Roscoe Head, classic Liverpool pub, saved

The Roscoe Head in Liverpool is one of only five pubs to have been in every issue of the CAMRA
Good Beer Guide, and the only one in the North. Opened in 1870, this unspoilt pub consists of a main bar, two small rooms and a tiny snug. As there is no jukebox or fruit machine, conversation, good beer and a warm welcome are what you get.

Despite its obvious attractions and the success of the business, this pub has been at risk for many years with the owners charging inflated prices for supplying a limited choice of drinks, unreasonable rent, and plans to redevelop the site. The licensee, Carol Ross who took over the running of the pub in 1997 from her mother, has campaigned for many years for a fair deal for pub licensees in general, and for the Roscoe Head in particular.

All her exhausting and stressful hard work has finally paid off: the pub's owners have just agreed to sell her the freehold. This classic pub is a popular destination across Merseyside, not just for real ale drinkers, but for anyone who likes to enjoy a drink with friends in a relaxed, friendly and welcoming environment. This sale ensures that the Roscoe Head will provide just that for generations to come.

Carol had a special word for the pub's supporters: ”I want to say a very special big thank you to all my Roscoe Head family of supporters who have continued to fight this battle with me for over 10 years.”

Carol at the front of a demonstration
in support of the Roscoe Head in 2015

CAMRA Liverpool & Districts branch announced: “We were just as surprised as everyone else but this is absolutely tremendous news and of great significance. Carol has managed to prise this CAMRA award winning pub from her Pubco owner New River Retail who are renowned for converting pubs into retail and residential units.”

With our unique heritage of British locals in even more danger than usual because of the pandemic, such good news makes an encouraging change.

The Roscoe Head is on Roscoe Street, Liverpool L1 2SX, less than 10 minutes' walk from Central Station, just around the corner from Liverpool's iconic Bombed Out Church. Do pay it a visit when you can. Website.

► This is one of a series of articles that I write for the CAMRA column in our local papers, the Southport Visiter and Ormskirk Advertiser. Older articles on local pubs are here.

St George's Hall Winter Ale Festival

My friend Roland (left) and I in St George's Hall 

for the last beer festival

Tickets are now on sale for the St George's Hall Winter Ale Festival which will be taking place in the famous St George's Hall in Liverpool. I went with some friends to the last festival in this venue, and everyone had a great time. It was my first ever visit to the spectacular Great Hall - I say that with a slight feeling of shame, having been born in Liverpool! The session we attended was concluded with the Grim Reaper calling 'Time!' while Mozart was being played on the great organ.

There will be up to 200 different real ales and ciders alongside an indoor gin garden with a selection of boutique gins, spirits, wine and prosecco. This ale festival definitely caters for all tastes.

The bar sponsor for the festival will be Ossett Brewery, which is based just outside Bradford, and many of their award-winning brews will be on the bars. Not only that, but Ossett will be bringing their sister breweries with them too, so there will be beers from Fernandes, Riverhead and the famous Rat brewery. You can expect many other breweries to be announced as the festival draws closer.

Entertainment will be provided at all sessions, except for Friday daytime. If you get peckish, there will be tasty hot and cold food prepared by Liverpool Cheese Company, Peninsula Pies and Crackpot Catering (serving up their special Scouse) throughout the festival.

All CAMRA members receive a discount on production of a valid membership card at the Thursday evening and Friday daytime session: a full card of tokens is £15, but at those two sessions is only £13 for CAMRA card holders. There will also be a return of the 'Beer of the Festival Award', voted for by all customers.

The festival runs from Thursday 30 January to Saturday 1 February 2020. For those unfamiliar with Liverpool, the venue is adjacent to Queens Square bus station and less than 10 minutes' walk from Central Station.

This is a popular festival so it might be wise to buy your tickets well in advance here.

► This is one of a series of articles that I write for the CAMRA column in our local papers, the Southport Visiter and Ormskirk Advertiser. Older articles on local pubs are here.

The Excelsior, Liverpool

The Excelsior, Liverpool

Strolling around in Liverpool on Tuesday last week, I decided to call into the Excelsior on Dale Street, a pub I haven't visited for some time. It was named after a sailing ship, a reminder of Liverpool's long maritime history. This is a tastefully decorated, traditional pub with three separate drinking areas, old fireplaces, and attractive wooden rails, bar, plate racks and doorways. Pictures of old Liverpool adorn the walls.

