My kind of town: Birmingham

Railway arches, Thai restaurants, swimming pools, vintage clothes shops – our irregular Birmingham club event, Below, throws parties in the strangest of locations. Usually on a Sunday, too. But before it's time to party, visiting crate-diggers should head for Morris Hunting's legendary vinyl treasure trove, The Diskery (99-102 Bromsgrove Street, diskery.com ). It's been there for years and it sells everything: jazz, swing, 1950s stuff, limited-edition picture discs, up to 1990s rock and pop. For menswear, I love sister stores A Too (9-11 Ethel Street, atoo.co.uk ) and Autograph (15-17 Ethel Street, autographmenswear.com ). They are my favourite shops in the world. In A Too, you've got high-end clothing, your Dries Van Noten and Vivienne Westwood, and in Autograph, more urban labels like Folk. I also like Ideal , which is a skate shop at the Custard Factory (18-20 Gibb Square, idealbirmingham.co.uk ) in Digbeth. In and around the Custard Factory (Gibb Street, custardfactory.co.uk ) you'll find cool clothes and vintage shops, cafes, creative businesses and exhibitions. My mates and I rate Birmingham's contemporary art gallery, Ikon (1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, ikon-gallery.co.uk ), which has a second gallery, Eastside, in Digbeth. My top eating places include South American bar-canteen Bodega (12 Bennetts Hill, 0121-448 4267, bodegabirmingham.co.uk ), Pasta di Piazza (11 Brook Street, 0121-236 5858, pastadipiazza.com ), which is a lovely little independent Italian, and French bistro Chez Jules (5a Ethel Street, 0121-633 4664, chezjules.co.uk ). For a cheap fill-up, our regular pit-stop is Soya (Unit 2, Upper Dean Street, cafesoya.co.uk ). It's a little Vietnamese cafe. £5-£8 for a noodle soup. For a drink I'm a great fan of the Lord Clifden (34 Great Hampton Street, Hockley, thelordclifden.com ), a modish reinvention of the traditional pub, where you'll find Camra-approved real ales and plenty of street art. The garden's got lots of funny memorabilia in it: fluorescent pink post boxes, random lights and signs. It's really nice, and great for Sunday lunch. For a night out, intimate bar-venue the Yardbird Jazz Club (Paradise Place, myspace.com/ theyardbirdbirmingham ), and cool indie bar the Sunflower Lounge (76 Smallbrook Queensway, thesunflowerlounge.co.uk ), are recommended city-centre haunts. To be a bit different head out through the trendy suburb of Moseley to the Hare & Hounds in King's Heath (106 High Street, hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk ). It's a combined pub-live entertainment venue and they really push independent artists. But there's nowhere like The Rainbow (160 Digbeth High Street, therainbowvenues.co.uk) , which I co-own with my Below partner, Lee McDonald. It's a Victorian pub and, last year, we converted the cellar into a 250-capacity club. The main feature has always been the warehouse-style covered courtyard. It's really easygoing: the crowd, the dress code, the door staff. The variety of events we've done – reggae, hip-hop, house, live bands, art-based graffiti shows – has brought a fusion of different crowds who all get along. Adam Shelton is co-promoter of music venue Below and runs One Records Interview by Tony Naylor