“Commonwealth People ” a poem for the Queen’s Baton Relay for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games

Birmingham poem for the recent Birmingham Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay inspired by Birmingham Poet Laureate Casey Bailey https://www.facebook.com/groups/471194117471294/permalink/571311560792882

This is a poem that I wrote in October after being inspired by Birmingham Poet Laureate Casey Bailey whose poem for the Queen’s Baton Relay celebration and party at Buckingham Palace I heard. 

Here goes:

Birmingham Games Baton Relay Poem entitled: “Commonwealth People” with apologies to the Great Jarvis Cocker & his 1990 hit: “Common People”

“Commonwealth People”

Commonwealth people come to Brum

To celebrate 🍾 youth with sport and fun

Brummies, Villains, Bluenose too….

Baggies and Saddlers, Yam Yams though The Black Country & BrummaGEM’s 

People are all United in their common ground

Wolves, Moors and Glassboys Pitmen rough 

This region’s appetite for sport has no end for you……

Birmingham Moseley Rugby Club, 🏉 Bournville Rugby Club as well,

The coming Rugby Club at Avery Fields Sports & Events it’s said!!!!

Harborne Hockey 🏒, Bournville as well, Edgbaston’s

The place for many a well-$erved Ace….

With lawn tennis invented there in 1858……

Edgbaston’s 🐻 Bear’s T20 Cricket 🏏 for the England women….

Along with Archery 🏹 under the Cricket club’s lights….

My word what a great inspirational sight!!!!

The Cricket 🏏 is so very fair if you happen like me to be a 🐻 Warwickshire Bear!!!

Rugby 🏉 at Coventry where the Sky Blues played……

Now it’s Wasps with the Ovoid leather  Ball….

Coventry City were soooo dismayed!!!

No longer The Ricoh Football Stadium

It’s now the Coventry Building Society Arena

SISU Cov’s owners were issued with a slapped up Subpoena!

To the Courts it went as The Sky Blues fought ….

To stay at their home….or so they thought?

Wasps dug their well heeled Rugby players heels 👠 in…

After all they’d bought it….

It could easily end up in a messy Court bid!!!

So the Sky Blues went to St Andrews where they played two seasons

Without a home to play home games in….!!!!

Now Coventry City are looking to the University of Warwick

To build ’em a Super Soccer Stadium…..

That’s fit for a Wayward Wandering Prince!

That’s William whose the Aston Villa’s Kingpin!

Chair of the FA and Vital Villa Fan……

Historians Football Club ⚽️ do they cry from The Holte End?

As The Vile Fans all bow down with bended knee to Prince William….no ordinary Fan!

One day in the future he’ll be “King of this Island England”!!!

So Birmingham hosts the Polyglot Games…..

The Queen’s Baton Relay was such a great lark….!!!

Not merely just a “Walk in the Park”!!!

The Baton’s 🪰 flying here there and everywhere, not just in England and Brum….

But also to Cyprus and our Indian chums….Africa, 🇨🇦 Canada, Australia, the Caribbean too

The Baton’s travelling all over this Wanderful World…..

96000 miles it’s a great long run….

So I can’t wait for the Games next July & August 2021….

I hope to volunteer 🙋‍♂️ at The Aquatics Centre in Sandwell…

Let’s hope they finish it so Adam Peaty can Lord it over The Commonwealth’s swimmers….?

Not just Breaststroke but Medley Relays too!

And Dear Tommy Daley swims, dives and knits at the same time what a sport…!

So BrummaGEM’s Song has been a treemendously Long One!

We all us BrummaGEM’s get our Brummie Day in the Sun…..!!!

By hosting the Great Games ….oh what a lark….!!!!

Let’s hope that it’s not just a 50 kilometre walk in Sutton Park…???

Some serious Sport is what our Youth want….

So come to Brum and watch as all us BrummaGEM’s shine ….

Like the 💎 Gems in The Jewellery Quarter….oh what a place!!!

Where the Gold 🏅 Medals, rings, necklaces & bracelets are made….

And the Queen’s Baton too…96000 miles taken by a British Airways Crew to Cyprus the first point of frantic departure….

Why don’t we all just sit and relax & wait for next July & August…

When there’ll be lots of facts about #Brum: “More Canals than Venice!”….”More Trees 🌳 than Paris”….

