Two pieces of bad news

Fred's Special Award

In the last few days, I've heard two pieces of bad news.

Fred Hook, the business partner of Gail (the licensee of my local, the Guest House in Southport), and known as a bit of a character, died at the weekend; he was in his early 80s. While Gail nowadays is responsible for the day-to-day running of the pub, she and Fred have run pubs together for decades. In 2013, Fred was given a special award by the local CAMRA branch for 50 years in the licensing trade. I remember once during the weekly pub quiz, some lads were shouting out answers. I watched Fred walk over to them and simply say: "This is the easiest pub in Southport to get barred from." They duly shut up.

My sympathies to his family, friends and colleagues.

Mike in front of the now-closed
Tetley's brewery in Leeds

Mike Perkins, a stalwart of the local CAMRA branch and a genuinely nice bloke, was knocked down last week by a car near the Richmond pub in Scarisbrick New Road, Southport. He is seriously injured in hospital with several broken bones and I expect it will be months before we see him out and about again. The branch is having reallocate all the many tasks he does for CAMRA (even I have called in to take over our CAMRA column in the local paper).

My best wishes to Mike for a speedy and successful recovery.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Worth going to Manchester for

One of the biggest beer festivals in the North West, the CAMRA Manchester Beer and Cider Festival, will be held from 20 to 23 January at Manchester Central (formerly the G-Mex, and originally Manchester Central railway station). The venue is impressive and I have seen bands there such as Simply Red, Deacon Blue and AC/DC in the past.

It is a new home for the festival and, unlike the previous one, the National Cycle Centre (aka the Velodrome), it's in the centre of Manchester. From Southport there's a direct train to Deansgate Station, and then a short 8 to 10 minute walk to the festival.

Organised by CAMRA's Greater Manchester Branches, it's a direct successor to the National Winter Ales Festival which was held in the city for many years until 2013, after which it was moved to Derby. They'll be offering more than 500 beers, ciders and perries. As well as a huge selection of cask-conditioned real ales and traditional ciders and perries, there will be bottled and draught beers from around the world, plus a 'real ale in a bottle' bar where you can buy beers either to drink at the festival or to take home. Tickets can be bought either in advance or on the door, and CAMRA members get in free on Wednesday and Thursday (see: membership has its privileges). For more details and advance tickets, go to the festival website.

I enjoyed last year's at the Velodrome, although the sight of cyclists hurtling around at high speed while you supped your pint seemed a bit incongruous. I'm not sure yet which day I'm going, but I'll add a note to this post so that fellow bloggers can either look out for me or avoid me as they see fit.

The full address of Manchester Central is Windmill Street, Manchester, M2 3GX.

Hero for more than one day

It's always a shock to switch on the radio and hear that someone who seems always to have been there has died. It's even more so when it's a pop star from our younger years, seeing how closely we relate to those performers whose music we identified with at the time. So it was this morning with David Bowie.

He was a massive star when I was a student, and there was always one song that would fill our disco floor: Jean Genie (a thinly disguised version of the name of the French writer Jean Genet). Here is a version of the song on TOTP from 1973, thought lost until a cameraman found it among his personal collection a few years ago. Predictably, the BBC had wiped the original. Here he is with the great guitarist, the late Mick Ronson. Unfortunately I never him saw live, but this live performance gives some idea of how dynamic his concerts must have been.

Putting it in perspective

As expected, the Chief Medical Officer for England has announced a reduction in the recommended
guideline for alcohol consumption for men from 21 units per week to 14, thus bringing it in line the figure for women. She stated that every year, over 20,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with cancer caused by drinking alcohol, adding that excessive drinking can cause other health problems too.

I am not in a position to dispute the science; after all, only a fool would argue that excessive drinking is a risk-free activity. However, while a diagnosis of cancer is always a serious matter, it is worth pointing out that statistically you are 25% more likely to be knocked down when crossing the road than get cancer through drinking. Why aren't there any public information broadcasts and media coverage of what is clearly a riskier activity?

