Real Ale,Real Music

A day out in Harrogate to watch football, along with some good beers and a couple of bars, with the game providing a welcome but unexpected outcome....
Boxing Day.
There's Football. Usually away. And you have to drive. Normally. And you don't want to, after the fun of Christmas Day....
So... up stepped, Pete, one of the guys I see at the football, who a few weeks before Christmas had said he was organising a bus to go to Halifax Town's away match at Harrogate on Boxing Day. So with no trains, buses and a general reluctance to drive, it made sense. So I enlisted my brother, our Tom, and most of the lads I normally go with.
We met at the Old Post Office in Halifax, a friendly pub near the bus station in Halifax used by the Town Supporters' Club. They had put a breakfast on for us, there was the opportunity to try a beer brewed for the team (brewed by Bingley, I think, although I didn't try it), and from where the bus was leaving.
Breakfast consumed, 31 of us set off …

It has been another great year for music. Here's my review of the year's best, plus a few memories of some of the musicians who sadly left us this year....
Whilst 2018 probably didn't have any real stand out albums and tunes that were head and shoulders above the rest compared to some years, the overall standard has been very high across so many genres. Picking just 10 albums that were the best didn't I think reflect the quality of music around, so I upped it to 12 (which I have done before, and in any case I make the rules!). And then picking just one album that stands out has been very difficult. Ask me tomorrow and it may be different! Individual tunes were a bit easier, but even then, I slipped back into DJ-mode to some extent and listed what I felt would sound good when played next.

I saw some excellent live music, both free in the pubs and bars around Halifax and Calderdale and the odd one in Newcastle, and ones I paid for mainly at favourite spots like the Brude…

It seems customary these days to give your end of year review of all things beer and pub-related a title involving 'Golden Pints'. So in a shameless lack of originality, here are my thoughts on whether it has been, to almost quote Elvis Costello, a good year for the goses (other beer styles are available)....


I have drunk some mighty fine beer in some mighty fine pubs and bars over the past 12 months. From Canterbury to Cumbria, from Bristol to the Borders, I have roamed the land, often blogging about it, sometimes not, and have met some lovely, interesting people along the way. I have drunk cask, I have drunk craft, out of glasses, and out of cans. And to pick the best out of it all and fit it into a few hundred words is an impossible task (Well, you decided to do it! - Ed).

So, here are a few highlights....

The Beers
Maybe it's because I'm more discerning these days, and maybe it's because I embrace craft with the same enthusiasm as I do cask, but I honestly think…

An evening last weekend in Huddersfield with some excellent beer and two gigs....
The beer in the Sportsman was spot on.

I was in sat in this popular Huddersfield pub with our Tom. We had got tickets to see Cardiff band Boy Azooga who were performing later in the evening at the Parish, but, needing also to eat, we had first gone for a pint whilst we decided what we fancied. I ordered a pint of Bravo from the always-reliable North Riding whilst our Tom opted for a pint of Imposter Infiltrator from the ever-improving Wilde Child Brewing Company from Leeds. We grabbed our pints and headed for the cosy little room to the right of the bar. I posted the picture above on Twitter, and 2 minutes later one of my followers responded and asked if it was the place where they had the buttons on the wall that people used to use to call for table service. I replied...
The fire was lit, the place was not too busy, and we couldn't decide what we wanted to eat. Mexican? Indian? The Bravo was spot on…

I was in Manchester last weekend, my first visit for a month or two, which gave me the chance to check out the odd new place and visit a few old favourites....
I had been looking forward to going to Manchester for a few weeks, ever since I had booked a ticket to see Nadine Shah at the Ritz. I booked my usual hotel, and was taking the following day off to do some what to me is Christmas Shopping - although admittedly others may find the heavy bias towards trawling around music and book shops, with regular 'refreshment' breaks - slightly unconventional!

So, when I got up on Sunday morning it was disappointing to find a message from a friend asking if I had heard that Nadine Shah had had to cancel her tour, I was naturally disappointed to hear this, as I had had the pleasure of meeting Nadine at the Grayston Unity at the end of this year's Independent Venue Week. It turned out that family circumstances had led to her needing to return to her native North East.

Still, I had th…

I made my first visit to Todmorden for 18 months last weekend to visit the latest micro pub to open in the town. Meanwhile, further down the valley, there was some great music to be heard in Halifax and Hebden Bridge....
I had overlooked the fact that a second micro pub had opened in Todmorden during the summer, but I decided to rectify that last weekend when I was in the area to see Brix and The Extricated at the Hebden Bridge Trades Club on Saturday night.

After a quick visit to the Grayston Unity, I got the bus from Halifax to Todmorden. Unlike my last visit up the Calder Valley a few weeks ago, when severe roadworks in Mytholmroyd took the edge off my entire evening, the traffic seemed to be moving better, and it didn't seem that long before I was getting off the bus at Todmorden Bus Station. About 5 minutes walk away on the Burnley Road is the Ale House, situated in a row of shops and takeaways. It was originally a shop, and more recently, a restaurant, but when she couldn…