A Tenth of Seventh

Electronic music festival returns to Birmingham.

The Tenth Electronic Music Festival comes to Birmingham and once again it includes an all-day free electronic music event featuring talks, demonstrations, interactive sessions, synth manufacturer attendance, a room for attendees to set up and show off their synth gear and a number of free live performances.

In March 2020 the ninth The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music took place across three days – this was just before the UK went into its first Covid-19 lockdown.

In November 2021 the event returns and the tenth The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music takes place, again across three days.

For a relatively small festival The Seventh Wave continues to get some of the biggest names in electronic and progressive music. This time around you can feast your eyes (and ears!) on no less than three electronic/synth-pop legends.

On Friday evening, the headliner is Ian Boddy and Nigel Mullaney. Ian Boddy (DiN record label owner) is one of the founding fathers of the electronic music scene in the United Kingdom. Nigel has worked regularly alongside Ian and releases electronic music on the DiN label, home of top artists such as Node, Markus Reuter, Chris Carter and much more.

On Saturday evening, the headliner is Fiat Lux — from the Latin for ‘let there be light’. Formed in 1982 and hailing from Wakefield in Yorkshire, England, they pioneered a unique sonic stamp, the influence of which is still felt today. Their pioneering blend was full of lush synthesizer textures, acoustic and electric keyboards, and studio effects – all anchored by Steve Wright’s emotive vocals with multi-instrumentalist David Crickmore providing guitar, bass, and keys.

On Sunday, it’s the turn of Dramatis, an English synth-pop band formed in the early 1980s. Chris Payne, Rrussell Bell, Cedric Sharpley, and Denis Haines were all originally members of Gary Numan’s backing band. They formed Dramatis following Numan’s announced retirement in April 1981. Chris Payne and Rrussell Bell are recording again as Dramatis and released A Torment of Angels just before Covid reared its ugly head. This is a vrare opportunity to see Dramatis live and comes with the added bonus of a Q&A session.

Tickets can be purchased for the individual paid events from Skiddle and for the free event which runs from 10.00 am until 5.00 pm people can just turn up on the day, stay for a few minutes, or get hooked and end up staying all day.