On a related subject, this was part of an article I wrote for the local newspaper:

At this time of the year, many people feel the need to reduce their alcohol consumption, especially after the indulgences of the Christmas period, but unfortunately January is the leanest month of the year for pubs. Every week, around 30 pubs close down in the United Kingdom, and we have certainly lost quite a few in the Southport and West Lancs area in recent years. A large number of people abstaining in January may drive even more pubs to the wall. Alternatives to a dry January might include not drinking for one full week in every month, or if you want the full month off, choose a different one, perhaps getting sponsorship for your favourite good cause. Or you could simply cut down by taking just enough money out to the pub and no cash card, so you can't be tempted to exceed your preferred limit. But however you choose to cut down, please let's not all hit our pubs at the same time in their hardest month of business. They were there when you wanted them at Christmas last month; let's try to make sure they are still there next Christmas too.

A Cumbrian beer - brewed in Stockport

The Mason's Arms in Anchor Street, Southport, was very busy last night. There was a large contingent of us singers and musicians gathered for the (unamplified) acoustic song night, but the rest of this small pub was busy too. The Mason's is a Robinson's pub which keeps its beer well, and while the usual real ale is Unicorn, last night it was Hartleys XB. Hartley's Brewery of Ulverston was taken over by Robinson's in 1982 and closed in 1991, when production was moved to Stockport.

I remember at the time asking Graham Donning, now one of the organisers of the Manchester Beer and Cider Festival but who in 1991 lived in Ulverston, what the takeover had done for the beer. He replied that overall it was an improvement: the beer had become much more consistent, whereas the Ulverston-brewed version had been extremely variable. Robinson's say the beer is brewed to the original recipe, formulated in 1949. I'm unable to judge because I never drank Hartley's beers when the brewery was independent.

The brewery's own description of the beer is here, and it includes the phrase, 'pale, tart beer, with its rich body and subtle tang of malt'. To me it tastes like just another product from the Robinson's stable, unremarkable but unobjectionable, which is slightly surprising if it complies with the original recipe.

Then there's the pump clip which gives the name as 'Hartleys Cumbrian XB', displaying a picture of the Lake District and the slogan 'Brewed to Eric Simpson's 1949 Recipe'. They are clearly pushing the beer's Cumbrian origins, even though it hasn't been brewed in the area for nearly a quarter of a century. There is no mention of Stockport or Robinson's.

Is this another example - attractive design notwithstanding - of deception, similar to that by Sharp's Brewery who got a lot of flak last year when it was discovered that the production of bottled Doom Bar had quietly been moved to Burton on Trent two years previously? I don't think so: the situation with XB isn't comparable because Robinson's has never made a secret of the fact that Hartley's isn't brewed in Ulverston any more, and this is quite clear from their website. In contrast, I could find no mention even now (post-scandal) on the Sharp's website that some Doom Bar is not brewed in Cornwall.

XB is one of those standard regional brews that is acceptable, but it isn't a beer you'd actively seek out, and it certainly wouldn't impress those who live a life full of hop. 

Join the January onslaught on pubs

The Daily Mash has published an item under the headline 'Non-alcoholics enjoying pretend battle with drink'.

I do love the spoof idea of the once-a-year drinkers struggling with their alcoholic demons, or rather imps, throughout January, but I did begin to wonder who actually follows these campaigns to give up booze for a month. A friend of mine has told me he won't be drinking in January, but he's scarcely a heavy drinker; in fact, he doesn't very often exceed the official weekly guidelines. I can't think of anyone else who is giving up for January.

January abstainers may decide not to visit the pub at all for the duration, not even for a soft drink or a coffee, in order to avoid temptation, but people who live alone may then feel isolated: a month is a long time not to see your friends. If they consequently lapse, they'll probably feel guilty for the failure of their will power, when in fact they were just lonely, and if you'd given up the demon drink for charity, the thought that you had let your chosen charity down just for the sake of a pint wouldn't improve your self esteem. Do the Dry January zealots ever think of such things? I doubt it.

As others have pointed out, including my local recently (see previous post), hitting pubs during their worst month of the year could drive some to the wall, but I believe the anti-alcohol campaigners would regard pub closures, not as an unfortunate side effect, but as a success. Let's not fall into the trap they set. Cut down throughout the year if you want to, rather than abstain for the month, but if you see no option but to stop completely, let's not all do it in the same month.

