Real Ale, Real Music

A friend of mine mentioned the other day that he had been on the Real Ale Trail the previous weekend and how much he had enjoyed the beer and the atmosphere at the Buffet Bar at Stalybridge Railway Station, knowing it was somewhere I visited on a regular basis. I have been visiting the place for almost 11 years now, as I only work a short distance away and it makes an ideal stop for a post-work pint.  I have always enjoyed the craic when I visit, the conversation can veer from the erudite to banal, hilarious to serious within minutes, and provides a great place to de-stress after a busy day.  But, that said, I suppose when you visit somewhere regularly there is a tendency to take things for granted and forget that this is such an iconic place. So when my mate went in for the first time he was greeted by a friendly pub, chock full of railway and other memorabilia from years gone by, with a bank of handpumps and taps, and a blackboard featuring the day's food specials. The f...

"Oh, all the comrades that e'er I had They're sorry for my going away...."   The Parting Glass. Trad It was my birthday last weekend, and so on Saturday, I headed over to Huddersfield with some friends for a few drinks and a curry. We met at the Kings Head on the station as we were meeting a few of the group who had gone to watch Town play at Stalybridge. The Kings Head has been undergoing a slow renovation over a year or two and it was the first time I had been in the newly-opened side room, which now offers a more intimate alternative to the cavernous main room, which would benefit from curtains and other soft furnishings to soften the echoes. The beer was spot on and good value as ever, with Magic Rock Ringmaster or Bradfield Farmers Blonde the choice of most of us. The rest of the group arrived, moaning and fed up as Town had lost 1-0. We moved on to The Corner, the Mallinsons Tap House that has fitted seamlessly into the Huddersfield town centre scene. I alwa...

Starting the new year with a cold has not been the best introduction to 2017, but it doesn't take away from the fact that I had a good Christmas and New Year, spending time with family and friends, and enjoying some excellent beers in some wonderful pubs. I visited most of the usual haunts, but I also tried a few different places too. On Boxing Day, our Tom and I had a local walk to visit the Red Rooster at Brookfoot for the first time in a while. This was a regular port of call for me for many years, originally when it was under the auspices of Jim Wright's TFC Group, when John and Maureen Tillotson were landlord and landlady, probably 30 years ago now. Over the years I continued visiting, when Tom and Brenda had it, then Elaine, but we had decided to visit following the return of another previous landlord, Eddie Geater, who had been there for a couple of years back in the noughties. There was a reasonable afternoon crowd in, a good atmosphere, and the beer was on top form. ...

"Look up here, I'm in heaven..."  So sang David Bowie on 'Lazarus', one of the tracks from his last album, 'Blackstar', released on his birthday last January. A powerful and amazing album, the words above proved to be prophetic as 3 days later on January 11th, his death was announced, leaving millions of us fans stunned, this was a guy we'd grown up with, part of our lives, and who was now no longer with us. And this in many ways was the shape the year was to take, with a crazy number of musicians from all genres leaving us this year. Here's just a few of those we lost: Prince, both Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, Merle Haggard, Pete Burns, Leonard Cohen, Phill Dawg, Dave Swarbrick, and Bobby Vee. And in the last few days, Rick Parfitt and George Michael. Many, but not all, of these were of a pretty senior age but we don't tend to think of them that way, we expect them to just carry on, not having prescriptions or hearing aids or walking stic...

"It was the little man that built this town..." Alan Jackson* As 2016 starts to draw to a close, I thought I would have a look back over the past 12 months at what has been a pretty momentous year for the local pub and bar scene. A year which started with devastation for several and then over the course of the year, new venues opened and closed up and down the area, and Halifax finally became a great town for a visit again after years in the doldrums. The year started with several of our pubs, particularly in the Upper Calder Valley trying to pick of the pieces after the devastating Boxing Day floods. We started the year with The Olde Gate, Calan's, Drink, The Railway, The White Swan, The Shoulder of Mutton, and Stubbing Wharf all shut in Hebden Bridge. Of those, The Railway is still shut. The rest had different periods before re-opening, ranging from a matter of weeks to several months. Indeed, in the midst of battling with insurance companies, Calan's 2 opened u...

One of the best pubs in Calderdale, and, indeed, anywhere, celebrated an anniversary this week. Wednesday marked 4 years since Hugh Kirby and Ruth Dunsmore took over the Cross Keys in Siddal, Halifax. This had previously been an unremarkable place belonging to a pubco, the sort of place that you would drive past and to which you would never give a second glance. Definitely not the sort of place to trouble any fan of real ale. Now a Good Beer Guide regular and serial award-winner, it features a choice of 6 ever-changing ales on handpump - which have recently included the likes of Abbeydale, Salopian, Great Heck, Vocation, Squawk, and Titanic - all of which are served in tip-top condition. The pub also hosts a very popular beer festival each August with beers from near and far. The pub is warm, comfortable, and friendly, with a main bar area, another sitting area to the side, and a tap room. Outside there is a paved beer garden which is a real sun-trap. The pub doesn't do meals, b...

Some of the most frequent visitors this year on the guest beer list of many of Calderdale's favourite pubs and bars have been beers like Lemon Dream and Shropshire Gold from Salopian Brewery. Now unlike other frequent visitors such as Abbeydale, Vocation, Mallinsons, and Saltaire, Salopian aren't local but originate, as their name suggests, from Shropshire. Salopian beers are brought to this area by Russ Baron, who over the last 20 years or so has also introduced beers to this area from the likes of Newby Wyke and Purity. Russ is able to offer a more personalised service to both the pubs and the breweries themselves than general beer distributors so that the arrangement suits both parties. Whilst Russ also works nowadays with both Millstone and Pictish breweries, it is Salopian which is the one in the most demand these days! When Russ - who I have known for 25 years - mentioned some time ago there would be a Meet The Brewer evening with Salopian at the Victorian Craft Beer ...