A trip to St Paul’s Square is never complete without a visit to the Actress & Bishop for a pint of Guinness and a bit of live music.
Last Friday I did just that.
Weekends are now filled with live music which takes place every Friday & Saturday down stairs in the main bar simply called ‘Actress Live’. The live music begins at 8pm and finishes around 10pm with a DJ until 4am.
Upstairs now hosts some pretty cool shows too with local promoters such as Birmingham Promoters and The Catapult Club.
I noticed a wide mix of punters with a very buoyant and lively atmosphere, the drinks are well priced and plenty of seating which I took advantage of.
Entrance downstairs is free and looking at the list of forthcoming musicians booked I must say it looks like the team at the Actress are going for quality here. I’ve watched Call Me Unique, 4oz of Groove and Esther Turner before and think they’re all fab. However this was my first introduction to ‘Abi & The Swing Pigs’.
The duo took to the stage and immediately people began to take notice with a few people dancing and getting into the swing right away. This continued through the evening with a break mid-way.
Abi’s vocals are superb and soulful, she chooses the tracks which suit her vocal ability and the guitarist Ben is competent, a good match. I think the big round of applause at the end of each song indicated how well these guys went down with calls for “more, more” at the end. I’d like to see full band next time.
Louise Woodley, was DJ on the night and her choice cuts of Indie drenched goodness allowed the party to continue with tracks by The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays filling the stage with dancing loons.
A great night and well worth making it down one weekend. The great thing is, you have a choice of a band upstairs too, full-on musical madness in the Jewellery Quarter’s fave live music venue.
www.facebook.com/abiandtheswingpigs
www.facebook.com/Actressandbishop
Words by Nick Byng for Grapevine Birmingham