The Fighting Cocks is an iconic Birmingham venue. It was upstairs in this pub in 1983 when, backstage at their gig, the lead singer of a recently formed band from Manchester told fellow band members that he no longer wanted to be referred to by his first name Stephen. His surname was Morrissey and the name of the band was The Smiths, one of the most influential bands of the 1980's.
The flowers from Morrissey's back pocket that night have long since died off but much of the pub remains unchanged with many of the features dating back to the 1800's. It is a really good pub and one I'd highly recommend.
Unsurprisingly there is a great selection of ales and beers, Craig inadvisably went straight on Peroni (he had vowed some months before, after a particularly bad reaction to premium strength lager, that he was going to avoid beer of 5% ABV or above, Peroni is 5.1%) the girls went onto to their favourite Aspall cider, and me and Kap were on the excellent Everards Tiger bitter. We got some seats at the bar though me and Kap, conscious of the fact that we'd got a long night ahead of us at the cricket, stayed standing up, we'd still got a job to do for the Birmingham Bears !!
We said our goodbyes and headed back to Edgbaston, before I left I said to Shelley let me know what pub you are in later and I'll come and meet you after the cricket...
UPDATE 23rd August
Championes, Championes, Ole, Ole, Ole !! We went back to Edgbaston to witness the Birmingham Bears' dramatic last ball victory over Lancashire Lightning in the T20 final. I said goodbye to Kap, and, rather than running round the Bull Ring with the cup, made my way back to Moseley to meet back with Shelley, Craig and Maria who I imagined, by this stage, would be well into their Moseley pub crawl.......not only were they in the same pub, they were still sat at the same seats at the bar. They had not moved in the four and a quarter hours since we'd left them !! With Craig on the 5.1% Peroni and both Shelley and Maria on 5.5% Aspall it would not be unfair of me to say that they were all feeling the pace a tad !!
The pub had filled up quite a bit since my earlier visit though getting served wasn't a problem, I'd got three friends who were long term residents at the bar !! Mind you I'd got a couple of friends behind the bar too, I got served by an ample bosomed young lady in a low cut vest top, I nearly asked for an Everards Easy Tiger rather than an Everards Tiger !!
Unsurprisingly we didn't stop too long as a curry at the nearby Kababish was calling...very loudly !! There was just time to capture the moment for posterity...
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