Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: October 2009
It’d really make a lot more sense if October was the eight month rather than the tenth, wouldn’t it? Oh well.
Standard disclaimers: I can’t ensure that these events will go ahead, that they’ll be good, or that I will be going to them. This is just a list of things I found that looked like they might be interesting, so please do not contact me to ask for your event to be included. That’s not the way it works. (EDIT: This paragraph is not some obscure joke. It actually means what it says. By all means add me to your mailing list or whatever-have-you, but sending me a message that specifically asks for your function to be posted on here will not lead to it being posted on here).
Thursday the 1st – An Evening With Joan Baez @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – The evening they drove ol’ Dixie down.
Friday the 2nd till Sunday the 11th – Birmingham Comedy Festival @ various venues in Brum – Part of the grand Birmingham tradition of grouping together a bunch of events that would most likely have happened anyway and calling it a festival. There are still, no doubt, many chuckles and guffaws to be had – checky here for the line-up.
Friday the 2nd – Zu @ The Rainbow, Digbeth, Birmingham – I-talian jazzy metally… I dunno, just bloody lunacy. They were ace at Supersonic.
Saturday the 3rd – Boxing (Warrior Promotions) @ The Holiday Inn, Birmingham – Presumably a dinner show (boo hiss etc). The latest chapter in the ongoing Birmingham vs Black Country derby takes place here, with Eddie McIntosh vs Quinton “Greatest Name Ever” Hillocks.
Sunday the 4th – Kickboxing and MMA (Eclipse) @ Oceana, Wolverhampton – FC kickboxing and amateur MMA, I believe.
Sunday the 4th – Frank Carson @ The Town Hall, Birmingham – It’s the way he tells ‘em.
Monday the 4th – Boxing (Pat Cowdell) @ The Holiday Inn, Birmingham – Another dinner show (boo hiss etc).
Tuesday the 6th till Thursday the 29th – The Birmingham Book Festival @ various venues in Birmingham – This one actually isn’t as per the description of the comedy festival as above. The line-up can be seen here; there are plenty of highlights, including a discussion with the Tindall Street Press Booker Prize nominees on the 8th, talks about David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest” (timely. More soon) and Will Self on the 17th, a thing about J.B. Priestley’s “English Journey” (with his son and, erm, Stuart Maconie. Isn’t he the fella from all of those Channel Four “I Love The Whatsit”/”Top One Hundred Whatsitcalled” programmes?) on the 23rd, and Karen Armstrong speaking about her new “The Case For God” on the 29th.
Wednesday the 7th till Sunday the 11th – Horse Of The Year Show @ The LG Arena, Marston Green, Birmingham – Neigh, neigh and thrice neigh.
Thursday the 8th – Lethal Bizzle @ The Academy 2, Birmingham – Bring some beef you lose some teef POW POW.
Friday the 9th – Boxing (First Team Promotions) @ The Venue, Dudley – I still have no idea where “The Venue” is.
Sunday the 11th – An Afternoon With Pam Ayres @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – The afternoon they drove ol’ SouthofEngland down.
Sunday the 11th – The Destroyers / The Old Dance School / The Toy Hearts @ The Town Hall, Birmingham – Three of the finest local fun-folk/trad sorts, playing as part of The Town Hall’s 175th anniversary. The Destroyers are obviously the best band ever and you mustn’t say otherwise.
Monday the 12th – Echo & The Bunnymen @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – The band that actually could cut the mustard.
Friday the 16th and Saturday the 17th – “The Idiot Colony” (Red Cape Theatre) @ The Rep Door, Birmingham – A group of women are offered some respite from their confinement in a brutal asylum when they get to talk to each other in the hair salon. Based on true accounts.
Friday the 16th – “Revenger’s Tragedy” (Jadis Shadows theatre company) @ The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton – With murder and incest and scandal in general. Also on at The Old Rep in Brum the following night and Hall Green Little Theatre (new to me) on the 23rd and 24th.
Saturday the 17th – Dizzee Rascal @ The Academy, Birmingham – There really is very little that’s more fun than saying “bonkers” in a deep voice. Try it right now and you’ll see what I mean.
Tuesday the 20th till Saturday the 31st – “The Grapes Of Wrath” (English Touring Theatre/Chichester Festival Theatre) @ The Rep Theatre, Birmingham – Waitin’ on the ghost of Tom Joad.
Wednesday the 21st – Therapy? @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – I’m still no closer to figuring it out: how many question marks does one use if asking a question in which the last word is the band name Therapy??
Wednesday the 21st – The Tennessee Three @ The Jam House, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham – Not actually backing Johnny Cash here, for obvious reasons. Luther probably won’t be playing the boogie woogie here either, for similarly obvious reasons.
Friday the 23rd – Morrissey @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – I don’t think he’s miserable at all, I reckon it’s all just a show.
Saturday the 24th and Sunday the 25th – Spandau Ballet @ The LG Arena, Marston Green, Birmingham – No, they are playing there. It’s (wait for it, wait for it) TRUE.
Sunday the 25th – Editors @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – I still think “Snowfield” was a better name for them, but there you go.
Monday the 26th – The Proclaimers @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – I don’t think they’re Scottish at all, I reckon it’s all just a show.
Tuesday the 27th – ZZ Top @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Ah come on now. You’re looking at me as though this needs explaining.
Tuesday the 27th – Billy Talent @ The Academy, Birmingham – Good quality Canadian melodic punk/emo types, and I just now see that apparently they were originally called “Pezz”. Do you remember those “Pez” sweeties, with their own little dispenser-type-things? They were ace. I recall having one with Goofy’s head on. So, anyway, Billy Talent.
Wednesday the 28th till Saturday the 31st – “Dreams Of Violence” (Out Of Joint/Soho Theatre) @ The Rep Door, Birmingham – Political activism (I can’t help but think of the “blowing up a panda” joke from ‘The Young Ones’ every time I hear that phrase) comes easier than a messy homelife for the main character of this play.
Thursday the 29th – Efterklang @ The Asylum, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham – A Danish band who make music that sounds more beautiful live than you can imagine, and I’m assuming you’re someone with a fantastic imagination. Go to this.
Thursday the 29th – Marc Almond @ The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham – Probably the best pop star named after a nut since Johnny Cashew. Or Slipknut.
Friday the 30th and Saturday the 31st – “The Houdini Exposure” (Little Earthquake theatre) @ The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton – Know what I mean, ‘Arry. A dramatised version of his mission to expose séance Daniel Home as a fraud.
Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: September 2009
There wasn’t an August, but it really doesn’t seem like there’s never much that’s particularly exciting in August. This particular list is even less exhaustive than usual, and also even more music-dominated than usual, but that’s what I’ve managed to come up with. Sorry. The comments box is as open as ever for the awesome stuff I’ve missed, if you feel like using it.
Standard disclaimers: I can’t ensure that these events will go ahead, that they’ll be good, or that I will be going to them. This is just a list of things I found that looked like they might be interesting, so please do not contact me to ask for your event to be included. That’s not the way it works.
Wednesday the 2nd until Saturday the 19th – ‘Cabaret’ (Birmingham Rep Theatre Company) @ The Rep Theatre, Birmingham – Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome, c’mon in. Or similar. We saw this production last year and it was quite good. Certainly less afraid of facing up to the nasty side of it all than a lot of big-budget touring musicals would probably be. I’m not sure about the extent to which the cast is the same as that one, but Wayne Sleep is definitely still playing The MC.
Wednesday the 2nd – Seasick Steve @ JB’s, Dudley – One of these occasions when the booking at JB’s really surprises you. Apparently it’s their 40th anniversary do and proceeds will be going to cancer charity ’The Proton Effect’. Scott Matthews is also on the bill, in proper Black Country fashion.
Thursday the 3rd – Maths @ The Flapper, Birmingham – Chaotic metally punk, or even screamo if you feel the need. They’re quite good from the bits and bobs I’ve heard, but more importantly than that they call themselves ‘Maths’ rather than ‘Math’. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that, in these times of everyone wanting to pretend to be an American.
Friday the 4th till Sunday the 6th – The Moseley Folk Festival @ Moseley Park, Moseley, Birmingham – Headlined by Saint Etienne (folk you say?), Beth Orton and Jethro Tull, whilst also featuring Swarbrick:Carthy, Ade Edmondson’s band, Keli Ali, Cara Dillon and a load of others. Bert Jansch won’t be there as originally advertised, due to ill-health.
Friday the 4th till Sunday the 6th – Birmingham Punks Picnic @ a few places in Brum – Cannon Hill Park on Saturday afternoon for cheap cider (no doubt), then gigs in the evening: The New Inn in Balsall Heath has Drongos For Europe and more on Friday then GBH, Runnin’ Riot and others on Saturday, whilst The Wagon & Horses in Digbeth has a line-up that includes Assert on Sunday.
Saturday the 5th and Sunday the 6th – “Off The Cuff” music event @ The Flapper, Birmingham – On the one hand it doesn’t look like Rolo Tomassi are doing this anymore (unfortunate) and their MySpace page doesn’t actually tell you which bands are playing on which day (stupid), but on the other hand some of the acts will be playing on a docked barge on the canal outside (brilliant).