Brum’s such a young City with sooo much talent to offer….

Can’t wait for The Birmingham Games to begin!

And see 👀 our great Diverse City of Birmingham prosper!!!!!

 

Queen’s Baton Relay celebration Poem by Birmingham Poet Keith Bracey AKA the Brummie Bard Birmingham and Black Country history writing poet journalist and broadcaster on Sports Radio Birmingham please read my Birmingham and Black Country writing at

https://keithbracey.wordpress.com Ends

Yours in Birmingham

Keith Bracey….Commonwealth Games Volunteer (hopefully 🙋‍♀️???)

Birmingham and Black Country poet AKA @BrummieBard

07552 758710
Email keithbracey1@gmail.com
Twitter @1truclaretnblu @brummiebard
Instagram @brummiebard

Please read my Birmingham and Black Country poetry history heritage and sports blog posts on my Bracey Blog at:

https://keithbracey.wordpress.com

Keith Bracey the Brummie Bard Birmingham & Black Country poet & writer

Birmingham Games Baton Relay Poem entitled: “Commonwealth People” with apologies to the Great Jarvis Cocker & his 1990 hit: “Common People”
“Commonwealth People”

Commonwealth people come to Brum

To celebrate 🍾 youth with sport and fun

Brummies, Villains, Bluenoses too….

Baggies and Saddlers so sound

Are all united in their common ground

Wolves, Moors, Glassboys too

This region’s appetite for sport has no end for you……

Birmingham Moseley Rugby Club, 🏉 Bournville Rugby Club as well,

The coming Club at Avery Fields it’s said!!!!

Harborne Hockey 🏒, Bournville as well, Edgbaston’s

The place for many an Ace….

With lawn tennis invented there in 1858……

My word what a great sporting place…..!!!

The Cricket 🏏 is so very fair if you happen like me to be a 🐻 Bear!!!

Rugby 🏉 at Cov where the Sky Blues played……

Now it’s Wasps with the Oval Ball….

Cov were soooo dismayed!!!

No longer…

View original post 454 more words

MY DAD LEADING AIRCRAFTSMAN LESLIE BRACEY DURING WW2

My dad Leslie Charles Bracey was a leading Aircraftsman in the Royal Air Force signing up as an 18 year old callow youth in the Autumn of 1940, no doubt inspired to join up by the Battle of Britain. Les as he liked us kids to call him was stationed at RAF Tempsford 138 & 161 Squadrons SOE and dropped Air Force Special Operations Command resistance fighters over occupied France 🇫🇷 flying without a parachute in a Westland Lysander over the English Channel pursued by Messerschmidt 110 Night 🌙 Fighters. The planes would often land in occupied France 🇫🇷 as they could practise short take off and landing. The other photos show Les and a group of many other RAF personnel in front of an AVRO Lancaster or Short Stirling (I am not sure which can anyone else help?) One the other photos is of Les and a small group of other airmen at the side of a De Havilland Mosquito Les is the third in from the right. Happy memories of my dad Les Bracey. My daughter has followed her grandad into the services by joining the Royal Air Force Police and has been in service for over 6 years now Keith Bracey

Various photos from dad’s RAF service. In the first one he’s a very callow 18 year old youth as a new recruit in 1940. The group photo is of Les and the others in his RAF Tempsford Covert Squadron based in Bedfordshire. The other photos are of me dad who is 3rd from the right in front of a De Havilland Mosquito. Dad’s RAF memories

Steam Revolution: The Turbine

Incandescent electric light did not immediately snuff out all of its rivals: the gas industry fought back with its own incandescent mantle (which used the heat of the gas to induce a glow in another material) and the arc lighting manufacturers with a glass-enclosed arc bulb.[1] Nonetheless, incandescent lighting grew at an astonishing pace: the […]

Steam Revolution: The Turbine

Steam Revolution: The Turbine

Incandescent electric light did not immediately snuff out all of its rivals: the gas industry fought back with its own incandescent mantle (which used the heat of the gas to induce a glow in another material) and the arc lighting manufacturers with a glass-enclosed arc bulb.[1] Nonetheless, incandescent lighting grew at an astonishing pace: the […]

