Christmas present idea

I've come across this advert; what a great idea to help children prepare for their drinking careers, especially as our stringent under-age drinking laws mean that young people cannot begin to acclimatise themselves to the world of alcohol in actual pubs and bars until they're 18, unlike many of us older hands.

I do hope the suitably scowling barman takes the keys to the pedal cars off any of his customers who imbibe too much.

Predictably, there has been an indignant and, at times, highly abusive moral panic in the USA where this advert originated. It seems that it's okay to drink, but not let your children play at it. It's not as though they're all going to turn into alcoholics; I used to buy sweet cigarettes as a kid, but I've never smoked a real one in my life.

Seasons Greetings!

Happy Christmas to all!

Post-Christmas musings

This time of the year between holidays is always a bit strange. If you're off work, you tend to forget the days of the week over the holiday period, and when Christmas Day is midweek, as it was this year, the weekend between then and New Year can get a bit overlooked. I suggested to a friend that we'll meet as usual in the Guest House, and he looked surprised and asked why. I replied because it's Saturday. "Oh yes," he said vaguely.

With family visiting, I haven't been to the pub as often as I might have done normally, and in fact I was driving at the end of Christmas Day and so had severely limited my intake. In Liverpool on our customary pre-Christmas pub crawl on the 19th, my impression was that there were fewer people out than in previous years: the pubs were busy, certainly, but it wasn't as frantic as usual. It was a similar experience on Boxing Day in my local, the Guest House, which is usually heaving even before the Southport Swords arrive to do their longsword and morris dances. In fact, apart from a from a few musicians, the place was almost empty when I arrived, although it did fill up later. I can only conclude that in the present economic climate, people are hanging on to their pennies.

As for beer, one of the Christmas offerings on Boxing Day was Southport Brewery's Santa's Brew, described as: "Toffee sweet malt with a touch of butterscotch. Also, present is a peppery grassy hop." They say tastes vary, and I found it more dry than that description suggests. It's a light-coloured beer, not very Christmassy to me, but I liked it nonetheless, and being on the £2.50 handpump was a plus. When it ran out, it was replaced by the darker and definitely more toffee-ish Piddlemas from Wyre Piddle; pleasant enough, but I preferred the Southport beer. On the Liverpool pub crawl, I thought that the Oakham Citra that we had in the Fly In The Loaf was the best pint of the evening, and probably the best I've had for a while.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Local music events

December gets busy but here is a selection of local music events over the next week.

Starting with an evening for a good cause: tonight The Corduroy Folk Club is hosting an evening of folk music to raise funds and supplies for the Southport Soup Kitchen. Group songs in between some fabulous solo performances from 7.00pm until 10.00pm. Drop in for a drink or stay all evening but please bring a donation for the soup kitchen. The performers will include: David Hirst, The Dharma Bums, Keith Price, Pete Rimmer, Kevin Littlewood, Will Simmons, Chris & Siobhan Nelson and Bill Hackney. The venue is Shush Hair and Beauty, Liverpool Road, Birkdale, across the road from the Crown Pub.

Lion singaround this Thursday 12 December from around 8.15pm. Free - all welcome, even if you don't want to sing. Lion Tavern, 67 Moorfields, Liverpool, L2 2BP, right by the station.

This Sunday at lunchtime, there will be carol singing in the Fishermen's Rest, Weld Road, Southport. This annual session was run for many years by our friend Jeff Stoker, and we are carrying them on in his memory.

On Sunday evening there will be a residents night at the Bothy Folk Club, Park Golf Club, Park Road West, Southport, PR9 0JS. The club's team of residents will have a chance show off! Thwaites real ale.

Next Monday, the 16th, there will the usual 3rd Monday acoustic music session in the Guest House, Union Street, Southport from c. 8.00pm. Up to 11 real ales.

For more events, click here.

Crawling in Liverpool

Liverpool has a great buzz in the run-up the Christmas, the streets and pubs being full of people out to have a good time as only Liverpool people can. My friend Jean's annual Christmas crawl of selected real ale pubs takes place tonight, the 20th December, in Liverpool. There will the usual mixture of people, including folkies and CAMRA types, but basically anyone who wants to tag along is welcome.  The itinerary is below, and we're usually fairly good at keeping to the times, should you want to join part way through. It must be said, though, that this is a pretty good pub crawl at any time of the year. Cheers!

Carols & ale ~ a jolly wassail!

In the Fishermen's Rest in Birkdale, local singers from the Bothy Folk Club and elsewhere will be running a carol singing session. They have been doing this in Southport for more than 30 years, though not always in this particular pub. The Fishermen's Rest is a pleasant little pub, being the only remnant of the former, allegedly haunted, Palace Hotel that used to dominate the area. It has an interesting, if rather tragic, history that I briefly described here two years ago.

