Daily I receive gay news-headlines into my mail box, and one Thursday afternoon, a headline announced ‘Gay pride season kicks off this weekend’ It was short piece about pride in Birmingham. I already had my ticket, but this whetted my appetite for what was to come, putting me in the right frame of mind, adding a sense of importance to the festival which I was going to attend. I packed the essentials (my Heterosexuality is not normal, it’s just common T-shirt, and my ‘Yes I am’ baseball cap) and I was ready to go.

Day 1

Pride opening was an understated affair in Birmingham’s impressive Victoria Square. We bailed out half way through (some poet was rambling on and on) to head for the gay village. This was a good move. 4.00pm on a Saturday afternoon, summer sunshine, sitting outside a bar in the heart of the gay village, and gay guys and gals everywhere – what more can a boy ask for? 

Birmingham’s gay village is one of the nicer and more unusual ones I’ve been to. It’s set in a semi derelict central part of the city, principally around Hurst street. Apparently there has been argument going on for years as to how to develop the area. It looks now like this is about to happen. Hopefully it won’t result in the gay businesses which have kept the area alive being pushed out. But for Pride Hurst Street and the grid of streets around it (mainly Essex and Kent Streets) were taken over by the pride carnival creating an urban gay Mecca. Unlike other pride celebrations, Birmingham’s does not move to an out of town park location, this one was urban all the way. The main pride stage was set up in an untarmacced car park. The food court was set in another derelict site. 

Some derelict street corners contained fantastic amusement rides and all the while, every few doors apart were gay bars, beer tents, fast food sellers, and hundreds of stalls providing information and selling all sorts of wonderful tacky pride junk, you know, rainbow teddies, T shirts like my own, and all the rest! 

Coming from Dublin, it can be difficult to describe clubs, our frame of reference being so limited. Birmingham’s clubs provide plenty of amusement between them. Subway city is set under a series of gigantic railway arches, the curves of which you can see only when on the top floor. The comparisons with one Dublin club are instantly obvious, however, Subway City is way more subversive. There are three dance floors, and a number of chill out areas. The music policy on the main dance floor is heavy dance music. The other floors play a mix of older dance hits as well current chart music. 

The club regularly features performances from strippers and boybands….umm, I’m not sure which I prefer! The night I was in attendance the crowd were treated to two strippers who performed a raunchy routine which involved two guys from the crowd heading on stage to simulate oral sex with their (what can only be described as) MONSTROUS appendages! 

Later my buddies brought me into what I thought was a dark room (I didn’t know, I swear), but which was more like a large dark and cool chill out area – with a real dark room at the far end. This place was chilled in the extreme – a glance over my shoulder, I noticed three near naked, leather thonged guys drinking and chatting as normal. I loved the fact that they weren’t getting any attention. I thought, City boy really loves this club, and indeed it is truly fantastic. 

Day 2

Next day brought the pride parade which was an impressive affair. Unlike Irish prides the parade is made up of a series of floats and groups marching with the rest of the queer community watching and providing support from the pavements. The parade took place at 1.00 on the Sunday of a bank holiday weekend, so the city was deserted apart from the parade and it’s watchers. There were plenty of tarty drag queens around (obviously taking their inspiration from Birmigham’s girls), looking wonderful of course. There were also a troupe of gogo boys, lots of leather clad bikers, the odd bear – even Charles and Camilla made an appearance. 

The main stage hosted live acts, but for me the most amusing was a 30 hour Big Sister competition. This involved 12 housemates living together for a day and a half. One housemate would be voted out by the pride crowd each hour, and the overnight surviving members would be voted out at the following days festivities. A touching moment came when an 18 year old contestant named Lee, choose a Teddy bear as his item to bring into the Big Sister tent. When asked about it, Lee became emotional and explained that his boyfriend of three weeks had given it to him. Snif Snif! It is amazing how pride and alcohol make an otherwise together City boy weep!

That evening we went to Kudos (the latest branch of the London video bar chain) a bright, stylish and very gay bar which had video screens everywhere. Night time again brought with it the difficult decision as to where to go clubbing. Out of the five or six main clubs Birmingham has to offer, Nightingales is the next most established. In contrast to Subway City, Nightingales offers a lighter, cheesier but no less enjoyable night out on the town. The club is the longest established club in Birmingham, and is situated in a substantial complex, of three dance floors and numerous bars. It really would be easy to loose people here. Again this place is a cruising heaven, if more conventional and drunk than Subway. The main dance floor is chart all the way, however harder dance music is played on the dance floors up-stairs. 

Days 3 - 5

Over the remainder of the trip, I explored other aspects of Birmingham. The scene offers many varieties of pub and club to choose from. One post pride evening was spent in Partners bar, a basement pub, decked out with all the typical English regalia, fruit machines and all, and containing a friendly, relaxed, mixed older crowd. Chilling, listening to 80’s pop was just what was needed that evening. Angels café bar, is a lively young bar where lot’s of younger cute guys hang out. Missing, along with Route 2, are the main drag bars of the city with regular shows. The Fox has two venues on separate streets, one women only. I didn’t visit the Boots bar, but I’m fairly sure it has a very masculine clientele! 

Birmingham clearly offers much to the gay visitor. After my visit I had a discussion with a friend, who insisted that I couldn’t have liked Birmingham that much because of its cold drab industrial feel. I insisted I didn’t mind, that I like that desolate feel – the more desolate the better I said. While the city doesn’t have the natural appeal of an Edinburgh for example, it is not that it has no physical appeal at all. There is plenty of evidence of the effort being made in Birmingham to liven up the city, in the centre and for example around the very well redeveloped canal area. But like all places, it’s the people that make it. Maybe the more dull, a city, the more a community compensates. With all the talk of the demise of the Manchester gay scene maybe it’s time it’s friendly neighbour was given a visit!