Words by Ed King / Pics by Grant Archer – with screenshots from the film by Chris Neophytou
Erdington born poet and spoken word artist, Joe Cook, has penned an homage to the lives and achievements of people from where calls home.
‘Odeington’ was commissioned as part of the St Barnabas Church bicentennial, to commemorate the cultural legacy of an area that gets more than its fair share Black Sabbath references. But born and raised in Stockland Green, Joe Cook wanted his words to stand testament to the modern day success stories from Kingstanding to Castle Vale.
Erdington Local caught up with the prolific poet, youth worker, and creative, to find out just what drums he thinks the North Birmingham constituency should be banging louder.
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The urban myth suggests if you type ‘Erdington’ into an online search engine you’ll see mainly news story about crime. The reality is you will, from media outlets reporting on crime. Ours included (although I hope we present more balanced content).
But you’ll also see Council information, estate agent postings, links to local facilities and sports clubs, historical features – albeit many about now aging rockers on Erdington High Street, and a range of “top rated holiday rentals” from Air B’n’B.
Desperate to reset the narrative, Stockland Green born and raised poet and spoken word artist, Joe Cook, used a recent commission to celebrate the modern day success stories from across the North Birmingham constituency – arguing when you start to refocus and scratch a more positive surface, there is quite a lot of them. And if you want to get all postcode and territorial about it, more than most.
“What I was really trying to get across, is that a lot of people in Erdington they often talk retrospectively – like, ‘it used to be great, it used to be this,” tells Joe Cook, after giving Erdington Local a sneak peak look and listen to his poem ‘Odeington’ – a portmanteau titled celebration of where he was born and raised.
“[People say] we used to have Mothers,” Erdington’s iconic music club and worldwide musical blue plaque, “and how amazing it was, and a lot of the online groups celebrate things in the past.” You can sense a restrained frustration from a man who used words for a living, “and I don’t think there’s enough celebrating the present.”
Without letting the stray cat out of the coal sack, Cook’s lyrics in ‘Odeington’ challenge the too often held view that Erdington is “all kind of hot spot here, think it’s just gunshot here, police line do not cross here” – delivered in a heartfelt piece to camera filmed underneath the Spaghetti Junction, as part of the accompanying video shot by local artists and filmmaker Chris Neophytou.
“And I just feel like everyone has this… I call them ‘Erdington ex-pats’ in the poem,” continues Cook, “saying ‘oh it used to be like this…’ but there’s still good community stuff happening here.”
Erdington has a vast network of local activists and community groups, again arguably more than other areas of the city, from the award-winning Erdington Litter Busters to the softer touch socially inclusive Erdington Walking Group.
There is also a significant Central and Eastern European support network, a raft of religious and secular ‘warm spaces’, and widespread grassroots mental health support services – growing from the legacy of Highcroft and Northcroft hospitals and the tragedy of the ‘Care in the Community’ programme.
Then you have the musical lineage that spawned from the onetime Erdington High Street music venue, Mothers – with local legends like Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, and Judas Priest notched on its bedpost. But as Cook’s lyrics warn: “we can’t spend our days spinning soundtracks, throwbacks, staring at blue plaques, we’ve got to welcome the next acts.”
“From a musical perspective there’s good [contemporary] artists that have come out of Erdington and still are doing stuff,” argues Cook, who has long championed local and upcoming artists through his verse and wider creative endeavours.
“That was the kind of tone I was going for; I was trying to celebrate some of the stuff that came out of [Erdington] but not just doing the obvious things.
“I do talk about Mothers, but I also talk about Lady Sanity, Aashley Allen, Reuben Reynolds, and Mist… and Hoodrich [clothing brand], you know, and the guy that founded that was from Erdington.” All now internationally known names who were born from humble beginning across B23 or B24.
Cook is quick to add the B44 born Jilted Royalty clothing line to the list of local luminaries too, whose internationally loved and respected founder, Jay Read, recently passed away.
“He was from Kingstanding,.. and he was a really influential streetwear slash creative guy.” The ‘Odeington’ poet can been seen sporting one of Jilted Royalty’s limited edition t-shirts in the accompanying video.
Outside of music, Joe Cook uses ‘Odeington’ to champion the vibrant local sports community – and if you think that’s a stretch, the hyperbole is anchored by a 1500 capacity. four pitch football football stadium nestled behind a children’s play area on Farnborough Fields, Castle Vale.
“And I talk a little bit about Lean Edwards,” adds Cook, “there’s a lot of people who have come from Erdington or come via Erdington which I think is something really important,” giving the Erdington adopted MMA World Champion his resoundingly deserved dues.
But the starting point for this hand-crafted love letter to Erdington’s contemporaries is altogether more visceral. And as with many wars and marriages, it begins over food.
“My initial inspiration was when I was walking from [Erdington] train station and I could smell jerk chicken,” explains Joe Cook. “Then there’s an Italian [restaurant], then a Romanian, then you go down the road and there’s a Vietnamese… and that was my starting point – we’ve got all these cultures right here, all this cuisine. And that made me start thinking outwards about it.”
But behind the food lies a cultural melting pot which mirrors Cook’s own family experience, after his mother’s family moved to Erdington from the back to backs in Hockley and his dad’s Irish/Maltese family followed from Balsall Heath after emigrating to the UK.
Erdington is a place, like many other industrial or port town and cities, that was carved out of stones from all corners of the world – giving it strong foundations and a rich history, but on occasion rocks to throw.
And when it comes to using his words to celebrate his community, Joe Cook takes his position as local poet as seriously as the youth engagement work he has delivered across the region.
“I think the idea of being a laureate, or in the West African tradition of a griot, or folk music, it’s all about that localisation and communities – and art should try and serve the community as best as possible,” tells Cook, who has previously been shortlisted for Birmingham Laureate, “and these are the best kind of examples of what poetry should be, to me.”
“I think North Birmingham is forgotten about in a lot of ways, economically and whatever, [but] one of the amazing things about Erdington is that people do have each other’s back and do try and help each other.
“We haven’t got this big infrastructure; we haven’t got these big community hubs. But there’s these little pockets of grassroots activities that make a big impact on people’s lives. And that’s what I’d want to shout about more.”
‘Odeington’ – written and performed by Joe Cook, film by Chris Neophytou
For more on Joe Cook visit www.jcrhythmandpoetry.bandcamp.com or follow him on Instagram at www.instagram.com/joecook349
For more from Chris Neophytou visit www.linktr.ee/chris_neophytou
