rhythm and booze Food, Booze, Bands & News - Issue 12 - March/April 2012
What a Bells up
By keeping The Six Bells’ toilets, Hawksworth has a suitable place to store its planning documents. When George Bradshaw visited Peterborough in the early 1860s, while researching his railway companion, he said that the Cathedral was, ‘the only object worth notice’. Given the amount of demolition work going on in town these days, his words still ring true, some 150 years later. The latest victim of the City’s ‘scorched earth policy’ is The Six Bells on Westgate, a place I knew well during my adolescence, where I made many lasting friendships (including my fiancée), saw some decent bands (more often than not featuring Richard ‘Angus’ Mackman) and completed my drinking ‘apprenticeship’; although the cider and black with a crème de menthe depth charge of my 19th birthday is a world away from a decent real ale. Closed for the past ten years, thanks in part to the greedy PubCo who demanded a 25%
rent increase from its tenant, the pub stands on land earmarked for the North Westgate redevelopment; a scheme that looked, even when the country had plenty of money, like something dreamt up in cloud cuckoo land. Still believing that the development has legs, Hawksworth Securities has decided to ‘kickstart’ the project by tearing down the pub. So what’s being put in its place? A cinema? A department store? A restaurant? No, a hand car wash, something we have plenty of already and not the most welcoming of sights for visitors to our City. Over the last few years several of my teenage haunts have been demolished; the Lady Lodge Arts Centre, the Wirrina and now, The Six Bells. Still, I used to hang around Queensgate on a Saturday afternoon; you never know it may be a case of fourth time lucky with the next demolition job.
Girl Powered Beverley Kills/ The Destructors C’etait La Guerre Considered by The Slits as the ‘best support of the tour’, Beverley Kills all-girl punk-rock attack has been gaining momentum ever since they formed four years ago. Out 26 March 2012
“Beverley Kills plays great all-girl punky power-pop, sorta like The Muffs or the Fastbacks with a more aggressive vocalist and a dirtier guitar sound.” - Fear and Loathing “Some of it really does remind me of early Go Gos, but harder, grittier and more punk sounding.” - Suspect Device
BUY ONLINE or as a DOWNLOAD BY MAIL ORDER FROM METALONROCK.TV OR AS A DOWNLOAD FROM iTUNES/7DIGITAL
No Distance Left To Run?
Jamie (left) presents the proceeds from his book, Ebdon To Charlery – London Road Legends, to The Posh Foundation. The book, priced £9.99, is available from Waterstone’s and the Posh Club Shop.
Like a marathon runner who has got stitch at 13 miles, a headache at 16 and wants to give up at 20, Posh are now edging ever slower towards Championship safety, says Standing On The Glebe’s Jamie Jones. We all knew from the start that this would be one of the toughest seasons in the club’s history. The quality and resources of the clubs in this division always meant that just staying above the dotted line would be a huge achievement. We all need to keep that in mind now, as we head to the last few weeks of hope, despair, joy and agony. As I write this we are being kept out of the relegation dogfight mainly due to the other teams around us being awful (yes Forest fans, I mean you). The early season spark and vigour surrounding the team has long gone and we are left with a series of performances that are leaving fans worried about the prospect of an immediate return to League One. I will state here and now that we won’t go down. We have enough about us (just) to retain our place in the division, and that for me will be right up there with the clubs greatest ever
achievements. To stay in this division with a core home support of 6,500 fans is amazing and every man, woman and child associated with the Posh should feel very proud when we do stay up. I am not going to get into war-cry mode and tell you all to get down to London Road, you have heard it all before. However, I would say that despite the poor run of form at the moment, this is still some of the best football that I have seen at London Road in my 28 years of watching PUFC and I know that the team will battle on to the end. DivisionFour Publishing Set up in 2011, with the simple aim of publishing books that we would want to buy, DivisionFour Publishing is very pleased to announce that we have signed deals to publish The Official History of Peterborough United FC and Gabi Zakuanis’ autobiography later in the year. We welcome submissions in all genres (especially Sport, Fiction, Music and Children’s/Teen fiction) and further information can be found by visiting www.divisonfourpublishing.co.uk
