Real Ale, Real Music

York CAMRA were holding their 50th Anniversary Beer Festival last week, so I decided to head over to the city and check it out. Here's my reflections on what was a splendid afternoon there in a rather historic setting.... The first York Beer Festival took place at the De Grey Rooms in the city centre way back in March 1974. Times were very different back then; it was was the year that Richard Nixon resigned as US President in the wake of the Watergate scandal, there were two General Elections in this country, Leeds United won the First Division title ( no Premier League in those days! ), local team York City finished 3rd in the old Division 3 ( Halifax Town were 9th ) to gain promotion to the second tier for the first time in their history, the Volkswagen Golf made its debut, and a Swedish group called Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest with their song Waterloo . The real ale scene back then was also very different to how it is now. CAMRA had only been formed a year or two before...

I've recently been on a great trip to the North East which combined catching up with the family, visiting a new football ground, and enjoying some excellent beer in a cornucopia of different pubs and bars.... So here I was heading up to Newcastle first to meet the local branch of the family, then the next day I was off to see FC Halifax Town at a new ground in a town I had been to before but never really lingered. The town in question was Hartlepool, situated on the coast to the north of the Tees estuary. I arrived at my Travelodge around 2.30, just before the official check-in time, but was able to get in to the room, with bags dropped off, and a pint front of me at the Broad Chare  by 3pm, the official time. This wonderful place, which hosts a Michelin-rated restaurant, is nonetheless very welcoming to non-diners and has a decent range of cask and craft beers. I went for a pint of the house beer, Writer's Block an easy drinking 4.1% pale ale, which is now brewed by Anarchy, a...

This famous city by the River Mersey has much of interest and is always worth a visit, as I was reminded once again when I was there recently with some friends and colleagues.... The other Monday I and a group of colleagues from the Grayston Unity and Meandering Bear bars in Halifax went on a team day out to Liverpool, following in the grand tradition of previous visits to York and Manchester. The trip was a thank you from owners Michael and Jess for the efforts following the end of another busy gig season at the neighbouring Piece Hall, which brings in significant extra trade for the pubs, bars, and other businesses in the town. It was also an opportunity to bid farewell to some of the younger members of the team who are about to start or return to university, or are moving on to pastures new. Most of us were on the 1017 train from Halifax, although a few more joined us when we changed trains at Manchester, with one of the group even travelling through from Newcastle. We all arrived t...

A first ever visit to a town that is Lancashire to its core, where I discover that there are a number of small bars alongside the more traditional pubs that have become an established part of the local social scene.... It was not a simple brief I had given myself. Where to go that was relatively close, somewhere I'd never visited before, and a place that had enough Good Beer Guide pubs to make the journey worthwhile. Not easy, as the list of places that fit that criteria, has gradually got much shorter. And that is why that in the end I settled on Darwen, situated in heart of the West Pennine hills between Blackburn and Bolton, around an hour and 25 minutes away from Halifax by train, and home to three Good Beer Guide listings. I booked a ticket for the 11.30 to Blackpool North, which involved getting off at Blackburn and from there catching a connecting train to Darwen. I had thought that the worst of the seaside-bound crowds would have passed by then, but as the train pulled into...