The choice of real changes but these are the six that were on when I visited: Salopian Oracle, Salopian Lemon Dream,, Salopian Shropshire Gold, Peerless Galaxian, Timothy Taylor's Landlord and Brain's Rev. James. I was told this last beer is particularly popular with Everton fans! The three beers I tried were all in good form, as you'd expect from a Cask Marque accredited pub. There is 30p off all real ales every Monday.

Other drinks include a choice of 21 gins, six different bottled craft beers a wine menu that includes fizz and coffee. They advertise pub food until the early evening with pies, mash, pasta and paninis – there is even a pie menu. They show live sports on three screens that can be tuned to show different sporting events at the same time, and there is live music every Friday.

I found the pub friendly and ended chatting to a young woman who was visiting Liverpool from London; she was actually Polish, although I would never have guessed from her English accent. I also had a talk with the enthusiastic licensee.

They have free WiFi, and you can find out what's happening there on their Facebook page. The address is 121-123 Dale Street, Liverpool 2, just five minutes' walk from Moorfields Station on the Merseyrail Nothern Line.

While you're in that part of Liverpool, there are quite a few other pubs all less than 10 minutes' walk from Moorfields. The Hole In The Wall, Thomas Rigby's, the Lady of Mann, the Vernon, the Ship & Mitre and the Lion Tavern can, along the Excelsior, constitute a satisfying compact pub tour.

► This is one of a series of articles that I write for the CAMRA column in our local papers, the Southport Visiter and Ormskirk Advertiser. Older articles on local pubs are here.

Mad Hatter calls time

I was sorry to hear that Liverpool's Mad Hatter Brewery has ceased trading. Launched in 2013, it was situated in the Vauxhall area of Liverpool and was one of the few breweries to be run by a woman, Sue Starling. It produced a number of interesting and sometimes quirky beers, a few of which were named after local places such as Penny Lane Pale and Toxteth IPA.

Some commentators have been suggesting that there are now too many breweries in a slowly declining market. There's probably some truth in that, but I don't get the impression that was the case here. Sue has said the pleasure of brewing has gone after the departure of her co-founder, Gareth Matthews, whose creativity she has sorely missed. That loss, coupled with a change of premises, means that she no longer wants to run the business herself, but she is open to offers to buy it "so it could live on".

It's certainly a pity to lose a distinctive presence on the local beer scene, so you've always fancied running your own brewery, this may be your big chance.

Supping nostalgia

An original R Cains poster

I see that the Cains name is to be revived with a new brewery set up within the old Higsons Brewery building where the most recent incarnation of Cains was brewed until 2013. Its disappearance wasn't much mourned, following as it did a drastic and sudden drop in quality; I wrote about it at the time here.

An entrepreneur called Andrew Mikhail, owner of bars and hotels in Merseyside including Punch Tarmey's, has acquired the name and states that the brewery will create 200 jobs and "partly model itself" on the Guinness Brewery visitor attraction in Dublin. If the 200 jobs do materialise, it would be a fairly sizeable operation.

The big old Higsons brewery building, Grade II listed, is being developed into a brewery village, which I wrote about in 2013 here. Mr Mikhail has given no indication yet whether he will revive the previous Cains beers or start from scratch with new recipes, as the latest manifestation of Higsons has done. I tried one of the new Higsons beers recently and didn't think it was anything special.

I'd be very surprised if this announcement will engender much excitement locally, but I'll save my judgement until I've tasted the product. This will be the second revival of the Cains name. The original Cains ceased to be brewed in Liverpool in the 1920s, but the name was called out of retirement in 1991. As for Higsons, we are now on the fourth version, if you include the original that was destroyed by Whitbread. I wonder how many times you can resuscitate a brand before its credibility evaporates completely?

Generally I don't see much point in using an old name and producing beers that have no resemblance to the originals; it's simply cashing in on brand nostalgia, but I suppose there's no harm in it because your beers will have to stand or fall on their quality: people won't sup solely for nostalgic reasons indefinitely.

No politics, no religion! Part 2.

Following my post yesterday about forbidden topics of conversation in pubs, it occurred to me that there probably are some topics best avoided in certain circumstances.

In Merseyside, the Orange Lodge marches every year in Liverpool and Southport on 12 July, the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne when the forces of William of Orange defeated those of James II. In Liverpool, this used to be a much bigger matter than it is today.

