海角视频

Load mobile navigation
PREMIUM

Chris Upton

Chris Upton: Birmingham poet Freeth and his ode to tripe
Economic Development
So tricky is the Scots vocabulary of Burns鈥 poem (what鈥檚 a 鈥渨eel-swall鈥檇 kyte鈥 when it鈥檚 at home ?) that the politics of the piece are often overlooked.
Charlie Hall's journey from Birmingham to Hollywood and Laurel & Hardy
Retail & Consumer
Chris Upton recalls Birmingham-born actor Charlie Hall,聽who became a fixture on Hollywood鈥檚 silent movie scene, particularly with Laurel & Hardy.
Chris Upton: Digbeth sees a light in gloom
Economic Development
IT'S not easy to find straws to clutch at in the perfect economic storm we鈥檙e sheltering from but I do have one.
History of Kings Norton's Saracen's Head taken back to 1200s
Retail & Consumer
Chris Upton looks at the history of the Saracen鈥檚 Head, now it has got a new lease of life
Chris Upton: Comfort when we鈥檙e in the soup
Economic Development
What is the finest of all balms to soothe the troubled mind, to knit up the unravelled sleeve of care, and put a temporary dressing on economic woes?
Chris Upton: Bumper to bumper - and that's just the parking
Economic Development
Ask most people what they consider the trickiest part of driving a car and they will reply: parking it.
Chris Upton: Move over Alex, Jeff and Len ... here's a new version of Hallelujah
Economic Development
Dr Chris Upton has a go at updating Leonard Cohen's suddenly popular Hallelujah.
Chris Upton: A little spit of history revived
Economic Development
Buses used to display a long list of things one was not allowed to do.
Chris Upton: An eternal loop of social malfunction
Economic Development
What on earth is wrong with the youth of today ?
Chris Upton: Birmingham connection to Charles' birthday portrait
Economic Development
To mark his 50th birthday, as I recall, the Prince of Wales hired Aston Manor Transport Museum for his party, as unexpected a decision as it was doubtless a welcome one for those invited.
Chris Upton: What not to wear to a Leonard Cohen concert
Economic Development
How does one dress for a concert? For a classical performance the choice is relatively straight-forward.
Birmingham and the slave trade
Retail & Consumer
From as far back as one can go, Birmingham has been a melting-pot of communities, not as diverse as today, admittedly, but always a mixture.
Chris Upton: Graveyard jinks nothing new
Economic Development
What is there to do in a graveyard ? One possibility is to lie very quietly, and enjoy the daisies from above, or push them up from below.
Chris Upton: Climbing peer league table
Economic Development
Tomorrow I鈥檓 giving a paper at an academic conference. The subject matter - the medical provision at the Asylum of the Infant Poor in Birmingham - need not concern us, not this week, anyway.
Chris Upton: Tricky issue of childcare
Economic Development
Childcare is as tricky a part of parenting as potty training.
Chris Upton: There鈥檚 nothing new about inter-religious dialogue
Economic Development
The other night I was crossing the Moseley Road and making my way to my local in Balsall Heath, when a car slowed down next to me and one of the passengers shouted out of the window: 鈥淵ou Jewish bd鈥.
Chris Upton: Flying in the face of common sense
Economic Development
A while ago now, and possibly never at all, a chap called Icarus borrowed a pair of wings off his father and flew up into the sky.
Chris Upton: Evaporating shares in a delusion
Economic Development
I鈥檝e never seen myself as a share-holder. When the Iron Lady was privatising the public utilities back in the 1980s 鈥 what Harold Macmillan described as 鈥渟elling the family silver鈥 鈥 I stood superciliously aloof, refusing to listen to anything Sid was telling me.
Chris Upton: Oaths flying at the first ever Birmingham elections
Economic Development
On Boxing Day 1838, the people of Birmingham (or those who could vote anyway) elected their first ever town council.
Chris Upton: When hymn writers give the words holy the wrong meaning
Economic Development
The Nature Centre at Cannon Hill Park used to be a zoo.
Chris Upton: The spin of turning a cut into an improvement
Economic Development
I鈥檓 standing in a queue at my bank in Bullring. Under the Data Protection Act I鈥檓 not at liberty to disclose which bank this is, or even whether it鈥檚 a bank that still looks like a building society.
Chris Upton: They鈥檙e only words but it depends how you use them
Economic Development
Postmodernist historians (I vowed I would never start a sentence, let alone a column, with the word 鈥榩ostmodernist鈥, but there we are) reckon that we cannot learn anything meaningful from old documents.
George Hook, the pearly king of the Black Country
Retail & Consumer
Once there were thousands of pearl workers in the Midlands, but now there is just one.
Chris Upton: We鈥檝e found comfort with our housing bread and butter
Economic Development
The people in the middle always get missed out.