Martha Tilston, Birmingham

My birthday present off Ric was to go and watch Martha Tilston play at the Kitchen Garden Cafe in Birmingham. Her albums were the sound track to many a sleepless night spent on buses in South America and her songs hold many happy memories for us.

We got the train down and eventually found our hotel, that was in fact a pub, called the Moseley Arms. We were greeted by a very matter-of-fact brum woman who told us we had to have a twin, even though we'd booked a double room.

Birmingham seems to be centered around the Bull Ring shopping centre, its the main attraction, along with a technological out-of-space themed Selfridges building. We mooched about and saw the "famous landmark" bull.

Birmingham has a very interesting mix of buildings and super modern architecture. Although by far the nicest area is around the canals, the "heart" of the Uk's canal network. It was sunny and there were lots of nice bars on the water front. We had some drinks in a place called the Malt House and then went to the Chinese Quarter for a slap up chinky dinner.

The actual gig was in a cafe/restaurant/shop/garden centre and about 100 people were crammed into a little room on an assortment of garden furniture. We managed to get seats of the second row. The venue was lovely, bit weird, as everything was for sale and there were potatoes for sale outside, but it had a wholesome, homely feel.

The supporting act was a really dry humoured lad called Chris Cleavley who was good and made me laugh. 

Martha Tilston's set actually blew me away, her voice is so amazing. She played some new stuff that I hadn't heard, and was chatty and laid back, making jokes with the audience. I really love her songs because they tell stories, they feel personal rather than the standard generic lyrics that make up most pop music. Even better, she introduced each song saying what it meant and how she came to write it.

The absolute highlight though was when she played Artifical. Its one of mine and Ric's favourites, I love it because its about working in an office, and how it can be totally unmotivating and soul destroying doing something that means nothing to you, just to pay the bills. Turns out that song is actually about temping, and Martha herself was a temp. She asked the audience and when I said that I was a temp she dedicated the song to me!

Unfortunately the quiet little pub we were booked into turned into some kinda of 16year old's mosher disco and uninspiring base was blasted at us through the floorboards until 3am! So we didn't get very much sleep. 

On the whole though it was a bloody lovely trip.