Enjoyed a flying visit to my old home town of Brum over the weekend and managed to catch some great live music, including Vieira and the Silvers at The Night Owl and purveyors of Brum's national anthem, 'It's Brum Ting', Friendly Fire Band at the fabulous Bearwood Shuffle.
Sad to see that The Crown and Electric Cinema are still boarded up, with a little vision that little patch of Brum could be a huge attraction for visitors judging the the number of people flocking to the various Black Sabbath related artwork and the bench on Broad Street. The legendary Swordfish Records (Est. 1979!) may be looking for a new home soon too apparently. Brum's not unique ignoring (or even worse demolishing) its cultural gems (Liverpool famously allowed The Cavern to be bulldozed into a car park...doh!) but come on now, pull yer fingers out. Apparently The Crown is or was owned by a Japanese development company who bought it in 2014 and then promptly shut it. I suspect they own most of that block now and no doubt have plans to wipe it off the face of the earth, soulless motherfuckers.
On a more positive note, get yourselves down to RPM in Bearwood. Owned and operated by Pop Will Eat Itself and Bentley Rhythm Ace's Richard March it's an aladdin's cave of vintage analogue audio equipment on the ground floor with a record shop and cafe on the first floor and recording studio on the top floor.
Here's a bit of Richard (who's also a ruddy great bloke) giving his axe some welly in the Poppies...
...and here he is in the vid for the iconic Big Beat classic Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out.
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