Monday the 7th – Tori Amos @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – She’s ace, although she wasn’t that good when I saw her live a few years ago. But she is ace.
Thursday the 10th – The Drifters @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – To repeat what I said in a previous LOTTSADITWM: “Or a version thereof, at least. No Ben E. King or Clyde McPhatter, for obvious reasons.”
Thursday the 10th till Sunday the 13th – the opening of the new version of the Birmingham Academy @ The, erm, new version of the Academy, Birmingham – The previous toss-hut has closed its doors to be demolished (well, good) and a new ‘un is due to open. Let’s be positive – while it’d be outright stupid to hope that most of the problems with the old place will be rectified, perhaps the new place will be a better building and so perhaps some of the structure-related stuff will be better. Any sort of improvement would be a blessing, really. The opening doings involve four days o’ gigs headlined by Birmingham bands who have achieved fame (relatively) recently: Editors on Thursday, The Twang on Friday (apparently with nine other bands, although obviously it’d make life far too easy if the Academy website were to tell us who they are), The Streets on Saturday, and Ocean Colour Scene (bless) on Sunday. Lovely to see ‘em showing their commitment to the full ethnic make-up of Birmingham’s music so early on.
Friday the 11th till Sunday the 13th – Artsfest @ all over Birmingham – Annual free-family-fun-weekend that everyone bar me seems to hate. Typically there’s no sign of a line-up/timetable yet, but there is a list of ‘themes’, including the anniversaries of the death of Matthew Boulton, the birth of Charles Darwin, and the creation of… Barbie. I’m not making this up. (EDIT: The leaflets are out now, got one through the door today. Still nothing on the website, though). (EDIT EDIT: The timetable is on the website now. See comments below, too).
Friday the 11th – Electric Wizard @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Dooooooooooom.
Sunday the 13th – The Men They Couldn’t Hang @ The Robin 2, Bilston – They really should get TMTCH on at the Moseley Folk Festival, now that I think about it.
Friday the 18th – Boxing (First Team) @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Steve Saville has a go at Scott Lawton for the English lightweight title, and if you’re into slebriteez then Angel McKenzie from ‘Big Brother’ faces our own local Lyndsey Scragg. I am completely confident that Lyndsey will absolutely wreck her, so let me know if you can find anyone running a book on it.
Sunday the 20th – The Digbeth O’Lympics @ various pubs in Digbeth – Although the website just shows you a flyer and doesn’t tell you what the events are (‘not wanting to let on about the line-up’ seems to be the theme this month, doesn’t it? Event promoters, you’re all rubbish. All of you), but in this case I don’t suppose it matters that much. Have a pint instead.
Tuesday the 22nd – Massive Attack @ The Academy, Birmingham – Currently running back at two members, I think. Possibly.
Tuesday the 22nd – Theo @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Fantastic loop-pedallin’ maths-rock one-man-band who rocked both your socks and mine at Supersonic this year. He’s first on the bill, with Fook Boottons headlining.
Wednesday the 23rd – “Under Milk Wood” (Guy Masterson) @ The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton – Dylan ‘That’s lovely, you see, isn’t it’ Thomas. This claims to be “perhaps the ultimate rendition” of it, with a very strategically placed ‘perhaps’.
Thursday the 24th – The Wildhearts @ The Academy, Birmingham – Will my unbroken run of failing to attend any Wildhearts and/or Wildhearts-related gigs since June 2001 continue? The sensible money would say ‘yes’.
Saturday the 26th – AMMA @ Banks’ Stadium, Bescott, Walsall – The latest in the always-fantastic series of amateur MMA cards put on by Marc Goddard and co. The most recent bill I can find is here.
Monday the 28th till Saturday the 3rd of October – “Dinnerladies” (The Comedy Theatre Company) @ The Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton – The telly series was one of the greatest telly serieseseses ever, I think (by which I mean that it was really good, and not that I’m trying to damn it with faint praise). Obviously I don’t know how good this is.
Monday the 28th – the live version of “I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue” @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – I was really quite overjoyed to walk past Mornington Crescent tube station when I went to London in February.
Wednesday the 30th – ‘Canal Music’ @ outside The Flapper, Birmingham – This is a lovely idea for a tour: Lisa Knapp and Leafcutter John are playing a series of gigs up the length of the Grand Union Canal. It ends in Birmingham (obviously), outside The Flapper. I don’t know if they’re actually playing from the barge or not. If they are that’ll take a bit of the novelty away from the “Off The Cuff” thingy mentioned above.
Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: July 2009
Summer is here, ayit. Blimey it’s hot.
Standard disclaimers: I can’t ensure that these events will go ahead, that they’ll be good, or that I will be going to them. This is just a list of things I found that looked like they might be interesting, so please do not contact me to ask for your event to be included. That’s not the way it works.
Wednesday the 1st – Wayside & Woodland night @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – An interesting-looking evening of ambient/electronica/post-rock/kindathing. Features (amongst many other things) a DJ set from Xela, who I was into for a good while before I realized that he was the son of a bloke who worked at our place.
Thursday the 2nd till Saturday the 4th – “The Tiger Who Came To Tea” (Nick Brook & Kenny Way Ltd) @ The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry – I’ve always wanted a tiger to turn up for tea at my house. “Tea time mayhem” and “clumsy chaos” are promised. Tigers are awesome.
Thursday the 2nd – “Pilot” (various theatre companies, hosted by Stan’s Café) @ The A.E. Harris Building, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham – Nine short plays, many of them site-specific. Anything touched by the hand of Stan’s Café is usually very good indeed.
Friday the 3rd until Sunday the 12th – The Birmingham International Jazz Festival @ various different venues, mostly in Brum – Featuring such outstandingly named acts as “The Fantabulous Sheepwash Playboys” and “The Shuffling Hungarians”.
Friday the 3rd – The Big Bang @ The Victoria, Birmingham – Album launch gig for the good quality local darkness ‘n’ rollers.
Saturday the 4th till Sunday the 26th – Yukio Fujimoto’s “The Tower Of Time” @ Perrot’s Folly, Edgbaston, Birmingham – The ticking of 1,111 clocks builds as you climb the tower, approaching white noise as you get to the sixth floor up. Yukio’s pocket-calculator music at last year’s Supersonic was ace.
Saturday the 4th – The Jewellery Quarter Festival @ all over The Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham – Including a guest appearance from Matthew Boulton, which should be quite the time-travelling spectacle.
Saturday the 4th – The Kings Heath Big Party/York Road Street Party @ Kings Heath Park and York Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham – All sorts of music and fun and laughter, with ‘an old fashioned charabanc’ to transport you between the two sites. A street party in the York Road near me would be an horrific thing to imagine, but I’m sure the one in Kings Heath is lovely.
Saturday the 4th – ‘Fudgestock’ @ The Public, West Bromwich – Various bands play to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness. This is undoubtedly a good thing, but dear lord what a rubbish name for an event.
Saturday the 4th – “For You” (Music Theatre Wales) @ The Rep, Birmingham – AKA ‘The Iain McEwan Opera”.
Saturday the 4th – “Goldilocks And How Many Bears?” (Krazy Kat Theatre Company) @ The Rep Door, Birmingham – This one is BYOB: Bring Your Own Bear (if you need to borrow one then make sure you don’t fall victim to ursury usury. Arf).
Sunday the 5th – boxing (First Team & Warrior Promotions) @ The Tower Ballroom, Edgbaston, Birmingham – Including the D. Mitchell vs Martin Concepcion rematch that was meant to be happening last month.
Sunday the 5th – Latin American Festival @ Victoria Square, Birmingham – With salsa, limbo and tango shows, ‘funky feathers’, amigos and American Mercenaries bringing down non-right-wing governments.
Monday the 6th – Prefuse 73 @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Our Louise has trouble distinguishing between Jill Scott and Gil Scott-Heron. Introducing an artist named Guillermo Scott Herren (for that is Prefuse 73’s real name) into the equation seems deliberately unfair.
Wednesday the 8th till Saturday the 11th – “The Importance Of Being Earnest” (Stourbridge Theatre Company) @ Himley Hall, Wombourne – “A HANDBAG?” See also: the 30th of this month.
Friday the 10th – Einstellung / Mothertrucker @ The Flapper, Birmingham – You could see this as a warm-up for Supersonic, I suppose.
Saturday the 11th till Thursday the 18th – “Dad’s Army” (Oldbury Repertory Players) @ The Oldbury Rep, Langley – Don’t tell him your name, Pike.
Saturday the 11th – “The Black Maze” (Stan’s Café) @ Cannon Hill Park, Edgbaston, Birmingham – A maze in the back of a wagon. Stan’s Café are ace.
Wednesday the 15th until Saturday the 19th of September – “Little Shop Of Horrors” @ The Hippodrome, Birmingham – Feeeeeed me, Seymour.
