Helping at a beer festival

Working at a beer festival can be good fun. You can try different beers in moderation, meet different people among both staff and customers, and help popularise real ale at the same time. Beer festivals are sociable places where there is rarely any trouble, despite the numbers of drinkers, because people are generally there to enjoy different beers, not to get plastered.

The Sandgrounder beer festival takes place in Southport Arts Centre from 10th to 12th September, and although a lot of people have volunteered, more help would be very welcome. For insurance reasons, only CAMRA members can work there. There is a variety of tasks; contact the staffing officer Mike Perkins at mikepcamra@aol.com to discuss what you can do to help, as there's more to running a beer festival than just pulling pints. If you wish to volunteer, fill in a staffing form and e-mail it to Mike. Even if you can help for only one session, that will be useful.

Go on ~ do something different.

The Sir Henry Segrave

Now, that's better!
Last night I was in the Sir Henry Segrave, a Wetherspoon house on Lord Street, for the Southport CAMRA beer festival planning meeting. The pub is named after Sir Henry Segrave who, in 1926, raised the land-speed record to 152mph in his 33hp 4.5-litre Sunbeam Ladybird, on Southport’s Birkdale Sands.

Considering how unimpressed I was with this pub the last time I visited, I am pleased to report that it has been transformed by the new licensee who took over fairly recently. There were 12 real ales on, and I managed to get through six. I checked on the usual Wetherspoon trick of having the pump clips facing the customer whether or not the beer was on. It did not apply here ~ all the beers were actually on. In addition to the usual suspects (Pedigree, Abbott and Ruddles Best) there were beers from Saltaire, Titanic, Hawkshead, two from George Wright, two from Moorhouses, and two from Phoenix. All the ones I had were definitely in good nick. Too much choice!

It's a pleasure to withdraw my previous criticisms of this pub and state that it is now definitely well worth visiting.

Guest House Music Session

This was quite well attended as usual, with a mixture of drinkers/audience and musicians. It was good to see and hear Colin, a friend who is folk singer from Liverpool, and also Clare, a student in Liverpool, whom I didn't hear sing, which is a pity as she is a lovely singer of traditional songs. The evening is mostly traditional tunes performed on a variety of instruments, although I finished the night off with "Won't Get Fooled Again" on 12-string guitar, accompanied by Les on accordion.

There were nine beers on when I arrived, and I began with Davenports Heatwave, which I thought unremarkable. Micro-brewers have successfully developed the golden ale style in recent years, and there seems to be a tendency among other brewers to jump on the bandwagon by producing their own slightly insipid versions ~ missed opportunities, in my view. Guzzle from York Brewery was quite enjoyable, with more flavour than I expect from a 3.6% beer. The Allgates 5% Pale Ale was a pleasant surprise, as I'm not always keen on Allgates beers, but the Hopback Summer Lightning was better.

All the beers were as usual well-kept, so all in all a good night for music and beer.

More In Sorrow Than In Anger

As a CAMRA member, I have just received a copy of the nominations for the awards to be made at the Southport CAMRA beer festival and was surprised to see that the Guest House, a pub that regularly serves up to eleven real ales from various breweries, was not among the nominees. The Guest House is a fine community pub that has regulars who have been going there for 30 or even 40 years, but it is also sometimes on the circuit of younger drinkers on their pub tours. You also see couples having a quiet drink together ~ it is a mixed clientele. Since the current licensee Gail Heyes took over, the gender balance has has slipped away from the male-dominated pub that it once was to become more representative of the population at large. I remember when I first went into the pub in 1974, the room on the right as you entered had a sign stating, "Gentleman Only." I never entered that room until the Sex Discrimination Act made the sign unlawful; my brother, perhaps more principled than me, boycotted the pub entirely.

That is all in the past now, and I would argue that the Guest House is a leading pub in Southport. Once a month (on the evening of the 3rd Monday of the month) there is a free music session when local folk musicians come along and provide entertainment, not for money, but just for the love of playing. Additionally, a singaround on the first Monday evening will begin on 7 September.