My mother told me that as a little girl she'd been enjoying watching a parade marching down the end of her street in Kirkdale, Liverpool, a mainly Catholic area at the time, until her anxious mother dragged her indoors as it was an Orange Lodge march. Catholic and Protestant divisions in the city were much more pronounced and sometimes resulted in violence, no place for a little child. There was even a Liverpool Protestant Party until the early 1970s who usually sided with the Conservatives on the Council.

In such an environment, which I expect still prevails in parts of Northern Ireland, it may have been wise to remain quiet about religion and politics in any pubs where you couldn't be sure who was listening. On 12 July 1986, I think it was, I went to my then local in Southport for a pint, but when I entered, a row of people wearing lots of orange stared at me in a not especially friendly manner: I had picked up the top T-shirt from the pile that morning, hardly noticing the colour. I looked down, saw it was green and decided I wasn't thirsty after all.

In January 2016, I wrote about risky activities that anti-alcohol campaigners don't go on about:

There are many risks in life, most of which don't get the same attention as drinking: crossing the road, mountain climbing, sailing, pot holing, rugby, boxing, driving too fast or singing The Sash My Father Wore in a Sinn Fein pub.

Not that I know of anyone who's actually tried that.

I've no interest in sport, but I expect a similar attitude prevails in circumstances where football rivalries have a tendency to spill over into violence: in some parts of the country it would be foolish for a football fan to go into a pub favoured by the rival team's supporters. Yet, funnily enough, I've never heard anyone say you mustn't talk about sport in a pub. Mind you, if they did, some pubs would fall silent. My point is that it's just religion and politics, not sport, that are picked out for disapproval, which is inconsistent, to say the least. However, as Tandleman has informed me, consistency is overrated.

Except perhaps where tribalism - whether religious, political or sporting - prevails, I'd still maintain that generally there shouldn't be taboo topics in pubs.

A few asides:

• The video shows the Irish Rovers playing a humorous folk song written by Tony Murphy of Liverpool. It has the line: "My father he was orange and my mother she was green." This describes my background although, unlike the families in the song, neither of my parents were fanatical. 
• I was once playing in a folk club in Hampshire and the person immediately before me had sung this song, with everyone joining in enthusiastically. I got up and commented that, as it happened, my father was from the Orange and my mother from the Green. The sea of uncomprehending faces told me that they hadn't a clue what I - or the song - was on about; I didn't explain.
• In Northern Ireland during the late 70s, a young punk was cornered by a gang who demanded to know whether he was a Protestant or a Catholic (my mother told me this had sometimes happened to her as a girl - she'd try and guess what they were before answering). He said, "Atheist", to which they replied: "Protestant atheist or Catholic atheist?"

Speckled Hen night

The Black Horse  - pinched from Google street view.

I went for a drink with some friends, Alex, Bob and Bill in the Black Horse in the Old Swan area of Liverpool on Thursday. Alex had nobly offered to drive us there - good man!

The Black Horse is a large suburban pub from, I'd guess, between the wars. I don't know which brewery used to own it - Whitbread perhaps? - but it's now a Greene King house with food, TV sports, live music and three real ales: Speckled Hen, Ruddles Bitter and Greene King IPA.

I chose the Speckled Hen, a beer that once upon a time I'd go some distance for, but now, while it's still acceptable, it's nothing special; certainly the best of those on offer, and there was nothing wrong with the way it was kept. But we mustn't complain: I expect in the 70s and 80s this pub had no real ale at all. It's certainly not listed in my Merseyside pub guide from 1990.

I hadn't seen Bill since the 90s when I worked in Norris Green in Liverpool, so this was something of a reunion. We had a good afternoon which understandably included a lot of reminiscences, including the time when I emptied a glass of water out of an office window thinking there was a flower bed below. Wrong window: this one was over the entrance door where Bill's wife was standing - oh dear! I asked Bill to tell his wife I've now given up the hairdressing career.

Also in the pub a large number of young women were gathering wearing T-shirts proclaiming 'Nell's Hen Do' and towing overnight cases on wheels. One young woman wearing a fake crown was at the bar, so I asked her whether she was the bride - she answered yes, so I said I hoped she had a great time on her hen night. Her mate cut in: "No, she's not getting married - she always goes out dressed like this!"

Just another day in a Liverpool pub.