Wednesday the 15th – Carina Round @ The Bar Academy, Birmingham – I’ve probably already said pretty much everything I’ll ever be able to say about ‘Rina.
Friday the 17th – boxing (First Team Promotions) @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Apparently dubbed ‘The Summer Slammer’, which sounds like more of an MMA name to me.
Sunday the 19th – Birmingham Eid Mela 2009 @ Kings Heath Park, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Including kabbadi matches! Oh my life that will be awesome.
Tuesday the 21st – The Autumn Store night @ The Victoria, Birmingham – A warm-up indie-pop do for the Indietracks festival in Derbyshire.
Wednesday the 22nd – “The Traveling Picture Show” (7 Inch Cinema) @ The Light House, Wolverhampton – 7 Inch Cinema’s touring film programme for kids and adults. Involves bugs, beasts, magic boxes and red balloons.
Thursday the 23rd till Saturday the 25th – “The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband” (Highbury Theatre Centre) @ The Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham – Adulterous chappy gets munched. “One from the vaults…”
Friday the 24th till Sunday the 26th – Supersonic 2009 @ The Custard Factory, Digbeth, Birmingham – My Favourite Annual Event, headlined this year by Head Of David, Corrupted and Goblin, alongside (of course) many many others. I may or may not write a post on its own about it in the next couple of weeks (it’s probably not likely, in all honesty, although you never know) but for the time being have a little listen to this Soup’n’Sonic themed podcast (disclaimer: I haven’t done so myself yet).
Friday the 24th – Roy Ayers @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – The less famous version of Stevie Wonder, perhaps.
Saturday the 25th – Testament @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – Air guitar on the mic stand in no small amounts (this is a good thing).
Sunday the 26th – Geocaching taster day @ Nimmings Wood Car Park, Clent Hills, Hagley – A ‘high tech treasure hunting game’. You’re given GPS equipment and have to find the hidden containers dotted around the place, by the looks of it.
Tuesday the 28th – Emiliana Torrini @ The Glee Club, Birmingham – Dunka dunka dugga dugga dun dun.
Thursday the 30th till Saturday the 1st of August – “The Importance Of Being Earnest” (Tread The Boards Theatre Company) @ The Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham – “A HANDBAG?” See also: the 8th of this month.
Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: June 2009
A short one this month, which is more my fault than that of the rest of the world. Having given it a last read-through before posting, I’d also like to note that I’m giving some serious consideration to toning down the stupid commentary henceforth. I probably won’t, though.
Standard disclaimers: I can’t ensure that these events will go ahead, that they’ll be good, or that I will be going to them. This is just a list of things I found that looked like they might be interesting, so please do not contact me to ask for your event to be included. That’s not the way it works.
From Monday the 1st and onwards into July – Bass Festival @ various venues in Birmingham and other cites too – This year’s theme is “Inspired by Africa and Africans”. All sorts of things are a-going on, so have a little look at the What’s On page.
Monday the 1st – Manic Street Preachers @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Intermittently worthwhile student-radical Welshers. Must all be about five hundred years old by now.
Tuesday the 2nd – The Horrors @ The Academy 2, Birmingham – Hyped so much that even I’ve noticed, but you can have a listen to their new album here (scroll down a bit, try not to get too distracted by the picture of Rollins needing a wash) and I quite like it. 80s-style indie rock: bit of J&MC, bit of (a much more polite version of) The Birthday Party, derivative but great fun.
Tuesday the 2nd and Wednesday the 3rd – “Tempest In A Tea Cup” (Side By Side Theatre) @ The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton – There seem to be a few offshoots of ‘The Tempest’ knocking around the theatrical world lately. This one features dysfunctional MPs and is set in a kitchen and a standard lamp. Apparently.
Friday the 5th till Saturday the 13th of June – “The Government Inspector” (Crescent Theatre Company) @ The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham – Wait for it, wait for it… Corrupt politicians and their cronies are afraid that their embezzling and wrongdoing will be exposed. Also there’s a play by Gogol (hithangyew).
Saturday the 6th – Pritchattsbury Festival @ Pritchatts Park, Edgbaston, Birmingham – Apparently in its sixth year and the biggest festival in Brum, although no-one seems to have heard of it. Those playing include Just Jack, Lethal Bizzle and The Rumblestrips, although I’m getting sick of this “using ‘-bury’ as a general suffix for a festival name” lark. Just as Watergate would now be Watergategate, that thing in the West Country is presumably now Glastonburybury.
Saturday the 6th – Joan Of Arc @ The Rainbow, Digbeth, Birmingham – Featuring ex-members of a pile of those types of bands that everyone else has heard apart from me, but never mind that: they sound like they have an interesting mix of wonky springy indie-rock, twingly-twangly guitar instrumentation that’s probably ala all those aforementioned bands although possibly not, and that kind-of-folksy-but-not-really American half-effort singing that is usually annoying but sometimes endearing, as per here. One day I’ll meet someone to whom my descriptions actually make sense, and it’ll probably bring about the apocalypse or somesuch.
Saturday the 6th – Schostakovich’s Fifth Symphony (CBSO) @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – Nuts to that Stalin character. This’ll learn him.
Monday the 8th – Mark Thomas @ The Town Hall, Birmingham – The selection of policies for a “People’s Manifesto” continues. You can look at the full list here – I particularly like “Margaret Thatcher should pay for her own funeral”, “To replace organ donor cards with an opt out scheme”, “That the 1967 Abortion Act should be introduced to Northern Ireland”, “If MPs want a second job in order to gain a greater understanding of life outside of government, then the constituents should be able to vote and choose which job they think would best expand their MPs horizons”, and “Those who peddle homeopathic remedies should only receive homeopathic medicines when they have major illnesses”.
Tuesday the 9th – Lady Sovereign @ The Academy 2, Birmingham – Hooray for short people! I don’t know, you lot with your ‘leg room’ and your ‘ow I’ve banged my head’.
Wednesday the 10th – The Drones @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Awesome Australian indie rock’n’roll band who awesomely and Australianly actually use the word ‘daggy’ in this interview. Awesome. And Australian. And also it’s an interesting read outside of that.
Friday the 12th – Boxing (First Team) @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Steve Saville defends his Midlands Area lightweight title against Gary Reid, which is very far from a definite win for him. Lyndsey Scragg, meanwhile, has drawn Ugandan Agnes Adonga in a fight for something called the GBC women’s super-flyweight title, and Dean Harrison is on the card too.
Saturday the 13th and Sunday the 14th – “24 Hour Scalextric Grand Prix” (Stan’s Café) @ The A. E. Harris Building, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham – I always think ‘Scalextric’ sounds like a mispronunciation along the lines of ‘skellington’ or ‘sumbarine’. But it’s not. A 24 hour race, anyway, with running commentary through the whole thing. 7 Inch Cinema will be showing some pictures, too.
Saturday the 13th – The Flyover Show @ Hockley Flyover, Hockley, Birmngham – Urban jazzman Soweto Kinch’s second annual all-dayer under the A-Road, which makes for a really cool venue. Artists on include Ty, Bashy, and even Linton Kwesi Johnson.
Saturday the 13th – ‘Sci-Fi Fete’ @ St Mary’s Church, Castle Bromwich, Birmingham – A science-fiction themed church fete is not something you see every day.
Saturday the 13th – Æthenor / Einstellung @ The Hare And Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Brought to you by Capsule, whose ranks are now (in a way) bolstered by P’Ashton. An example of intertwingling, perhaps.
Tuesday the 16th – Boxing (no bleeding idea) @ The Arden Hotel, Solihull – Sorry about that, but it’s the best link I can find. The world of boxing, yet again, decides that the best way to make sure its shows are full of punters is to make sure everything is a bit more difficult for them than it might otherwise be (although in the name of not being quite so relentlessly negative I’ll say that I am quite happy that this now exists. That has nothing to do with this card, of course). This will apparently feature Kell Brook vs John O’Donnell in a British welterweight title fight and Gary Buckland vs Henry Castle in an eliminator for the British lightweight. Quite why those particular fights would end up happening in Solihull is beyond me, but there we are.
Thursday the 18th – Billy Bragg @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Braggy normally does the Wulfrun when he plays in Wolves, but this one is at The Civic. Climbing the capitalist ladder as ever, tsk.
Friday the 19th – “The War Of The Worlds” @ The NIA, Birmingham – UUULLLAAAAAAAAA.
Friday the 19th – UFO @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – Doctor Doctor, there’s a fly in my soup. You don’t hear those jokes nowadays. I think that’s a shame. This is also quite possibly a very oblique reference.
Friday the 19th – The Sweet @ The Robin 2, Bilston – Or a version thereof, anyway. That’s right. That’s right that’s right.
Sunday the 21st – “The Secret Life Of Bees” @ Clent Hills, Hagley – Beeeeees. This is a walk and talk about bees, I should add, not a play built from the novel of the same name or anything like that.