Steam Revolution: The Turbine

Steam Revolution: The Turbine

Incandescent electric light did not immediately snuff out all of its rivals: the gas industry fought back with its own incandescent mantle (which used the heat of the gas to induce a glow in another material) and the arc lighting manufacturers with a glass-enclosed arc bulb.[1] Nonetheless, incandescent lighting grew at an astonishing pace: the […]

Steam Revolution: The Turbine

Steam Revolution: The Turbine

Incandescent electric light did not immediately snuff out all of its rivals: the gas industry fought back with its own incandescent mantle (which used the heat of the gas to induce a glow in another material) and the arc lighting manufacturers with a glass-enclosed arc bulb.[1] Nonetheless, incandescent lighting grew at an astonishing pace: the […]

Steam Revolution: The Turbine

Birmingham in the 19th century

Bearwood the foodies favourite….

Stirchley Schmerzley the happening place to eat is BEARWOOD! From Indian Street Food at Dhamaka at the top of Bearwood Road to great brunches at Tamu and the Polish influences of the Old Dresser Cafe and Edge Coffee ☕️ at the top of Bearwood next to the bus station

That’s where today’s Bearwood Lunch Club organised by Bearwood Bites (on Instagram) Rosie Wells @RosieWells also on Instagram Christmas 🎄 lunch was held with Polish stews and goulash Polish dumplings Polish potato 🥔 cakes and sweet treats like choux pastry cream cakes among other delicious delights.

A La Mexicana is a Mexican restaurant on Sandon Road near the Bear 🐻 Tavern where Frank Skinner used to do comedy nights 🌙 when he was a young comic

Nearly opposite A La Mexicana also on Sandon Road is Vaz Portuguese/Madeiran bar and restaurant. On a similar note is Brasil Portu a Brazilian bar restaurant and delicatessen further down Bearwood Rd towards Cape Hill.

If it’s steak you want it’s De La Vie’s on the corner of Anderson Road and Barnsley Road Conservation Area. 

My favourite place to eat just over the border on Smethwick High Street near the former Smethwick Council House is the Punjab Sweets Centre on High Street almost opposite one of the very first Desi Pubs The Red Cow 🐄.  It’s cash only but samosas are only 40 pence each and the vegetable pakore is to die for as is the kathlama and the tandoori toast. The curry menu is a little limited with only chicken curry for £5 and lamb curry for £6. Vegetable curry such as spinach and chick pea 🫛 is even cheaper! Two people can eat a curry 🍛 like a king with 3 courses (we always end up with the sweet treat of chocolate barfi) for under £20 but remember it’s cash only!

Bearwood is best for foodies

Keith Bracey ❤️ The Brummie Bard Birmingham and Black Country poet writer historian journalist and former broadcaster on Sports Radio Birmingham Please read my food reviews at @Bearwoodbites on Instagram and please read my Birmingham and Black Country poetry history heritage and sports related and foodie related musings on my Bracey’s Bostin Bearwood Blog at: @brummiebard

https://keithbracey.wordpress.com

Keith Bracey the “Brummie Bard” Biography

Keith Bracey: Biography

I was born and brought up in Bearwood, Edgbaston so I’m a Brummie through and through, using the pseudonym the @brummiebard for my Birmingham and Black Country heritage-inspired poetry.

From 1969–1976 I attended George Dixon Grammar School and then went up to read Commerce and Economic History at the University of Birmingham, 1976–1978, representing the University 1st XV as an 18-year-old Fresher. At this point I had a breakdown and was diagnosed as being Bipolar. 

After working for the Civil Service, 1979–1984, I returned to academia as a mature student studying Modern History and Politics at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 1987 having also represented the university 1st XV. I then embarked on a Postgraduate teaching degree at my Alma Mater, the University of Birmingham, teaching History and Physical Education at both Handsworth Grammar School and Solihull School. 

Feeling teaching was not for me I worked for International Property Consultants, Lambert Smith Hampton, for five years from 1989–1994, before joining Locate in Birmingham, the city’s former inward investment and investment promotion agency.

From 2000–2004, I project-managed the relocation of the Elmhurst School for Dance from Camberley in Surrey to Edgbaston to become the feeder ballet school for the Birmingham Royal Ballet. That is my legacy to my home city of Birmingham.

