July 2024. Stafford.
Pub 2 of our Stafford half dozen,
my first newbie, and therefore a potential pre-emptive tick,
if there’s a demand for sports bars with karaoke in the GBG.
Will was keen to book the karaoke booth for a rendition of the official CAMRA song (something about cask breathers, I think),
but curated pub exploration is a serious business and our main priority was scoring the beer and noting the prices. Apparently.
Well, the sun shines on the righteous; it was my round and it came to £5.90 for a pint and two halves*.
Yes, Paul Mudge had the pint. I think his Pedi in a pint pot may in consequence have been a 0.25 higher, but I couldn’t really complain about this one (NBSS 3), particularly with it about to be wiped from the face of the earth (well, Burton) if you believe what you read. And some do.
I (sort of) loved Hogarths. A lively (mostly male) crowd, decent bench seating, great soundtrack,
and a discussion with Paul about Pablo Casals in Hemel Hempstead.
We’d been joined by another cheery Martin (no relation) from Stafford, which made a robust group only lacking someone like Blackpool Jane to divert us back towards Candid‘s Key Keg joys.
“Small things make perfections” says the sign on the walls, which makes a change from Shakespeare. Or is it Shakespeare.
The Hogarth print makes a change from the “Beer Lane” usual,
and the sinks are posher than in a Brunning and Price.
But we were, I suspect, quietly glad to have avoided turning up when England played.
*Guess who forgot the 50p vouchers.
retiredmartin 
The Hogarth print is by John Collier, the “Lancashire Hogarth”
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Excellent information Jon.
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There was no proper beer on in Preston’s Hogarths and no cask John Smiths in the Market Tavern yesterday afternoon so I just used Humphrey’s Blue Bell, his OBB now £3.20, and the wonderful Black Horse.
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Random nonsense: The Byrds’ take on Pete Seeger’s Turn! Turn! Turn! is the number 1 with the oldest lyrics, having been copied almost verbatim from The Book of Ecclesiastes.
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Wasn’t John Cage’s ” 4’33 ” a Number 1 ? I’m so far out of touch with the hit parade.
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I have no idea. I couldn’t tell you a single hit from the last God knows how long.
Amusingly, Mike Batt of Wombles fame “wrote” a song called A Minute’s Silence or something and got sued for plagiarising Cage’s 4’33”.
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It was Sheffield Hatter rather than Stafford Paul whose mother took him to watch Pablo Casals play his cello in Hemel Hempstead. If Paul was there too, what a remarkable coincidence.
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No, despite having travelled through Hemel Hempstead many times to or from Euston, I’ve never stopped off there.
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It’s a good job these notes are completely accurate in every other respect, isn’t it ?
Yes, it was Pablo Picasso that Paul watched in Cannock, an easy mistake.
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You’re somehow confusing Pablo Picasso with Jasper Carrot who for 30p I watched in 1972 at the Folk Club behind the Royal Oak ( then M&B, now Stonegate ). I also met Jennie Lee and Patrick Moore, separately.
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