Monday the 22nd – Shonen Knife @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Japanese girly pop-punkists who were really young when they started but have been going forever and so probably aren’t really young any more, if I understand this ‘chronology’ lark rightly (see also: 1st of the month). My favourite (possibly apocryphal) story about them is that – when they first started – the guitarist couldn’t play her instrument while standing up, having only ever practiced whilst sitting down. I think there’s something really lovely about that.
Tuesday the 23rd till Saturday the 27th – “The BFG” (Fiery Light/Royal & Derngate) @ The Rep, Birmingham – I approve of Roald Dahl as an author for children. I don’t approve of children, obviously, but if they have to exist then Roald Dahl is a good author for them to read. Then when a bit older Rushdie’s “Haroun And The Sea Of Stories” and Gaardner’s “Sophie’s World”. Continue with Alice and Hitchhikers, and then they’re ready for Kafka. I reckon.
Tuesday the 23rd – A Hawk And A Hacksaw @ The Hare And Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Them having a song called “God Bless The Ottoman Empire” gives Johnny Punter a good reason to go to this gig. Them having one of those websites (I’ve linked the MySpace instead there, to spare you) that does the ol’ “resized pop-up window” thing gives a good reason to try and spite them by not going. I thought that crap had died out. Messing about with my screen without asking me is not the best way to endear yourself to me, dunno about you.
Wednesday the 24th – Blur @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Whoo and also, if you find yourself so inclined, Hoo.
Wednesday the 24th – Hot 8 Brass Band @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – It seems to be an evolving tradition for the H&H to host a hip-hop influenced brass band every month. Not that I disapprove of this.
Thursday the 25th – B.B. King @ The NIA, Birmingham – ‘The legendary bluesman’, as professional music writers would insist you refer to him.
Thursday the 25th – Jeff Beck @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – “So, Jeff Beck pops his head round the corner and mentions that there’s a little sweetshop at the edge of town…”
Friday the 26th till Sunday the 5th of July – Moseley Festival @ sundry locations in Moseley, Birmingham – All sorts of stuff in that there spot with those there people. I’m having trouble picturing a ‘Rocky Horror’ night at The Prince Of Wales, though. Also: it’s a bit of a digression, but Eye On Moseley has made me laugh more than any other blog I’ve seen in quite a long time.
Friday the 26th – Pendulum @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – They display an astonishing ignorance of arachnid physiology, it’s true, but they nevertheless make your body goi stiff an your spine goi numb. Come fe get some.
Sunday the 28th – Boxing (Warrior Promotions, I’m guessing) @ The Tower Ballroom, Edgbaston, Birmingham – One of these afternoon ones, I’m also guessing. Featuring a rematch between Dee Mitchell and Martin Concepcion: trust me when I say that their first fight was fantastic, up there with other four-round classics of our times like Gethin vs Carey and Davies vs Rasani.
Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands – April 2009
Ah, April. Spring has begun and a young person’s attention naturally turns to… erm, things to see and do. Obviously.
Standard disclaimers: I can’t ensure that these events will go ahead, that they’ll be good, or that I will be going to them. This is just a list of things I found that looked like they might be interesting, so please do not contact me to ask for your event to be included. That’s not the way it works.
Thursday the 2nd till Sunday the 5th, then Thursday the 9th till Sunday the 12th – “Black Tonic” (The Other Way Works Theatre Company) @ The Radisson Hotel, Birmingham – Audiences of two at a time (so make sure you book) are led around a hotel to solve the mystery, centered around sleeplessness and shiftworking.
Friday the 3rd until Saturday the 11th – “Talking To Terrorists” (Crescent Theatre Company) @ The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham – The last of three plays in The Crescent’s ‘Terrorism’ mini-series. More words on that soon. They’ve been really good to us just recently, so more words on that soon too. This one is made up of monologues (I think) adapted from interviews with people directly affected by Terrorism in one way or another, and sounds like it might be a dark horse for best-of-the-three.
Friday the 3rd – Boxing (First Team) @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Featuring the return to the local First Team cards of Stourbridge’s Sam “The Man” Horton, and the pro debut of Walsall’s amateur ‘starlet’ Bobby Wood.
Sunday the 5th – ‘Easter Wonderland’ @ Botanical Gardens, Harborne, Birmingham – Walking in it.
Tuesday the 7th – Tina Turner @ The NIA, Birmingham – Quite possibly the first popular music artist I was ever a fan of, all those many years ago. Didn’t quite fall for her to the same degree I did for Sabbath when I first heard them a few years later, but still.
Wednesday the 8th – “Yasser” (Theatre International) @ The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton – An Arab prepares to play Shylock in “The Merchant Of Venice”, and finds that he may understand the identity of the maligned Jew more than anyone else.
Thursday the 9th – The Prodigy / Dizzee Rascal @ The NIA, Birmingham – Fire start look sharp.
Friday the 10th – Baroness @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – A Capsule do. The first time I saw Baroness really was quite something. Something loud, that is. The always-bosting Mothertrucker are also on the bill.
Friday the 10th – Paul Merton’s Silent Clowns @ The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham – Him what be funny on the telly and whatnot, screening bits from the silent comedies of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy etc. with a live pianist in that lovely old traditional fashion.
Friday the 10th – Boxing (Warrior Promotions) @ The Holiday Inn, Birmingham – Yah boo sucks to dinner shows.
Friday the 10th – St Matthew’s Passion (Ex-Cathedra) @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – I know there’s an annual Brum performance, but isn’t it usually by the Birmingham Bach Choir rather than Ex-Cathedra? Or am I confused?
Saturday the 11th – Terrorvision @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – I curse myself and the world for the fact that I didn’t get a ticket before this one sold out.
Sunday the 12th – Beres Hammond / Maxi Priest @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – 10CC don’t like reggae. On the other hand, nuts to 10CC.
Sunday the 12th – Flyover Show preview @ The Drum, Newtown, Birmingham – The Flyover Show (brainchild of Soweto Kinch) was wonderful next year, and I’m glad there’s going to be another one (May sometime). Here you can have a preview of some of the works being created for it.
Sunday the 12th – Horace Andy @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Skylark away at a surprisingly small venue. The fact that it’s the same night as Beres Hammond/Maxi Priest will no doubt be a pain in the arse for many, but there we are.
Sunday the 12th – Bat For Lashes @ The Town Hall, Birmingham – Khaaaan~! (That’s her surname, didjaseewhatIdidthere).
Thursday the 16th – Supersuckers @ The Barfly, Digbeth, Birmingham – Lemmy once said that if you don’t like Supersuckers, you don’t like rock’n’roll. Then again, Lemmy says a lot of things.
Friday the 17th until Saturday the 25th – The Rivals (Crescent Theatre Company) @ The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham – The Sheridan comedy, including a big sword-fight.
Saturday the 18th – Ramesses @ Busk, Birmingham – Dooooooooooom.
Tuesday the 21st – Gomez @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – Gomez are a band who achieve the rare feat of being incredibly studenty but somehow not annoying. Good on ‘em.
Wednesday the 22nd – PJ Harvey and John Parish @ The Town Hall, Birmingham – Big fishy little fishy swimming in the water.
Wednesday the 22nd – Bridge And Tunnel @ The Flapper, Birmingham – Interesting indie-punk type of band, distantly reminiscent of Hot Water Music. Apparently they’re named after a regional slur, and you know I’m all about that sort of thing.
Wednesday the 22nd – The Wailers @ The Academy, Birmingham – Playing “Exodus” in its entirety. Movement of Jah people. Bob Marley won’t be there, for obvious reasons.
Wednesday the 23rd – Gary Numan @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – Ah, Gazza, he of the cars and friends electric and frighteningly obsessive fans.
Thursday the 23rd with things afterward – St George’s Day @ everywhere – There’s assorted stuff going on all over the place, some of it free and some of it not. Brum has free stages in Chamberlain and Victoria Squares on the 25th (lots of Morris dancing and a Beatles tribute band, apparently); Wolverhampton looks to have Dragons a-plenty.
Thursday the 23rd – AC/DC @ The LG Arena, Marston Green, Birmingham – They tell me it’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock’n’roll. I don’t think there’s anything particularly rock’n’roll about trying to climb to the top, but on the other hand it seems a safe bet to assume that AC/DC know more about these things than me.
Thursday the 23rd – Basement Jaxx @ The Academy, Birmingham – I curse myself and the world for the fact that I didn’t get a ticket before this one sold out, too.
Thursday the 23rd until Saturday the 25th – “Home Of The Wriggler” (Stan’s Café) @ The A.E Harris Building, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham – From the people who brought you the absolutely amazing likes of The Cleansing Of Constance Brown and Of All The People In All The World. Tales from a Birmingham of the near future are relayed with all light and sound powered by the actors themselves.
Friday the 24th – Boxing (Sports Network) @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – This was supposed to have Kell Brook vs Mark Lloyd for the British welterweight title, but that was rejected by the board (for a second time). This was then supposed to have Kell Brook vs Young Mutley for saidsame title, but Brook is apparently injured (no name fighters ever seem to be available to fight Mut just lately, do they?). So… I gather Mutley is still on the card, and Donnie Broadhurst will be defending his commonwealth title against the dreaded TBC too.
