It’s getting towards a whole year in lockdowns and restrictions now. When I think back to last February, I remember how nice it was to just be living my life doing all the things I love.
One of the things I have missed the most is going out to gigs in Birmingham. This city has an amazing music scene full of talent and so many brilliant venues. When living at halls at University College Birmingham you’re in walking distance of so many venues too, and tickets for the smaller venues are often around £5.
One of my best friends from school, Fraser, is a drumming student at BIMM, which is a music college in Digbeth that produces loads of the talented bands starting out in pubs and rooms across the city. Since he started going there, me and my other friends from school had been watching his gigs – it was the main time we would all catch up and we always had a great time. As well as watching the bands Fraser was playing in, we’d also go out to watch bands of all genres regularly. One of the things I’m most looking forward to is getting back watching my favourite artists live. So many brilliant albums have come out in the last year and I cannot wait to be dancing and moshing again.
My favourite part about going out to random indie gigs is you never can quite predict what will happen. One of the support acts for my friends’ band at the O2 Academy consisted of four burly bearded men who were all decked out in grungy looking outfits. Their fans were mostly guys in their 30s with undercuts and pints of Carling. I was expecting some depressing lyrics and was bracing my tiny self for a mosh pit of guys twice my size, but they actually launched into a funk cover of ‘Freed from Desire’ by Gala, and the whole room just erupted into cheesy dancing. By the end of it I was soaked in beer and sweat but had the best time!
I’ve always hated getting my phone out at gigs because I think it’s pointless when the photos always come out blurry, but now there’s hardly anything to use for this blog. Once we are out of this lockdown I highly recommend you get onto Eventbrite, or look for bands playing at Sunflower Lounge, Mama Roux, Dead Wax, O2 Institute/Academy, The Mill or any of the other brilliant venues across the city and get out and watch some bands even if you have never heard of them. Make sure you wear clothes that can survive a spillage and shoes you can dance in!
My one-handed lockdown journey is going surprisingly well. Super glad to be out of January, hopefully February will bring a bit more hope, it’s been a tough one.
Joshua