I spoke to him on our radio show The Big Paws and this is what he said:

Brian Travers Brummie of the Year 2009 on The Big Paws

UB40 / Brian Travers, originally uploaded by Sebastian Gerhard.

See how the voting went…

Mohammed attempted to save a man who he found trapped inside a car apparently packed with explosives, in Saltley [ta Dave]:

He said he decided to try to free the man because “if he was going to explode he would have exploded by now”.

Brave, logical, a little bit stupid? Brummie of the Year?

Justice Williams, originally uploaded by punch records.

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.”

UB40 / Brian Travers, originally uploaded by Sebastian Gerhard.

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.

Paul is one of the driving forces behind Rhubarb — BIrmingham’s award winning online radio station — and Lyle Bignon says:

“Paul Hadley has worked solidly for around 2 years to bring Rhubarb Radio to life, with great results. An absolute diamond geezer and great Brummie.”

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.”

“

The Destroyers vs The Dhol Blasters, originally uploaded by jjbullock.

Nominated by Julia Gilbert:

“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.”

Yin and Yang by pennymcconnell on Flickr

(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 by getgood on flickr

Let’s let Nicky Getgood explain:

“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.”

How did we get the list? See the nominations. Who won? See here…

Nominations are now open for Brummie Of The Year 2009 — and you’re welcome to nominate any Brummie or Brum resident that has been great or just very very Birmingham this year.

How about Brian Travers of UB40 for sterling efforts to save Brummie music culture? Or maybe you know better?

All that we know is that the nominations will close at 7am Saturday 5th December and the voting will open the next day. Leave your nominations, with a reason, in the comments — and feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.

NOMINATIONS CLOSED – Vote now

Mr Doom “Kerrang Radio DJ and full time loser” (according to his MySpace) has triumphed. 31% (879 Votes) was enough to pip Destroyers powerhouse Paul Murphy (23%, 652 Votes) to our famous trophy.

Johnny, once of the very loud band Doom, has been providing a voice for metal — not only in the wee small hours on Kerrang Radio, but as part of the Home of Metal team. Metal needs a voice, one that can discuss the “merits of cut n paste aesthetics and early flyer artwork” and well as go “URRRGHR URRH RUGGGH” or whatever metal vocalists get up to these days.

A leather and denim clad congratulations to Johnny Doom, who wins the all new Brummie of the Year trophy (that has last year’s winner John Tighe’s hair encased in it), and lashings of kudos (but no actual money or anything like that).

Congratulations also to Paul Murphy, whose energy and enthusiasm for the Brum music scene may be a guiding factor in any future genres we get to invent.

Third was Barbara Nice, Fourth Little Chris. See those in ninth to fifth positions. See the voting thread. See the nominations.

Little Chris of Brumcast (14%, 405 Votes) Little Chris of Brumcast — in a Brum music scene that has the music, but not really the “scene” to make it easy to package and publicise, Chris’s podcast is a great way to find new and interesting local bands. If he didn’t do it, it doesn’t look like it’d get done and that is reason enough to give him a sincere vote of thanks.

Barbara Nice (20%, 566 Votes) Barbara Nice might have won had she solicited votes at birminghamitsnotshit.co.uk rather than “.com” (which has been owned by some American domain squatter for about 5 years), but I’m sure she won’t let it get her down. Before a late run from Paul Murphy it was a joy to be able to say “1st Nice, 2nd Doom” (or vice-versa), and pitch the Brummie of the Year Award as a battle for the soul of Birmingham. It’s now best to picture Nice and Doom as contrasting parts of the same coin — perhaps arguing on Paul Murphy’s shoulders, trying to drag him to the dark and to the light. Barbara is not only a comedy genius, but an angel guiding Birmingham in the right direction.

But — who is Brummie of the Year 2008? Stay tuned.

See those in ninth to fifth positions. See the voting thread. See the nominations.

