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With independent art and street food scenes, and clubs and soundsystems bursting with bass, the second city has first-rate cultural credentials – if, like our writer, you know where to look
Creatively, Birmingham is elusive. Unlike many cities, it does not have an identifiable cultural DNA. It has never asserted itself as a centre of radical art or music. Local creatives offer various reasons why. Some take a quiet pride in that anonymity: “We didn’t shout as loud as people from Manchester, but that’s the nature of the city”, the techno producer Karl O’Connor, aka Regis, once told the Quietus. Over the years that modesty may have become a self-fulfilling prophecy, but, even geographically, Birmingham is not built for self-promotion.
This “city of a thousand trades” has always been sprawling and granular. It is highly diverse socially and culturally, a city where the best restaurants (Jyoti’s) or music venues (Hare & Hounds), are often found in the suburbs – if you are willing to travel. Which not everyone is. For instance, attracting people from the city centre into the rave dens of neighbouring, post-industrial Digbeth can be difficult. Consequently, Birmingham club crowds tend to be dedicated and discerning, though, overall, the scene is relatively small. As Alex Wynne Hughes, co-promoter of the Shadow City parties, puts it: “A lot of people would say we’ve got our own thing going on.”
Birmingham playlist by Lisa Meyer of Supersonic festival
Fundamentally, this is a city of gangs and individuals working in comparative isolation, which encourages driven oddballs and out-there ideas. Look at the annual Supersonic festival or Brum bands from Black Sabbath to Dexys Midnight Runners. There is a purity in that, says Mark Badger from the label Iron Man (and the band Police Bastard): “If you want to make art, make it because it’s something you have to get out of your system; not because someone’s going to pay you.”
That attitude may explain why Birmingham has produced so much screamingly loud, confrontational music, from Napalm Death to the Negative Reaction label, alongside quieter outliers such as Broadcast, drone label Oaken Palace or electronica imprint the Irrational Media Society. These outliers can be influential, too. Most notably, the “Birmingham sound” (the mid-90s industrial output of Regis, Surgeon and the club House of God) was a key precursor to modern Berlin techno.
Such DIY energy is also palpable in the arts scene. Digbeth is home to numerous offbeat outfits, such as aerial theatre company Rogue Play, and printers/ ‘zine store Rope Press. “The past two years have been exciting in terms of people such as Grand Union, Eastside Projects and Centrala making their own things happen,” says Lisa Meyer, artistic director at Capsule, which produces Supersonic. But how long will that last? The planned, HS2-related transformation of Digbeth threatens the area’s creative pioneers. “As the largest arts organisation here, we don’t own our building. It’s precarious,” warns Eastside Projects’ director Gavin Wade.
The battle to find affordable space in central Birmingham is one that food entrepreneurs know well. Birmingham has five Michelin stars, but, says Lap-fai Lee, a professional cook and blogger at thefoodist.uk, “I’d trade three of our stars for 20 more places like [indie burger joint] Original Patty Men.”
The message? Support Birmingham’s battling independents.
CULTURE
Centrala
Run by the Polish Expats Association, this colourful warehouse space is a gallery, venue, cafe and “destination for free-thinkers”. It hosts everything from avant-garde music events to calligraphy workshops. “Its visual art, film and performance programme has a strong east European flavour,” says Jonathan Watkins, director at the IKON gallery. “The cafe serves delicious Polish dumplings.”
• Unit 4, Minerva Works, Fazeley Street, 0121-439 3050, centrala-space.org.uk
• Unit 4, Minerva Works, Fazeley Street, 0121-439 3050, centrala-space.org.uk
Digbeth First Friday
On the first Friday of each month, Digbeth’s creative hubs throw open their doors. Minerva Works, in particular, is home to a cluster of innovative artist-run gallery and performance spaces, such as Stryx, Grand Union and Vivid Projects. On 3 December, Vivid Projects is throwing an Algorave, where freshly minted electronic bangers are generated live from computer algorithms. Look out for Recent Activity, which sites art in odd places.
@AE Harris
Run by experimental theatre group Stan’s Cafe, this is a 50-seater theatre within a working metal fabrication business. This year, its visiting shows have explored gender discrimination through contemporary dance and, in Outbox Theatre’s Affection, “bodies, intimacy and HIV”.
• 110 Northwood Street, 0121-236 2273, aeharrisvenue.co.uk
• 110 Northwood Street, 0121-236 2273, aeharrisvenue.co.uk
Birmingham Open Media (Bom)
Visitors to this hacker culture-inspired art lab are currently (until 28 January 2017) invited to climb into pods to experience Justin Wiggan’s Life Echo. A fusion of art, technology and imaginative health care, Life Echo explores how sound can trigger positive memories. Bom also includes the Wilderness, a much-tipped restaurant which, in everything from its forest decor to its foraged ingredients, is seeking a return to nature.