The Lion Tavern, Liverpool

The Lion Tavern is a beautiful mid-Victorian pub in Liverpool just across the road from Moorfields Station and is very much a miniature gin palace from the original Robert Cain Brewery. There is a bar and two lounges, prominently featuring wood panelling, etched glass, impressive old tiles and an unusual, but quite lovely, glass dome. The pub has recently been carefully refurbished, and it tends to attract a varied clientele: it is particularly popular with local musicians to the extent that the free jukebox has music by twenty six artists who have enjoyed drinking there.

There are always eight real ales, with the house beer, Lion IPA, from Red Star as standard, and seven changing guest beers which, when I called in, were: Faith Hope & Charity and Bottle Bull, both from Rock The Boat; West Coast IPA and Monkeytown Mild, both from Phoenix; Peerless Langton Spin; Ossett Silver King; and Black Edge Hop. There are always four light beers, three amber and one dark to satisfy most tastes, plus a real cider, Westons Founder's Reserve. Their entry in the 2018 CAMRA Good Beer Guide is well-deserved. Other specialist drinks include wide choices of Scotch and Irish whiskies.

There is a monthly acoustic song session on the second Tuesday; this is open to all and is unamplified so there's no danger of being deafened. The hand-raised pork pies are popular with customers. Well-behaved dogs are welcome.

As well as being a classic pub by anyone's standards, the Lion is quite happy to do things slightly differently from the mainstream, and it is a formula that is popular with its own regulars, real ale connoisseurs in Liverpool and beyond, local business people (being in the business area of Liverpool) and discerning football fans on match days.

The Lion is on Facebook, Twitter and has a website. It is close to several bus routes and can easily be reached by train from the Southport and West Lancashire areas. Definitely worth the train ride.

This is one of a series of articles that I write for the CAMRA column in our local papers, the Southport Visiter and Ormskirk Advertiser. Previous reviews are here.

The Crown in Lime Street

The Crown, Lime Street

The Crown in Lime Street, Liverpool, is quite impossible to miss: you are immediately struck by the extravagant exterior with its scrolled lettering that still advertises the former Walkers Brewery. The Art Nouveau-style interior is just as impressive. The two ground floor rooms have wood-panels, intricately-moulded ceilings with details picked out in gold and a bar with an unusual ornate front.

A wooden spiral staircase under a glass dome leads to the upstairs dining room which still retains its original stained glass windows. The pub is on CAMRA's National Inventory of pubs with architectural features of national significance, and is featured in the CAMRA book “Britain's Best Real Heritage pubs.

The pub serves eight real ales: three regular beers – Greene King IPA, Timothy Taylor's Landlord and Liverpool Organic 24 Carat Gold – and five guests which when I visited were: Thornbridge Jaipur, Fuller's London Pride, Hook Norton Hooky, Kirkstall Black Abbey and Shed Seven Instant Pleasures. The three I tried were well-kept. They also have a good choice of whiskies and gins.

The door to the rear room

An extensive menu offers reasonably-priced food every day, with meal deals available on weekdays, and the busy staff were run off their feet keeping up with demand. The dining room is available for private functions, sometimes hosting receptions for weddings from the magnificent St George's Hall across the road.

Children are admitted with groups that are having a meal, and assistance dogs are welcome. On Mondays, Philosophy In Pubs meet in the pub from 2.30pm, and Tuesday is Chess Night. Live sport is sometimes shown, and there is free Wi-Fi for customers.

The pub has a website and is on Facebook and Twitter. It is next to Lime Street Station and a five-minute walk from Central Station. Although they were very busy serving meals and drinks, the staff I talked to were helpful, friendly and happy to take the time to answer my questions. I also found myself chatting with another drinker at the bar. This is a popular pub in a fine building with good beer - definitely worth a visit.

This is one of a series of articles that I write for the CAMRA column in our local papers, the Southport Visiter and the Ormskirk Advertiser. Previous reviews are here.

The Globe, Liverpool

The Globe in Liverpool

If you're thinking of going to Liverpool for some very last minute Christmas shopping, or perhaps for a night out, you might want to call into the Globe on Cases Street, across the road from Central Station's front entrance. This incarnation of the pub dates from 1888, but the name was in use at least 40 years earlier for a previous pub on the site.

It has hardly been changed over the years and it is very much a local in the heart of the city centre. It won the local CAMRA branch's Best Community Pub Award in 2012, and Kitty McNicholas, who has worked there for 24 years, won their Bar Person of the Year Award in 2014. The pub attracts people from all over the city as well as visitors, and it is not unusual to find yourself in lively conversation with complete strangers. Tastefully refurbished in 2012, it has kept its traditional atmosphere, and photographs on the wall recall the pub's history.