Friday the 24th – Elvis Costello and The Brodsky Quartet – Symphony Hall, Birmingham – Young Declan gets his quasi-classical groove on.
Saturday the 25th – AMMA @ Bescott Stadium, Walsall – These amateur MMA cards are always fantastic, but this one has an extra special main event: longtime fave of this blog Danny Korbely is due to face northern prodigy James Saville, in a full pro-rules bantamweight match. You don’t get to see two of the country’s best young prospects clash in their first professional fight every day of the week. The latest version of the card is here.
Saturday the 25th and Sunday the 26th – The Specials @ The Academy, Birmingham – Without Jerry Dammers, but I suspect this is probably as close to the original line-up as you’re going to get.
Monday the 27th – S.C.U.M. / An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump @ The Little Civic, Wolverhampton – Mentioned mostly for the magnificent name of the supporting artistes, although in a musical sense the goth-revivalism (Siouxsie/Bauhaus/Birthday Party/etc) of both them and the headliners could be fun.
Tuesday the 28th – The Nightingales @ The Little Civic, Wolverhampton – August and venerable Brummie post-punk sorts. Trivia from Wikipedia: by the time they’d first split up, they’d done more Peel sessions than anyone other than The Fall.
Wednesday the 29th – Asva @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Surreal doom/drone? Have I got that right? I think a lot of people said they were really good at Supersonic last year but then I could be confusing them with someone else. Another Capsule affair. (EDIT: This is apparently cancelled. Please disregard).
Wednesday the 29th – Bob Dylan @ The NIA, Birmingham – Presumably not in need of a silly blurb from me.
Brum on Brum crime
Wayne Elcock vs Matthew Macklin wasn’t quite as hotly anticipated for me as Wayne Elcock vs Darren McDermott was (see the bits below the asterisk here), but it was still a huge fight for all local boxing fans and one I really wanted to see. Theoretically, anyway. When I found out that the tickets were £40 (thus over £45 by the time you’ve added all of the booking fee/gubbins on) I was aghast. Forty-five quid for a card at the Villa Leisure Centre meant that Hennessy Sports, so often held up as the promoters of the people, were really taking the Mick (pun not reeeally intended). I wanted to see the fight live, but could I really condone this sort of abject pricing idiocy by actually paying for it?
I was um-ing and arr-ing until I found out that Young Mutley was meant to be challenging Adnan Amar for the English welterweight title on the undercard. That sold it for me: I did still feel like I was being made a fool of to some extent, but I paid my money for a ticket.
After that, however, it was established that Adnan Amar has decided that he refuses to face Mutley in Birmingham. Bugger. Although I have respect for the bravery of every boxer who dares to step into the ring, I’ve never seen quite as emphatic a bottle-job as this.
Oh well. With a ridiculously over-priced ticket in my pocket and a feeling of bitterness in both my heart and mind, I got the necessary trains over to Aston to have a look. First thought upon arriving and sitting down: that American MC that Hennessy uses doesn’t half get on my nerves.
Things began for me (I’m not sure whether the first fight I saw was the first of the night or not; full results albeit not in order can be seen here) with a fun but messy four rounder. Quinton Hillocks o’ Dudley didn’t do his superman/Soulja Boy entrance this time around, and that surely must be the reason why he ran face-first into quite a few things that Sheffield’s straight-backed/chin-held-up type Lee Duncan probably shouldn’t have been able to hit him with. The ref’s final score of 39-38 in favour of Quinton seems right to me, although it doesn’t really reflect the fact that he came close to stopping his man in the last round.
There was a short break after this, as the televised portion of the night began. Two things of note occurred: 1) A man dressed as Elvis turned up at ringside (for some reason); and 2) Barry McGuigan cast his eyes over the crowd and stopped to scowl directly at me. I’m not going to hold it against him, though. I know he hasn’t quite been right since Amir Khan moved to Sky Sports. Just remember, Barry – it’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.
Tom Glover and Chaz Symonds were up next, contesting an eight-rounder that was surprisingly entertaining given that they’re both Southerners from far away (meaning that I had no dog in the race, so to speak). I was distracted for a while in the middle due to the fact that the Elvis impersonator seemed to be being interviewed for the telly cameras over to our right (really now, whasgwaaning there?), but it was a close one – Glover was achieving more with single punches, but Symonds was landing more in combos. I forget the precise score at the end, but Glover took it by one point and that seems to reflect affairs well.
Good Ceiling Cat almighty Tyson Fury is a big fella. I mean… bloody hell. Just look at him. He’d also have the best name in boxing if it wasn’t for the aforementioned Quinton Hillocks.
I really admire the relatively brave matchmaking that Fury has had so far (certainly braver than you’d expect, at the absolute minimum). Here in his fourth professional fight he was against Lee Swaby, who may have been pulled in on short notice but it’s important not to forget that he knocked out Enzo Macarinelli at a similar stage in Big Mac’s pro career. I also think Fury is progressing fantastically well, given that he’s only a nineteen year old on his fourth pro fight – he might not be getting his weight in for the heavy one-shot punches yet, but he’s still getting rid of his opponents inside the distance. Perhaps more importantly he’s demonstrating a wide variety of punches to both the head and the body, excellent accuracy, and he’s lightning quick for his size. Then, of course, there’s the size itself. As long as he keeps getting better he’s going to be an absolute nightmare for his future opponents.
There’s always a sense of occasion about a British title fight – it just feels like a major affair. The atmosphere here was no exception (and, happily, it was good-natured all night too). I really was behind Macklin in this – I don’t dislike Elcock and I’d definitely be supporting him against anyone from further away, but I like Macklin more and also (if I’m honest) I had some lingering resentment about the McDermott result.
Whichever way up, I was expecting it to be close (I’d picked Macklin by stoppage in the last few rounds but expected him to have to ride out a few storms). Not so – Elcock was never really in it. The first round was competitive but Macklin was ahead, boxing in the sensible style he’s capable of but sometimes neglects. The second was solidly in Macklin’s favour, and Elcock couldn’t seem to land anything of note. In the third a right cross seemed to really hurt Elcock and turn his legs to jelly, leading to the ‘steam in’ style that we know and love from Matty Macklin. Wayne went down and bravely stood back up, but the ending wasn’t far away.
Suited me, as far as results go.
A couple-or-three more four-rounders followed, but I considered the train situation and headed on my way. I was probably a bit too excitable to pay proper attention anyway. I’m told that the Chris Male fight was on the telly broadcast, so I’ll see that when I get round to seeing it.
So… in the immediate British title context it looks like Darren McDermott is to take on Darren Barker next, in an eliminator. To my shame I’ve never seen Barker, but I like this – if Macca wins he gets the British title shot that he’s owed after the silly ending last time, if he loses then there’s the rematch with Elcock to settle that particular score. There’s a big local fight on the horizon, whichever way up.
Also regarding boxing from that particular night: Khan nonsense. As ever. But worse. Being sanctioned by the WBA and WBO, that fight was under American rules – to wit, a stoppage from an accidental cut will lead to a no-contest for the first four rounds, and then to the judges scorecards afterwards. They bumped heads and Barrera suffered a gusher towards the end of first round, as I’m sure anyone interested will have seen by now. It could have been stopped then, but it wasn’t. Alright, fair enough, give the legend a chance. Does it not seem slightly suspicious, though, that it was stopped in round five? The cut hadn’t got noticeably worse or better by that point, but stopping it in that round did mean that Khan would win the fight rather than it being declared a no-contest. The smell of home-cooking wafts around in the air, and it smells distasteful. What a way to treat a genuine legend of the sport like Marco Antonio Barrera.
That’s why when I’m walking out, people always stop and shout…
It was that rarest of things – a boxing card that looked beforehand to have a lot of fights of interest, rather than just one or two. Even more amazingly, it came from the stable of celebrated promotional turd-polisher Frizank Warren. Would it live up to expectations, though? I headed down to the NIA on Saturday the 28th of Feb to find out.
Thomas Costello opened things up in a four-rounder against Matt Scriven. Last time around at the NIA (the first time I’d seen him box live) I didn’t think he looked as amazing as some have made out to be, but I liked the cut of his jib here: nice crisp combos, mixing up different punches well. I could imagine a lot of journeymen going down from what he threw, but in this case he earned a 40-36 points win.
Darren “Macca” “The Black Country Bodysnatcher” “The Fighting Pride Of Dudley“ McDermott bossed his fight against Cov’s Steve Bendall. I was expecting it to be a lot closer than it was (and I certainly didn’t think he’d win six rounds straight off). Macca was better at range and in close (some especially good work with uppercuts), and quite often Bendall was resorting to little but spoiling. He did get back into it a bit more in the later rounds, but to no avail. I had it 98-93 and the ref said 97-94, which is fine by me. McDermott is now the English middleweight champ and surely back in the mix for British title contention and/or a re-match with Elcock. BLACK COUNTRY LA LA LA, BLACK COUNTRY LA LA LA.
