Where is Britain's national pride? Not in pop music.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

Tony Christie is celebrating his transformation from cheeseball crooner to coolish dude by releasing an album called Made in Sheffield, comprised entirely of songs by writers from that city, including Jarvis Cocker, Alex Turner and Richard Hawley. There are a few too many tremulous tear-jerkers on it for my liking, but the man deserves respect for doing something most British singers would never do: celebrating his home town. It seems to be the default mode among British musicians to feel vaguely embarrassed about whatever city spawned them. Unlike the many American artists who've displayed passionate attachments to a town or state by …