Roshan Doug (0%, 8 Votes)
Pogus Caesar (0%, 12 Votes)
Helga Henry (3%, 73 Votes) — Despite Helga being nominated a whole ton of times, it didn’t seem to translate into votes. Loved a whole lot by a tight community is just as good as fame tho’, we’re sure.

TWM Driver (4%, 107 Votes) — TWM Driver has spent a good long year producing an episodic chronicle of bus-bound life in Birmingham. Are you a plumber, or a postman or something and want to be in with a shout of Brummie of the Year 2009? Get blogging now.

Adam Smith (aka Steve Zacharanda) (5%, 152 Votes) – With all his interweb publicity you’d have thought that AdamSteve (what’s all that about, anyway?) might have made more of an impact, twas not to be…

But who is Brummie of the Year? Find out soon.

The nominees were:

Adam Smith (aka Steve Zacharanda), for showing just how to deal with breaking history. Get in there and get pissed.

TWMDriver – Brum’s best blogging bus driver, who has come from nowhere to become a fixture online and on Les Ross. All whilst staying anonymous, a bit.

Johnny Doom, the voice of metal in Brum. Late night DJ for Kerrang! Radio and previously lead vocalist of the band Doom.

Little Chris of Brumcast. Brumcast plays only music from the Midlands’ underground, dedicated to showing that there’s more to the area than Black Sabbath and UB40 (there is?). And Little Chris has been doing it off his own bat. One hundred and eleven times so far.

Roshan Doug. Writer, poet and internet troll. Roshan is loved and hated in fairly equal measure, based on reading the comments on his Birmingham Post blog.

Pogus Caesar. In the year of his retrospective exhibition, can one of Birmingham’s best known photographers snap to victory?

Paul Murphy of the Destroyers (see some video). Paul has called Birmingham home for over 30 years and has been a vocal supporter of songwriting and live music in his adopted city.

Helga Henry, creative industy all round good egg. Runs a mean tea stall too, and is loved a great deal.

Barbara Nice, “From crowd surfing to crap raffles… Barbara is the queen of comedy”.

The poll closed at midnight on Saturday 13th December.

Vote for Catherine O’Flynn as Newcomer of the Year!
Tindal Street Press is very proud that Catherine O’Flynn has been shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year at the Galaxy British Book Awards, for her novel What Was Lost. (You may have seen her on Richard and Judy last Friday.)

What Was Lost is a novel growing strongly through word-of-mouth, and so we’re delighted that there is public voting for Newcomer of the Year. It would mean a lot to us if you would log on to the Galaxy British Book Awards website http://www.bookmarketing.co.uk/surveys/awardsvote2008.htm to vote for Catherine O’Flynn (and enter a competition to win £200 of book tokens).

This is a great opportunity to register a vote for a proud and very gifted Brummie!

The Award ceremony, presented by Richard & Judy, will be shown on Channel 4 at 4.45pm on Sunday 13 April.

To that we would add, don’t vote for Clarkson.

Keep on with the campaign for the Spotted Dog guys and gals.

Even if St Patrick’s Day is awash with irritating amateur drunks like New Years Eve. Part timers

John triumphed in the last hours of voting, finally pulling ahead of Pete Ashton, by less than 20 votes. Voting closed at midnight on Saturday, but we’re only telling you now (although you are the first to know – feel good blog readers).

John has gained much press, praise and support over his stance against a noise abatement order served on his pub – home to music for over twenty years – following complaints from recently built apartments. His fight continues – and a campaign website is at keepdigbethvibrant.co.uk.

Congratulations John.

Third in the voting came gig promoters Capsule (Lisa Meyer & Jenny Moore), while Catherine O’Flynn – first time author having great success – was fourth. Here’s the full results.

Read our runners up post, the voting page, and the original nominations thread.

Well, we’re not going to tell, not yet away, blogging evangelist Pete Ashton and campaigning pub landlord John Tighe have been neck and neck almost since the polls opened – and there was still little but a cigarette paper between them as the votes were finally counted. We’ll announce the winner early next week – which will give us time to sort out the trophy.