• 1 Dudley Street, 0121-643 2617, bom.org.uk
• 1 Dudley Street, 0121-643 2617, bom.org.uk
Flatpack Film Festival
The festival happens each April but, beyond that, Flatpack keeps busy throwing events such as a screening of Bride of Frankenstein in Dudley Castle, or a 90s hip-hop club night in celebration of Kid ‘n’ Play’s House Party (26 November). “It uses spaces really imaginatively,” says Lisa Meyer. For more alternative cinema, try the art deco gem Electric Cinema, and Mockingbird.
DRINK
Post Office Vaults
Due to the street-level livery, people still mistake this (basic, windowless) basement for a post office, but what it delivers is superb keg and cask beers, and real ciders. Ross Lang, who runs the Bottle Shed in Acocks Green, loves it: “You expect a pub with just bitter and mild on. In fact, it has a selection of 400 beers, from traditional Belgian bottles to Magic Rock cans.”
• Pint from £2.80, 84 New Street, 0121-643 7354, postofficevaults.co.uk
• Pint from £2.80, 84 New Street, 0121-643 7354, postofficevaults.co.uk
1000 Trades
With its cobbled-together, DIY aesthetic, street-food residencies and local art, 1000 Trades is an unusually interesting watering hole in the upmarket Jewellery Quarter. It focuses on natural wines and craft beers. Fans of the latter may also like the Jewellery Quarter’s brewery taps at Burning Soul (Saturday only, halves from £1.70) and Rock ‘n’ Roll Brewhouse (Fri 5pm-9pm, Sat noon-6pm).
• Pint from £4. 16 Frederick Street, 0121-233 2693, 1000trades.org.uk
• Pint from £4. 16 Frederick Street, 0121-233 2693, 1000trades.org.uk
40 St Paul’s
This tiny unmarked bar (it’s the door numbered 40, below Midland Court) stocks around 150 gins. “The guys here love gin. It’d be impossible to leave not sharing that enthusiasm,” says Sai Deethwa, who runs Thai street food stall Buddha Belly. Note: 40 St Paul’s’ former head bartender, Robert Wood, has recently launched an ambitious 10-seater cocktail hideaway, Smultronställe.
• Drinks from £7. 40 Cox Street, 07340 037639, 40stpauls.co.uk
• Drinks from £7. 40 Cox Street, 07340 037639, 40stpauls.co.uk
Faculty
An unapologetically nerdy coffee shop – check out that chart of bewildering PH, TDS, DGH water statistics – Faculty serves a stunning flat white: rich, silky, full of sweet caramel flavours, a lick of liquorice at the close. In nearby City Arcade, Tiltis similarly hot on coffee, as well as pinball and craft beer (schooners from £3.80). Ross Lang: “Tilt has pushed boundaries. It once had eight Swedish Omnipollo beers on at once. There were 40 people queueing at the bar.”
• Coffee from £2.20. 14 Piccadilly Arcade, facultycoffee.com
• Coffee from £2.20. 14 Piccadilly Arcade, facultycoffee.com
Clink Beer, Digbeth
Birmingham has several specialist beer shops; there’s the legendary Cotteridge Wines and Bottle Shed for starters. As well as their growler refills and rare bottles, these also offer space where shoppers can drink on-site. Clink has brought that concept into town… ish, with its shop-cum-taproom at Digbeth’s Custard Factory. Its global selection includes 200 bottled beers and eight keg lines from scene-leaders such as Buxton, Cigar City and To Øl.
• Schooners from £3.20. 6 Gibb Terrace, Gibb Street, clinkbeer.com
• Schooners from £3.20. 6 Gibb Terrace, Gibb Street, clinkbeer.com
MUSIC
The Rainbow
Originally a pub, the Rainbow has, over the years, grown into numerous modular, interlinked Digbeth venues which, collectively, constitute the core of Brum’s underground club scene. Look out for nights from Shadow City, Leftfoot, Portaland Blackdot. “The Rainbow’s Blackbox is arguably one of the best clubs in the country,” says Tom Hopkins from gig and club promoters This Is Tmrw. “It’s intimate, the DJs are on a level with you, the light and sound are incredible.”
• Lower Trinity Street, therainbowvenues.co.uk
• Lower Trinity Street, therainbowvenues.co.uk
Suki10c
This graffiti-covered outpost is unusually green, with its eco-electricity and conscientious recycling, and a hotbed of raucous, sweaty gigs and club nights running the gamut from indie to grime. “It’s small, maybe 150 capacity, and when I’ve DJd there it’s been good fun,” says Shadow City’s Alex Wynne Hughes. Elsewhere in Digbeth, keep tabs on the warehouse space Lab 11, and ad hoc Sunday after-party crew Social Underground.
