Midlands Madness

I haven't posted on here for, oooh, quite a while... and to be honest I haven't had the impetus to do so. But things  have getting progressively better since the rather strange blip I had in late August and September. And events have reached somewhat mental proportions over the last seven days...

Last Tuesday, my friend Kev and I headed up from South Wales to the LG Arena in Birmingham to see the god-heads of spaced-out rock Muse, on tour after the release of the rather wonderful The 2nd Law. They were supported by the superb Welsh rock outfit The Joy Formidable, whose epic songs got the audience fired up for the main act. And after a rather lengthy wait (and the arena got packed to the seams), the deceptively simple set was suddenly shrouded in darkness... And then the opening of 'The 2nd Law: Unsustainable' blitzed into life accompanied by blazing shafts of red light shooting across the arena. From that moment on, the whole stage exploded into life; the black panels at the back of the stage were suddenly revealed to be LED video screens and descending from the lighting rack at key moments were tiers of yet more video screens which were raised and lowered through a number of configurations throughout the performance. At one point they were even lowered right down onto the stage to form a pyramid over the boys (for a break, presumably) and played out a visual accompaniment to the gorgeous album closer 'Isolated System'.

True to form, the band were as mind-blowing in their staging as ever - equally as amazing as when I saw them at Wembley in 2007 - and performed a whole range of their stuff, from 'Sunburn' to 'Survival', the rousing number which closed the proceedings. At which point the already hyped up crowd went completely bonkers. And, as far as their music goes, these guys are equally as good live as their recorded work - not something you can say about every band.

Next, and closer to Birmingham (well bang in the centre of it actually), I attended PCS's annual LGBT Seminar, this year held at Jury's Inn on Broad Street. Having attended the previous seminar in my home town of Cardiff I was keen to go again, as I had found the mixture of debates and speakers most inspirational, moving and rewarding. This year's gathering was equally as good, with the focus being more on organising and campaigning - highly pertinent too, given the government's relentless and myopic 'austerity' cuts to public services and public sector workers' pay, pensions and terms & conditions. ("All in this together" Mssrs. Cameron and Clegg? I don't think so.) The class of speakers, including Hugh Lanning and Janice Godrich from PCS, were as superb as before. However, it was the truly amazing Zimbabwean born Skye Chirape who captured the minds and hearts of the audience with her talk about experiences of prejudice against her being African and lesbian. Her fight against the most appalling treatment by the  authorities was shocking yet ultimately inspirational as she has risen above her struggle to be the successful (and proud!) person she is now. Her talk really put things into perspective for me and made me realise that my life, however much I may bemoan it at times, has actually been a luxury in comparison.

Here is a link to Noizy Image, of which Skye is co-founder.

And of course, on events such as these, we work hard and then party hard!! (Well I did at least). So, with boots and combats in place, my room-mate and now very good friend Michael hit the pubs of Lower Essex Street and its surroundings with all the force of gay men on a mission to have a good night, including a fair bit of time in Missing, where we danced our feet off and got our pictures taken with mad random women.

(And the less said about Boltz the better...)

Inevitably though, all good things must come to an end - and probably just as well they did last Sunday as my rather intimate acquaintance with a certain Jack Daniels may have proved fatal to my liver. Plus the fact that I haven't been to bed any less than 3 o'clock for the last few nights. Liver failure and sleep deprivation really does leave you in an odd state of mind...

All said though, it was a week that will stay with me and has returned a certain joie de vivre that has been so missing in my life of late. Having said that, I don't think I could do the same again just yet...