Goldie's Fab Four #7

My cultural highlights of the week

SHE DREW THE GUN (Actress and Bishop, Birmingham)

This was a stripped back SDTG appearance – singer/songwriter Louisa Roach armed with just an acoustic guitar for her opening salvo, before being joined by an accomplice who played bass and soulful keyboards.

Louisa’s highly polished recorded work straddles dance and indie, but this was much more of a folk-flavoured performance – songs of love, heartache and drunkenly falling out of taxis blended with powerful autobiographical poetry.

The feminist politics for which she’s known are never shirked - defiant anthem ‘Behave Myself’ gets an airing here - but despite a T shirt declaring ‘Power To The People’ this was a show that felt more personal than political.  It was none the worse for that. 

STOURBRIDGE

There was a time when having a cluster of charity shops was seen as a marker of a town’s decline.  In the case of Stourbridge, it feels like it holds the key to its revival.  I’ve been there a couple of times recently with my teenage daughters and while they hunt for thrift store bargains, I find myself nosing about the brilliant Record Culture shop on Market Street, which sells new and used vinyl. 

There’s plenty or ordinary, boring shopping going on here as well, but Stourbridge is the town that gave the world The Wonderstuff, PWEI and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin; that indie legacy lingers with venues like Clatptrap on the High Street.

When I went yesterday, the record fair in the Town Hall was rammed; the ‘Punk Poutine’ pop up stall selling “Canada’s favourite food” (cheesy fries!) was busy’; there’s a ‘proper’ (ie more expensive) vintage store; as well as a craft ale bar.

This isn’t a case of gentrification, by the way.  Stourbridge long ago traded down its Waitrose to a Tesco, but it’s quirky and soulful.

Oh, and like my girls, I snapped up a charity bargain as well – an old Grorty Dick West Brom fanzine.  Two for £1 in the Mary Stevens Hospice Shop, if you’re interested.

NOLLY

In my youth, and years before Eastenders was ever dreamt of, Midlands based soap opera Crossroads was a proper rival to Coronation Street

Although the show was infamous for its wobbly sets, it drew a massive tea time audience, keen to discover the latest goings on at the Kings Oak motel just outside Birmingham.  A motel?  Fancy, eh?  But entirely in keeping with 1970’s Brum’s self-image as a city of the future.  Stuff yer cobblestones, we’ve got cars and motorways.

The star of the show was motel matriarch Noelle Gordon, brought down by ITV bosses because she was a ‘difficult’ (ie determined) woman.

In this classy three parter, creator Russell T Davies sympathetically fashions her life into a feminist parable, whilst Helena Bonham Carter is never less than hugely watchable in the title role.

Jalapeno Grills

There are crisps.  And then there are Jalapeno Grills.  Very spicy.  Yum.