It is a small, cosy pub with a single bar, complete with coloured glass above, to your right as you enter. A sloping floor takes you through to the tiny rear lounge where the Merseyside Branch of CAMRA was founded in 1974: there is even a plaque on the wall to mark this momentous occasion. The slope has been known to fool unwary drinkers who may have slightly overindulged.

They often play classic pop and rock & roll songs from the 50s and 60s on the music system, sometimes leading to spontaneous community singalongs, or occasionally – if space permits – dancing.

There are five handpumps, and the real ales on offer when I called in were: Young's Winter Warmer; No 18 Yard Rudolph's Reward; Red Star Coney Island; Wainwright; and Sharp's Doom Bar. Those I tried were in good condition; I have been going to this pub for many years and I don't recall ever having a bad pint in here.

As for the shopping, Liverpool's famous Bold Street is nearby, and the Liverpool One complex with more than 170 shops, bars and restaurants is a short walk away. Why not relax in the Globe afterwards before you go for your train?

This is one of a series of articles that I write for the CAMRA column in our local papers, the Southport Visiter and the Ormskirk Advertiser. Previous reviews are here.

Roscoe Head, Liverpool

The Roscoe Head in Liverpool is one of only five pubs to appear in all 45 editions of CAMRA's Good Beer Guide, and is the only one in the north of England. It is situated in a small side street on the edge of Liverpool's Georgian Quarter and is less than 10 minutes' walk from Central Station. There are four rooms: the main bar as you enter, two cosy lounges and a tiny snug. It is largely unaltered, and has been run by the same family for more than 35 years.

There are six handpumps serving two regular real ales, Timothy Taylor's Landlord and Tetley Bitter, and 3 or 4 guests which on my visit were Empire White Lion, Big Bog Blonde Bach and George Wright Citra, available in third of a pint measures if you prefer. The four beers I tried were in good form. Available on fonts were craft Shipyard American Pale Ale and Old Rosie Cider.

They offer traditional lunch time snacks, a quiz night on Tuesdays, and a cribbage night on those Wednesdays when the pub team is playing at home. There is no jukebox or fruit machine – this is a friendly pub suited to conversation, and I found myself chatting to several strangers at the bar. Children are welcome in one room during the day, but dogs are not allowed.

A couple of years ago, the pub was taken over by New River, a property company known for redeveloping pubs, and the landlady Carol Ross led a spirited “Save The Roscoe” campaign that resulted in a well-attended demo in the street outside and a petition that gained 2273 signatures. Happily it remains open and thriving.

Facilities include a few seats outside to the front, free Wi-Fi, a Facebook page and a website. Address: 24 Roscoe Street, Liverpool, L1 2SX. Tel: 0151 709 4365. This pub is a fine example of a well-run local near the city centre, and well worth a visit when you're next in town.

This is one of a series of articles that I write for the CAMRA column in our local papers, the Southport Visiter and the Ormskirk Advertiser. Previous reviews are here.

A new Head of Steam for Liverpool

I was interested to read in the Liverpool Echo that the Head of Steam pub chain is taking over the Abbey on Hanover Street in Liverpool. There was a Head of Steam previously in Liverpool on Lime Street in what is now the North Western, a Wetherspoons pub that I wrote about here. That Head of Steam began well, but ended being a dingy, unwelcoming, under-used dump, which was vastly improved when Spoons took it over and expanded it.

The Head of Steam chain was taken over by Cameron's in 2013 and seems to have been given a new lease of life. The Abbey is in Hanover House, underneath the Epstein Theatre; it is large, modern-styled bar with bare floors, big screen sports and a couple of real ales. Cameron's say it will have 34 keg and 10 cask lines, and will be "a very different proposition to the previous the Head of Steam pub that had previously traded in Liverpool" - just as well, considering how that ended up. Apart from the name, I don't see much of a connection between this pub chain and the old Head of Steam group.

It's due to open in September, and it should be an interesting addition to the fine array of pubs that Liverpool already boasts.

Lion song session

A detail in one of the Lion's windows 

Just a reminder that the Lion singarounds - acoustic song sessions with no PA - have begun again and are now on the second Tuesday of each month and not the Thursday as before, beginning at around 8.30 pm.

