She’s number 30 in the Birmingham Post Power 50, so they’ve done all our work for us:
“This year, at the age of 28, Justice Williams became the youngest black woman in the UK to be awarded an MBE. She was honoured for her services to young people in Birmingham, including founding the Inner City Creative Media Group which trains 17 to 26-year-olds in media and business skills.”
Brian (or B-TUB as he might be known to Twitterers) is a founder member of UB40 and is still honking, squeaking and winking at the girls in the front row (that’s what all sax players do isn’t it?) some thirty years later. Not only that he’s still speaking up for Brum, and he’s been very vocal in the fight to save The Rainbow.
We’ve no idea if he’s got as hearty a laugh a Rustie Lee, but he’s certainly popular. Nick Drew:
“How many other Brummies won the AA National Restaurant of the Year AND made Tim Lovejoy look stupid on national TV in 2009? Answer: none. The man’s a legend.”
& Birmingham Post Editor Marc Reeves:
“He may be a bluenose, but no-one else serves up a haddock foam poached egg with curry oil like his.”
“organiser of the World 501 Dholis world recording breaking dhol playing event, and the man behind Birmingham’s wonderful Dhol Blasters. He is a brilliant dhol teacher, who made me feel very welcome at the event and subsequent dhol classes. He is an very likeable man who recognises that music can transcend cultural differences.”
(not a great photo, but the only one I can find of them together…)
Everyone knows what Capsule do, don’t they? Let’s get Pete Ashton to explain:
“in 1999 Jenny Moore and Lisa Meyer decided they were fed up with travelling to see bands they liked so they started putting on gigs in Brum. In 2003 they put on a big gig and called it Supersonic. Now ten years on they’re put on hundreds of gigs and the Supersonic Festival is a world-renowned event. They don’t operate in a vaccum though, often working with arts and culture people across the region and have started the Home of Metal project to cement Birmingham’s reputation as the birthplace of heavy metal.”
“Mr Ralph is something of a Digbeth institution, invariably found in one of the many Digbeth pubs, peddling customised goods from his battered old suitcases. Rumour has it he holds the last existing Birmingham pedlars license. I found Mr Ralph quite fascinating so I wrote a blog post about him after he kindly agreed to it, including photos of him and his Mr Ralph branded goods.”
Birmingham: It's Not Shit loves Birmingham, its people, arts, animals, buildings, parks, grass verges, factories and bus stops. We've even got a soft spot for the Black Country.
BiNS is mostly by Jon Bounds, a Birmingham based social web consultant, producer and writer. You can hire him to work on your stuff, or follow him on twitter. There's also stuff from Danny Smith and Karen Strunks.