Dah-dadah-dadah-dah Donnie Broadhurst defended his commonwealth super-flyweight decisively against Isaac Owusu, who was knocked down in the first round and initially looked like he’d be going over early but showed a lot of toughness in sticking it out until the stoppage in the eleventh. Don won every round en-route, but Isaac remained aggressive throughout. The Ghanaian went down face-first with a mighty splat in the eleventh, and although I was very surprised that the ref let it carry on after that he stopped it not long after.
Onto the televised portion, then, featuring the three debuting big-name amateurs (often elsewhere referred to as the Olympians, even though only two of them actually competed in the Olympics). All three of them were up against familiar “…and his East European opponent” types that Cockney pub-gangster-come-barrow-boy-made-good Frizank Warren seems to have an endless supply of, but nobody was expecting anything else. All three of them also looked to have a massive weight advantage, but (sadly) I don’t suppose anybody was expecting anything else there, either.
Billy Joe Saunders looked like the best of the three, albeit against the weakest opponent (Attila Molnár threw, what, ten punches in the round-and-a-half he was in there?). Billy Joe (I love it, so “The Waltons”) displayed a good variation of shots in his combos and got rid of the Hungarian in two. Many predicted beforehand that he looked the most suited for professional boxing, and the evidence of these fights would seem to support that.
Was Frankie Gavin’s fight meant to be at light welter/ten stone? I won’t mention that he weighed in at 10st 3lbs then, that’d seem like I was taking the mickey after his Olympic misfortune (I still suspect there’s a lot more to that than we’re being told). Funtime Frankie had more opportunity to show grit than the others – Georgian George Kadaria was by far the most up for a scrap out of the three opponents, and an accidental clash of heads led to a cut. Gavin nevertheless dug in and got his man (who hadn’t been stopped before) out of there in the last round, doing most of the damage with some wicked-looking hooks to the body. He did look like he was in a bit of a rush to finish at times, which isn’t bad as a mentality but can be as a tactic (’m reluctant to overstate that, though: I’d much rather see fighters try to end a fight decisively), but that could easily be put down to needing to impress his home crowd. It goes without saying that the already-lively audience went absolutely radio rental for the new Brummie hero.
James DeGale was the only one of the three to go the distance, and didn’t look amazing. He still seemed very amateur-boxing in style, flicking out one shot at a time and not putting his weight into anything. Vepkhia Tchilaia was very negative for three rounds, but decided to fight back in the last. DeGale’s vaunted counterpunching game still failed to make much impression. Our gold-medal-winning Olympic supahstaaarrr (and doesn’t he want you to know it) was unsurprisingly very well-received on entrance, but it isn’t entirely surprising that a lot of the cheers turned to boos after a couple of rounds of faff from him. I don’t ever boo anyone myself, but it was funny to see this unheralded Georgian cheered against the Olympic champ. Come on the underdogs.
With all of that said it’s very important to note that you cannot judge how a boxer’s entire career will go from their first 4×3 fight, but if we put aside all of the fuss and amateur achievements and try to pretend that we’d never heard of them before I think we’d say that Gavin and Saunders had potential. I’m not sure we’d say that DeGale’s debut was particularly auspicious if it came from anybody. Plenty of time yet, though.
Finally, we had latest stage in the surprising but deserved and completely loveable rise to prominence of Martin Rogan. Things over-running meant that I had to leave before it finished, but I have since watched the Sky broadcast. I backed Rogan against Fraudley and won money, but thought Skelton would take him here. Wrong. Rogan is always a tiny bit more technical than you’d give him credit for (don’t go mad, not I’m not saying he’s Pernell Whittaker or anything, but I thought his head movement around the taller man’s jab here was good) and he looked to actually be stronger than the much bigger Skelton. Most of all, though, he has the heart of a lion. I hope he continues to prove everyone wrong, myself included if needs be.
Reluctant as I am to admit it, funny-eyed litigious guncrime victim Frizank Warren really gave us a cracker to pull here. If he deigns to move the Olympians onto sensible opposition before they’ve had fifty fights I may even stop calling him silly names.
Yoo Eff Cee 95: X vs Y makes for a boring title
Change, change and change again. Upon learning that UFC 95 was due to be at the 02 Arena and that Anderson Silva was strongly rumoured to headline, I steamed in: I ordered my ticket and booked the Premier Inn at Beckton, pausing only to shudder at the memory of Travelodge faff and nonsense last time I went to the 02. The initial plan was to go with The Boy Trig, but when it became apparent that he wouldn’t be able our Louise stepped in. Not to go to the MMA, obviously, but to come with me to London in general – she’s never been before. We were getting quite excited about what would be a lovely weekend together when, a few days before, her achey-breaky knee decided to re-injure itself in a worse-than-usual way.
So, I ended up going on my own.
Rumours of Anderson Silva, meanwhile, turned out to be greatly exaggerated. When the card was eventually announced it didn’t seem dreadful but it did lack a certain something. I don’t want to sound like I’m only interested in big names but Diego Sanchez vs Joe Stevenson certainly did not have the feel of a main event. Worse still, Paul “Black Countraaaay” Taylor was out with injury. The UFC press man who posts on the Boxrec forums often seems to make a big deal of the fact that they can sell a big pile o’ tickets without announcing the card, but I doubt I’ll ‘go in blind’ again (mind you… this one had the most empty seats I’ve seen at a UFC card yet. Previously I’ve felt the need to scramble and get in early in case of a sell-out. That might not be a worry any longer – I do get the impression that the novelty of “ooh, the actual UFC over here!” is wearing off a bit).
I’m in danger of overstating. The card was by no means awful, as I’ve said: on paper it did look well-matched (the large number of early finishes on the night belie that a little bit, but hindsight is always like some kind of bad-bwoy pin-spotting eagle with hi-tech binoculars). Boxing has been taking up more of my attention than MMA just lately, but I was still really looking forward to this.
L-Day, then, the 21st of February. A 404 bus took me to Sandwell & Dudley station, and a Virgin Train thence to Euston. A little bit of a look at The British Museum (never been there before. I particularly liked Cradle To Grave by Pharmacopoeia, and the Mayan ocelot-shaped serving bowl. Ocelots~! Truly the master race) was followed by a general wander around before I hopped onto public transport to cross the big bad city for Beckton. After checking in I had time for a quick hour’s nap before heading on my merry way.
The 02, as I learned last time, is big. Very big (but that’s just peanuts compared to etc etc etc). This time I found myself in a seat that was very high indeed – the last-but-one row in the top tier, if you can imagine that. I’m not sure why, considering that elsewhere around the arena there were visibly tonnes of empty seats lower down in the same tier (including one row with only one seat occupied on the opposite side), but there we go. I couldn’t drink myself back to earth because I’m just not willing to pay £4.30 for a pint, no sirree. Still, never mind. The good thing about these super-size arenas is that the height ensures that your view is always clear, even if you are 381 miles away.
Notes from cageside (well, no, not from cageside. Notes from a few hundred yards in the air above the octagon and then across a bit):
~ Paul Kelly’s ground ‘n’ pound is just frightening. Troy Mandaloniz’ face ended up looking like some kind of blancmange made from uncooked beef. It’s also interesting to note that historically I’ve found Kelly to be the UFC’s comprehensible scouser whereas I could rarely make out a word that Terry Etim said, but they swapped roles this time around. Etim also (happily) won, by second round stoppage.
~ The only British representative to lose all night was Neil Grove, who’s actually South African so that’s alright. Well, sort of. It’s hard to claim that he’s a UFC-level fighter skill-wise, but then again they’ve had some right sorts in the past so who can say? Good luck to him. Size and hitting power can get you far. If not in this particular instance. Also: those old interviews where he’d take the piss out of Cage Rage and Elite XC whilst fighting for them were magnificent and the sort of thing I’d like to see more of.
~ I’ve decided that Demian Maia is one of my favourite MMA fighters going at the moment. On the ground he just pure chews people up and spits ‘em out. He also gets a bagful of extra style points for finessing the finish here (“What do you think of my triangle choke, Chael Sonnen?” enquired Maia. “Hmmph. I don’t care for it,” came the muffled reply).
~ It may have been in a battle of Skilled Fighters I Don’t Care About (or SFIDCA, for short. American MMA is full of them), but another bagful of style points go to Nate Marquadt for his “everything up to and including the kitchen sink” finish of Wilson Gouvaia (Wheeee! Kapow! Splat! Kerblamo!).
~ If you’ll excuse my French, Josh Koscheck really is the most petulant little shit going. I know he was upset about what he saw as an unfair stoppage and so on and so forth, but the way he pulled his hand away from Mark Goddard like that during the official announcement of the winner had more than a slight air of a child who’d just been told he couldn’t have something he wanted.
~ It was interesting to see Dan Hardy getting the superstar build-up, ala Bisping (the lighting during his entrance was a nice touch). I’ve been a fan of Dan Hardy since I first saw him fighting on the old Cagewarriors cards in Coventry, so I’m glad to see him doing so well. I can see this schtick of mentioning ‘England’ or ‘Britain’ at least once every fifteen seconds getting boring quickly, but it’ll probably work out well for him. Great knock-out, anyway, with a perfectly scouted and timed counter left hook. Bring on the plastic paddy for him next.
