Digbeth O’lympics 09 « John Mostyn’s Blog – John’s account of the Digbeth O’Lympics last year. It has some great photos of the bizarre fun, such as the cardboard coracle race, welly wanging and the soapbox race. But most importantly, it has this film of John announcing the Free State of Digbeth.
The Free State of Digbeth has no constitution. It has no geographical boundaries. It is the most powerful of all states – a stare of mind…
Ask not what Digbeth can do for you, but what you can do for Digbeth.
The last post about my uber-busy Digbeth weekend. I started Sunday off in the Rhubarb Radio studio presenting Sunday Local with Michael Grimes. It’s a weekly show we do at 12-2pm every Sunday about all things local, be it news, events, music or whatever takes our fancy. John Mostyn popped by to fill us in on the imminent Digbeth O’Lympics, which cartoonist Alex Hughes, who likes to come in and document the proceedings, captured nicely.
Digbeth O'Lympics by Alex Hughes
Karen Strunks and Shona McQuillan also joined us in the studio. After the show we filled up on a nice big dinner at The Big Bulls Head before facing the games. The slideshow of Pete Ashton’s photos above documents our day, which was gloriously anarchic.
We missed the Opening Ceremony, so joined the fun at the Cardboard Coracle Race in the Custard Factory pool. Unfortunately, paint had been spilled into the water the day before so it looked like chemical waste, but at least it hid the fag butts, beer bottles and Christ knows what else was floating around in there.
From there we moved onto The Old Crown, where John Tighe was placed in the stocks for Noise Crimes, and pelted with water balloons.
We moved onto the Spotted Dog, where rumour reached us that someone had thrown an egg 60 feet in The Anchor’s Egg-a-thon and caught it without it breaking. In other news, children were seen running around in custard-filled wellies outside The Wagon and Horses. The Tug-of-War at The Fountain was sadly cancelled due to lack of rope.
Next came the Soapbox Race, which seriously surpassed itself this year for having the sheer gall to take place on Bradford Street, traffic be damned (to listen to their beeping, you’d have thought they were). There were some brilliant creations, such as the Penguin Carrier and a weird Grandad Armchair-Trike hybrid.
After that the children went off to enjoy a Snail Race at The Spotted Dog, whilst the more rebellious amongst us headed to The Rainbow for the Rock ‘n’ Roll triathlon of Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll. I couldn’t resist taking part in this one, which included necking sambucca, blowing up a sex doll and snorting a (legal) line before downing a pint. Unsurprisingly, I was crap. But the humiliation was worth it for the sheer satisfaction that is chucking a telly out of the window.
'Nicky Getgood Housekeeping' says Katchooo
It must of been even more satisfying for those who hit the bullseye target that was Martin Mullaney’s face.
The games ended back at The Spotted Dog with a bizarre Awards Ceremony (I haven’t a clue who won, or why John Tighe drunkenly beat up a penguin) and an extra-special announcement from John Mostyn:
The Free State of Digbeth has no constitution. It has no geographical boundaries. It is the most powerful of all states – a stare of mind.
Oh yes. The Free State of Digbeth is born. We are independent. These streets are ours. We are free. Free to use our roads to race sopaboxes down and throw tellies upon. Free to use our paint-filled pools to sail in boats that sink like lead balloons. Free to wang wellies. Free to lob eggs.
The Hearing Aid: Radio 4…Rainbow Nil – Many thanks to The Baron for posting this link to Radio 4’s You And Yours on Fri 17th July, which features the fight to save The Rainbow.
‘It’s a great little feature, again starring your friend and mine Martin Mullaney, Birmingham’s Cabinet member for Leisure, Sport and Culture. That’s a joke right? Will he not rest until the place is another nice little apartment block? Clearly not. Anyway, have a listen, it’s about 15minutes in.’
It is indeed a great piece, also featuring interviews with Rainbow landlord Kent Davis, local Music Producer John Mostyn, and UB40’s Brian Travers who states ‘The Rainbow represents the beating cultural heart of Birmingham.’ It also, very fairly, shows the other side of the coin in an interview with Abacus tenant Adam, who describes living there as ‘like being in the pub’.
A great summer « John Mostyn’s Blog – John Mostyn reflects on Glastonbury and this gets him thinking about The Rainbow noise abatement nonsense, and how Digbeth could be an ‘urban Glastonbury’:
The noise abatement row rumbles on but the City is really missing a major opportunity here. Digbeth is currently the home to more than 20 venues, it’s full of galleries, creatives of all sorts and some fine engineers and metal bashers – a unique environment.
People shouldn’t have to wait a year for for the chance of a festival to share good music and good company – in a city as big as this there should be somewhere where you can do that anytime and Digbeth is the place. It has buildings and space that aren’t going to be used for anything else in the next decade or so. We should have all the creatives and promoters in the area working with the City Council and land owners to plan a quarter mile wide party zone for the people of taste of the West Midlands and further afield – now.Let’s not build more apartments that lead to everything being quietened down, let’s build budget hotels to house the people that would come from around Europe to this cultural quarter. When Supersonic is on later this month look at where their audience comes from and what they bring into the City as an example of what can be done – currently against the odds.
Digbeth – Could be the jewel in the City’s crown said Professor Michael Parkinson. Could be an Urban Glastonbury all year round say I.
As much as I love the sound of my own voice, I’ve decided it’s time Digbeth is Good had a few more voices for a bit of variety. The first new addition is the lovely John Mostyn, a music producer and local hero type based in the Custard Factory who drinks, gigs and revels in Digbeth. John is pretty passionate about the area and preserving its best bits, such as the Digbeth Civic Hall, which he saved from demolition. I can’t wait to read his first post (no pressure, mind).