The rest of the results, in reverse order are:

Richard Pawley – 0.8%

Condori : Big Chief Busks With Recorder – 1.6%

Martin Mullaney – 2%
Soweto Kinch – 3.8%

Carl Chinn – 4%

In fourth place, but still up for so many book awards we’re sure she’ll cope:

Catherine O’Flynn – 11.4%

Winners of best festival of 2007, according to Plan B magazine, but only third for Brummie of The Year:

Lisa Meyer & Jenny Moore of Capsule – 15.9%

Well done to Cath and the Capsule girls, we’re a little disappointed with Condori’s showing – we thought pan pipes were very popular. You can read a little more about the candidates here.

So, stay tuned…

Pete Ashton – blogging evangelist to the creative community.
Lisa Meyer & Jenny Moore of Capsule – bringing much needed gigs (and cake!) to Brum.
Carl Chinn – larger than life local historian.
Condori : Big Chief Busks With Recorder – on behalf of all our buskers and street entertainers.
Soweto Kinch – Mobo award winner and Town Hall associate artist.
Martin Mullaney – Camcorder Councillor, trying every which way to involve people in local politics.
Catherine O’Flynn – First time novelist who’s wowed the literary world this year.
Richard Pawley – Wants to build a 600 foot tower – and jump off it.
John Tighe of The Spotted Dog – Keeping Digbeth noisy, or so we hope.

The results will appear here:

Voting closed on the 1st of December and the results will be announced soon. No correspondence will be entered into and all that.

Learn more about the nominees, with links:

Pete Ashton, who has tirelessly prodded and encouraged Brum’s creative community to use the internet to their advantage. Loads of nominations: “‘Polymath’ and ‘Explainer of Complicated Things (Such As How Teh Internets Work) To Thick People Who Wouldn’t Normally Understand Them (Such As Me) In A Very Effective Fashion.’” Russ L.

Lisa Meyer & Jenny Moore of Capsule. The Capsule girls, for it is they, have become mainstays of the Birmingham gig scene bringing some fantastic artists to the city. They also promote cake, and everyone loves cake.

Carl Chinn, oh you know. Carl is one man who never stops living Birmingham – and we’re pleased he supported our Talk Like A Brummie Day this year.

Condori : Big Chief Busks With Recorder – on behalf of all our buskers and street entertainers, those that brighten up a trek up New Street, past the chuggers and Scientology girls – even the bloke I caught not plucking his violin despite the sound coming out of his amp.

Soweto Kinch, quickly gaining more and more recognition, he’s obviously a jazz genius – can he add a Brummie of the Year award to his MOBO? Does he care?

Martin Mullaney – Lib Dem Councillor for Kings Heath and Moseley, Martin has continued to fill the internet with as much information as he can on local issues. He’s unafraid to use YouTube, or anything else to try an get people involved with stuff that affects them. He also runs a comedy club – why isn’t he going for the party leadership?

Catherine O’Flynn achieved, from a standing start, enough to make many novelists shit in a lift with jealousy. What Was Lost was longlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and the Orange Prize for Fiction, it has been longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, and won the Jelf Group First Novel Award at the Guildford Book Festival.

Richard Pawley is a brummie thrillseeker extraodinaire. He grew up in Birmingham, and then spent nearly 30 years working at Drayton Manor Park, where he introduced the Apocalypse and Shockwave rides. He says he wants to be the first person to jump off the tower when it’s finished, which will hopefully be sometime in 2010. That should show the world what us Brummies are made of, quite literally if the rope snaps.

John Tighe of The Spotted Dog – “John owns the Spotted Dog pub in Digbeth (the Irish one, not the other one), and has recently been hit with a Noise Abatement Notice due to the amount of fun being had in his pub. The 3 complaints that have led to this have been made by residents of some flats built after his late licence was granted and… I won’t go into the rest of the details, if you’re interested check out the site http://www.keepdigbethvibrant.co.uk/dog.html for more info. This website’s been set up for free by a resident of said flats who represents the majority and loves the pub.”

In a spirit of openness, you can even read all about the actual nominations.