2nd...-galore-at-the-free-brixtonbuzz-launch-party/


----------



## Crispy (Feb 23, 2012)

teeny-weeny nitpick: Of your calendar tags, only Hip-Hop has capital letters.

Otherwise, A good look for the front page


----------



## editor (Feb 23, 2012)

Crispy said:


> teeny-weeny nitpick: Of your calendar tags, only Hip-Hop has capital letters.


Fixed!

There's so much more we want to do but we're hamstrung by the current limitations of the plug in.

What I'd really like is the ability to set up venue-specific pages with their own calendar feed, Twitter feed etc, so people can see what's going on, and comment on the nights, add photos etc., and I'd *love* a location aware mobile app version too.


----------



## editor (Sep 5, 2012)

Happy to announce that two pages of BrixtonBuzz listings will now appear in every issue of the free Lambeth Weekender newspaper.

More here: http://www.urban75.org/blog/brixtonbuzz-listings-now-available-in-the-lambeth-weekender-newspaper/


----------



## editor (Apr 3, 2014)

I'm well chuffed to announce that we've now passed the landmark figure of one million page views 

http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2014/04/...he-landmark-figure-of-one-million-page-views/


----------



## editor (Feb 26, 2015)

Update (if anyone is interested): as of today, Brixton Buzz has:

Total Page Views: 2,214,581
Best ever page views in a day: 38,445
Total posts: 2,330
Total comments: 2,214
Total published Brixton events: 7,387

Not bad for two years work!


----------



## clandestino (Feb 27, 2015)

It's amazing that what started off as a listings site has grown into so much more - as much Brixton's answer to Private Eye as our Time Out.


----------



## editor (Feb 27, 2015)

clandestino said:


> It's amazing that what started off as a listings site has grown into so much more - as much Brixton's answer to Private Eye as our Time Out.


My personal template for the site has always been early Time Out: useful, funny, interesting, 'magaziney' and confrontational at times but with a left leaning, social campaigning streak.


----------



## editor (Sep 11, 2015)

Here's an excuse for me to get a bit more drunk tonight! 

Brixton Buzz: nine thousand Brixton events listed, and three million page views!


----------



## editor (Feb 17, 2021)

After nearly a decade of running Brixton Buzz with no adverts or sponsors (and - for me - not working in a year)  we need a bit of help with the running costs Please help out if you can!









						Please donate to Brixton Buzz so we can keep bringing you the local news
					

Since launching nine years ago, Brixton Buzz has remained fiercely independent, carrying no advertising whatsoever. By having no sponsors to upset or cosy council/business relationships to schmooze…



					www.brixtonbuzz.com
				




Since we've launched, we've posted 8,300 articles, tens of thousands of event listings and notched up 10.6 million page views.


----------



## editor (May 7, 2021)

Pleased to say we've now passed 11 million page views


----------

