You may be horrified that my two lads couldn’t identify Frank Sidebottom on the graffitied walls of Newton Street.
“Best street in Manchester” says Matt. Is it ? What’s it got, Police Museum, Ezra & Gill ? I felt old.
We’d stopped in Manchester on the way home from bucolic Barrow so Matt could give James a severe cut, in Maclures Barbers (next to what will be the new GCHQ Building). James could do worse than a job in cyber security there.
Central Manchester round Albert Square is alternately busy and closed, so we head to the Northern Quarter for a late lunch. A pint of Bass and a packet of scratchings surely appeals ?
Apparently not. They wanted huge burgers in Solita. Almost as good as BrewDog.
One of our party had the house beer. The glass is a design classic.
While Matt did the cut (80 minutes !) I whiled away an hour in a Mystery Manchester Pub. An easy one for you, to end the week.
The beer was from Brightside (NBSS 3). That should help.
Dick and Dave have walked past it at least 37 times, even if they’ve never been in. That won’t.
Oh yes, and for the first time in a year, it rained in Manchester while I was there. #EndOfTimes #NoMore2020
retiredmartin 
Smithfield Market?
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Well, at least you guessed.
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It didn’t feel like a good guess though.
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To be fair, it IS in Manchester, and it shares about six letters.
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City Arms?
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You’re closer than Dave !
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Waterhouse.
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You are the winner 🥇
Your prize awaits.
It was very close to the City Arms!
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Yes, verrry close.
I wish I could collect the prize very close to the City Arms.
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It’s strange how quickly cultural stuff gets forgotten. One of the odder things I’ve been doing for the last few months is watching music reaction videos on youtube; the complete lack of historical musical knowledge of under 40s is weird.
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I find it really hard to compare with my own musical knowledge at 16 or 25. I read a lot of music press so I’d have heard of, ooh, Sly & the Family Stone, or Ry Cooder or Crass even if I’d never heard their stuff cos Peel didn’t play it. It wasn’t until you could borrow CDs from the library that I actually listened to stuff.
But yes, Matt has never heard of Adam Ant, or Dexy’s Midnight Runners, which is odd given how ubiquitous 80s pop is in pubs.
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It’s just strange; there’s a forty-ish big coloured guy from California who had never heard Le Freak until the last year or so, surely one of the most iconic pieces of music that would have been extensively sampled for decades.
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One of those photos is DEFINITELY the Unicorn.
But is that gas fire in the Circus Tavern ?
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One of those photos is the Unicorn.
But the mystery pub is………………….the Waterhouse (Wetherspoons), surprisingly. Don’t ask why I didn’t use the City Arms. Don’t.
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I’ve only been in Tim’s Waterhouse once and that was with Mrs TSM and Miss TSM a few years ago.
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“You may be horrified that my two lads couldn’t identify Frank Sidebottom on the graffitied walls of Newton Street.”
Kids tend to ‘rebel’ against their parents by doing something different than their folks. 😉
“(next to what will be the new GCHQ Building)”
That’s a head fake. They’re actually putting it underground on Piel Island. 🙂
“A pint of Bass and a packet of scratchings surely appeals ?”
Indeed!
“They wanted huge burgers in Solita. ”
*cough* ‘rebel’ *cough* 🙂
“While Matt did the cut (80 minutes !)”
Yikes! 20 minutes to cut abundance of grey.
“An easy one for you, to end the week.”
Obviously I was not the intended recipient of said comment.
“Oh yes, and for the first time in a year, it rained in Manchester while I was there. #EndOfTimes #NoMore2020”
It’s definitely been a year for the books, eh? 😉
Cheers
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I’ll let you into a secret, Russ. A random pile of books in a pub means you can safely guess “Wetherspoons”.
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Good to know. 🙂
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