Spent Saturday night in Birmingham at a night run by a rather nice gent by the name of Dean Smith, it’s called “The Great Outdoors” and its situated at the back of “The Lord Clifden” in Birminghams Jewelry Quarter.
I was there in my capacity as driver for the DJ, the DJ in question being the Sheffield, now firmly planted in Manchester Luke “Unabomber” Cowdrey.
Did’nt know what to expect when we arrived as the front of house and facade outside gives you the impression that “The Lord Clifden” is just your better than average pub, even when you walk in it gives the impression of your local, but slowly work your way through the 2 front bar rooms to the back and it opens out in what can only be described as a very decent sized outdoor space, first thing you notice its the plethora of building furniture i.e. signage, there’s Post Office Signs, a Marshall Amps’ signage, Mecca Bingo sign, old British Bicycle Manufacturers tin signs, but pride of place goes the the 2 full sized golden geese adorning the walls, the Postbox and the Table Tennis table, not your average pub adornments I’ll say.
As well as all these things to catch the eye, there’s a covered section outside where the DJ Decks are set up with plenty of room behind for the mixers to make their music happen, along side this is a more than adequate bar to cater to the multitudes who turn up and if your feeling a little peckish, there’s even and outside Barbecue serving various meat in bun products.
The crowd that attended Saturday night were an eclectic mix of all ages, from your young student/clubber about town, through to your over earning hipsters, right up to a group of Acid Cougars on a night out from Luton, thankfully there’s a enough space in front of and around the outside space to allow all of these happy types to get down and dance (as they say).
General feel of the crowd there is of a happy lot out for a bit of fun and some laughs, throughout the whole time we spent there, didn’t see any incidents that might cause worry, though the owner did let us know about an incident where he’d been DJ’ing the previous New Years eve and some Brummy lass had asked him to put on some old skool garage, said he could’nt and the next thing he knows this birds laid 2-3 heavy duty punches to his face, so the lesson learned there is “Don’t refuse a Brummie lass’s record requests”
In general though from what we’ve gathered the Nights Dean’s been running there have gone down a treat and he’s garnered himself quite a regular crowd attending the nights over the Summer, so much in fact he’s extending the nights into the early Autumn evenings, seems he’s onto a little winner with this one and it appears to be growing, so it can only get bigger and better for him.
Hopefully will revisit The Great Outdoors in the not to distant future, so cheers Dean for a top night and fantastic hospitality . .
Anyway the night had to come to an end at some point for us and finishing his set and handing back over to Dean, we headed off into the night and onto the M6 for the journey back to Manchester, another evening well spent and a few extra quid in me pockets to boot.