At the moment I feel like an advertising billboard, promoting shows of Brackley Town, Paul Chuckle and now Echo Beach.
You’ve still got 4 hours* to get to Something Brew Inn, Rawmarsh and shout your drunken requests for this one,
which they might not otherwise play. Or “Side 2 of Crocodiles by Echo & the Bunnymen“.
Rawmarsh, heh ?
You won’t believe this but even a map which puts Rawmarsh into context alongside Sheffield and Wath (birthplace of William Hague) is not enough for some. I have personally met a human being who has never been to Sheff. He lives in Long Eaton.
Mind, I can’t say I’d ever stopped in Rawmarsh, and one of the big stories in this year’s GBG is TWO (count ’em) new pubs in north Rotherham.
My journey begins in Parkgate at the Fitzwilliam Arms Hotel, where a drunken family from Pontefract are recreating the deleted scenes from Eyes Wide Shut…
The mile uphill through Parkgate deserves its own post, but so does Rawmarsh, home to this beauty on a hill. Greater Rotherham has some superb churches.
And plenty of those gracious civic buildings that defined the age of Victoria.
But you’re nearly all philistines and care little for culture, so here’s the pub.
I enter to the sound of “Drive” by the Cars (RIP Ric), see the advert for the ’80s night and relax. Despite the giant sofa, it’s going to be alright.
A mix of drinkers on the patio, Guinness and live music, far away from the Herne rules. Hurrah !
I asked the cheery lady for Chantry, “as it’s the local one“.
“Have you tried the Abbeydale ? It’s really nice”
“I’m not drinking that foreign muck !” I said, pathetically attempting a bit of anti-Sheffield solidarity.
“Oh, chap here’s from the brewery !” pointing to the bloke on my right in Abbeydale kit.
“Sorry, love your work, mate” I say by way of reconciliation, successfully. Black Matins, mmm.
I even added a half of his “Splendour” to my empty glass. Lovely lacings.
“So, what should I see in Rawmarsh now I’ve walked all the way out here” I asked the nice lady.
Not a lot (“at least I’m honest !”), but Thrybergh is a lovely park and Marina Fish & Chips a splendid place for what was, inadvisably, my only meal of the day.
Yes, I did drink a Keo.
*Sorry, Mark. You won’t make it.
retiredmartin 
My West of Ireland peasant great great grandfather and his brothers emigrated to Rawmarsh in the late nineteenth century, where after seasonal agricultural labour they became coal miners and steel workers (his daughter, my great grandmother, then crossed the Pennines to go into domestic service in Manchester, where she met my English great grandfather).
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Is that a tribute band in a micropub ?
Glam Rock tribute band Hairy Eyeball were on at the Titanic Brewery yesterday afternoon but I missed some of it as I was discussing Plum Porter with the Head Brewer.
Am I being too cynical or curmudgeonly in thinking that “Have you tried the Abbeydale ? It’s really nice” really means “Have you tried the Abbeydale ? I don’t think it’ll be fit to sell tomorrow”?
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You’re cynical but not Curmudgeonly.
She was definitely only saying it because the brewery bloke had just popped in!
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I’m glad that sort of stuff happens to other people too.
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All the time.
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Far be it from me to suggest that a more appropriate 80’s album in Rotherham would be “Back in the DHSS”….
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Oh, Scott. Remember I’ve been to Aberdeen as well as Rotherham. There’s some very smart bits of Rotherham and some real dumps in Aberdeen.
But I guess Aberdeen has 3 BrewDogs 🤔
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More dumps than smart bits in Aberdeen these days. And I consider the Hop & Anchor making it 3 1/2 Brewdogs, so what more could you want?
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Not a lot, tbf.
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Given that “Echo Beach” was actually a 70s hit, it’s maybe not the best name for an 80s tribute band.
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The echo obviously reverberated into the 80s, still naff anyway.
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That would be an unpopular opinion on here Citra.
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Much like my love of BBB?
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Definitely released in January 1980 as I bought it the same week as The Pretenders album, but of course purists will tell you that 1980 was the last year of the 70s and the millennium started on 1.1.2001
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Sorry I had to look that up.
Convinced Echo beach was an 80s track (I must have it on about 10 different 80s compilations)
It charted in February 1980.
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