Unfortunately, some CAMRA meetings clash with my music nights so I wasn't there when these nominations were made. I know that a lot of CAMRA members who perhaps don't attend meetings regularly agree with me about the Guest House. You can vote for pubs that haven't been nominated ~ I urge you to do so if like me you consider the Guest House deserves recognition. For a Good Beer Guide pub to receive no nomination is bizarre, especially after the fiasco when the local CAMRA branch (my branch!) forgot to include the pub in the Good Beer Guide a couple of years ago, even though it had been voted in. I have to advise some of my fellow CAMRA members that there are some drinkers, including other members, who are regarding this omission as deliberate. I don't think it is, but am less certain than I was. If you are a CAMRA member and agree with me and want to vote for the Guest House, contact Mike Perkins straight away, as the deadline is Tuesday 18 August.

Swiggin' In Wigan

On Friday, I went for a drink in Wigan with my young friend Helen, a fellow trade unionist until I succeeded in escaping last year. Helen joined CAMRA at the Wigan Beer Festival earlier this year, but tends to prefer cider to ale. Our first drink was in the Berkeley, a pleasant,comfortable pub just across the road from the railway station, and the beer was a rather nice Prospect golden ale, the exact name of which has slipped my mind. Prospect beers are usually worth seeking out.

A few minutes walk away down a side street and scarcely visible from the main road is the John Bull, a rock pub with an excellent juke box, and serving 3 Thwaites beers, Original, Wainwright and Bomber. The Wainwright seemed a little insipid to me, so I stuck with the Bomber. I didn't get around to trying the Original. We met some other reps there on their Friday night out. A great pub, but with my hearing being what it is due to too much heavy rock in the 1980s, I found conversing difficult.

The final pub was the Anvil, a pub that has won many awards from the local CAMRA branch. There was a selection of golden ales: Banks & Taylor Golden Fox, Northumberland Jolly Rogers Ale and Bad Ass True Blonde cask lager. All were pleasant but tended to taste much of a muchness to me.

There are other good pubs in Wigan, which is well worth a trip out for a change of scenery and a few different beers. I intend to publish a proper pub crawl of Wigan some time in the Southport CAMRA magazine, Ale and Hearty, but as a starter these three pubs are worth trying.

Lunchtime Legends New EP

My West Coast band (from West Lancs and Merseyside), the Lunchtime Legends, will be performing our fab new EP, “Daze”, in the Elsinore, Whitby in Yorkshire on Wednesday 26 August ~ at lunchtime, of course. This is our 6th release, and our first on Boozaphone, a subsidiary of Cock Robin Music who have issued all our previous 5 albums since 1995. If you’re in the area, please come and see us. Otherwise keep an eye on this blog for our next gig in the Southport area

“Daze” features the following classic songs:
1. Days.
2. True Love Ways.
3. Saturday Night At The Movies.
4. Terry.
5. Runaway.
6. You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.

It features Chris Harvey on keyboards, Candy Rell on vocals, Clive Pownceby on drums and me on vocals and guitar. It's only rock & roll, but we like it.

£5 [plus £1 P&P if by post]. For more details, e-mail LunchtimeLegends@aol.com

PubCos Won't Stock Local Beer

Shock story in local press!!

Southport's Midweek Visiter has published a front page article on how Pub Companies won't allow their pubs to stock the award winning local beer, Golden Sands. It may be the top Best Bitter in the land, but PubCos don't want to know. While I welcome the Visiter publicising this real problem, I was disappointed to see that they hadn't attempted any investigative journalism by phoning a PubCo or two to ask them for an explanation.

But, to be fair, the Visiter did list venues where Southport Brewery beers are often on: the Guest House [Union Street], the Baron's Bar [Lord Street], Southport FC, Southport & Birkdale Cricket Club, Ainsdale Sports Club and Ainsdale Tory Club. You will notice there are more clubs in this list than pubs.

More generally, CAMRA recently exercised its 'super-complainant' status to require the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) urgently to look at practices in the UK pub market that cause high prices, restricted choice and pub closures. CAMRA wants tied pub licensees to be able to sell a guest real ale of their choice, not just those in the PubCos' own portfolio. If this were accepted, local pubs that wanted to sell our local beers would be legally allowed to do so.

Golden Sands at the Guest House

I went to the Guest House last night and saw the prize-winning Golden Sands was on. It is golden as the name suggests and quite a dry-tasting beer ~ definitely moreish. Word has got around about the beer's award at the Great British Beer Festival and it was disappearing quickly. I stuck with it all evening.

