Due to public demand I’m using the extra hour to bring you a bonus post from the home of ’80s musical giants Kajagoogoo.
They lost their googoo for a while in the mid-80s. Don’t we all.
There’s a tribute to the boys in Leighton Buzzard town centre, but really it’s the stunning pub stock that puts the town on the tourist map.
Sadly, no time for Bass in the Black Lion or the fish tank in the Red one on the way to the eponymous Brewery Tap.
There’s one certainty about a visit to a brewery tap; you’ll find it shut. Or think it is.
And so it was I stood despairingly at the entrance of a clearly closed brewery for a good, oh, twelve seconds before turning 180 degrees and seeing an identical sign across the road indicating the shop.
“Everyone does that, even me” said the cheery chap just opening up.
Here’s the Tap, the embodiment of function over form.
Clearly folk (“Buzzards” ?) do walk out here on Fridays and Saturdays for their growlers of local beer, but the four craft keg taps (and fridge of interesting cans) were a surprise.
Apparently they put on food carts and live music to drag folk away from the delights of the High Street. Not sure if that dart board is a wise idea.
There are folk who’d venture here just to admire the Greene King and Ely Ales bar trays, of course.
I compared notes on places I’d seen their beers, sent as far as Barnet apparently.
“Do you get many folk here because you’re in the Beer Guide now ?” I asked innocently, over a cool half of Buzzard (NBSS 3.5).
His eyes lit up.
“Oh yes, we had the Pub Master here last week !”
“Was he Scottish ? Bang on about moths ?” etc. etc
Apparently Duncan’s visit had been a sensation, though the five matches before lunchtime in the Dunstable Women’s League Cup had attracted most admiration.
Decorum suggested I take Mrs RM a bottle back.
No. Not ALL of them.
retiredmartin 
Hopefully they are now Kaja go go.
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Oh, very good. Yes, all back friends again and playing sell-out shows at Linslade Lido.
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If they bought a bottle to take home like young Martin they’d be known as Kajatogogo.
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Anywhere that has ‘Save water Drink Beer’ or other facile comments on cheap tatty signs, such as ‘Free beer Tomorrow’, should be ineligible for GBG status. I raised this with CAMRA and they say they are going to get a Round Tuit.
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Yes, indeed, but you must admit that Brewing Company isn’t as bad as Beer Factory.
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Beer Factory suits me, that’s what Banks’s is.
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I suppose that if the brewery is called Banks’s, then we should really go into Gollum mode, and ask for pints of Bankseses.
“Duck Or Grouse”.
“We aim to please. Will you aim too, please?”
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“…I prepared them for the impending visit of Retired Martin and advised them of the relevant necessary precautions ie don’t be open when you say you are”.
You are trying to tick them off, but Duncan is tipping them off about your impending visits. The things he will do to stay a tick or two ahead of you. Is that Slimey chap similarly deceitful ?
Interesting to see Chris Hamill (aka Limahl) on your photograph. A blast from the past !
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A blast from the past indeed but more importantly a reminder that this blog is a Never Ending Story.
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Oooh, anagram expert and now cultural guru !
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Limahl is an anagram Christopher Hamill’s surname.
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Slimey Si is appropriately named !
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I actually thought that it was Slimey.
Just looked and found that it is actually Simey.
At least he doesn’t post on here !
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Not Slimey.
He gets round pubs faster than a snail.
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“Who’s that approaching”
Having done Kajagoogoo, you might want to consider The Shadows.
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Oddly enough Nick Beggs the bass player is now a prog rock musician for hire par excellence even playing in the mighty Steve Hackett’s band….. I wasn’t going to comment but figure the er demograph of all your readers fits 1970s prog 🙂
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Well the demographic might, but not necessarily the tastes. Incidentally, would you be the same Raymondo, oft-referred to by one Terence D? I only ask, because he also mentions Mike And The Mechanics etc. from time-to-time in his reviews.
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Ah….I cannot claim to a) be that Raymondo….and b) appreciate Mike and the Mechanics….just a beer loving lurker 🙂
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Loved the Lurkers.
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Thanks Raymondo. You have to do a bit of interpolation, to work out the present-day musical tastes of the good folk here, it seems to me.
I became a Hendrix fanatic in my teens for instance, but happily listen to Classic FM these days.
Van Morrison was outstanding at St.David’s Hall a few days ago, mind, as was Bob Dylan, at the Motorpoint Arena in 2016. Far better than at Earl’s Court in 1981, I thought.
I did see Genesis at Drury Lane in the 1970s, and the yet-to-be Mrs. E had Gabriel himself sit next to her – not with me – on another occasion, singing into a prototype radio microphone amongst the crowd.
We were easily impressed by technology back then eh?
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This is a prog free zone. If Mudgie mentions prog I edit his comment to read K Pop.
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For what it’s worth, John Motson, apart from being the aspergic football stats/history man that he is, is also a prog/heavy metal cognoscente.
Maybe he’ll make a cameo appearance? Hello….John…
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Not been to a gig since late 1986 when I saw “Furniture” – Brilliant Minds et al – in the upstairs room of some pub in the Kilburn, Wilsden or Harlesden area of North London.
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Sounds exciting. Saw Lone Justice at Mean Fiddler in Harlesden that year, never forgotten.
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Is distressed wood and the use of re-cycled pallets de rigueur for craft-brewery taps, these days?
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Oddly enough, recycled pallets, and lurid cushions, have been used for the outdoor seating area at my village local, which is distinctly trad, and non-craft.
I’m not sure as to what, exactly, the adjective “distressed” might most properly relate at said venue, however.
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Function over form, I think, Paul. The rooms never look or feel cosy, and either feel empty or crowded as they seem to open for limited hours and for specific sporting events.
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I will confess to having bought that Kajagoogoo album back in high school (without having heard any of it, as we all did in those days), and as terrible as my taste in music was back then, even I knew it was awful! Don’t know if I can forgive you having not got a photo of that “tribute to the boys in Leighton Buzzard town centre”– I’ll go to my grave wondering what it looked like.
What was Mrs RM’s verdict on the beer?
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Mrs RM enjoyed it. I had a swig (not literally !) and it was very good.
I too bought the Kaja LP, possibly in the same week as Aztec Camera and Echo & The Bunnymen. Goodness knows why.
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Martin, thank you so much for admitting to this, as until now I’ve not encountered anyone else who made this same regrettable error of judgment. 😉 Do you remember the track “Ergonomics”? In the running for worst song of the entire decade, if not all time!
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I was 18, Mark. Spent all my earnings on records back then. Rapidly expanding musical taste to blame, Sadly, I do recall Ergonomics. I do rate “Never Ending Story”, oddly.
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Was hoping you would save decorum for the Hemel patch?
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Hemel may have dacorum but certainly no decorum.
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I always admire the creativity of interior designs in micropubs and craft brewery taps.
This one has really captured the feel of a bog-standard industrial unit – amazing….!
😉
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GardenHermit by the way – not anonymous….Wordpress is now shunning me since moving to Blogger 🙂
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Nice people though.
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He’s a smooth talking chap is that pub master bloke 😉😉👍chatty barmen cover a multitude of sins but like look of this place
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