Easter BeerFest Running over the Easter Weekend, we’ll be offering 16 real ales (plus another four in the pub), along with ciders, fruit beers and live music in the marquee. Good Friday 6th April - Country Knights (8pm) 7th April - Pennyless (2.30pm), The One Eyed Cats (8.30pm) Thursday 8th March - Open Mic Plus regular Saturday evening entertainment in March 3rd - The Collaborators n 10th - Rocket ‘57 th 17 - Live Irish Music n 24th - Ain't Misbehaving 31st - Claddagh
The Golden Pheasant
Main Street, Etton, Peterborough PE6 7DA - 01733 252387
www.thegoldenpheasant.net
Hand & Heart
12 Highbury Street. Peterborough PE1 3BE 01733 564653
A traditional back-street pub with up to six real ales at any time
23rd-29th April - St George's Beer & Music Festival Featuring 60+ rare and new real ales, homecooked food & approximately15 live bands from Thursday to Sunday on the garden stage nCAMRA Cambridgeshire Pub of the Year 2010 nCAMRA Gold Award Winner 2010 nLocAle Accredited nListed in the CAMRA 2012 Good Beer Guide
by Cardinal Cox
Pub Scrawl
The always-excellent King’s Lynn Literature Festival is to be held over the weekend of 9-11 March at the Town Hall. This year’s guests include Man Booker shortlisted and Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize winner Carol Birch; new author Yvette Edwards; Mark Illis (who, as well as a handful of books, has written for The Bill, EastEnders and Emmerdale); journalist and novelist Jake Wallis Simons; and critic and author DJ Taylor. For full details go to the website at www.lynnlitfests.com The Oundle Festival of Literature runs from 7-18 March and features a wide variety of writers and poets including Alexander McCall Smith, creator of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. For full details of times, venues and prices visit www.oundlelitfest.org.uk Stamford Arts Centre, which runs a regular literary lunchtime talk on the first Tuesday of the month, will host a poetry festival from 28 March until 2 April, featuring Ian McMillan, John Hegley, Peterborough’s Dead Poets and the final of the Stamford Poet Laureate competition. For further
information, including an entry form, visit www.stamfordartscentre.com/ verse2012 The Arts Centre also hosts a literary lunchtime talk on the first Tuesday of the month. On 6 March the subject is Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, 3 April is Death in Venice (followed by the film) and 1 May is Tender is the Night. Crime author Stephen Booth, who writes the Cooper and Fry police novels set in the Peak District, will be talking about his life and work at Peterborough Central Library on 16 March at 7pm. Tickets are priced £3 and are available from the Library. Sawtry-based publishers Dedalus Books will be releasing its third alcohol inspired book in April. Following from the excellent Dedalus Book of Absinth and the Dedalus Book of Gin, the Dedalus Book of Vodka (by Geoffrey Elborn) looks at the historical and social significance of the clearest of spirits. The books can be ordered from bookshops and online retailers. This year’s Book Night Giveaway is on 23 April 23rd so keep your eyes open for sundry novels being handed
The Cardinal’s Calendar
20 March/17 April – Poetry Factory is back to offer constructive criticism to writers and performers. Bring a couple of poems, pen and some paper. Call Pete Irving on 01733 890537 for full details.
14 March/11 April – Pint of Poetry, Dash of Drama open mic nights at Charters Bar. Starting at 20.30, anyone wishing to read should arrive about 20.00, as it can get quite busy.
Death In Venice can be seen at Stamford Arts Centre on 3 April.
out. Last year I was involved in a not terribly successful evening, but we passed on some of the leftovers to a charity that works with local homeless and the rest to Peterborough Prison, from both of which we got some really grateful feedback. This issue’s local hero is Kevin Troop who published the poetry magazine The Third Half (from the mid 1980s) that later expanded into an imprint. In 1989 he organised the fifth National Poetry and Small Press convention, held at Stamford Art Centre, attracting poets from across the country and even as far away as New York (if my memory serves me right). In 2009 he had his third tale for children, The Rejects’ Revenge, published. Cardinal Cox is an enthusiastic amateur drinker who has just been made Poet-in-Residence of St. John’s Church, Peterborough.
