Brum Beat

I used to read Brum Beat all those years ago, no idea if it’s still going, I very much doubt it. Mike Davies is still going and he’s written tirelessly on new bands either emerging from or visiting Birmingham for what seems like forever. Very good he is too. He gives the show a great plug. The van is now officially dead on the tarmac so I’m driving Andy and Ben to Moseley for our Jug of Ale gig and we’re stuck in traffic in the Queensway Tunnel after a reasonably easy M6, it takes 2 hours to get from one side of the city to the other due to a fire in the tunnel and road-works, always the road-works. We get there eventually. Mike and John arrive with the gear and we flukily meet up with them at the A38 junction close to the cricket ground.They’ve been south on the A38 looking for egg incidents. I am at this point having lurid flashback fantasies about a girl I once saw on the number 11 bus in 1978. I used to play in a band that rehearsed above a pub in Moseley and this girl was always on the bus. I never did pluck up the courage to speak to her. The Jug of Ale pub has more vomit in the car park than most which is probably a good sign. We heave the gear up two flights and sound check. The engineer knows what he’s doing, the vocal is clear and I can hear what everyone is playing. Then we’re off to eat at a Kashmir Restaurant on the Alcester Road from where I call my daughter [she used to live here] for a chat about Pottery and Pieces. The meal is rushed, we make it back to the venue just as Third Floor Calm [all tight striped T Shirts and Noddy Holder Hairdos] are winding up. I’d seen part of their sound check earlier, they look great and they sound like Deep Purple minus the show off rock-vox posturing. If I had a proper label I’d sign them on hair alone; the new Darkness indeed. Our gig whizzes by and we all enjoy it which is good for us as there is often some little niggles technical or otherwise to offset the balance. This time we are all happy. Ben gets a lot of attention stage left from a girl who insists he smiles at her during the songs. He explains he can’t smile when he’s concentrating. I have have to explain to the beautiful young feminist who challenges me that I said I am in awe of women with electric screwdrivers, I made no illusion to women as screwdrivers per say. It's easy to get the messages in a mix up as I do more often than not. Afterwards we see the funny side. We enjoy meeting everyone post show in one of the most crowded dressing rooms ever. Andy and Mike do the celeb shuffle, I sell a few albums, it feels good to be back in the place I almost grew up in, where I spent my early to mid 20’s. Despite having a great affection for the north there is something special about being here, something to do with family, my daughter, my brother and so on [even though they are over the border in Worcestershire]. The drive home is impossible for an hour until I realise the visibility problem is because of dirty headlights. I clean them at Keele and then we’re practically flying, VPx