Day 1 - Slumming It In Brum

With my motorcycle packed with a few New Model Army T-shirts and just the bare essentials I headed off just after 11.30am. Jackie gleefully waved me off which I thought was a bit strange because I thought that she would be sad that I was going away for a few days.

I left Cuckfield in glorious sunshine, but by Heathrow the clouds had closed in. My route took me up the M40 and I stopped for a tactical comfort break at Cherwell Services, where I was fleeced of £4.60 for just a flat white and a sausage roll at Greggs.

The traffic approaching Birmingham was pretty horrendous and I didn’t actually get to park my bike in a town centre car park until around 3pm. It didn’t help that I had ridden around and around trying to find some free on street parking without success. I therefore reluctantly had to download an app and pay £1.55 (which on the sign said it was just £1 for motorcycles) for 9 hours parking. Frustratingly I found free motorcycle parking literally the minute I walked out of the car park.

My first and only scheduled stop was Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery which on their website recommended allowing 3 hours to get the most out of it. By the time I arrived, I had just 90 minutes before it closed. The museum is free, but everywhere you look they are demanding a £5 donation. I managed to resist the temptation to donate, particularly as I would only get to see half the exhibits and I was punishing Birmingham City Council for overcharging me for parking.

The museum was a very well presented introduction to the history of Birmingham, however the highlight for me was the museum’s wonderful architecture. The 2nd highlight was a big exhibition dedicated Birmingham’s favourite son, Ozzy Osbourne. The museum featured all the things for which Birmingham is famous for, but surprisingly nothing relating to Cadburys. I completed my visit in under an hour.

I then had a wander around the immediate vicinity taking in the Hall of Memory, Birmingham Town Hall and an array of statues including Sir Thomas Attwood, Queen Victoria, Iron Man and the Victoria Square Fountain.

After returning to my bike, I set the SatNav for the Birmingham Central Backpackers which was about half a mile away as the crow flies. Unfortunately there were road closures on the fastest route my SatNav wanted to take me. I ended up making 3 laps of the same route before I finally sussed that I had to ride way out of my way then head back in from a completely different direction. This would have been ok if hadn’t been for the gridlocked traffic and my bike now running on fumes. I thought I would never arrive.

When I finally arrived at my destination, I checked in and was allocated a bottom bunk in a triple decker bunk bed in a room of 15 bunks. My fellow roomies are of a diverse range of ethnicities, but I can’t complain for just £18 a night including breakfast.

I had a much needed hot shower and resorted to using my T-shirt as a towel having made the schoolboy error of forgetting to pack one. I had a Sainsbury’s meal deal sandwich and a couple of cans of beer in the communal lounge then headed out to the first of 9 gigs in 11 days.

It was just a 3 minute walk to the O2 Institute and upon arrival I discovered a lot of the regular NMA faces were already in the venue to see the support band - The Autumn Saints. It transpires that a girl called Louise who was on the NMA Magic Bus Tour around Europe last year is married to the lead singer.

The Autumn Saints were a good professional band that I would describe as quite bluesy, but below is their description from Spotify.

The Autumn Saints are an Anglo-American quartet based in Oxford, UK. The band's music has its roots planted firmly in the American South, with lead singer Britt Strickland bringing the soulful, weighty music history of his home state of North Carolina to the City of Dreaming Spires. The southern storytelling tradition made famous by the likes of Dylan and Johnny Cash is very much alive in the Saints' music, with tales of hurricanes sweeping through the Appalachian Mountains and encounters with the devil at the crossroads unravelling in each song.

At the end of their performance, I caught up with some of my fellow Magic Bus colleagues including Jack Cheung, Steve Clarke, Paul Rizos and Simon Foley. Needless to say there were numerous other regular faces to say hello to.

At 9.13pm, Justin Sullivan took to the stage and performed a solo rendition of Over The Wire, which was then followed by Stranger performed by Justin and Dean White. They were then joined by the rest of the band for the remainder of their set. It goes without saying that it was a fantastic gig with an original arrangement on several songs. The set list is in the photos which included Brother - a song that they had never performed live before and possibly a reflection of our country today.

The mosh pit was a bit boisterous and I tactically loitered on the fringes for fear of injuring myself on night one.

The encore was Bittersweet, No Rest and lastly Green and Grey, giving Jack Cheung the chance to finally do his thing. The gig finished at 10.57pm.

After the traditional ‘family’ photo (I was stood at the back), I hurried back to start my blog in the communal room of my backpackers hostel before crawling into my bunk bed around midnight.

NMA Song of the Day - First Summer After by New Model Army.

Non NMA Song of the Day - Iron Man by Black Sabbath.Читать далее