June 2024. Manchester. Another week, another midweek trip to Manchester for a gig and this time a successful attempt to get Matt’s record player going again. And it works ! “Master of Puppets” never sounded so good, says Emma. I leave their Piccadilly flat with 3 hours till my gig at YES, time enough for… Continue reading ALL THE PUBS IN THE MANCHESTER BEER BOOK – THE CIRCUS TAVERN

June 2024. Dorking. We’d spent the night in a public car park in Dorking with three (3) alpacas and a sheep, so that in the morning (after a large “regular” Americano at a rare decent Costa) we could nip down the A25 past the wealth management offices above Horsham to give our campervan (still not… Continue reading “Reserved for the Larry Grayson Society”. Proper Pubs in the Surrey Hills.

June 2024. Dorking. Oh, go on then. Cobbetts was closed on Sunday night, so all Dorking really has to offer is the Cricketers, the GBG Fullers perennial and one of the great Surrey pubs. Particularly good this Sunday night, as blokes (it is mainly blokes) come to discuss ailments, and by ailments I don’t mean… Continue reading TMI ! MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS NIGHT IN DORKING’S CRICKETERS

June 2024. Dorking. Our little campervan was looking all lonely in the council car park on our return from Wimbledon, but, unlike Redhill or Leatherhead or any other scruffian Surrey town I reckoned we were safe there with boy racers doing wheelies. Having said she wasn’t hungry and hour earlier, Mrs RM now dispatched me… Continue reading DISPATCHED INTO DORKING FOR CRISPS AND BEER

June 2024. Wimbledon. Some bad planning on my part meant that after ticking that Plough Lane brewery tap I’d run out of time to add an Ewell Ember entry by breaking our journey on the way home to Dorking, and I know how keen you folk are to read about Ember inns in Ewell. In… Continue reading WIMBLEDON’S PRINCE OF WALES PASSES “THE LANDLORD TEST”

June 2024. Wimbledon. It was worth making the effort of getting those Two Together rail cards renewed, as our returns from Dorking to Wimbledon on a Sunday evening cost £4, which will almost buy you an espresso in the country I’ve just left. I was beyond excited at a trip to South West London for… Continue reading WOMBLES

June 2024. Waterbeach to Cambridge. “Greater love hath no man than than this, than he would spend a day of his life at Waterbeach feast“. And so it was that Mrs RM joined me at my hometown (village) for a day of fairground fun, cakes and old blokes doing covers of “Wish You Were Here”… Continue reading TO DORKING !

June 2024. Sheffield. Or in Ian Thurman, the Wickingman’s case, Youlgrave to Sheffield Cathedral, a 7 hour (plus compulsory rest stop) walk to raise money to install a toilet in Ian’s micro pub or something. Oh, something even more vital. What a hero. I said I’d meet him at the end of his venture at… Continue reading YOULGRAVE TO FAGAN’S. A LONG AND WORTHY WALK FOR A BASS.

June 2024. Manchester. I think I’ll have ticked more pubs in Matt Curtis’s wonderful guide to Manchester than the actual GBG during June, but that’s OK. The main priority is to beat Blackpool Jane to the prize, which I believe is a tripe barm. I was in Manchester 10 days ago for a gig at… Continue reading ALL THE PUBS IN THE MANCHESTER BEER BOOK – THE ANGEL