Monthly Archives: January 2010

Eccomony fails to bounce back for rubber shop

Cocoon fetish shop in Digbeth, you've seen it the one with the quite "constricted" mannequins in the window, is to shut. Huge savings to be made, if money is tight.

Editing history?

Totally Bone doesn’t enjoy The Editors cursory tour of Brum: “how many musical visionaries have set their sights on obscurity, losing their way in the second city’s suburban maze, unable to find the golden thread for constant mess of backbiting, shit stirring, slander and pub sets. And the few who do make it? They’re often so bad that you wish their waxy appendages would hurry up and melt so they’d plummet off the radar. Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of The Editors the subject of tonight’s 360 session – a typical Channel 4 stab at trendy programming – which sees the band leading us on a entirely token tour of a city they’ve all but disowned.” or maybe just doesn’t enjoy The Editors (or is it just Editors). For what it’s worth the drummer still lives in Selly Park. The programme will do doubt turn up over and over again on E4 should you wish to watch.

Keep your bins in out of the cold

The council’s bin men have obviously got an even harder job in these conditions, but whoever is supplying information to the Weather disruption page on the website is living in a fantasy land. “If your collection was missed today please remove the bags or boxes from the roadside where feasible and store them as usual. We will endeavour to collect your items as soon as possible or on the next scheduled collection for the particular service affected.” “We are committed to clear any backlog over the next few days, weather permitting.” A fantasy land of the past where bin men got bags from your bins rather than you having to put them at the edge of the road. If they’re going to come round as-and-when to clear the backlog they you obviously need to leave them out.

The story of Superprix is told in many ways: hushed whisperings in council cloisters whenever anyone comes up with something monumentally odd, in flowers along Bristol St every spring, and now in a book, Superprix: The Story of Birmingham’s Motor Race. “The idea of a motor race in the heart of England’s motor city (to emulate the Monaco circuit) had been mooted as early as 1966. In the end, the city’s arterial roads round the Bull Ring and the city centre provided one of the most exciting racing events ever staged in the UK.” Sample pages are available on the publisher’s website.

Grants for new festivals

From the desk of the Minister for Fun: "Birmingham City Council is inviting applications for grant support for new independent or niche festivals in Birmingham. This new funding stream is called the Emerging Festivals Fund. This is part of a programme of work to grow and support Birmingham’s festivals. Our ambition is to have a year round calendar of festivals. Grants for new niche festival are available between £500 to £4,999."

I was watching and saying manly things when Birmingham City almost beat Man Utd on Saturday, but first, a story; When I was younger I was deemed shy and somewhat bookish, if you would have asked me at the time I probably would have more described myself as “mysterious” or “a lone wolf” proving not only was I a bit socially awkward, but also a bit of a tool. The cure for this, my matriarchal Nan decided, was to get a job in a pub as soon as I was old enough. The pub was, and by all accounts still is, quite rough. When I arrived for my first shift the manager, a lurching ex-police officer, took me to one side and explained that the pub was mainly a Zulu* pub and if there was any trouble I should just go get him, referring to a group of blokes in the corner he said: ‘See the big one?’ ‘Can’t miss him’ I said ‘He’s one of the Lieutenants give him whatever he wants and I’ll square it with him later’ ‘OK’ I said ‘See him’ pointing a particularly violent looking one with a fist full sovereign rings ‘he’s a...

Is just one of the Brum-related ephemera to be found in collage on the booklet of the new Lilac Time collection ‘Memory and Desire’. It’s a proper WMPTE Travelcard with him in New Romantic regalia. Other bits include a photo of Washwood Heath, one of the Perry Barr Poly campus, a Kynoch cycles advert, a Library card… see what else you can spot (click through for a bigger pic): And the album is beautiful, even if one track does feature Nigel Kennedy. There’s also news of a film, woo hoo!

Danny Smith: Backstabbers Guide to Wolverhampton

In the slow news week between Christmas and New Years the BBC decided that it would be newsworthy to point out how shit Wolverhampton was. My first reaction was ‘have these people never been to Coventry?’ I mean our sister site, Wolverhampton: it doesn’t suck dog shit from the treads of a zombie’s hush puppies probably wont mind me saying that Wolvo is a bland wasteland of chain shops, a middlingly terrible football team with England’s most soulless and dispiriting ground and only a decent sized music venue to redeem it. But compared to the seventh ring of concrete hell that is Coventry, Wolverhampton is a mythical Shangri-La where lemonade runs from the taps and tramps vomit rainbows. Its also not the first time Lonely Planet has had a pop at Wolverhampton or the Midlands in general. It seems we are the Lonely Planet’s go-to guys if they need quick bit of publicity. A bit like the Express resorting to anything Diana related when their figures dip, but instead of placing us on an impossible plinth, they piss all over our chips, our arms, and our hair. Transit Trio, Wolverhampton, 1980., originally uploaded by Lady Wulfrun. These polls are...

The Harborne Mile – a blog for Harbone

A nascent blog for Harborne, I'd usually wait until a site had more than a couple of posts before mentioning but this one has some pedigree as it's been started by recently-ex-Birmingham Post Editor Marc Reeves. At least it should be well spelt, anyway. Good luck to The Harborne Mile

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Monthly Archives: January 2010

Eccomony fails to bounce back for rubber shop

Editing history?

Keep your bins in out of the cold

Collection of Prix

Grants for new festivals

Danny Smith: Blues and me

Stephen Duffy’s Bus Pass

Danny Smith: Backstabbers Guide to Wolverhampton

The Harborne Mile – a blog for Harbone

@onBirmingham – Breaking Brum News on Twitter