I received an e-mail today from Paul Bardsley, owner of Southport Brewery, asking me what he had won; he didn't know as he is New Zealand on holiday. Naturally I told him straight away and forwarded him a link to an article in the Southport Visiter about the award. The article also mentions the Lancashire Heroes off licence on Shakespeare Street run by brother John Bardsley and the new Inn Beer Shop on Lord Street run by another brother, Pete Bardsley. Quite an alcoholic dynasty.

Someone sent me a mistyped e-mail arranging to meet me in the Guest House, so my friend Pete has appropriately photoshopped the pub's sign.

The Price Of Booze

Earlier this year, the Scottish government proposed a minimum price for alcohol, and Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer for England, has called for a 50p per unit minimum price for England. Some beer campaigners have seized on this proposal as a way of redressing the imbalance between pub and off trade prices and thereby helping pubs. At first glance, it seems an attractive idea, as a minimum price of 50p per unit will not affect pub prices at all, but will narrow the gap between pub and supermarket prices. I consider it a mistake for pub-goers to support this suggestion.

Firstly, do we want the government to dictate to businesses how much to charge for their products and services? If so, we would be taking the first steps away from a market economy to a central command economy. This would perhaps be welcomed by some on the left, but that doesn't include a socialist like me, especially as the politicians who would implement such a measure have shown a singular inability to run a capitalist economy, so I'd rather not let them loose on a command one. A true socialist economy would be structured to include as many people as people, and not, as with price rationing, exclude everyone except the well-off. Besides, the historical record of command economies so far does not inspire me with confidence. If, unlike me, you are a supporter of the free market economy, you cannot logically support government price controls.

Secondly, it would be the thin edge of the wedge. Once a minimum price has been established, there would be nothing to stop politicians increasing the price until it does begin to impact upon pubs, all in the name of health and public order, of course. In fact, I'd be astonished if that didn't happen. Minimum pricing is a two-edged sword.

Thirdly, a minimum price will impact on people who can't afford pubs or whose circumstances restrict them going out. A single parent interviewed on Radio 4 news said that she'd love to be able to meet her friends in the pub, but she couldn't, partly because of the prices, but also partly because she had to look after her children. Instead, she sometimes had a couple of drinks at home, but felt that minimum pricing would deny her even that small pleasure. Are we entitled to do that?

The problem with pub prices is caused by a mixture of factors: the tax escalator, greedy Pub Cos and supermarket prices. I consider the first two are the biggest causes of the problem, and that increasing supermarket sales are the consequence. Everyone knows and expects that eating and drinking out will be dearer than at home, but the we're now in the position that the differential is becoming too great for many people to afford. That's why pubs are struggling and closing. Making off sales more expensive will not make pubs cheaper: if you can't afford to go to the pub when there's no minimum price, you won't be able to if there is one.

Supporters of real ale and pubs should steer clear of minimum pricing for alcohol: there's too little to be gained and too much to risk losing.

Decriminalise Live Music

The music licensing laws are a ridiculous bureaucratic farce that could only have been dreamt up by someone whose idea of live music is karaoke in a trendy wine bar favoured by footballers ~ my idea of a hellish night out. We do not need costly, restrictive Licensing Act legislation to "combat disorder" at folk clubs, pubs, etc.

The LibDems have proposed a Live Music Bill, which will exempt venues with a capacity of less than 200 from music licensing, exempt performances by two musicians or less and ban the Form 696. The Bill has passed its first reading and will be debated later this year. Please support this Bill by signing the No 10 Petition ~ to do so, click here.

The petition reads: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop criminalising live music with the Licensing Act, and to support amendments backed by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, and the music industry, which would exempt most small-scale performances in schools, hospitals, restaurants and licensed premises."

CAMRA reaches 100,000 members

The Campaign for Real Ale - an organisation reviled by some beer bloggers for not doing what they want, as opposed to what its own members want - has reached a milestone with 100,000 members. Whatever CAMRA's faults are, and no thinking member would pretend it's perfect, it must be doing something right. I have read a number of criticisms of CAMRA, some well thought out, others just ignorant or prejudiced, but none has persuaded me to relinquish my membership. I spoke at this year's AGM in Eastbourne on the losing side of a vote, but that's democracy for you ~ accepting that not everything will go exactly as you want it to.