I hope to leave a more international legacy for Birmingham and my adopted Black Country home with the whole Galton Valley World Heritage site project. This begins with the Soho Foundry in Smethwick, moving along the valley to the Galton Bridge – one of the oldest iron bridges in the world – to the Brasshouse Pumping Station and its Smethwick Engine. Then onto the crowning glory: the Chance Brothers glassworks in Spon Lane, Smethwick.

On the community engagement aspect of the Chance Heritage Trust project, I will be working with Narinder Singh Rai [more on Narinder in the next issue], but also adding my expertise in property, planning and regeneration having worked for Birmingham City Council for nearly twenty years in that field. 

I have a special interest in local history and heritage, and with ‘Save Dudley Hippodrome’ where ‘buildings at risk’ are involved.

Additionally, I am an active member of Birmingham Civic Society and the West Midlands Victorian Society in trying to save Icknield St School, in Winson Green where my mom’s family lived in back-to-back housing.Keith Bracey Heritage Consultant, Greensward Enterprise Heritage Consultancy, 1 The Orchard, Oldbury, West Midlands B68 9LS 07552 758710 keithbracey1@gmail.com Twitter @1truclaretnblu IG @brummiebard Website http://keithbracey.wordpress

TEN TERRIFIC FACTS ABOUT BIRMINGHAM

10 ‘FASCINATING FACTS’ ABOUT BIRMINGHAM

1.CITY OF 1,000 TRADES

Birmingham has always been a hive of activity and was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, which was set in motion by the Lunar Society of Birmingham, a group of the greatest scientists, inventors and manufacturers of the time who met to exchange ideas and knowledge at Matthew Boulton’s home Soho House in Handsworth.

By 1791, Birmingham was being hailed as the first manufacturing town in the world, and after it gained city status in 1889, it was named the City of A Thousand Trades because of the huge variety of companies based here. It’s also been called the Workshop of The World and the First City of the Empire.

It was at The Soho Manufactory, the first factory in the world – that assembly-line mass production was created by pioneering industrialist Matthew Boulton. It was built on Handsworth Heath in 1766 and it made a range of goods including buttons and buckles and was home to the first steam-powered mint. The Soho Mint opened in 1788 and used eight steam-driven machines designed by Boulton to strike up to 84 coins a minute.

The Czech composer Anton Dvorak ((1841-1904) came to Birmingham and said: “I’m here in this immense industrial city where they make excellent knives, scissors, springs, files and goodness knows what else, and, besides these, music too. And how well! It’s terrifying how much the people here manage to achieve.”

2. ECONOMIC CENTRE

Today, figures from Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that Birmingham is the largest centre in Great Britain for employment in the sectors of public administration, education and health, and the second largest centre outside London for employment in financial and other business services.

Four FTSE100 companies have their HQ in the Birmingham area – the largest concentration of such firms outside London and the South-East. Birmingham’s wider metropolitan economy is the second largest in the UK with a GDP (gross domestic product – the value of all goods and services) of £68 billion.

According to the rankings of the Globalization & World Cities Research Network, Birmingham is a beta level city – the third highest ranking in the country after London and Manchester. Birmingham has the highest level of entrepreneurial activity outside London, with more than 16,000 business start-ups registered in 2013. The city is behind only London and Edinburgh for private sector job creation between 2010 and 2013.

3. MORE CANALS THAN VENICE

Birmingham has 35 miles of canal compared with 26 miles of canal in Venice. And the entire Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) is a network of waterways connecting Birmingham and the Black Country. The BCN comprises 114 miles of waterways less than the 174 miles it had at its peak in the 18th century. More cubic metres of water flow through Birmingham’s canals than any other city in the world.

4. MORE TREES THAN PARIS

Birmingham has “nearly 600 parks and public open spaces” compared with 400 in Paris. Birmingham City Council gave a more exact number with a figure of 571 parks and open spaces with more than 3,500 hectares of public accessible space, and 250 miles of urban brooks and streams. Birmingham City Council estimates that there are six million trees in the city. The 2,400-acre Sutton Park in Sutton Coldfield is the largest Urban Park in Europe.