Back on the buses
The Millstone in Barnack was the perfect place for a spot of lunch. Photo © David Brown
Unlike previous pub crawls by bus, a trip on the Delaine 201 – between Peterborough and Stamford – is quite a relaxed affair. We even found time for lunch, making a nice change from crisps and nuts. Meeting at Queensgate Bus Station one Saturday morning, three of us took the 11.00 bus from Bay 9, paying £4.75 each for an adult day rover. In a journey scheduled to take 35 minutes, we got off at Red Lion Square in Stamford,
walked along All Saints Street and turned into the alleyway next to Harrison & Dunn. Walking to the end, we turned left and headed to The Golden Fleece (http://bit.ly/Al4nmR). An Everards house, like several others on the crawl, the Fleece is a popular pub, well known for its live music at weekends and food served throughout the day. Reopening on 2 March, after a three-week refurbishment,the beers available on our visit were Oakham Ales
Scarlet Macaw and Everards Tiger. Finishing our drinks in record speed, we were at the bus station opposite the pub in time for the 12.00 to Barnack. Keeping an eye out for the village sign, we went past the first bus shelter, getting off at the unmarkedstop opposite the second at 12.10. Crossing the road, we walked along Jack Haws Lane, turning right on to School Lane and left on to Millstone Lane where the eponymous Millstone Inn (http://bit.ly/znWaF7) can be found. Five of the six hand pumps were in use on our visit; serving Everards Tiger, Original and the seasonal Old Flame, along with Hook Norton Old Hooky and Westons Scrumpy. Run by Scott since November, the pub serves food at lunchtimes and in the evening.
The Bluebell in Helpston serves a fantastic range of food and ale. Photo © David Brown With an hour between buses, this was the perfect place for us have our lunch at; going for a baguette and chips at a reasonable £5.25 each. Reversing our route, we walked back to the bus stop for the 13.10 towards Helpston. Arriving in the village seven minutes later, we got off at the stop just past the John Clare Memorial, walking along Church Lane until we arrived at the Exeter Arms. Walking into the porch, we went through the door on the right to find a cosy bar with a roaring fire. Thankfully, the locals sat around the bar took kindly to strangers. Even offering to remove the sleeping cat from one of the chairs at our table. Being animal lovers we declined and while sitting with our new feline friend, had a pint of Adnams Lighthouse, the other beer available being Fuller’s
London Pride. A walk back on ourselves took us to the crossroads, where carrying on along Woodgate will take you to the Blue Bell Inn. Like the Exeter, where his body was kept the night before his funeral, John Clare is heavily linked to the Blue Bell; his family home, now a visitor centre, is next door and as a young boy he worked here as a potman. Run by the amiable Aubrey Sinclair Ball, the pub has several cosy rooms in which to enjoy traditional ‘pub grub’ and some top class ales. Available at the bar on our visit were Shepherd Neame Master Brew, Adnams Broadside and Sole Star (a low alcohol beer at 2.7%) and John Clare, brewed exclusively for the pub by Grainstore Brewery. Back at the bus top, we took the 14.17 towards Glinton footbridge and luckily
for us, the driver allowed us to get off at Etton crossroads, saving us the need to double back on ourselves. A short walk up Main Road took us to the Golden Pheasant, another pub that’s renowned for its food and drink. On the bar were several real ales including Fuller’s London Pride and Castle Rock Harvest Pale. Staying for two pints each made us miss the 15.17 back to Peterborough, so we walked to Glinton. After crossing the footbridge, we continued on to the High Street where we found another Blue Bell, now the only pub in the village. Surprisingly for a Greene King pub, it had Thwaites Wainwright and Hydes Original in addition to the standard IPA and Abbott Ale. No prizes for guessing which two we didn’t choose as we killed time for the 16.08 Number 102 service from the crossroads to Queensgate.
