Birmingham and the Midlands
In this video, I look at Birmingham and the Midlands.
It looks at various things, such as:
- the geographical boundaries
- a few well-known people from the region
- the origins of heavy metal
- Einstein’s relativity
Video Transcript
UK Accents, Dialects and Mentalities – Birmingham and the Midlands – YouTube
Transcript:
According to Mike Harding who has a very popular and funny stand up phase at the late 70s early 80s according to him it actually goes back to biblical times. To give you a short
summary of a very good sketch he did basically he said that the time of Noah in the ark, although it doesn’t say in the in the Bible, Noah and his family spent most of their time shovelling shit overboard because the animals were all eating. When the waters subsided they found themselves in the middle of a huge plain of shit and they called it Birmingham.
The Midlands being the industrial heartland of England is actually responsible for the term heavy metal as used in music and this is seems to be because Black Sabbath were steel workers before they turned professional musicians. Someone in a review of one of their earlier records said that you could hear the “heavy metal sounds from their factory work” and this is where the term heavy metal seems to derive from. Other well-known and good metal groups have also come out of the Midlands area, notably Judas Priest and Magnum. Not only heavy metal bands come from there but also like Roy Wood of Wizard and early ELO people from there. Jeff Lynne, of course, from Electric Light Orchestra and a few other people like like Toyah Wilcox also from the Midlands. Jasper Carrott is also well-known comedian from the Birmingham area.
We have to talk about the accent I’m afraid. The Brummie accent tops every poll for the most hated accent, the most disliked accent. in the UK. I think the reason for this is it’s actually very difficult to sound intelligent if you have a Brummie accent. Ozzy Osbourne it’s not like he is because of all the drugs and the booze – he’s just from Birmingham. I mean, what do you think would happen if if Einstein was from Birmingham. Now not a lot of people know this people know but Einsteins relativity is actually used actively in mobile phone technology, satellite navigation technology. Because of the distances and the speed and the signals, you actually need to incorporate Einstein’s relativity formula in to the calculations or else it won’t work. Now, if Einstein was from Birmingham we wouldn’t have those, because he would have said (*in a Brummie accent*) “you know – been thinking – I have an idea – I call it my theory of relativity” and all you’d hear is the answer of “shut up you’re daft git – get your Brummie arse back in the factory”. We wouldn’t have these things, so be grateful and thankful that Albert Einstein wasn’t a Brummie.
We do actually have one joke that we have to thank the Birmingham accent for and it is this one:
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
You can’t make the cake in the buffalo or you can’t wash her face in the Buffalo.
Because in Brummy, a bison and a basin sound the same.
You will find people tend to distance themselves from Birmingham. I’ve actually heard someone say this she said: “I’m not from Birmingham, I’m from Dudley!” Sorry Sid but you did say it.
But once you get past the accent, the people from the Midlands are lovely people – I really like them. They don’t take themselves too seriously and they like to laugh. If you are visiting that area, try not to be too overly bothered by the accent. Try and look past it and you’ll find very nice people in a very nice part of the country hope.
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Also, if you liked this video, you might be interested in other videos in this series.
Did I miss anything out? Or have you been to that part of the world and agree (or disagree) with anything in the video?
If so, please let me know in the comments below.
