culture & welfare MOSELEY: HEURBAN|PEAYGROUND Birmingham doesn't get much press, and wwnen it does It's not exactly the good kind From the TV only portraying anyone with 2 Birmingham accent as drooling simpletons to the constant newspaper driven second ty paranoia, we brummies get a raw deal The musle world ignores us entirely, to my mind only two albums have ever been famed after parts of Birmingham NIWA Straight Outta Northfield Guhich later got changed forthe American marked) and lash inthe pan neo-mods Ocean Colour Scenes Moseley Shoals. This however betrays the fact that there are many different areas in Biringham each with very different ‘offerings. Particularly as a student there fare planty of places where you can go to {scape the norm, enjoy casual pint, and meet people who may or may not be similiar {0 you. So starting this issue, we're going to look at all these different student havens, and finding out just how much there realy Isto offer outside the city centre Moseley is basically a little more than 9 collection of shops, restaurants, and pubs, bat untike most high streets up and down, the county It's not the mix and maten of chain stores you usually find. Funky tle Jewellers sit next to funky litle organic food shops and everything's touchy feely lovely. Unfortunately | have no need for fair tade fip flops or second hand flares, Also due to budget restraints lim unable te comment on the many restaurants But I fm told they/re unusually good for non-clty entre-centrc dining experiences. ‘One thing Ido know is pubs, | spend more time in various pubs than | do in. Vegas (egat isthe name of my bed, Ihave no idea ‘why shares that wth you). ve started incredibly early, in The Drift, 2 ‘once “swanky, but now eyed round the edges bor “Trendy” is word that springs fo ming, another is “desolate”. The place Is soulless, Both in the sense of the word that there Is no one here, except me and 2 bartonder but also in the sense that the place has no character. The wear and tear that normaly makes pubs and bars look comfortable and lived in makes this place look shoddy even by candlelight. | get 9 text From my friend suecinetly saying the Drift, £0 Pkt Ii, A short walk away ie Patrick Kavanagh's, its 2 pleasant pub tucked round the comer. The décor © tke the Clientele, 2 mixture of the young media professional with trendy ironic beards and Old regulars with full beards worn without ' trace of irony. This theme, as t0 find ‘would be continued throughout Mosley” a ‘mixture of eld locals and young professional types. The back room only contained one comfortable looking older gent, the only light in the room coming from a Big open fire that was slightly toasting his sacks a he napped. Unfortunately they dant play ‘music, only what is inflicted on you by the Jukebox, which isnt that bad as long. as people bother to put stuff on, but mostly there is none. | have a pet hate about pubs with no music, t2 ma it seems to craw attention to the fact a pub Is ust 9 buling {ull of strangers waiting to get drunk In the interest oF journalism | felt abliged to move ‘on, my friend, however, being & rompent Imisanthrope decided not to be dragged around by a now half cut hairy lunatic that ‘occasionally decides to stop talking now land again to senbble in his notebock. He ‘would moet me later ae cheches out ‘The Prince of Wales ie what | would call 2 traditional pub, and by traditional | mean old. The main characteristic of tractional pubs is the many rooms ond network of Soors and corrdars that connect them like 2 nicotine stained maze, Again the mi of ‘ld and young leaned heavily on the older {resid and while act Boing unweleoming per Se, did't Teal ently comfortable stepping ino my own. | suppose with traveling and dipping in and out of education Ive kinda ‘90t used to being the eldest person inthe oom, 30 going out into the real world with ‘eal people with real jobs is faring. You go from having to tolerate the iiots to being the idiot Being tolerated. The stat were triendly and efficient ana mainly only get 8 compliment for firing with mo, te rooms ‘were cosy and filed with comforting chat, Comforting that ‘s until you realise all the talk is about beneft fraud end violence In short a good pub to take a book. but 2 spectacularly bad one to take 2 notebook ana pen. | texted my fiend and convinees him to finish the night ot The Jug of Ale, anyone who knows anything bout Birmingham's music scene will havo Blready heard ofthe ug a graffi decorated Jewel in Mosley’ erown a ite Bit city and haphazard, but so are the customers, Not all pretentious and a relatively cneop place ted The next morning | had already talked a hhousernate and a friend to come get Sunday luneh, in the interest of fairness we decided to start at the other ona of the hich street {and try ang go to the pubs | missed. We began at The Cross, another soulless, tracy Gecorated ba/eaté, but after finding out that Sunday lunch would cost seven whale Pounds each we skipped itand went to ‘The Elizabeth of York, 2 Wetherspoons. Our friend was reluctant #9 go, he works as @ ‘mental health nutee and insisted ho alwys 006 his “elents" In there, we told Fim it ‘would be fine, We walked into tnd the place was a tip, every table sticky and covered in litter After clearing our own table we settled down surrounded by old and shchtly mental people, weathered, creased feces wherever you looked, sagay jowis sucking arcane and feul smelling hand rolled tobacco. | suppose the dawa side to.a place that serves cheap sinks is that attracts the sort of crow that lie cheap drinks. While atthe bar, the nurse was aceasted, "Do | know you” Bellows the haven headed man "wasn't you in Solihull last ight? No that's not where you recognise me from” saye my frend waiting for the penny te ctos "You weren't there last night when | took fon twenty nine Tads?” with that he made 2 deadly serous mental kung-fu wave. My friend bit his lip and walked away. Why twenty nine? | wondered, seems like @ very Specie number of Tings to faht. and how fiche know that there was that many? Did hhe count? Wore they pumberee??A man could (90 as crazy as him trying to work tout Liter while in the man’s bathroom | walk out the stall to finda man on hishands and kne=s Tooking into the stall nest to me, look at him, heloaks back and stammers. it's ok I'm the ‘manager’, on thats al right then. The food ‘Was late and Ike any food from 3 chain pu, ‘ok tasting, served dripping with MSG. Urtimately there is a comforting insular ‘ually to Moseley al the pubs have regulars be them young or old, characters like Pete the Feet. an extravagantly bearded gent who hasn't worn shoes since the shies oF ‘mental ald gentiemen wh fight imaginary Uwiads. Moseley defiantly has a character of its own, a mixture of traition and novelty that compliment each other rather than try and push each other away.