The Rainbow was packed on Friday night with people waiting to see Kent Davis react to Birmingham City Council’s serving of a Noise Abatement Order against his much-loved live music venue. And what a stirring, impassioned speech it was – people were saying things like ‘Henry V’ and ‘Agincourt’ afterwards. If you missed it (and trust me, you missed something a bit special), Pete Ashton caught the whole thing on his Flip camera:
Rainbow Meeting – Kent Davis from Pete Ashton on Vimeo.
The Spotted Dog’s landlord John Tighe had a hard act to follow when he took to the stage directly afterwards.
Rainbow Meeting – John Tighe from Pete Ashton on Vimeo.
Birmingham Post journalist Anna Blackaby was understandably ‘dismayed at John Tighe’s comments’ but as John Mostyn told her, ‘Birmingham City Council upset him, not you or The Post’.
I caught up with Kent afterwards, who described himself as ‘overwhealmed’ with the level of support he’s received:
I also had a chat with Digbeth Residents’ Association Chair Adam Crossley, who mused that The Rainbow had really caught the public imagination and was possibly a ‘better platform’ for tackling the issue than The Spotted Dog was.
Alan Dolhasz, half of Beat Suite at Rhubarb Radio was also there, and managed to get interviews with supporters afterwards, including Midge’s new bessie mate Brian Travers off of UB40.
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Normally, I would link to all the other online media regarding this nonsense around about here. But I don’t need to. Pete Ashton’s gone and done the job for me by creating a thread on The Rainbow’s Facebook group.