CAMRA research has thrown up some interesting facts:
* 50% of all adult drinkers have now tried real ale, compared to 35% in 2008
* 67% of male drinkers have now tried real ale, compared to 50% in 2008
* 30% of women drinkers have now tried real ale, compared to 16% in 2008

Amongst those who try real ale, 40% convert to drinking it afterwards, and 64% tried a beer brewed in their local area. This explains why the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) has reported a 7% volume growth for local brewers in each of the last two years. There are now over 670 brewers in Britain, more than at any time since the Second World War.

I don't think our favourite drink is dying just yet, despite the best efforts of the Chancellor, PubCos and supermarkets. In the meanwhile, well done CAMRA!

Southport Brewery wins Great British Beer Festival Award

I have just heard that Southport Brewery's Golden Sands has won the Gold in the Best Bitter category at CAMRA's Great British Beer Festival in Earls Court, London, the biggest beer festival in Britain.

This is a fine accolade for a beer that I have loved since I first tasted it. Congratulations to Paul Bardsley for this tremendous achievement. Southport beers just seem to go down well wherever they're sold: for example, Golden Sands was the first to sell out at the Wigan Beer Festival, as I reported in March this year. No holidays for Paul and Elaine for the next few months, I suspect...

Post script: for a complete list all of the winners, go to the CAMRA website.

Warwick Folk Festival

Last weekend I was at Warwick for the annual folk festival. This takes place in the grounds of Warwick School, apparently the oldest boys school in the country. A large marquee housed the main stage, while other events took place in the school or in the town itself, about a mile walk away. There is also a real ale tent which featured a lot of Church End brewery beers, unsurprising as they are one of the sponsors of the festival, as well as stalwarts like Old Hooky and Landlord. The beer was as well-kept as you could expect in a marquee in summer, and much better than many festivals.

Musical highlights included seeing Eric Bogle, writer of "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" and "No Man's Land", songs I have often heard massacred at folk sessions, on his extensive final tour of Britain, Ireland and Canada. Kate Rusby was less fey than usual, being 7 months pregnant, but her show was much as you'd expect ~ a range of songs sung in her trade mark plaintive style. Tom Lewis sings nautical songs with a conviction derived from 24 years in the navy, unlike many singers of sea songs. I also enjoyed the French Canadian group, Le Vent Du Nord, Australian Martin Pearson, the Wilsons, and Keith Donnelly who rose to the challenge of his set being doubled in length with no notice, and kept everyone in stitches nonetheless.

I saw quite a few young acts, and I think Rosie Doonan and the Snapdragons and Isambarde were possible among my favourites. The much-hyped Jim Moray was competent and had some interesting arrangements, but ultimately left me uninvolved. The Kel Elliot Band played in a bluesy jazz style that had little to do with folk; she sings, plays double bass and writes much of her own material, but also included jazzy interpretations of pop songs, such as the Acrtic Monkeys' "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor."

There were various folk dance sides - Cortswold, Border, North West - but the most unusual was Barefoot Bellydance, whom I saw them in the street outside the Zetland pub, which sold only Pedigree and Broadside, neither in any way local, and at £2.95 a pint, rather dear. I also liked the the Soft Option Appalachian dancers, who were high kicking and stepping to the sound of bluegrass fiddle, banjo, mandolin and guitar.

It was cracking the flags on Saturday but cool and drizzly all day Sunday ~ typical English summer. A great weekend, and I doubt I'll leave another 7 years until my next visit.

Drinks employees face sack to fund executive greed

Transnational drinks company Diageo, whose brands include Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Captain Morgan, Baileys, J&B, José Cuervo, Tanqueray, Guinness, Crown Royal, Beaulieu Vineyard and Sterling Vineyards wines, and Bushmills Irish whiskey, have announced the destruction of 900 jobs across Scotland. Diageo is hugely profitable, with rising sales and margins by all its leading brands. Last year, Chief Executive Officer Paul Walsh was paid $5 million. The company has recently been spending close to a $1000 million dollars buying back its own shares.

Diageo employees across Scotland are now being asked to fund even more executive and shareholder greed with the loss of their jobs in communities where few alternatives are on offer. To learn more, and to support their union's fight back, click here. You can send an e-mail to Diageo & vote in an on-line poll. It takes less time than downing a wee dram. I know ~ I did it, even though I'm not a whiskey drinker ... well, not very often.