This Sunday, singers and musicians will be gathering from midday, with the singing actually beginning at around 1.00 p.m. and going on until about 3.00 p.m. The pub has four changing real ales, always well-kept in my experience.

Admission is of course free, and if you want to join in, although you don't have to, song sheets will be available, but you'll have to buy your own beer. The Fishermen's Rest is on Weld Road in Birkdale, Southport.

Jean's Christmas pub crawl

Tonight is the Christmas pub crawl organised by my friend Jean Pownceby when we visit an array of great Liverpool pubs.  If you're around and would like to join us for a pint, the itinerary is below.

P.S. This is a rather good pub crawl at any time of the year.

Christmas present

My 15-year old niece, Charlotte, gave me this box set containing a bottle of Everards Sleigh Bell Ale and a christmas pudding.  The picture also shows a Christmas mug that was a present from her a few years ago (with, originally, a seasonal beer too) that I'll use to drink this beer.

I've no idea where she gets her ideas from.

Boxing Day revels

The Southport Swords have been dancing every Boxing Day since time immoral ~ or the late 60s anyway.  This Boxing Day they will be dancing outside the Hesketh Arms in Churchtown at lunchtime and later in the afternoon at the Guest House in Union Street.  Timings with the Swords are always imprecise, so I can't be more specific.  There is usually a music session in the Guest House as well.  If you're at a loose end, why not go and watch them?  Have a pint, watch the dancing and clear away the Christmas Day cobwebs, and replace them with Boxing Day ones.  Both pubs serve real ale, with the Guest House regularly serving up to 10 cask beers,

Here is a minute-long video of the Swords dancing at the Hesketh on Boxing Day 2008.  For some reason this video begins sideways, and this is not a sword dance ~ they're using hankies in what I think is a Cotswold Morris dance, not that I'm an expert.  You'll see that that Father Christmas, his contract with Toys Я Us completed for another year, has decided to let his hair down and join the merry dance.

Christmas Number 1

I remember how we used to hate it when Cliff dominated the "coveted" Christmas No. 1 spot ~ until we got Simon Cowell, that is. But I’m quite pleased that Cowell’s latest protégé, apparently called Joe something, has lost the race to the top to a group called Rage Against The Machine. I haven’t heard either performer’s effort, but I applaud the concerted consumer rebellion against Cowell’s repeated cynical hijacking of the Christmas pop charts. Okay, he’s still stinking rich, but he hasn’t got his own way this time. And as for convicted toilet attendant-bashing Cheryl Cole whingeing that it would be a shame for poor Joe not to fulfil his “dream” of getting a number one hit single ~ does she think this is a god-given right for an X-factor winner? But then, what does she know about anything except how to use her fists and how to turn the tears on at will?

Anyway, if I had a vote, this would be my nomination for the Christmas No. 1:

Recession? Not last night!

I went on the annual Christmas pub crawl in Liverpool last night, organised by my friend Jean.  We began at the Lion in Moorfields, going on to the Vernon, the Ship & Mitre and Rigby's, all in Dale Street.  Then into the Cavern Quarter, as it's now called, to the legendary White Star, where the Beatles sometimes used to drink ~ they also used to drink in the Grapes around the corner, but we didn't call in there.  The crawl also included the Globe and the Fly in the Loaf, so there was some walking to be done.  Lots of good beer, some merely okay, none bad.  The best beers came from local microbreweries, such as George Wright and Cambrinus, although Okell's from the Isle of Man (available both in Rigby's and in the Fly) is worth trying, although I didn't see their Mac Lir, a wheat beer which is my favourite in their range.  I did find a very nice Christmas beer I hadn't heard of before, but can't recall the name - sorry.

The pubs were absolutely heaving, so much so that in the White Star I was pressed against the door and people were struggling to get in or leave.  It was a fight to get to and from the bar in all pubs, and I saw loads of £20 notes heading towards the tills.  I know there is a recession, but it wasn't visible last night.  No doubt the £1 flat rate return fare on Merseyrail added to the crowds, but it was not exclusively responsible, as a lot of drinkers were clearly straight out of work from the office, judging by their dress.  Despite the crush, everyone was good-natured, except for one character in a business suit who elbowed me out of the way. It got him nowhere as his two female companions were stuck behind me, and I made a point of courteously letting everyone through going the other way, so that he had to fight his way back to collect them.  In the Globe, there was, as usual, community singing along to the rock & roll CDs, this time to the Beatles:  "Ooh I need your love, gerl".

I cracked my usual joke about amateur, once-a-year drinkers getting in the way of us professionals, but to be honest, it would be hard to be churlish when surrounded by so many people who were obviously out just to enjoy themselves and have fun.  It was noisy and crowded, and sometimes I had difficulty in hearing what people were saying, but at this time of year, what can you expect?

As we walked back to Central Station, there was a gang of young women (gerls?) walking down a very busy Bold Street all dressed as Christmas presents.  Only in Liverpool.