12th February 2020
It’s seventeen years since I saw Maria McKee play at Liverpool’s Academy 2, an incendiary full band gig I’ve only seen equalled by you know who since.
The highlight of that night was this epic with its classic opening line.
“There’s a pub on the corner”
That night my pre-gig pint (possibly the oft maligned Top Hat) was The Cambridge, a boisterous GBG Burtonwood pub across the road from your second favourite cathedral.
Yes, yes, Liverpool has the Lion and the Phil and the Peter Kavanagh and the Crown, but if you want a proper slice of Scouse student life come here.
The death of the plain boozer appears exaggerated when you see how busy The Cambridge is at 7.30pm on a Thursday in February.
No Top Hat, but a veritable feast of BBB for the kidz.
No free tables at the front, and only one toward the back where the mature students are discussing Marx (not Richard).
I saw a fair few pints of cask pulled, at £2.80 it should be selling, but we’re living in a San Miguel world these days.
My Pedi is very foamy, lacks the snatch the beer bores bang on about, but is highly enjoyable (NBSS 3). I’m sure Maria McKee would have gone for the Bitter in 2003.
Lots of groups, a few loners, a real pub.
Look how happy these folk are their round of Sadlle Tank is costing less than a tenner.
No, I don’t know why they need five clocks either.
Every street corner should have a pub like this.
Judging from the glasses most of the young pub people were having cask. Nice to see. Would 3.50 pounds have deterred them do you think?
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Good question. Yes I think they’d walk the half mile to the multiple Wetherspoons in that case.
Interesting to see folk in early twenties drinking Marstons.
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Yes, that jumped out at me in the photo. I am guessing beyond the young craft crowd a lot of that age group is pretty open to beer styles and brewers. They just don’t write about it. Online conversations have really distorted the way we perceive things.
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Loved the line about the students “discussing Marx (not Richard)”. You know me, I’m much more likely to be caught feverishly discussing the latter of those two options. 😉
Interesting that San Miguel has made such inroads in the UK. I recognize it as a brand, but here in the US I’d say it struggles to compete with all the other big name lagers out there. That could be just my region though.
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I never see it either. Miller and Michelob.
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Ooh, now youre talking craft!
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You get a high quality of political debate in Liverpool, Mark!
I know nothing about San Miguel, but Mrs RM has a pint in the Greene King pizzeria in our village because it’s reliably cold. The thinking person’s Stella?
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Amazing pub. Nice to see Brakspear on tap; don’t know if I’ve seen it outside of Oxfordshire.
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Not a lot, as it’s not really a distinctive guest, but Oxford Gold pops up in Marston dining pubs around the country.
The 3.4% bitter is still a gem if it’s selling fast enough 👍
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“Three is enough”,
Certainly is.
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Groucho?
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Full.
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I guess it’s generational, but whenever someone mentions Maria McKee I invariably think of her brother, Bryan MacLean. Both very good.
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Maria always remembers Bryan’s anniversaries.
“Life Is Sweet” is a greater record than “Forever Changes”.
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Ah, musical taste is so subjective (much like taste in beer). We are fortunate that there is so much out there to enjoy. Anyway you’re allowed to be wrong.
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Have you played Life Is Sweet, preferably at scary volumes, in a darkened room?
I have.
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“My Pedi is very foamy, lacks the snatch” – tight sparklers probably knocked the snatch out of it.
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