• 21 Bordesley Street, on Facebook
• 21 Bordesley Street, on Facebook
Amusement 13
Three reassuringly stripped-back rooms, rigged with a Void sound system, provide a platform for roving Birmingham institutions such as drum’n’bass outfit Break Thru, and Magic Door – a disco-house party famed for its fancy dress flamboyancy. Pity the poor cleaners who have to deal with all that glitter.
• Lower Essex Street, amusement13.co.uk
• Lower Essex Street, amusement13.co.uk
Sunflower Lounge
Upstairs, the Sunflower is a cafe-bar, muso hangout and late-night DJ bar. Downstairs, it is a launch pad for up-and-coming West Midlands bands (acts such as Peace and Swim Deep honed their stuff here prior to the brief flowering of the B-town scene) and a stopoff for innumerable touring guitar-slingers.
• 76 Smallbrook Queensway, 0121-632 6756, thesunflowerlounge.com
• 76 Smallbrook Queensway, 0121-632 6756, thesunflowerlounge.com
PST
This grassroots Digbeth venue celebrates heavyweight bass and soundsystem culture over three floors. Expect dub, reggae, jungle and drum’n’bass, while at the Listening Sessions, new producers get to road test their music on that mammoth Creative Hertz system.
• 71 Lombard Street, 0121-622 5363, pst-club.co.uk
• 71 Lombard Street, 0121-622 5363, pst-club.co.uk
EAT
Original Patty Men
“It boggles my mind that someone would sit in Ed’s Easy Diner in Selfridges, when, over the road, you can have a proper burger at Original Patty Men,” says Lap-fai Lee, of this rough-edged railway arch site. Its well-seasoned, vigorously charred patties and zingy pickles deliver, although some of the beer prices are staggering (568ml bottle of Arbor’s 6.5% Umm…Bingo?, £7.50). For more from Birmingham’s buoyant street food scene, go to the weekly Digbeth Dining Club or Hawker Yard.
• Burgers from £6.50. 9 Shaw’s Passage, originalpattymen.com
• Burgers from £6.50. 9 Shaw’s Passage, originalpattymen.com
40 23
Near New Street railway station, this tiny takeaway-cafe is run by three mates from Thessaloniki who do a tasty, affordable line in Greek comfort food. That means homely specials such as moussaka, soutzoukakia (meatballs), or potato and pea stew, and arakas, but also grilled meats: pork souvlaki, loukaniko (sausages) that are stuffed into pittas with salad, tzatziki and fried potatoes. “It has a cult following,” says Joe Schuppler, editor at independent-birmingham.co.uk.
• Dishes £4.80-£6.20. 34 Stephenson Street, 0121-643 5297, 4023.co.uk
• Dishes £4.80-£6.20. 34 Stephenson Street, 0121-643 5297, 4023.co.uk
Rico Libre
“A raw, noisy and busy tapas restaurant,” says Eastside Projects’ Gavin Wade, whose arty Digbeth crowd adores this former greasy spoon, subsequently given a lick of paint and decked out with music and movie posters. Expect Spanish classics (gambas pil pil, bravas, albondigas) and a globe-trotting specials boards (frogs’ legs, barbecue pork ribs). BYO alcohol.
• Tapas from £5. 1 Barn Street, 0121-687 8730, rico-libre.co.uk
• Tapas from £5. 1 Barn Street, 0121-687 8730, rico-libre.co.uk
Modu
On a grimy street of industrial units, this family-run Korean restaurant is a quirky proposition. Guests eat in one of three spaces, which include a summer courtyard and a brick out-building, whitewashed and jazzed up with colourful knick-knacks. Portions are not huge, but the flavours are true in, say, the marinated bulgogi beef served with kimchi. The female kitchen staff are chatty evangelists for Korean food, Modu’s fried chicken has many local fans and, as Supersonic’s Lisa Meyer says of the four-course £15 menu: “It’s amazing value.”
• Mains from £6.80. 113 Bishop Street, 0121-439 0123, on Facebook
• Mains from £6.80. 113 Bishop Street, 0121-439 0123, on Facebook
Look In
For Chinatown’s connoisseurs, Peach Garden’s triple roast (crispy pork belly, duck, char siu with rice, £7.50, 34 Ladywell Walk, 0121-666 7502) is one of Birmingham’s best bargains. But, says Lap-fai Lee, the “quality of the meat” at Look In means its triple is edging ahead as the No1. He is not wrong. Look In’s honey-lacquered char siu is unusually good, while the crust-not-crackling on its beautifully moist pork belly tastes as if someone has coated it in the purest essence of Frazzles. It is incredible.
• Triple roast £7.40. 6 Ladywell Walk, 0121-666 7587
• Triple roast £7.40. 6 Ladywell Walk, 0121-666 7587
Travel between Manchester and Birmingham was provided by Cross Country(crosscountrytrains.co.uk)
By Tony Naylor
By Tony Naylor
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