Local Government joins the killjoys

I'm pleased to see my local in Southport, the Guest House, clearly nail its colours to the mast about Dryanuary on its Facebook page:

"We believe that a responsible approach to drinking is the only way to go... so would like to state our position on ‪#‎Dryanuary‬.

"Dyranuary is an ill-conceived scheme whereby tens of thousands of people across Britain will be convinced that, by boycotting their local pubs, they'll actually be achieving something. What really happens, guys, is that these businesses lose money in their toughest period of the year and we lose more local pubs. Instead of giving up for a month, why not just have 11 pints when you go out instead of 12?

"‪#‎Tryanuary‬ is designed to protect our local pubs against the devastating effects of a scheme that seems intent on destroying our industry.

"If your considering Dryanuary please fully consider the ramifications."

Well said!

The latest addition to ranks of the the alcohol killjoys is the Local Government Association (LGA) which is calling for "clear and prominent labelling" of the calorie count in alcoholic drinks, echoing a previous call by the Royal Society for Public Health. They say it's to tackle the obesity crisis in the country, arguing that people aren't aware of the calorific content of drinks. I'm all in favour of educating the public, but it strikes me that we are forcibly inculcated with things they decide we need to know, but are kept in the dark about things they'd prefer we didn't know too much about such as - to give a completely random example - how the amount we lose to social security fraud is a tiny fraction of what we lose to corporate tax fiddles.

A BBC interviewer astutely pointed out a possible unintended consequence: that it might encourage people to go for spirits as being lower calorie but higher strength. That, the LGA spokesperson said, would lead to the other part of their campaign to highlight the fact that excessive alcohol can lead to serious health problems like liver and heart damage, and an increased risk of cancer. 

Anything wrong with this? Not in itself, but how many people are there in the country who think alcoholic drinks are calorie-free or risk-free? I'd have thought very few, but despite that they still think we constantly need telling. I'd point out to them:

• Almost no one takes the weekly unit limits of 14 for women and 21 for men seriously. The figures lack credibility, especially as one of those who worked on deciding the limits admitted a few years ago that they more or less plucked them out of the air.
• If you keep on ramming the message down people's throats, you will encounter the "boy crying wolf" syndrome. People do not like constantly being preached at.
• Why not give it a rest and just #DryUpInJanuary?

New year rambling thoughts about this blog

I saw New Year in with my brother and sister in law: she was on the red wine while my brother and I drank a 5 litre mini-cask of Wychwood Hobgoblin. Not a fashionable beer, but we enjoyed it, and it was much preferable to beer out of bottles. We hit the sack at around 5.00 a.m.

Today I've been thinking back over my blogging year: I was off line for 6 months until late April 2015, and I did wonder whether I'd be able to revive this blog after such a long period of inactivity. However, looking at the stats, I see that I've had 1035 more unique hits over the year than in my previous peak year (2012), even though that year consisted of a full year of posting. The last two quarters of 2015 were each approximately 30% higher than any previous quarter since I began the blog in March 2009. It's pleasing to know that I'm getting more hits than ever before.

Of my pages (links to the right), the most popular by far is my beer festivals page, and second most popular with a fair number of hits is forthcoming music events. While posts about music are much less likely to attract comments than those relating to beer, I can see that quite a few people do read them.

I saw that Curmudgeon wrote in his review of the year: "Beer blogging itself seems to continue to wither on the vine. I’m likely to record my lowest tally of posts since 2007, which was only a half-year, and it looks as though Tandleman will do the same. I blame Twitter!" I seem to recall Tandleman rhetorically asking about 5 or 6 years ago whether the golden age of beer blogging was over.

I don't know whether there ever was a golden age, but I can't see Twitter taking over from blogs: they serve very different purposes. A detailed analysis, a carefully constructed argument or a comprehensive description cannot be condensed into 140 characters, which seems better suited to saying things like: "Great pint of Old Mudgie in the Sam Smiths Arms tonight, although the Tandleman's Craft Lager was disappointing." I still cannot see much point to Twitter, which is why I'm not on it. Besides I don't have a smart phone, so much of its purpose would be lost.