The Lion survived more than 6 months' closure last year and a refurbishment early this year, and has come through largely unscathed. The licensee, Dave, was hoping to have a beer festival this summer but it looks as though the location of the pub on a very busy corner in the city centre close to a major railway station may make the logistics of all the deliveries a festival demands unfeasible. Blocking a busy junction while unloading dozens of casks may not go down too well with our constabulary friends.

A good choice of eight real ales and a real cider is always available.

The Lion is on Moorfields in Liverpool, diagonally across the road from the railway station.

Lion singaround starts again

The Lion, near Moorfields railway station

I'm pleased to announce that my monthly singaround in the Lion Tavern, Moorfields, Liverpool can begin again next week on Thursday 9 March at around 8.30 pm. As I've written previously, the pub was closed for months after a disagreement between the licensee and Punch Taverns. It reopened in January but then closed again for redecoration.
Yesterday it reopened permanently, we hope, and a few of us were there to celebrate the good news. It is a very attractive pub with etched glass, old tiles, wood panels, and a good choice of eight real ales.

All welcome next week, not just singers.

Old Roan memories

The Old Roan (picture borrowed
from the petition set up to save it)

Unusually, I was driving towards Liverpool last Thursday (I almost always go by rail nowadays) via Aintree. I used to drive this route every day for 13 years when I worked in Norris Green, Liverpool 11, until I transferred to Southport in 1993. I was expecting changes, and there were certainly plenty. However, what I wasn't expecting to see that the Old Roan pub was boarded up. Checking on-line later, I saw that it has been closed for 3 or 4 years and is up for sale for conversion to retail premises. There was an unsuccessful petition (now closed) to Sefton Council Licensing Unit to allow the pub to reopen.

This pub was something of a highly visible landmark, giving its name to the surrounding area and to the nearby railway station;  I don't recall it ever selling real ale. However, when I worked in Norris Green, I'd sometimes offer Wally Warren, the deputy manager, a lift if we were leaving work at the same time - we both tended to work late; he lived near the pub and it saved him a slow bus trip. Sometimes he'd offer to buy me a pint, and in we'd go. I was the union rep in the office, but no cosy deals were stitched up there.

For a while, we had a manager who seemed to have a skill in getting on everyone's nerves. After he'd been moved on, Wally told me that he'd learnt about our occasional drinks and asked, "Is it fruitful?" Wally replied that I didn't let slip anything that I shouldn't, and neither did he as a member of management; he added that the boss never trusted him again.

In negotiations, Wally and I crossed swords on several occasions, but it wasn't personal. He was an old-school manager with integrity, even if he could be a bit grumpy on occasions; overall the staff liked him and tended to tolerate his little foibles with a knowing smile. I learnt a few years ago that he'd died; if I'd known I'd have gone to his funeral.

As I drove past the Old Roan, all these thoughts came back to me and, although the beer wasn't up to much, I look back on those pints in that pub with fondness and, I'd go as far to say, friendship.

One of these occasions was the last time I drank a pint of keg lager. Wally bought it for me in error and offered to replace it when he realised his mistake, but I just accepted it. After all, it wasn't as though the Old Roan's bitter was much better.

Cheers, Wally!

The Lion singaround returns

A detail in one of the Lion's windows

In June, I wrote that the classic Liverpool pub, the Lion Tavern, had closed, and in November that it had reopened; some of us had been worried that it might never open again. I'm pleased to report that the song session that I have run in the pub from July 2010 will begin again next week; the last one was in June, just before the pub stopped trading.

It is the same night as before, the second Thursday of each month, and it is completely acoustic - no amplification at all. The session is open to both singers and non-singers; anyone who just wants to come and listen is very welcome.

If you're free on Thursday 12 January, it's at the Lion Tavern, Moorfields, Liverpool, just across the road from Moorfields Station on the Northern Line, and starts at around 8.15 pm. The last train to Southport leaves at 11.40 pm. The Lion has a good selection of up to 8 real ales.

Hope to see you there.

The Snowball keeps rolling

Wrong kind of Snowball

I wrote in May this year about the CAMRA Liverpool Branch's Snowball initiative to bring new people to real ale by organising events where female CAMRA members would bring a woman friend to try out real ale. Snowball received the first national CAMRA Membership Initiative Award in 2012. I also wrote that the current branch committee had decided to discontinue Snowball, regarding it as no more than a women's drinking club.