Mandatory Code for (i.e. against) Pubs

The Government is proposing a new, costly, bureaucratic, mandatory code for pubs to cut down on "irresponsible" drinking and anti-social behaviour. Although I go to pubs several times per week, it's so long since I saw any alcohol-fuelled trouble - or even well-behaved extreme drunkenness - in a pub that I can't remember when or where it was. Funny that, isn't it? I really must lead a sheltered life.

If only the Government had shown the same determination to impose a fierce mandatory code upon our financial industry instead of the "light touch" (i.e. zero) regulation that it preferred, then Britain would not be in the financial mess it is now. Micro-managing our lives is not the job of politicians, but it is their job to look after our nation's finances, a task in which they have signally failed (except when those finances funded their expenses claims, of course ~ they can get things right when it suits them ... and don't get me started again on how we taxpayers pay for their cut price booze).

There is a Government consultation out now and the Axe The Beer Tax Campaign has made it very easy for you to put in your two penn'orth: reply to the consultation and lobby your MP at the same time by clicking on enough is enough. The deadline for responses is 5th August, so best not to leave it till later.

Richmond Jazz & Holt's Beers

I went last night to the Richmond pub on Scarisbrick New Road for the weekly jazz night, which on this occasion featured the The Savannah Jazz Band. The old Richmond was demolished a few years ago and a modern pub built on the site; it was taken over a year or so ago by Joseph Holt's of Manchester and remains the only outlet for Holt's beers in the area. The beers on were Holt's bitter, mild and Humdinger, a honey beer. I've always regarded Holt's beers as acceptable rather than exciting, and last night was no different. My first thought was that the beers were a bit too cold for real ale. The Humdinger is a honey beer that I found more bitter and hoppy than honey-flavoured, although in bottled form it won the Tesco beer challenge. I actually preferred the ordinary bitter. At £2.36 and £2.32 per pint respectively, Holt's seemed to have adopted the local average price, rather than applying their own legendarily cheap prices. I may be mistaken, but I thought I remembered paying well under £2 three months ago. I don't think you'd go out of your way for this beer, but it is perfectly acceptable if that's all there is.

The Savannah Jazz Band played well in a New Orleans jazz style, and are therefore traditional, as are all the jazz bands that play every week at the Richmond. I quite often enjoy jazz without knowing as much about it as perhaps I should. If you think you'll enjoy an evening of jazz in a pleasant modern pub which has an open café style, then you'll enjoy Wednesday nights at the Richmond. They also do reasonable food until 8.00 p.m. there, so you can make a evening of it. To find out what bands are on, click on Jazz at the Richmond. Worth looking in on.

New Guest House singaround

A new free live music night is being launched in a leading Southport real ale pub, although drinking real ale is not compulsory! "First Monday" singarounds in the Guest House will begin on 7th September and will continue on the 1st Monday evening of each month thereafter. The established music session that takes place on the 3rd Monday in the same pub will carry on as normal. While the singaround will mainly be songs and the music session mostly tunes, this is not a hard & fast rule and each style is acceptable at both sessions.

As many of you will know, the Guest House serves up to 10 real ales always in good condition. Please support these sessions, whether you want to perform or just listen.

Jackie Oates ~ from the Bothy to the Phil

On 28th June, the Bothy Folk Club featured Jackie Oates accompanied by guitarist James Dumbleton. Jackie is a young fiddle-singer whose material is mostly traditional and her playing and singing certainly wooed the Bothy audience, who know a thing or two about good music. I had the pleasure of putting these two young people up for the night and they were unassuming and good company ~ no airs and graces, and long may it stay so.

I have noticed that Jackie has a gig in the Rodewald Suite of the prestigious Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 17th October. The admission charge of £10 is modest by Phil standards, but almost double what the Bothy charged. I fear that this very talented and endearing performer may become unaffordable for our local folk club, especially if her career follows the well-trodden path blazed by Kathryn Tickell and Kate Rusby. Kate has also appeared at the Bothy ~ before folk stardom beckoned.

Incidentally, if you fancy giving the Bothy a go, the beer is usually Thwaites Bomber, although at present it's Thwaites Wainwright.