Dare I suggest that some beer bloggers simply aren't as enthusiastic as they once were? No, I'd better not.

When I began ReARM in 2009, I aimed to post an average of better than one post in every two days, and if you take out the two periods when I was off-line (which total nearly 10 months), I've just about managed that (for info, this is my 1184th post). As I'm sure most other bloggers would agree, while you always want your blog to be current, there are times when you struggle to come up with something to write about, but if you let it fall behind too far, people stop looking at it.

Anyway, enough of all this self-indulgence! It's 1st January and you have a choice: you can go for Dry January, Tryanuary or even Try January. Personally, I'll be going for Try2016.

P.S. A Trip To Planet Zog
I was just about to post this when the BBC radio news announced that they are thinking of bringing in new drink guidelines: a recommendation to have two days per week off the booze, and the suggestion that they may bring the limit for men down to match that of women. While I expect most drinkers usually do have a couple of days off, few people take the current limits seriously. As far as I'm concerned, they can announce what they like but I'm sure licensees would be delighted if drinkers limited their consumption to a pint a day. What planet are these people on?

At least they give us bloggers something to write about, so every cloud ...

Happy New Year!

Jez Lowe this Sunday

Jez Lowe is a singer songwriter from County Durham. His songs frequently deal with daily life in the North East, particularly in his hometown of Easington Colliery, and cover a wide range of subject matter, including economic decline, mining disasters, and the narrow opportunities set by living in a depressed area. As well as performing solo, Jez sometimes plays in a band format with the Bad Pennies, and in various collaborations, such as the Pitmen Poets.

Jez is an old friend of the Bothy Folk Club and her performed there many times, both as a guest and on occasion as a floor singer. He is appearing in Southport at the Bothy next year (aka next Sunday 3 January). The Bothy meets at the Park Golf Club, Park Road West, Southport, PR9 0JS, which serves Southport real ale. Tickets available on-line and on the door, and the show begins at 8.00pm.

This night is likely to be very busy, so I recommend an early arrival.

BBBB new venue

I wrote in August that the Bent & Bongs Beer Bash in Atherton had lost its customary venue, Formby Hall, due to redevelopment, and that a new venue had been found at Atherton Community School. It seems this has fallen through - I've no idea why - and the new venue is the Atherton Roller Rink on Bolton Road, Atherton, M46 9JQ. This is closer to the station, which is about three tenths of a mile away, than both the original venue and the school.

The new dates are Thursday 4 to Saturday 6 February, a fortnight earlier than those planned for the school: this change is probably to prevent a clash with the Liverpool Beer Festival. Admission prices will be reduced and the festival will stay open all day on Saturday until 9.00pm. Go to their website for full details of times and prices.

Free speech in pubs?

The Stoke Inn in Plymouth has put a few rules for its customers for New Year's Eve, covering the wearing of Christmas jumpers, fancy dress, indiscriminate snogging, New Year countdowns and regulars getting preferential treatment as they pay the bills throughout the remaining 364 days. To see the post, click on the date:

New Year’s Eve sucks..........it’s always a disappointment, so this new year’s eve, the Stoke Inn is hosting; “Thursday...
Posted by The Stoke Inn on Tuesday, 15 December 2015

Only partly tongue in cheek, I feel, but it did get me thinking about the rules that some people claim apply to pubs, particularly concerning talk about politics or religion. Why are such subjects apparently forbidden in pubs which are, after all, the most popular voluntary meeting places in the country?

I can understand that there are times when discretion may mean that silence on certain subjects is sensible. For example, speaking in support of the IRA in a pub frequented by the Orange Lodge, or singing The Sash My Father Wore in a Republican pub would only be a great idea if you like hospital food - or can run very quickly. The same applies to praising a football team in a pub associated with hostile supporters of a rival team.

Generally, however, I haven't found any subjects that are out of bounds, and on those occasions when I've discussed politics, it's never seemed to be a problem. After union meetings or conferences, my fellow reps and I sometimes had political chats in pubs and survived, although we weren't fanatics (well, most of us weren't) and might end up talking about anything but politics. The point is I don't think anyone was bothered, and if they were, they shouldn't have been earwigging. Besides, pubs have often been used for political meetings, as assembly points before and after going canvassing or leafleting, and political plots have been hatched in pubs. The back room in the Vernon in Dale Street, Liverpool, was a popular meeting place for Militants during the Hatton era, and Nigel Farage has based a whole political career on being seen with a pint in a pub.