Undaunted, the team behind Snowball has decided to carry on regardless. On Monday 14 November, an event took place at the Pen Factory on Hope Street, Liverpool. Paddy Byrne and his staff opened the pub specially for the occasion: they don't usually open on Monday. As well as encouraging people to sample the good range of real ales on offer, the evening also featured a talk by Geraldine Roberts-Stone. Her talk, titled 'No Woman’s Land', covered the role of World War II and pubs in relation to the advancement of women’s rights in that era, partly through the story of a woman poet; this was followed by a lively discussion on women's experiences of pubs in Liverpool. More than forty women attended, including 12 who were new to Snowball and some of them new to beer.

Drinkers club or campaigning tool? There are more than 125 women on the Snowball mailing list, with attendances of more than forty for events. More pertinently, close to 30 women have chosen to join CAMRA as a result of involvement with Snowball, while others have taken to real ale without joining.

I'm pleased that the Snowball women have decided to carry on with something that they consider to be much more than merely a female drinking club. I know them all and can vouch for their genuine commitment to this project. May the Snowball continue to roll and gather more momentum.

My only regret is that I wasn't able to attend this particular event (not being of the qualifying gender) as it sounded rather interesting.

The Lion serves tonight

The Lion

I've received a message on Facebook last week from Colin Batho that the Lion in Moorfields, Liverpool is due to reopen. Looking at the Liverpool Echo on-line, I've just noticed that the grand reopening is today. It closed down in June following a dispute over the rent between the licencees, Sean Porter and Michael Black, and Punch Taverns. They accused Punch of reneging on a promised rent reduction; the pubco denied that such a promise had ever been made.

The Lion is an extremely attractive traditional old pub with etched glass, woodwork, tiles and a glass dome in one the rear rooms. I'm not the only one who has worried that the closure might have been permanent.

The dome

Dave Hardman, who has worked in the pub for ten years as a barman, will be taking it over. I'll pop down soon to Liverpool to see whether there is any chance of resurrecting the monthly song sessions that I've run there for six years. Apparently the nearby Cross Keys, which was also run by Sean and Michael, will be reopening soon, but I know no details of that; I'll try to find out more.

Sean and Michael have recently opened a free house, which they've renamed the Lion, on Market Street in Birkenhead; it had previously been known as Stracey’s Sports Bar and the Caledonia. I'll try to visit there soon as well.

Report in the Liverpool Echo here.

Traditional Song Forum Meeting in Liverpool

• Saturday 19 November 2016
• 9.30am to 5.00pm
• Liverpool Central Library, William Brown Street, Liverpool L3 8EW (less than 5 minutes’ walk from Lime Street Station). 

The Traditional Song Forum (TSF) is a national organisation that brings together those interested in the research, collecting and performance of traditional song. The meetings are open to any who wish to attend. Donations from non-members are welcome, with a suggested amount of £5.

Starting at 9.30am with tea and coffee, the morning includes a round-the-room sharing of traditional song research and interest, which will include an opportunity to look at Liverpool Library’s collection of broadsides, and Mike Brocken will describe the newly-established folk music resource centre at Liverpool Hope University.

After a lunch break, the afternoon will feature the following talks and presentations on aspects of traditional song in the Merseyside region.

Frank Kidson in Liverpool – Alice Jones
Alice Jones is from Ripponden, West Yorkshire, where she has been involved with folk music, dance and song since childhood. She was greatly influenced by the Ryburn 3 Step team, and collaborated with Pete Coe in researching songs collected by Leeds-based Frank Kidson. This research led to concert and club performances and a CD, under the title The Search for Five Finger Frank. Earlier this year, Alice released her first, critically-acclaimed solo album, Poor Strange Girl. Alice will examine Kidson’s friendship with Liverpool resident and song source, Alfred Mooney.

The Miraculous Arm: William Armstrong and the Ballad Trade in Liverpool in the Early 19th Century – Matthew Edwards
Matthew Edwards is a retired social care worker living in Wirral who sings mainly traditional songs at song sessions locally and at festivals across these islands. A fellow singer, the late Fred McCormick, was a great inspiration for exploring song traditions, especially the connections between Britain and Ireland. Matthew will be talking about a Liverpool broadside printer, William Armstrong, who published a significant body of songs with Irish themes in the years after the Napoleonic Wars.

