A singer-songwriter of notoriety and repute. Listen to the man’s heartrending tales of arguments with seafood-sellers in the Hare and Hounds in Kingstanding, gasp at his portrayal of a man who was born in Dudley Road hospital..
Download a selection of his classic hits:
Hootiche-Cootchie Man from Kingstanding
all songs © biz bizley, if you would like to use them for anything please ask nicely
Recently a historic document came into our hands here at BiNS. It features top bald US maverick cop Telly ‘Kojak’ Savalas taking a look at Brum. It’s fantastic – and half an hour long – he takes in the Botanical Gardens, Sarehole Mill, amongst other places, and the city centre. “I dallied in Dale End” as the great man himself says.
We’re able to show you a few mins of fun -and legally thanks to the copyright holders. Although we’ve sadly lost some of TS’s magical visit to the West Midlands Police traffic control centre (what fun Kojak has on his holidays!).
There’s also the Jewellery Quarter, Bournville – and it’s suitable for children of all ages!
Further information on this film at www.baimfilms.com (further footage here)Images and film are © Harold Baim Film Productions 1981 All Rights Reserved
“do you believe they hand raise their pies here?” quips TS.
Kojak ‘chances’ upon an over-forties disco dancing competition in Cannon Hill Park. Do you know this fervent competitor? We must know.
The hip and happening beautiful people in ‘Thursday’s’ niteclub – unfazed by having a top US celeb in their midst. Where was this club, were you there when Kojak came to town?
Eh? What’s this? Telly isn’t just a Brum fan, oh blast! Actually, this film is a stormer too – “I’ve never seen so many roads named after famous people as there are in Portsmouth”.
You may have encountered Simon Patterson’s top artwork ‘The Great Bear‘, you might not know you have, most people call it ‘the one with celebrities names instead of stations on the london underground map’. Now, this is a fantastic artwork apart from one thing:
That’s two things.
In ‘The Great Bear’, Patterson traces a particular topic, be it philosophers, footballers, scientists or actors; and at each station a ‘star’ (i.e. like the brightness of the Great Bear constellation) of that particular field is heralded. All well and good, but we’ve got a famous Bull – Brasso – not a bear.
That’s three things.
All these things are rectified by our fantastic artwork – which is here as a PDF*. And here to buy your own.
It’s top – and the amusing juxtapositions created still amuse us, even though we made it. Toyah gets to be Broad St, while Roland Gift out of the Fine Young Cannibals is Acock’s Green. That’s right, in so many ways.
We’re kinda sorry for Stan Collymore, who ended up on the link between Footballers (the 104) and Tramps (the 67), but we did remember hearing that he was sleeping rough in his car at some point we’re sure. At least we recognised his fine work on Radio Five Live as he’s also on DJs/Radio Presenters (the number 8).
The criterion were that, basically, we considered the featured ‘stars’ as having contributed in some way to Brum. They could have been born, died, lived, or worked here – but they’re associated in our minds – so that’s that.
The map is based on the one found on the Travel WM site here. We recommend you use that one to plan any bus journeys you may be thinking of taking, you don’t want to travel to the outer reaches of Robert Kilroy-Silk.
* It’s a PDF to allow easy scrolling and zooming in your browser (and also because it’s really good to print it out as big as you can on your flashy colour printers at work & PDFs are easy to do this with.) If you haven’t got Adobe Reader you can download it here.
Remember “London to Brighton in two minutes“? Well here you can jump on the eleven and go from Kings Heath High St to Kings Heath High St in five minutes flat – via….
VICARAGE RD. Kings Heath All Saints Church
YARDLEY WOOD RD. Brook Lane Fire StationCOLE BANK RD. Sarehole MillSCHOOL ROAD.South Birmingham College/Hall Green
WESTLEY RD. Acocks Green
Garage
CHURCH RD. Coventry Rd/Swan Island
STECHFORD LANE. Stechford Road
BROMFORD LANE. Fox & Goose/Ward End
BROMFORD LANE. The Bromford/Drews
Lane
BROMFORD LANE. The Navigation/Tyburn Rd
WOOD END RD. Six Ways Erdington
MARSH HILL. Gipsy Lane
ASTON LANE. Witton Square
WELLINGTON RD. Perry Barr/Crown & Cushion
WELLINGTON RD. Hamstead
Rd/Church Lane
BOULTON RD. Soho Rd/The Red Lion/Handsworth
DUDLEY RD. Summerfield Park
CITY RD. Fountain Road
SANDON RD. Drayton Road
LORDSWOOD RD. Hagley Rd/Bearwood
LORDSWOOD RD. Knightlow Rd
LORDSWOOD ROAD.Olde House at Home/Gillhurst
Road
LORDSWOOD RD. Harborne Baths/War Lane
OAK TREE LANE. Selly Oak
LINDEN RD. Bournville Lane
WATFORD RD. Cotteridge
VICARAGE RD. Kings Heath All Saints Church
and also experience the joys of the outer ridge of Brum on a wet friday in october. it was pissing down through yardley – we could barely see anything!
As always at a major event, we must remember the fallen.
So farewell then, Perry Barr Flyover,
You kept us going down the Walsall Road,
Or provided a car park,
to view the roof of One Stop,
Dead to the Commonwealth Games,
Which is like the Olympics,
But smaller,
Faster, higher, stronger
Is the Olympic motto
& you were the second two.
Continue reading “Flypast”