Religion isn't something I discuss very often, but a few months ago I was talking in my local about how I had dealt with some religious door knockers. The two fellows on the next table interrupted me to say that you weren't allowed to talk about religion or politics in pubs. I think I replied, "Says who?" In the end they moved away to another table, which I thought was a laughable reaction: not only had they been listening in to our conversation, but they'd also missed the point: I hadn't been talking about religion, but how I had got rid of religious cold callers. Their attitude was interesting, seeing how much money the Salvation Army raises by collecting in pubs without there ever being the slightest murmur of objection.

Apart from my previous examples where avoiding certain subjects is simple self-preservation, who decides these rules, and why? I know some people say that their political allegiance is a secret between them and the ballot box, an attitude I used to gently mock by saying the same thing while wearing a political party badge; while that's fine for them, why does their reluctance to discuss something mean no one else should either? I find treating politics like a guilty secret quite odd, seeing how comprehensively it affects our everyday lives.

I've been trying to think of any subject that should automatically be out of bounds in pubs, but I can't. I find talk about sport boring, but that's only because I'm uninterested in sport; I wouldn't ban such talk, not that there'd be much chance here in Merseyside.

In case anyone thinks I spend all my time in pubs spouting politics, I don't. I simply can't see why some people consider it a taboo subject.

Seasons Greetings!

Happy Christmas to all!

Bad Reputation II

Last night I went to the Mount Pleasant in Southport, my nearest pub, to see Fag Ash Lil, an excellent local band playing what is now called classic rock, such as Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Joe Cocker, Black Sabbath, Cream and Fleetwood Mac. It was a great gig, and towards the end I gave the sign of the horns (a hangover from my heavy metal days).

One of the two female singers noticed and said that it was good to see me in the audience, "but I wouldn't recognise Nev without a pint in his hand!"

Cheeky!

But they did perform a really good and extremely energetic version of this song:

Dreaming of drink

At this time of year, we are being bombarded with messages, not only to buy-buy-buy, but also to take it easy on the drink over the holiday, and next year to go on the wagon in "Dry January". Paul Bailey has covered this barrage of propaganda pretty thoroughly here, thus saving me the bother.

A bit of personal history: I last took my car to the pub without any regard to the limit on Friday 13 February 1981, when I was stopped by a foot bobby who gave me a stern warning and let me off, providing I left the car where it was until next morning. So much for Friday the Thirteenth being unlucky. I wrote more about drink-driving, including my own, in May 2013.

Considering how long ago that was, it was strange to have a dream last night about me drinking and driving. I got into the car and remember nothing more until I came to, finding the car had moved. I arrived at the gathering I was going to, and afterwards everyone began cracking jokes about all the things I couldn't remember doing.

I do wonder whether this dream had been provoked by the anti-drink messages that gladden the hearts of alcohol campaigners at this time of year. While the rest of us are proposing toasts and wishing each other a happy and peaceful new year, they are tut-tutting that there's no reason why you can't have perfectly a good time on a half of shandy.

Fortunately no one was injured in my dream, just as - through sheer luck rather than skill - they weren't in my real life drink-driving days. But seeing that for nearly 35 years, I have walked or travelled by bus, train or taxi when drink is involved, I sometimes just wish the killjoys would put a sock in it. But I suppose that for some people, this is the season to be Scrooge.

Bad Reputation

I realised this evening that I have a certain reputation with the staff in my local when the fact that I had bought a half pint became a talking point behind the bar!

Which reminded me of this great song by Thin Lizzy (from the John Peel sessions):

To Boldly go

I went into the Bold in Churchtown, north Southport, last night. My main reason for going was to check whether the Southport Swords, friends of mine, could dance there as part of their customary Boxing Day dance tour, but I also wanted to see how the pub looked after more than £300,000 had been spent on refurbishing it. I wrote about this pub and its neighbour, the Hesketh, in July last year.