Southport - from Anne Gilchrist and Sea Songs to the Bothy Folk Club and Cork Jackets – Clive Pownceby and Derek Schofield
Derek Schofield is the former editor of English Dance & Song magazine, published by the English Folk Dance & Song Society. He has written two books on aspects of the folk revival. He has also contributed to fRoots magazine, as well as to the Folk Music Journal. He grew up in Crosby, Merseyside, and now lives in Cheshire. Clive Pownceby has been the organiser and a resident singer at the 51-year-old Bothy Folk Club in Southport for several decades. He has contributed to English Dance & Song and The Living Tradition magazines. He lives in Crosby. This joint paper will look at Anne Gilchrist’s time living in Southport when she collected songs from William Bolton, and the Bothy Club’s more recent promotion of traditional song in the town.

Stan Hugill and the Liverpool Shanty Tradition – Gerry Smyth
Gerry Smyth is Professor of Irish Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University. One of his principal research interests is in Irish musical cultures worldwide; his latest book, entitled Celtic Tiger Blues: Music and Irish Identity, will be published by Routledge in January 2017. In this paper he will be talking about the Irish influence on the nineteenth-century Atlantic shanty tradition, especially as mediated by the great singer / collector Stan Hugill.

The Early Years of the Folk Song Revival on Merseyside – Mick Groves and Hughie Jones in conversation with Derek Schofield
As members of The Spinners folk group, Mick and Hughie were founders and resident singers at the city’s first folk club in 1958. Hughie sings and runs the Everyman Folk Club in Liverpool, while Mick is now resident in Exeter, where he also continues to sing.

Saturday evening: there will be a singaround from about 7.00pm at the Cornmarket pub in Liverpool. The Cornmarket pub is in the Old Ropery opposite the Slaughterhouse in Lower Castle Street close to James Street Station. 

Friday night 18 November: there will also be a mainly tunes session at the Pen Factory in Hope Street from 8.00pm. 

Sunday morning: there will be a guided tour featuring some of the sites which are famous, or notorious, in song, finishing with a trip on the famous Mersey Ferry. The tour will start at 10.00am from the plaza in front of the Adelphi Hotel in Lime Street, opposite "the statue exceedingly bare"!

The meeting has been arranged by Matthew Edwards, Colin Batho and Derek Schofield.

The meeting is dedicated to the memories of Stan Ambrose and Fred McCormick.

For further information, contact: matthew.rwedwards@btopenworld.com

I'd have preferred to be wrong

A picture of my favourite city

A few months ago, I was alerted to the CAMRA Liverpool Branch committee's plans for MerseyAle by John Armstrong the editor at the time. I accordingly wrote a couple of posts expressing my concerns about what may happen to a good local magazine that had successfully combined campaigning and local information in a readable form. Judging by some of the stick I got here, you'd think I'd advocated eating puppies for breakfast.

Well, guess what folks: everything that John anticipated and that I wrote has come to pass. John has written:

As I predicted back in April, the Liverpool CAMRA committee have decided to go ahead with major changes to MerseyAle including:

• Reducing the size of the magazine from B5 to A5.
• Reducing the paper quality.
• Most crucially - removing MerseyAle's editorial independence with all articles now to be vetted by the committee, Soviet Pravda style. You will now read what they want you to read. So after 42 years of a proud tradition of MerseyAle editorial independence this current committee has killed that off.

As I pointed out in May, the long-term commitment of an editor doing a job that entails no remuneration requires autonomy to maintain his or her interest; it's different when an editor is paid because the salary provides the incentive. As a former editor of a much smaller CAMRA magazine, I have a fair idea of how much time, work and commitment is involved.

The committee ran an on-line survey about MerseyAle, but has refused to publish the results. There is no good reason to keep the results secret, especially as all responses were anonymous, so the logical conclusion is that they are not to the committee's liking.

I'd be less critical if the whole business had been carried out openly, perhaps at all-members meetings, but it has been conducted behind closed doors. I'd be more impressed about their talk of campaigning if, for example, the branch chair had attended the Roscoe Head demo a few months ago, which was supported by many CAMRA members from all parts of Merseyside and beyond alongside those from Liverpool branch. Even though this was a major campaign that had attracted national attention, she chose to be elsewhere.

I get no satisfaction in saying that everything I wrote has come to pass, and that the people who came here to say I was jumping the gun, that I had an agenda of my own, that it was all only a consultation exercise, that I was just trying to stir up trouble, etc, have been proved wrong. I say 'no satisfaction' because it looks as though we're going to lose a good magazine, which was the only reason why I wrote the earlier posts.