I was in Birmingham meeting a mate during the summer and Brum has come on leaps and bounds over the last few years. Like most of the city centres in the midlands/north - Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle etc - it's had a lot of money pumped into it and is a decent place to live while you've also got the accent to laugh at. Ain't that right, Cy/Dil?
The smaller northern mill towns - hence the title of the song, Kingdom of Rust - are pretty desperate places at the best of times though, and they're not helped by the seemingly perennial leaden skies either. Grim, but you're pretty much guaranteed a good curry.