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This week, I've been over to Coventry's Advanced Technology centre, to preview the new mid size SUV from Alfa Romeo; the Tonale (rhymes with finale). The Tonale, according to Alfa, signals La Metamorfosi; the company's radical evolution to a new era of connectivity and electrification. Although it shares a platform with a number of sister brand Jeep models, Tonale has been reconfigured to deliver the characteristic Alfa Romeo driving dynamics; the team responsible for the Giulia GTA suspension were involved here. Steering feel is, according to Alfa engineers, the most direct in its class, that class comprising the Volvo XC40, the Audi Q3, Benz GLA, and Range Rover Evoque. Two propulsion methods will be available in the UK: A 160bhp, Miller cycle, 48v mild hybrid, equipped with an extra clutch, making it possible to move slowly, queue in traffic, and remain at a constant motorway speed powered only by electricity. The plug in hybrid electr

Discordant noise. Check. Searing satire. Check. Angry, and with every right to be.  Dystopian, unadulterated spoken word polemicism, live and (almost too) direct from the North East.  Sprechgesang for days, but in a good way.  By their own admission, they aren't a band which you will play on your office Spotify (remember that?) Heck, frontman Kingsley Hall's MOTHER, also by his own admission, doesn't even listen to them. Would recommend. #benefits

It’s Saturday lunchtime in 1981. I’m at my my nan’s. We’ve just been to Kingstanding Circle, where we bought crusty cobs from a cylindrical bin in the Co-Op. Tongs? No, put your hand in there, and grab them. I know you haven’t washed your hands. No-one has. After the Co-Op, we buy ham. Not the packaged, air-sealed, watery, artificial product that passes for ham now, that which, on opening, assaults the nose with a repellant, gaseous fart. No, the kind of ham only available to purchase in those days; pink, but not too pink, with a white, sometimes yellow rind. Thickly cut, bought from the butcher by your nan, and only by your nan.  Different times. Good ham.  Nan ham. In the wider world, a sense of shock is still being felt following the assassination of John Lennon. I’d heard the news on the radio as I was getting out of the family Mk 5 Cortina outside Doe Bank Primary School on a dreary December day.  A reevaluation of Lennon’s music is under way. Imagine is in the charts

Moseley Prefabs. Craig's Birmz History chat. The Moseley prefabs in Wake Green Road. Although they may not look much by today's standards, the pre-fabricated house represented an improvement in living conditions for their inhabitants, many of whom had been housed in crumbling, unsanitary Victorian tenements, or left homeless when the Luftwaffe dropped bare bombs all over Birmz.  The Temporary Housing Act, designed to address the chronic post-war housing shortage, saw some 4,000 prefabs built in Birmz, along with many other thousands across the UK.  The style here is known as The Phoenix; each prefab was heated, with indoor plumbing and bathrooms, and fitted with the latest labour saving devices.  More often than not, the labour to build them was provided by German and Italian prisoners of war. 16 of the 17 in Wake Green Rd prefabs are Grade II listed; some are still occupied, and there is an ongoing project to restore them.

Birmz club promoters ThisIsTmrw  showcase the best bands around.  Buy Tickets FUTURE DAYS THE CROSSING, DIGBETH SATURDAY FEB 26TH  WARMDUSCHER STEALING SHEEP NUHA RUBY RA FOLLY GROUP THE UMLAUTS WEIRD ON PURPOSE STAGE - MARGARITA WITCH CULT // TOTAL LUCK // CAVE GIRL // JACKIE / /THE BANK ACCOUNTS SUNDAY FEB 27TH  SNAPPED ANKLES HENGE BDRMM EGYPTIAN BLUE AUDIOBOOKS WEIRD ON PURPOSE STAGE - DORCHA // BLUE RUTH // SOUKI // SOFA KING // ROGERS AND INACHO PERFORM BROADCAST SONGBOOK + DJS / STREET FOOD / MARKET HALL / VISUALS / AFTERPARTY ALL WEEKEND DAY TICKETS: £20 WEEKEND TICKETS: SOLD OUT

In April 2016, Parliament enacted legislation enabling councils to remove out of date and unnecessary road signs. Nearly 6 years  later, and the difference is negligible, but the intention behind it is admirable. Road signs as we know them today really began in 1963, when the British Government commissioned a review into the signage used on the nation’s roads. The Worboys Report (named after the chair of the committee, ICI’s Sir Walter Worboys) re-defined and standardised the signage in use, replacing the inconsistent, localised, often incoherent and ill-placed text-based warnings, with the clear, pictogram versions that we know today.  Against a background of an enormous increase in car ownership, the governments of the 50’s and 60’s were tasked with modernising the road network, which, with the exception of the M1 (opened 1959) was still recognisably pre-war. The combination of confusing signs, a young population eager to enjoy the freedom of the road, no drink driving laws, and MOT’