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by Wendy Birmingham…I've only ever past through Birmingham on a bus on route to other places, and now here I am in a taxi in rush hour at the 'Bullring' a road that races round the city centre and provokes a feeling of Ground Hog day when you constantly pass streets you have just traveled down. How did I get here well it's a long story, a red eye flight from Glasgow to London in the morning for a couple of whistle stop work meetings before jumping on a train to here…the Carling academy Birmingham and TEXAS. This wasn't a planned trip it was total madness…! I had been in a horrendous mood after having to give up my ticket for Manchester and decided that the opportunity was here to be taken. At my last meeting in London I took a break, called securing a ticket for the evening's attraction 'one Miss Spiteri and her band of merry men'…with mulder4sculy's encouragement I then left for Birmingham abandoning my flight home and without a change of clothes! I'd been lucky enough to see both the Glasgow gigs and I was still on a Texas high, in need of another fix and wasn't to be disappointed. I met up with a load of fans outside and stood waiting for the doors to open. Sharleen turned up whilst we were waiting in line, and a girl in the queue behind me asked if it was really her? She couldn't believe it. Sharleen was really good and signed people's stuff and had photos taken before going in. About 20 mins later we laughed as we watched Shar, Johnny and Ally sneak across the road to a well know toy shop (which shall remain nameless), not un-noticed..! Some people purposely followed them which was a bit invasive, but we were laughing as we imagined the band commando crawling along aisles to avoid having to meet people or calling each other from different aisles saying "quick they are in aisle 2 make a run for the Barbie's in aisle 4" After what seemed like an eternity the venue doors opened and we all flooded in. As usual the T-e-x-a-n-s took up position in the front row. The stage was so close just about 2m away and only about a meter high completely different from the Carling academy in Glasgow where the stage is very high so this time we were literally going to be looking the band in the eye. We almost felt too close! Robert Post was good, but total respect as he always knew why we were there…for Texas (although I've since bought a ticket to his gig at King tut's later this month). Then the lights went down and we knew what was coming…… The crowd went wild, you could make out the band moving through the dark to their positions as the intro with the audio from the film Paris Texas started to play accompanied by Ally's infamous slide guitar that sent shivers up the spine. By this point the crowd were in a frenzy and as the lights went up on Sharleen it was almost spiritual. Texas were back and the equilibrium restored to the city of Birmingham. The setlist was as per the other gigs, except minus 'Get Down tonight' which was a travesty as this song went down really well in Glasgow. The old favourites such as 'Black Eyed Boy', 'Summer Son' raised the roof of course and it was good to hear Tony dueting on 'Sleep' By this point the heat in the building was stifling and my legs were beginning to cramp from all the jumping about, but it was worth it to be here even if I knew I had to be up at 4.30am the following morning to get home to Glasgow in time for work. Sharleen got the usual propositions from the audience and asked why it was that Texas audiences were always so lippy and that other bands had audiences who were quite reserved and well behaved. We all laughed and said they made us the way we are!!! There was a lot of banter with the crowd which is always good for a laugh. Ally was really on form and Sharleen joked that he had been saying he wanted to feel more rock n' roll and do more guitar solos, so at the urging of the crowd he got to do exactly that! |