Meeting Mister Tighe

I realise I haven’t been doing much of the “what I’m up to” posting of late, mainly because I’ve been up to a lot and most of it is far too interesting to digest into a quick blog post at the end of the day. You’d think after all these years I’d be a dab hand at that but when your life is undergoing massive lurches of the change variety it’s all a bit tricky to parse. I’ve alluded that my head is full of stuff and I need some time to make sense of it all, or at least to get all these ideas down in some way that makes sense, and I’m hoping the month in New Zealand is going to allow for that, but for now be assured it’s all good.

This was one of the reasons my sojourn down to the Spotted Dog in Digbeth was such a nice thing tonight. After another weird day a couple of pints of Guinness while watching The Snapper at one of the marvelous Nicky Getgood‘s Irish Filum nights. These have been running for a while and having missed a few (my weekends have been rather hectic of late so having Monday nights off has been prudent for my brain) I was chuffed to see a healthy turnout. As you can imagine I’m a great believer in small grass-roots notions bringing people together. I’m starting to think I’ve been getting distracted by the big stuff in Birmingham of late but my soul is really in things like this.

It was also a chance to finally meet my nemesis in the form of John Tighe. We’re pretty much neck and neck at the moment in the Brummie of the Year award and it was great to see he’s as bemused and chuffed as I am with the results so far. For the record, here’s a screen grab.

Only 11 days to go!

It was great to also get the whole noise abatement debacle from the horses mouth, not just for the dirt on how our venerable leaders really screwed the pooch on this one, letting the developers pretty much lie and cheat their way to financial gain at the expense of not just the area but of the people who bought flats in their building (I’m paraphrasing hearsay obviously…). There’s a bigger story here and I’m hoping some enterprising journalist who fancies making their mark might take it up. Yes Jo, I’m talking about you m’dear.

But beyond the political shenanigans I was again drawn back to the details. John’s Dog isn’t just somewhere where gigs were put on. It’s more a state of mine, a space where, as I put it, the weird can happen. All are welcome there especially if they’re doing something different, something with a bit of soul and passion behind it. That hadn’t really hit home until I talked to him about it.

Sure, once all the new flats are built the Spotted Dog will no doubt become an important part of that community and thrive as it has a few thousand new patrons but it won’t have the same ideology behind it. And this is where I get torn on the whole Digbeth redevelopment stuff. On the one hand the area needs a bit of revitalization to help the businesses that are emerging there be really sustainable. But on the other hand a city needs an area where random weird shit can happen in warehouses. And I really want to live in a city where the latter goes on.

But here’s the punchline. John intends to appeal the noise abatement order. The date for the appeal has been set for the early spring. It’s going to cost him £60,000.