~ Lots of people in the arena gave their loudest boo when the Sanchez/Stevenson (another SFIDCA affair) decision was announced, but I fail to see why. What did Stevenson do to win that fight?
Overall, it was a reasonably fun card but by no means a great one. There were some really fun finishes but not anything that you’d describe as an especially memorable fight (although no absolute stinkers either, in the name of fairness).
Sunday saw me having an amble around the pubs and markets of Camden (always huge fun. Cards and small prezzies were purchased) before hopping on the train back.
And that was that.
Catch up catch up catch up
So it’s a catch-up post (as ever), stretching back for three months.
The Leonard Cohen gig on the 22nd of November was originally going to be written about in a post entitled “First we take Marston Green, then we take Berlin”. Not a particularly good title, obviously, but it amused me.
To the NEC arena (has/had it not quite finished changing its name to the LG Arena yet, or has/had it? Confused am [were] we) then, stopping en route for a nice drink in Oldbury’s The Railway Inn at this end. We intended to go to the Wetherspoons at Birmingham International but it was actually shut at half six. Blimey.
He might be older than the dirt in Methuselah’s garden, but Lenny Cohen is still hugely charismatic and (I’m told) very sexy in his double-breasted suit and customary hat. He looked a lot older in the brief spells for which the hat came off. Whilst he’s never been known for being the best technical singer (and makes light of that himself), his deep sonorous voice was amazing. Perfect in every way.
His band were fantastic, n’all. Alongside regular collaborator Sharon Robinson, The Webb Sisters were his other two backing singers. They did the standard (I mean ‘standard’ not ‘bad’) pop-stars-band quasi-gospel backing vox, but from a little bit of their own that they got to do towards the end it seems that their own milieu is a lot folkier. Variation, that’s what we like. His Spanish guitar fella was also really good, and definitely added something beyond just technical proficiency.
Highlights abounded. All of it was a highlight, in fact, but if forced to pick a few than I suppose I’d have to pick “Tower of Song” complete with cheap keyboard and attempts to make Sharon laugh, “Hallelujah” obviously (ooh topical) (well, less so now but it was when I first wrote that), “Thousand Kisses Deep” (one I didn’t know before this gig, but the spoken/recited vocals made it a lot better than the sung recorded version I’ve since heard), a bombastic “First We Take Manhattan”, and probably loads more.
This would have been within my top fifteen gigs ever, easily.
Onwards into December. Whenever my Balkan-gypsy-Hammerhorror-PapaLazaru-danceband faves The Destroyers play at big daytime events (Artsfest, Moseley Folk etc) they’re always enjoyed by lots of little kids who obviously can’t go to the night-time gigs (insert the usual rant from me and various other people here: if there are two bands in the local area who are capable of appealing into a wide variety of people then they’re The Destroyers and Modified Toy Orchestra, and the fact that the conventional music industry’s genre-based schema doesn’t have the ability to read this illustrates a lot of what’s wrong with it). They decided, therefore, to make a daytime children’s show: Tweedeleededeedee, Sir Ru Barb and The Green Wolf at Birmingham Town Hall on Saturday the 6th of December. Lovely idea.
Sadly, it was a bit of a mess, although this was the first ever time it was performed there is plenty of chance to improve. We didn’t attend the singalong workshop type’o’thing that came beforehand, but the play itself had lots of nice ideas that seemed slightly badly done. My main advice would be Turn The Bleedin’ Microphones Up, ‘cos then it might be easier to hear what people are saying (also: persuade the dolly-bird/bit-of-fluff lady that the mic is more useful when spoken into, rather than held at waist level). I imagine it was mostly as a result of this communication breakdown that I found it quite difficult to follow at times. Some of the kids in attendance clearly absolutely loved it and were really getting into it/dancing in their seats, but quite a lot more just seemed to get bored and fractious (especially the little git behind us and his even worse parents). Obviously I don’t like kids to begin with and I do realise the foolishness of moaning about children at a children’s show, but I’m sure quite a few of them would have been a lot more attentive and happy if they’d been able to actually follow what was going on.
I hate saying this, because I really love The Destroyers and have a huge amount of goodwill towards anything they do. I’d also certainly never dispute the fact that this was a worthwhile thing to attempt. There were positives: there was some lovely music, I liked the animations, and the idea of a child been born as a mutant solar-powered sentient bicycle is rare genius. Rare, rare genius.
(Contrasting views exist, of course).
A mooch around Brum followed for a few hours, before heading over to The Old Joint Stock for pies. I very much recommend their pies in there.
Pies aside, the pub also has a theatre. We were there that evening for a stage version of Poe’s “Masque Of The Red Death”, courtesy of The Happiness Patrol. This, I thought, was really good. A two-hander (with the audience and a row of mannequin dolls representing the assembled throng), with Philip Hoyman as a silent servant (who managed to say a lot without saying anything), and Gareth Nichols as an incredibly intense Prince Prospero (a great performance – he kept up a large amount vicious paranoia very effectively for a long time). Unlike the story it centred around Prospero’s neurotic contempt for those he thought he was saving, but the whole thing still had a very eerie air, especially the way the different coloured rooms were represented by bathing the set with lights.
It was veeeeeery hot in there, though. Between the air temperature and all the talk of plague and disease I actually started to come over a bit queasy at the start.
(Other folks write here, here, and here).
To J.B’s for the first time in an age on Tuesday the 9th, and it’s as much of a funny ol’ place as ever. It has what is probably the lowest level of soullessness that a 1,000 capacity pop music venue is ever reasonably likely to have, but gigs there tend to be pretty damn expensive on the door and they never seem to advertise much outside of their own website. It’s unsurprising that the turnout for this Municipal Waste gig was poorer than it might have been elsewhere (I recall a lot more people going to see The Waste at the much smaller Flapper the two times that Gazberg put them on there a few years ago).
Ah well. Iron Lung were the tour support, a two piece (drums/vox and guitar) playing a pretty effective style of violent grind with some slow bits and enjoying their first time in ‘Doodley’ (a mispronunciation that seemed to really upset one heckler, even though his own voice sounded scouse). The sound was absolutely perfect for them and really let their stop/start-on-a-sixpence dynamics shine through, whilst the drummer was a nutter but an endearing one. I really enjoyed them for most of their set, although they did go on for a bit longer than might have been the optimum.
Municipal Waste were massive fun (as always) with their “exactly like DRI but no-one seems to mind, least of all me” thrash metal/hardcore crossover business. They don’t take themselves completely seriously,which is always a good thing. The highlights were predictable – “Thrashin’ Of The Christ”, “Terror Shark” and a rendition of “Municipal Waste IGFYU” after having persuaded most of the audience to get up onto the stage. Their re-titling of “I Wanna Kill The President” as “I Wanna Chill With The President” suggests that they’re not 100% living in the past. Maybe.
(Singer Tony described this gig as “a weird ass show” in a recent interview).
Christmas happened next, obviously. Christmas is lovely.
I don’t like Going To The Pictures. I’m a lot better with films in general than I was a couple of years ago, but I’d still much rather watch one at home and I definitely don’t subscribe to the ‘bigger screen is better’ theory. It’ll pass as a general outing now and again (as long as there’s a sufficiently long gap between ‘now’ and ‘again’), though, and so on Saturday the 10th we went to The Electric Cinema to see Slumdog Millionaire. Florence has since decided she feels the same way about picture-houses and so all is well, but we’d both acknowledge that The Electric is a lot better than most. So very loud, though! That can’t be necessary. The fillum itself was ace, I thought; fast-paced and exciting but still thoughtful, with a happy/fairly sentimental ending but not shying away from displaying the horribleness where necessary.
My first gig of the new year took place on Thursday the 22nd of Jan, going to see Buzzcocks at The Wulfrun Hall in Wolverhampton. Also there was Other Stuff not suited to the maintenance of sanguine temperament, but never mind that.
We went in The Ponderosa first, which was lovely and somewhere I’ll definitely go again. The Lurkers were our supporting artistes for the evening: very Ramones-ish, although perhaps a tiny bit (just a tiny bit) more Oi. Nothing at all new, but I enjoyed them. I especially liked “Come And Reminisce If You Think You’re Old Enough”. Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.
Speaking of which… nah, only joking, Buzzcocks were fantastic. You can see the years on Pete Shelley though. They were playing the first two albums in full on this tour (that seems to be becoming increasingly common nowadays) alongside other odds and ends came in the encore (although we did have to leave before the end), and they sound as fresh as ever. The big yet intelligent pop hooks which we all know and love weren’t lost in translation as they gave it a surprising amount of welly. Predictably, the bits I found to be highlights were my favourites anyway – “On Our Own”, “Sixteen”, “Fallen In Love”, and… probably some others, I dunno. Lovely fun.