A few weeks ago, our local paper, the Southport Visiter, published an artist's impression of what the renovated pub would look like, and it was really quite hideous with wooden slats on the ceilings and walls. I should have realised the artist's impression was sheer guesswork when I noticed that, through the pub windows in the picture, you could see traffic going the wrong way down the one way street.

The separate rooms and nooks and crannies that I previously wrote about still exist, as does the old carved woodwork, including the arches over the bar. The floor is now either wood or stone, which will increase the noise levels when the place is full, and some of the tall new tables are on old wooden barrels with high stools, but most of the furniture is more conventional. Overall, I'm quite pleased that this pub, which dates to at least the seventeenth century, hasn't been spoilt.

The real ales that were on at the time of my visit were:

• Churchtown Best Bitter (the house beer, brewed by Greene King).
• St Austell Tribute.
• Tetley Mild.
• Greene King IPA.
• Hardy and Hanson Rocking Rudolph.

This isn't the most adventurous range, but a lot of people like standard beers like Tribute and Greene King IPA. I chose the Rocking Rudolph which I quite enjoyed: it's certainly preferable to its boring IPA stablemate. The presence of a cask mild is to be welcomed. While I am well known as someone who doesn't like Tetley Bitter - I was once booed at the CAMRA AGM for stating what I thought of it - I always used to find Tetley Mild more acceptable. I haven't drunk it since the Tetley brewery in Leeds closed, but perhaps I should try it some time in the interests of research.

I also noticed among the whiskies, Knob Creek Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. I can only assume that the word does not have the same connotations in the USA as it does here, rather like the surname of a certain obnoxious American presidential candidate. The pub offers a reasonably priced standard pub food menu with a specials board, and there are televisions for sport. 

Chatting to one of the staff, I mentioned how inaccurate the picture in the paper had been. She suggested that perhaps the idea was to make it look so bad that you'd be relieved with whatever lesser changes were made. She was joking, but I wonder whether she might have a point.

Incidentally, the Southport Swords will be dancing there on Boxing Day at around 12.15pm. Times for their whole tour can be found on this page.

Never say never

I've just come across an article in the Liverpool Echo on-line about breweries in Merseyside. They list nineteen, and I have to say I didn't realise there were that many; there's even a couple I hadn't heard of before. I must keep my ear closer to the ground.

Here in Southport, there are three: Southport Brewery, a veteran now of 11 years; Parker Brewery in Banks just outside the Southport boundary, but proclaiming its Southport credentials; and the newest, 3 Potts, which is a near neighbour of Southport Brewery. Other breweries nearby include Burscough Brewery in West Lancs, Neptune Brewery in Maghull, Red Star Brewery in Formby, and Rock The Boat Brewery in Little Crosby. More details of these and other Merseyside breweries can be found in the Echo's article.

The most interesting point about all of this is that before 2003, none of these breweries existed at all. After the old Higsons Brewery in Liverpool was closed by Whitbread in 1990, Merseyside and the surrounding areas didn't have a single brewery, and I certainly recall the Liverpool CAMRA branch mourning the loss of all its breweries in a city that had once proudly had quite a few. Although some of us tend to think we know about this subject, none of us ever anticipated the resurgence that has occurred.

I've had beers from most of the breweries listed in the article, and haven't been disappointed. Some aren't entirely to my taste, but that's not the same as saying they're no good. In contrast, some of the old regionals and locally based nationals that we had, such as Matthew Brown, Greenall Whitley and Tetley Walker produced at best mediocre beer, and at worst unpleasant slop (Higsons was the honourable exception). Such an accusation cannot be aimed at these newer breweries, whether you like their products or not.

As for all our previous mourning over the passing of the era of brewing in and around Merseyside, never say never.

The one odd note in the article is that it states that the owners of Cains say they hope to be brewing again within two years. My message to them would be: either seriously get your act together or don't bother. Cains beers became utter rubbish before the company went bankrupt for the second time. While they were thereby destroying any remaining brand loyalty, far superior competitors appeared on the scene. My view is that in the changed beer scene in Merseyside, they'd have a hard job re-establishing themselves.