THE STIRRER'S BLOG

26-04-2008

The scary movie Orphanage…a royal opening of Birmingham’s new Town Hall…Robert Forster's new album…MG Rover’s Return (again) and Gordon Brown’s climbdown. Oh, and a Dr Doolitle ticket winner. Stirrer editor Adrian Goldberg reflects on the last seven days.

Phew! It’s been a busy time – and having done a couple of “through the night” gigs for Talksport leading up to last weekend, my body clock has been slightly wonky to say the least.

Still there’s been no shortage of incidents and talking points so here goes with a few random snippets from a hectic seven days.

The Orphanage

Paula Elenor gave this a glowing review weeks ago (see link here) but I’ve only just caught up with it – and wow, what a treat.

A truly scary, suspenseful horror, but – as you’d expect from the director of Pan’s Labyrinth – with plenty of added depth.

Fans of the great Nic Roeg film “Don’t Look Now” will certainly enjoy this Spanish chiller, but parents of young children (like me) might get a bit queasy.

It’s well worth it though.

This is an utterly brilliant film, which is still knocking about – not least at the Lighthouse in Wolverhampton (see link here).

Robert Forster

It’s been great to see some of the musical banter knocking around on The Stirrer Forum over the last week. A thread about Bob Dylan and Joan Baez has opened up a world of musical discovery, and even my recommendation of the French band Nouvelle Vague enjoyed a respectable number of views (see link here).

To try and maintain the momentum, let me direct you to a new album you can hear in its entirety on the internet – the ultimate "try before you buy" medium.

The record is The Evangelist by Robert Forster, one of the key members of Aussie post punk Romantics The Go Betweens (http://www.robertforster.net/rfevangelist.html).

Forster’s songwriting partner of 25 years Grant McLennan died unexpectedly a couple of years ago, and this is his first release since.

The pain seeps through every cracked note and plangent strum of this beautiful record.

I hung out backstage when the Go Betweens played the Carling Academy about three years ago, and they were great guys – I’m delighted Robert is back, but saddened that it's alone.

MG Rover

So the media, having whipped up a frenzy of speculation about the future of MG Rover, is now demanding that the Chinese owners of the Longbridge site explain exactly what is going on.

Given that various deadlines for the resumption of production have been missed that’s fair enough I suppose.

But we should remember that unlike the Phoenix Four, Shanghai Automotive and Nanjing Automobile aren’t taking any jobs away and they don’t owe us anything.

As Northfield MP Richard Burden told us this week, it’s not over for Rover (see link here) but treating the Chinese with anything less than respect might just drive them abroad.

Gordon Brown’s 10p Tax Climbdown

Let’s face it, he was damned if he did - and doomed if it he didn’t.

Brown’s reputation may have taken a savaging over his handling of the abolition of the lowest income tax band but at least he saved his Premiership.

For now..

As we predicted (see link here) he did a deal that persuaded Frank Field to withdraw his troublesome budget amendment, but only at the cost of his authority.

Emboldened backbenchers like Gisela Stuart will now feel confident of taking on the government again – not least over the issue of whether terrorist suspects should be detained for up to 42 days.

That’s not all. Former minister Lord Levy has his memoirs published next month – he was arrested in the cash for peerages row – and can be relied upon to heap yet more embarrassment on the government.

Life won’t get any easier for the PM any time soon.

Royal Opening Of Birmingham Town Hall

It’s been open again since the Autumn, of course, but on Tuesday, Prince Charles and Camilla were in town, and it was a terrific event – not because of their royal highnesses, particularly, but because it was chance to celebrate a real Brummie achievement.

This city, more than any other, has been responsible for the wanton vandalism of old buildings, but thanks to some terrific work by active citizens, English Heritage and the Council one of our finest music and entertainment venues has now been restored.

It was a superb event, too, well organised, and with a show stopping performance by the young dancers of Elmhurst School.

Birmingham Post – Regional Paper Of The Year

Well done to the Post which has flourished under the editorship of Marc Reeves.

It was named Regional Newspaper Of The Year, and is an essential part of The Stirrer’s essential five a day newspaper diet.

Dr Doolittle Competition

The question was – how many bananas would I chomp to get me through me my two night Talksport stint? And the answer was 11.

Simon Lowe from Studley guessed correctly and gets the chance to take his family to see Dr Doolitlle at Birmingham Hippodrome. Enjoy.

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