On Saturday the 24th we headed to the Crescent Theatre for Of Mice And Men, courtesy of their own theatre company. The Crescent can be bloody annoying at times. The bar/stairs/corridor were packed with people beforehand, as people hoping to attend the events in both the main room and the smaller one (where this was) walk in every possible direction in small spaces. At least the interval times seem to be staggered on this occasion, unlike the last time I went.
I’m blessed to have seen the definitive (no really it was) stage version of OMAM at The Rep with Matthew Kelly (no really he was), and it didn’t really surprise me to find that this one wasn’t as good. That’s not to say it was bad, though. Everyone in it seemed a little bit wooden and there was plenty of stumbling over lines, but I don’t want to go over the top with that – the cast did a decent job if not spectacular job. The use of space was very good: Candy (the black character, you’ll recall), for example, was present on stage for most of the time but separated from the rest of the cast in an effective mirror of the way he (and everyone else) are isolated.
(Thoughts on taking some kiddies to see it can be found a few paragraphs down here).
Arriving at The Rainbow to see Gregor Samsa on Monday the 26th (I was lucky to find out about the gig. I’m so out of touch these days…), I saw more stuff packed onto the stage than you often see. It was quite the sight. Saw. See. Sight.
Dream Dreams The Dreamer was our sole support for the evening (gigs with only two acts on the bill seem to increasingly be the standard aroundabout now. I don’t like this tendency) and I really wanted to like him, since I never seem to get much out of that Esquilax circle of bands. Ah well. It started with slow chords and screams reminiscent of some less-distorted version of Khanate, before building up to a maelstrom of wrecked organ sounds, feedback and white noise. Fun as that sounds, it didn’t convey anything to me beyond “I Are Sirius Cat”.
I really enjoy Gregor Samsa’s recent album while it’s playing, but can never remember a note of it afterwards (or, indeed, its title – I’ve just had to look up the fact that it’s called “Rest”. It should be noted that neither of these things are particularly unusual for me, particularly the latter). I’m not sure whether going to see them thus makes more or less sense, given that live music is just a half-recalled moment in time. They sounded absolutely gorgeous, whichever way up. A more song-y/standardly postrock-y Sigur Ros is the overall impression they give on record but live they came across as a more song-y Efterklang, with a very lush sound built from a really effective combination of little subtle things and big broad strokes (that’ll be what all the instruments packing the stage were for. Ah right Ted). The small-ish crowd applauded very enthusiastically at the end.
On top of all that, any band with a Kafka reference for a name will automatically be good. I’m sick of having to tell you this.
To the Old Joint Stock Theatre on Friday the 30th, for a version of Look Back In Anger from BISPA/Birmingham Stage School Showbiz. The play itself was new to me, but I loved it. Most of all it was extremely funny, but also a very good depiction of frustration with staid and archetypal lives.
The performance didn’t seem as good as it perhaps might have been, though. The main and biggest problem was that it was too fast – they galloped through it with nary a pause between hastily delivered sentences. A bit of breathing space really might have helped. A bit more clear enunciation might have been nice, too, Luke Beard’s Alex (a performance influenced by John Cleese, one wonders?) in particular. They’re young, though, and I’m sure it’ll all come with experience (and I sincerely apologise for sounding so patronising with that). Let’s be positive: I did really like Davut-Sebastian Atterbury (what a name) as Colonel Redfern, and I definitely wouldn’t say they were outright bad on the whole. Whichever way up, they definitely sold me on the play. I’d like to see the film now, in fact.
The afternoon of Sunday the 1st of Feb saw me going to a boxing card for the first time since June. Warrior Promotions and First Team had joined forces to promote this extravaganza, and sitting there beforehand waiting for things to start I found myself awash with sensations. Anticipation~! Of what was to come. Amusement~! At The Tower Ballroom’s seriously 70s décor. Dismay~! About the fact that someone had let Terry O’ Conner into the building, and if they’re silly enough to do that they’re probably also silly enough to let him referee some boxing matches.
I’d half-forgotten the “home boxer vs journeyman” nature of local cards. It’s not that I dislike watching those matches, necessarily, but given that it ain’t cheap to get in it’s not what you ideally want. Outside of two matches, the “..and his opponent…” corner didn’t win a single round all afternoon/evening. The two exceptions, happily, were really good fights: Rhys Davies took on Hastings Rasani in one of the best few four-rounders I’ve ever seen (toe-to-toe in an almost literal sense from start to finish. Given that this was only Rhys’ second pro fight it’s also worth saluting the brave matchmaking that led to this) and Tony Randell upset Max Maxwell in a gritty ten-rounder for the Midlands area middleweight title (that result surprised me, but not enough to cry robbery or anything like that. I thought Maxwell had edged it with busier and cleaner work, but I suppose Randell – who looked a hell of a lot better than he did last time I saw him – did land more hurtful-looking shots and he definitely had a big finish).
Never mind all that, though, the important bit: Ring Entrance (and, indeed, Name) Of The Day goes to Quinton Hillocks, who came down to the sound of Soulja Boy whilst wearing a superman cape.
(The BBN report on this card can be read here).
The 6th was the occasion for An Inspector Calls at The Rep, and it was really very good indeed – a reprise of the Stephen Daldry production that apparently was very well received some years ago, and in itself a subtly clever play with more obvious (but still worthwhile) stuff laid over the top. The scenery not only looked great but worked with well with the narrative: their big posh house in the centre functioning as the citadel that they the family are dragged out of as they are forced to think about the world outside of their own immediate gratification. At the end only Sheila and Eric end up outside, being the only two who have learned from the experience. Louis Hilyer’s performance as Inspector Goole was certainly very stylised (I would like to know what the stage directions in the script say in comparison to this), but the cast as a whole were very good (particularly Robin Whiting as Eric. I could imagine him in a lot of Coward/Wilde type things).
(Reviews a-plenty! Try here, there, here, there, here, elsewhere, everywhere, probably other places too…)
On Friday the 13th (ooh scary etc etc) we went to see the absolutely brilliant These Four Streets at The Rep Door. Based around the 2005 riot in Lozells in Birmingham (where the rumour of a rape escalated into argey bargey and resulted in a death), it was poignant but also funny and most of all humane. That it was of local interest also goes without saying. It took the form of a series of vignettes of local life, showing how little things can rise and create tension up to the point where only a spark is needed (whether it’s true or has any basis in reality or not). Some were one-offs and some had recurring characters, with the best being the old Jamaican grandmother comforting the runaway asian child and the genuinely tearjearking kid leaving pizza at his mate’s grave. The whole cast were really strong and showed range in delivering a variety of different characters, but a particular salute should go to Lorna Laidlaw. It’s still touring here and there, and is definitely worth seeing – if there’s anything from this whole post that I’d recommend then it’s this one. (EDIT: Alright, so I’d forgotten about Leonard Cohen when I typed that bit. He ain’t likely to tour in the immediate future, though, whereas I know “These Four Streets” is going to be around and about…)
(This initially seemed under-reviewed, but they’ve poured in since then. Try here, here, here, here, and here).
Woozle very kindly allowed me permission to go out on Saturday the 14th for “Priest Feast” (what a name for a tour. What a dream of a name), and so after being disabused of the notion that it was at the NIA (happily this happened before I set out) I headed off to the NEC/LG/Whatever-Have-You Arena. I am only vaguely familiar with Testament but I did enjoy their set a lot. I do at least know that the main thing you want when you go to see them is air guitar on the mic stand (I suppose that’s not actually air guitar. Stand guitar, if you will), and we got plenty. Great thrashing fun, anyway.
I saw Megadeth at only the second gig I ever attended way back in the September of 1997 (the sound was beyond dreadful but it didn’t bother me: my inexperienced self thought that maybe gigs were just like that at that sort of scale. Also: eleven and a half years ago. Ceiling Cat almighty), but that was then and this is now. They have done a lot of complete and utter tut in their time, but they stuck to the good stuff here and so all was great. “She-Wolf” was dedicated to all the She-Wolves on Valentines Day (aaaaw. How romantic), and the amazing one-two of “Symphony Of Destruction” and “Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?” put a massive grin across my face. Dave Mustaine still has a very strange singing voice. He’s still also ginger. I’m sure we wouldn’t have him any other way.
How does one write about the Judas Priest live experience? I suppose the easiest way to sum it all up is that they were what you’d expect in a good way, rather than what you’d expect in a bad way. Thus: ace. Disconnected thoughts would include: Look at Rob Halford there, enjoying himself in his glittery coat; It was a bit of a disappointment that Halfo didn’t initially ride onto the stage on his Harley, but he did that for the encore so all was well. Didn’t hit anything, either; It’s worth noting that The Priest are the first act I’ve seen since Usher to use a hydraulic lift on stage: All (well, most) of your big singalong faves were played – Breaking The Law, Electric Eye, Rock Hard Ride Free, Another Thing Comin’; Painkiller was absolutely shredding; That first one they played from the new album (“I Am Nostradamus”?) sounded fun, too; Priest~!
Right, that’ll do us for the time being. There’s been a big London trip and another boxing do since then, but they can wait for the moment.
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