MILL ROAD, OVER THE BRIDGE

July 2023. Cambridge.

Reference to “Barbie” yesterday has no doubt had you wondering,

“Has Retired Martin been to see Barbie yet ?“.

Interestingly, ONE of our family has seen it. And Oppenheimer, which I reckon is the same length as a BRAPA blog but with fewer toothless drunks.

Matt went to watch the one about the bomb while Mrs RM saw Tim Minchin in the West End and I kept Mum and Dad company while they watched what passes for evening TV entertainment in 2023.

I have at least managed to substitute the Daily Mail they buy for the TV listings for a weekend “i” which does the job without the anger.

And I did manage an hour walking Cambridge with Matt, noting changes in the city since he went to college near the station,

when Cambridge took pride in pubs like the Flying Pig (RIP).

Hills Road, the main drag out from the station past the Botanic towards the sixth-forms and Addenbrookes, has acquired some new art of late, most of it fronting estate agents and accountants offices.

I walked down the back of the cattle market where Dad used to take me to buy Dexy’s Midnight Runners singles in the early 80s, before the market became a cinema/bowling alley/Travelodge/Nandos.

Romsey’s artwork to commemorate the railways is a bit plain, even by Cambridge, but Cambridge over the bridge still contains a bit of spark.

And although I really fancied a pint of Greene King IPA (harder to find than in 1987, I assure you), I also reckoned it was time for a return to the Earl of Beaconsfield.

Yet another of those “but pubs like THIS don’t get in the Good Beer Guide !” surprised of GBG23, the Earl is a pub I’d visited a few times over the years without ever dreaming it would break the near cartel of Cambridge’s free house Guide entries.

And I’d have definitely told you it was an Irish pub, even if all I could recall was cricket on the TV and the decor on entry says anything but.

It’s Sunday evening, two hours till “Jam Sandwich” (proper band name, Dave) rock the night, so ticking over with a dozen cheery specimens of Romsey life.

Adnams I remember, but White Rat and Three Swords seem odd picks.

White Rat is everywhere, but I pick the Kirkstall (£4.60 a pint) and it’s cool and crisp, if a tad sweet (NBSS 3+). It’s the only pint of cask I see pulled, with a bloke at the bar not touching his pint the 20 minutes I’m there.

Lovely, relaxed pub, with pool, billiards,

and a classic Jupiter jukebox that might have been acquired on Cambridge market in 1980.

The jukebox promises Sam Cooke and Booby Vinton and Smokey, but we get lates period Fleet Foxes.

I watch “Jam Sandwich” set up, bet myself they won’t be doing a cover of “White Winter Hymnal” later.

But you never can be sure in Cambridge.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

15 thoughts on “MILL ROAD, OVER THE BRIDGE”

    1. No, but the even more famous Empress a few yards away almost certainly did, though since it was comandeered by students playing “Stairway to Heaven” and “Suppers Ready” I doubt Bob got a look in.

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      2. No ! It used to be 2 plays for 50p or 5 for a quid from memory. The Emperor was a corking pub 15 years ago, only Pedigree outlet in town, but lost its way a bit.

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      3. Martin,
        The last time I put much money into juke boxes was when it was usually one record for 5p and three for 10p.
        I do though remember one juke box that still gave one for 6d, two for 5p ( a shilling ) and five for 10p ( a florin ).

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      5. Yes, about thirty-five years before then.
        That’s when juke boxes had proper records in them.
        And after a few weeks the records were sold off cheap which is how I have ‘Sylvia’ by ‘Focus’, my only single.

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    2. Dave,
      I heard of ‘Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands’ early in 1976 in the ‘Sara’ song that ended the ‘Desire’ album but it’s only in recent years I’ve known the song and have been mesmerised by Joan Baez’s version of it.

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      3. Dave,
        But I think Joan and Bob were rather close during the early ’60s – which would have been decades before I went with my wife and daughter to see Bob Dylan in Birmingham, the Warwickshire not the Alabama one.

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  2. Martin said “It’s a mark of Bob’s songwriting genius that his songs are so frequently covered, even recent ones like “To Make You Feel My Love”…”

    Very much so I’d say. He offers such a range of feeling, from the rightful moral outrage of The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll, through Masters Of War, and Hurricane, to the comic Motorpsycho Nightmare, through Maggie’s Farm, to Rainy Day Women. And then there are the touchingly kind moments as in the song that you cite.

    I once played with a bunch who covered Highway 61 and It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry. Pubs don’t know what they’re missing these days…

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