I’m hoping to add a couple more to the mix over the next couple of weeks and will introduce each one with a suitable fanfare as they arrive.
YouTube – ramdomness453’s LooTube Channel – I have RSS feeds that send me pretty much anything tagged with Digbeth, which can sometimes turn up some surprises. This is by far the best of them yet – James’ visit to the Digbeth Coach Station gents led me to his LooTube channel. ‘Well, I love toilets. The flushes, sounds, bowl design etc. Old ones with high cisterns giving a loud powerful flush would be the best in my opinion.’
Best UK Blog – The 2008 Weblog Awards – You have until 5pm tomorrow afternoon to vote for Created in Birmingham, which you can do again if the last time you voted was more than 24 hours ago. Get to it.
way out west: Remade Fashion Fair - ‘KrisskrossdoneFreedom Clothing are organising a fair for remade and recycled clothes etc. on the 21st Feb at the Custard factory Birmingham… find out what’s going on in the world of recycled and ethical fashion, support small ethical business initiatives, buy cool stuff…’
‘… in the desire to reinvent and reposition Birmingham in an international league table, it is necessary to understand and respect the history and the nature of the city. At a superficial (but still important) level, this means continuing to use historic place names, and not seeking to replace them by bland invented marketing terms such as “Eastside” and “Westside”. More fundamentally, it means appreciating what is characteristic in the nature of Birmingham’s urban fabric. The city’s publicity campaigns continually stress the big, the exceptional, the upmarket, the glamorous elements of the fabric. They have little to say about, and even dismiss, as does the Big City Plan in a number of instances, the ordinary and the utilitarian, as exemplified in inner city districts such as Digbeth, Highgate, Hockley, and Aston Newtown. These districts are not only economically important to Birmingham, but in their fine grain and their diversity, they are particular to Birmingham; they are a large part of what makes Birmingham special. The Big City Plan should respect and value them.’
Galvanized, or How to Embed a Picasa Slideshow into Wordpress – Melinda Schwakhofer does this using her fantastic photos of the derelict Arkinstall Galvanizing Factory in Digbeth. ‘I walked around all three floors, including the catwalk, the spooky boys’ locker room and a lovely skylit room at the very top. This was one of my favourite spaces on the ground floor – a high ceilinged, cathedral-like room with the sun shining through a skylight. So empty and peaceful.’
Memory 1 – Derrick May – Derrick May is playing The Factory 13th Birthday Party tonight, which reminds John Mostyn of ‘my old mate Neil Rushton released Derrick’s ground breaking records in the UK at the very start of Techno when Neil and only a couple of others from the UK saw what Derrick, Kevin Saunderson and Co were doing in Detroit.’
Outer Sight Hallowe’en Horrorshow – Created in Birmingham gives a timely reminder of the frightening films on at The Edge tonight, with an invitation for you to print off for reduced entry price.
How do vegetarians get fat? – By eating like pigs, but not pigs, in the Friends of the Earth Warehouse Cafe on Allison Street, according to Paul Fulford in the Evening Mail.
Digbeth Olympics Ridiculous River Rea Raft Race – John Mostyn, Adam Crossley and some unconvincing-sounding Welsh guy travel down the River Rea in rubber dingies and manage to emerge with all their skin intact.
Gigbeth competition – This competition for free weekend tickets is such a fantastic idea: ‘Gigbeth is looking for entrants to create their own version of The Sugarhill Gang classic ‘Rappers Delight’ and post them on a specially created You Tube page. Entrants are invited to come up with the best and most original alternative music video to the ground breaking hit, or to produce their very own recorded performance of the song.’ If like me, you just fancy giggling at the entries rather than making one, all entries will be posted on Gigbeth’s YouTube.
Pub Crawl – The Final Leg – Bull Ring and Digbeth – A guy and his camera in the Bull Ring and ‘Digbeth, dusty, dirty, noisy Digbeth’. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, his camera died as soon soon as he hit The Dubliner. This may be a good time to tell you that me and Antonio Gould are planning to do a repeat of last year’s Digbeth pub crawl for our birthdays on Saturday 10th January 2009. We plan to make it bigger, better and bloggier, photographing and twittering our locations and drunkeness levels. All are welcome, especially if you’re wearing a flat cap – stick it in your diaries!
You sing it, we’ll hum it – John Mostyn hums along to the German national anthem at the Digbeth Olympics. He promises video footage soon. In the meantime, you’ll have to make do with my crap photos.
Birmingham Music Network and Creative Networks – Two meetings in Millennium Point Thurs 28 Sept. The Birmingham branch of Musicians Union pig out on chocolate 4-6pm and afterwards Creative Networks learn ‘How to break into TV and the battle to retain your filmmaking integrity thereafter’ from Lee Kern, of fake TV production company Monkey Tennis.
Stay Away From Lonely Places – The Custard Factory blog is back again, reminding us what those gleaming white Fazeley Studios used to look like by linking to Nicole Blackman’s narrated tour of the ‘Custard Factory Quarter’ from last year’s Fierce Festival.
Custard Factory Flickr Roundup – this is what happens when you search Flickr for ‘Custard Factory’. Liking Midge Diabolik’s picture of a gangly Pippi Longstocking. Who is it that’s pasting these paper people to the walls of Digbeth? I love them. Can I get one for my flat?
