I remember well the shock that that murder caused. Along with events up the road in Nottingham, it gave a very different complexion to life in the Midlands back then.

I was a regular at various places in Digbeth and similar back then and it wasn't unusual for the lights to go up at about 1am and everyone to get summarily chucked out due to a bottling/stabbing/general gang related incident.

I remember one particular night which took place a couple of years after the peak of it (maybe 2005?) at a club that was deemed to be a Johnsons place (won't name names as I'm not sure what the legalities of it are. Locals will know where I'm talking about. Suffice to say there was always 2 blokes stood next to the bar "shotting"; it was often quicker to get served an e than it was a drink). A very well known American hip hop producer/DJ was doing a gig at the venue. A rival gang (was never sure how real the Burger Bar half of that story was so will stop short of using the name) climbed over the wall into the venue from a next door car park and somebody robbed the bar till at gun point. Lights went up very quickly and we were ushered out to find the kind of police presence outside you'd normally see at a Blues Villa derby.

Admittedly, I haven't lived in the city for many years now but still work there and am regularly in the city centre at night. From what I'm told some of the neighbourhoods are flaring up again but the city centre seems much safer than it did to me still.

I think the key is what the guy says in that interview; "future". Since those days the city has undergone something of an economic boom. You only have to look around the city centre to see the preponderance of posh cocktail bars that never would have survived 15 years ago, when Mr Egg was still a viable late night snack option. More and more are seeing a future for themselves which doesn't involve selling drugs.

That seems to be tipping backwards now though. One thing that's always struck me about Brum from a professional perspective is how poorly represented its afro Carribean community is in the professional sphere.

It was said at the time that a major driver of the Lozells riots was the perceived inequality between how well the city's Asian community was doing compared to the afro Carribean community. Listen to that MD7 track I linked to above. Written in 2002 but many of the frustrations he talks about (useless careers advisers, fuel poverty, surviving on shitty junk food) could easily relate to 2017.

If that's the case (and it doesn't seem like stopping with Brexit around the corner looking to decimate the city's nascent financial services hub) is it any wonder that we are seeing a rise in this again?