There’s a buzz in Gibraltar and now it’s extending to the music scene too as this summer the ‘Rock’ is gonna rock to the sound of a multi-band festival.

It’s promising to be one of the best ever events in Gibraltar, with a line-up that includes the Simple Minds, The Alan Parsons Project, Taxi and Noiz. (more…)

Forever associated with the classical music inspired by the waters of the Danube River that flows through its heart, and the Baroque palaces and operas built to give those immortal tunes a home of their own, Vienna is also a wonderful city in many other ways.

One might be tempted to think of the Austrian capital as an open-air museum, where waltzes play to a backdrop of elegant classical buildings and handsome couples dressed in their finery, yet even though this is one of the best preserved cities in the world Vienna is very much a vibrant, modern metropolis too.

The imperial splendour of the past is cherished, but with a quarter of Austria’s population within its agglomeration this could only be a dynamic place. Inspired perhaps by the Parisian model, Vienna’s city centre retains a pristine homogeny of classical architecture, with the modern high-rise such as that of the United Nations complex concentrated on its periphery. (more…)

So you may be more accustomed to seeing car reports on Ferraris, Lambos, Bentleys, Rollers and 300k Mercedes, but if articles like this are to do more than allow us to salivate over cars that only a privileged few can really afford then maybe it’s worthwhile to discover that there is a lot of driving fun to had in the affordable price bracket too.

Which is why I decided to focus on the imminent launch of the Mini Clubman, expected to hit showrooms across Europe and America early next year. It seemed appropriate, too, as this pint-sized estate seems just the accessory to take shopping—it looks better on you than a designer handbag and it fits a hell of a lot more goodies too.

But seriously, the Mini Clubman builds on the immense success of the New Mini, as designed by American Frank Stephenson – whose mother was born in Málaga. Incidentally, the very same man who has created the new Fiat 500, also expected to hit showrooms early in 2008. As these two projects bear out, Stephenson is a designer of great ability; a master of retro design, a genre notorious as a minefield. Where so many have failed and created an ill-fated pastiche of nostalgia, Stephenson produced a modern classic with his New Mini, and he seems set to repeat this feat with the new Fiat. (more…)