5. GERMAN MARKET

Birmingham’s annual German market – officially the Frankfurt Christmas Market – is the largest outdoor Christmas market in the country and the biggest outside Germany and Austria. It attracts more than five million visitors, earning £90 million for the city, and is even bigger than the market staged in German capital Berlin.

6. DIVERSITY

Birmingham is the most culturally mixed city in the UK, with 33.3 per cent non-white according to 2007 figures, compared with London’s 30.7 per cent.

Outside London, Birmingham has the UK’s largest Muslim, Sikh and Buddhist communities, the second largest Hindu community and the seventh largest Jewish community. The city’s Sikh Vaisakhi celebrations are the largest in Europe.

7. CONFERENCES

Birmingham is one of the UK’s top conference destinations. According to Core Cities, the National Exhibition Centre Group (which has four venues in Birmingham: the NEC, International Convention Centre, LG Arena and NIA) attracts more than 4 million visitors a year. That’s 42 per cent of the UK’s total exhibition trade and major conferences.

8. TELEVISION & RADIO

Birmingham has a long tradition of TV and Radio production with many shows recorded in studios in Birmingham or filmed on location in the city, while others have been produced here but filmed elsewhere. Among the programmes to come from Birmingham are Doctors, Hustle, Crossroads, Boon, New Faces, Spitting Image, Pot Black, Gangsters, Dalziell and Pascoe and Tiswas, plus the game shows The Golden Shot, Bullseye and Blockbusters.The Archers, the world’s longest running radio soap, is recorded in Birmingham for BBC Radio 4.

9. ST PATRICK’S DAY PARADE

Birmingham’s St Patrick’s Day Parade is the third biggest in the world, after New York and Dublin with more than 80,000 people turning out to celebrate the occasion. Birmingham has a large Irish community dating back to the Industrial Revolution when Irish people, known as ‘Navvies’ moved here to work in the construction  of canals, railways and factories and is estimated to have the largest Irish population in the UK. The city has the UK’s only Irish Quarter, centred on Digbeth and Deritend.

10. MUSIC

Birmingham is the birthplace of Heavy Metal, with Black Sabbath and coming from Aston in Birmingham Tony Iommi learned to play guitar in a different way following an industrial accident that removed the tips of two of his fingers. He tuned the guitar down and relied on power chords, something guitarist Geezer Butler also did and together they produced the classic sound of Heavy Metal. Subsequent Heavy Metal bands Napalm Death and Godflesh also hail from Birmingham. Birmingham also boasts Dave Pegg  (Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention), Martin Barre (Jethro Tull), and Blaze Bayley (Wolfsbane). Other music acts from Birmingham include ELO, Duran Duran, UB40, The Moody Blues, Fuzzbox, Ocean Colour Scene, The Move, Toyah Wilcox, Joan Armatrading, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Ruby Turner, Fine Young Cannibals, The Streets, Musical Youth, Jamelia and Pato Banton. Mother’s Club in Erdington was voted the world’s best rock venue in 1969 and 1970, with a Blue Birmingham Civic Society plaque unveiled in 2013 to commemorate the iconic venue where such acts as Pink Floyd, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Black Sabbath, The Who and Led Zeppelin played.

In the 1960s, Birmingham was the birthplace of modern Bhangra and is also the centre of the UK’s Asian music industry. Birmingham is the global centre of Bhangra music with almost 90 per cent of it made here.In the classical world, Worcestershire-born composer Edward Elgar was the first conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra (later the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra: CBSO) when it was officially founded in November 1920. Elgar was also the first Professor of Music at Birmingham University. In 2002, the CBSO won the most prestigious Record of the Year prize at the Gramophone Awards, the classical counterpart to the Oscars. The CBSO’s most famous conductor is Sir Simon Rattle, for whom Symphony Hall was built, often cited as one of the best classical music concert halls in the world.

BONNIE AND BELLA THE CATS’ WHISKERS

A hassle free life

Without any strife

Is enjoyed by our Bonnie and Bella

Their servants are Mary, my long-suffering wife

And me, I’m a gullible fella

We feed our two old dears on chicken and beef

A pampered life with no hassle or strife

As treats they get tuna and liver

And while Bella is calm, young Bonnie’s a thief

But so sweet that we always forgive ‘er.

Keith Bracey the Brummie Bard with amendments by Jen Coley a fellow Bearwood poet