REVIEWS
Peter Donegan with The Lonnie Donegan Band Stamford Corn Exchange – February 11 It is now a decade since Lonnie Donegan died while visiting friends in Market Deeping, but his musical tradition is being kept proudly alive by his son Peter, aged 28. Peter played keyboards in his father’s band as a teenager and also appeared as the opening support act on occasions. So, he is very familiar with the broad repertoire and comfortable in the company of some of the musical colleagues from Lonnie’s band. With Paul Henry on lead guitar, Chris Hunt on drums and the more recently recruited bassist ‘Steady’ Eddie Masters, they kept an audience of Donegan fans happy on a winter’s night at Stamford’s Corn Exchange Theatre with a selection of old favourites, some rarer tracks plus a few of Peter’s own songs. Peter is a very capable musician, switching with ease between guitar, keyboards, banjo and mandolin. Vocally he does not try to copy his father – who could? – but presents his own personal slant on the songs linked by some interesting stories and anecdotes about his famous dad. There is, of course, a vast choice of songs to choose from. I grew up with Lonnie Donegan’s music back in the day he was responsible for introducing me to the wonderful world of American folk and blues music and bringing songs from the likes of Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly to a wider audience on these shores. Songs like The Grand Coulee Dam and Rock Island Line continue to delight and who can resist singing along and tapping your feet to happy tunes such as Puttin’ On The Style. Peter was keen to take requests from the floor and inevitably people asked for, and got, some of the quirkier pop hits such as My Old Man’s A Dustman. But the real treat was to hear again material such as Jack O’Diamonds and Seven Daffodils in what amounted to a heart-warming evening of musical nostalgia. David Brown Attila the Stockbroker - Bankers & Looters (CD) Mad Butcher Records
Mixing folk music with Clash-inspired guitars, Bankers & Looters is Attila’s first release with his ‘baroque‘n’roll’ band, Barnstormer, in almost five years. As its title suggests, this mini-album deals with two of the greatest crimes of recent times; with the song Looters reminding listeners that, “There’s no such thing as society, So steal and cheat and loot, Just one thing to remember – Make sure you wear a suit”. In Bye Bye Bankers, Attila’s attack on the money men doesn’t let up; daring them to carry out their threat and take their ‘talent’ elsewhere. Left wing in outlook, there’s no prizes for guessing who Maggots 1, Maggie 0 is about, while the rockabilly tinged Dean Reed (The Red Elvis) celebrates the one time teen idol who left America for life in the Soviet Bloc. But it’s the track Only Football about football clubs being bought up by people who see them as “just some prime site real estate” that will resonate the most among Posh fans.
nMobile disco for parties, weddings etc nExperienced, reliable DJ with an extensive selection of music and lights
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LISTINGS
Cock Inn 1305 Lincoln Rd Werrington, Peterborough PE4 6LW 01733 322006 March 02 03 09 10 16 17
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Taking Care of Business DB5 Hooker One Eyed Cats Slide To Open St Patrick’s Day
April 07 – Porky Pig 13 – Rocket ‘57 Goodbarn’s Yard 64 St. Johns Street Peterborough PE1 5DD 01733 313826 March 03 09 16 23 30
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Kickback Zebrootz Hooker The Overdubs Frankly my dear
April 07 13 20 21
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Petlogy Lee Major Zebrootz Charity Event for the Special Care Baby Unit with Zebrootz and Vanilla Finger.
The Hand & Heart 12 Highbury Street Peterborough PE1 3BE 01733 564653
March
01 – Irish Music Night 15 – Captain Backwash 31 – 'Big Money' Quiz Night April 05 – Irish Music Night 21 Lloyd Watson & friends 23-29 – St George’s Beer & Music Festival (See advert for more info) The Ostrich Inn 17 North Street Peterborough PE1 2RA 01733 746370 March 03 09 10 16 17 23 24 31
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The Malingerers Kickback Grumpy Old Men Gin House Pennyless (Irish Night) Beats Working Porky Pig Electric Warriors
Prince of Wales Feathers 38 Peterborough Road Castor, Peterborough PE5 7AL 01733 380222 March 03 17 24 31
– Acquiesce – Identity Crisis – Overdubs – Bewildered
April 07 – Karaoke Three Horseshoes Church Street
Werrington, Peterborough PE4 6QE 01733 571768 March
10 – Redemption 17 – The Returns 31 – Mighty Mouth Karaoke April 07 08 14 21 28
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Kickback Gave Hyde Slide to Open Retrolux Mighty Mouth Karaoke
* All listings given in good faith, Rhythm & Booze cannot be held responsible for any discrepancy. Whittlesea’s Got Talent Organised by internet radio station whittleseasurf.com, Whittlesea’s Got Talent is a competition that is open to singers, groups and bands. Taking place throughout March – at Quinns Club, Market Street, Whittlesey – the winners will receive airplay on whittleseasurf.com and seafordsurfradio.com, along with other great prizes. For an application form, email info@whittleseasurf.com Get in touch Do you promote live music at your pub or venue? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Email your gig dates for May and June to simonstabler@aol.com before 6 April 2012 for free inclusion in the next issue’s listings page.
Rhythm & Booze, Issue 12 - Mar/Apr 2012. All written material, unless otherwise stated, © Simon Stabler
The Blue Bell Inn
10 Woodgate Helpston Peterborough PE6 7ED 01733 252394
A traditional country inn, offering a warm welcome and a good selection of real ales Lunchtime Specials ÂŁ6.95 - 2 courses ÂŁ8.95 - 3 courses