18th January 2023.
On the journey from Birmingham I realised I’d have an hour to kill in Tamworth, and with the castle closed as there are no attacks on the town in January I’d have to find alternative enetertainment.
A Teardrop Explodes trail ? Here’s the micropub where Julian took the “Buy 6 Get 1 Free” reward card that inspired that 1981 No.6 smash. There’s the river where “Ha Ha I’m Drowning” was composed when Julian, drunk on Davenports, fell in etc. etc.
Perhaps not. Apparently the music scene hasn’t moved on much since the mid-80s.
One of those won Eurovision, you know.
How about a Bass pub ? I consulted the Wickingman List. One entry, the Globe. But it’s NOT the well-known boozer along Watling Way in Wilnecote (alliteration alert); it’s a town pub 5 minutes from the station. Perfect.
I’m sorry, this is the best I could do for street art on the way.
The Globe is solid and stately, only let down by an over-complex pub sign,
though the Bass lantern compensates.
It’s 3pm, and there’s half a dozen rattling around in a rambling single roomer with huge character.
Well, here’s a difficult choice.
I take a table by the lovely windows, noting I’m the only one with a Bass in what Ian’s list confidently declares “a Top 100 Bass”*.
Blimey, it’s sludge.
Not undrinkable, but drinkable with some resentment, or at least disappointment. I realise why everyone else is on the Carling. Does Carling ever look like that ?
It’s a lovely pub; sweary Old Boys hum along to “Bat Out Of Hell” and “Three Little Birds” while watching the 15:30 from Dundalk, which isn’t a unused title for the 3rd Teardrops album, though it probably should have been.
I was about to go, but on the way back from the Gents I saw the barperson pulling through a fresh barrel of Bass.
Well, what choice did I really have ?
As you’ll see from the first pic, this new barrel was positively silky, an almost redemption for the Globe, though I reckon the group of lads who came in and went straight for red wine and Carling still had the best idea.
“Who knows how the Lord’s prayer goes ? I always forget it after the first line“.
Time to go, before someone asks me to Google it.
*Not after I’ve given my scores to the great man, it isn’t, he’s already changed it. And of course the second pint doesn’t make up for a barrel being served well past its best before date.
retiredmartin 
So, taking dreadful beer back wasn’t one of your New Year resolutions then. Or was it the one that you didn’t manage to keep?
I’m glad they changed the barrel – and you saw them pulling it through – before you left the pub.
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I’d have taken that back. (A) it’s got a head on it. Bear in mind I used to live in Bristol. (B) it’s just murk and I shudder to think what that will do to your bowels. (Don’t tell us)
Second one looks better. Still got a head on it though.
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I think the now closed Tweedale Arms just across from the railway station used to have Draught Bass.
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I’m 100% with Will and Bill on this one. If the beer is substandard, take it back. Why be a martyr, especially given the price of beer at the moment? ☹️
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That pub ticks a lot of boxes 😊
And I’ll add my voice to the chorus saying that pint should have gone straight back. Life’s too short to struggle through poor beer.
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“…Harold be thy name…” isn’t it?
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Beard law states you must complain about that beer.
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I’m pub twitter not beer twitter mate, I do what I like. And I choose not to have the piss taken out of me by drunk Irish racing blokes because I take one of them “rancid real ales” back.
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I was walking past the Richard Oastler, Wetherspoons in Brighouse one dazzling July day, in my summer jacket and straw hat. A fortyish chap with beetroot red shaven head, no neck, and apparently carrying an invisible pig under each arm, came up to me and said “Not from round ‘ere, a’ ya?” to which I smiled and replied “Er…no”, and he yelled across to his mates “I told ya!”
I suspect that he would have done exactly the same to you, Cookie 😉
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Sludgie sounds like a new member for the Good Day Out club.
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Mudgie, Sludgie, Pudgie and Grudgie. Knocks the Last of the Summer Wine into a cocked hat.
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Joining just for the Donnington Brewery pub crawl.
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You forgot Judgie, Peter.
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Etu,
Pete Judge ?
Yes, he’s been about as long as me.
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And Budgie. The bloke who won’t budge from the bar when he’s got his pint.
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Certainly not one of the better pubs in Tamworth Martin and that’s not just my opinion, it doesn’t quite make the main list in the excellent Tamworth Ale Trail….
Click to access TamAleTrail.pdf
Pint number two does look good though !!
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I stayed at the Globe in 2014. It was in the GBG that year. Holdens Mild, Worthingtons Mild, Bass and Marstens Smash were all decent.
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