September 2024. Larmer Tree Gardens. Wiltshire. Sunday night brings my 12th End of the Road festival to an end, a middling affair with quality and diversity but little drama, a metaphor for something. As is traditional, I succumbed to an 11:30 am pint of the local Sixpenny Best, albeit only because the Summer Lightning had… Continue reading END OF THE ROAD DAY 4 – BALTIC PORTER, ICHIKO AOBA, ENGLISH TEACHER

August 2024. Larmer Tree Gardens. Wiltshire. Back from our off-festival pint at the King John, an exciting walk back over a field reverberating with a between set airing of Julia Jacklin, a favourite of James and myself. Probably too big for End of the Road now. Saturday seemed a quieter day musically, so I took… Continue reading END OF THE ROAD DAY 3 – MERMAID CHUNKY, LOST AND GROUNDED, THREE DIFFERENT WAYS TO SPELL LIQUORICE

August 2024. Tollard Royal. Cranborne Chase. Lovers of tradition will be horrified to hear that I failed to visit Farmham’s Museum from the End of the Road festival this year, and you’ll know I’m a creature of tradition. In truth, the pattern of visiting on Thursday while Mrs RM put the tent up had been… Continue reading BUTCOMBE AND BURGERS IN TOLLARD ROYAL

Ah, Ayrshire, home of “honest” men (though notably Pubmeister Duncan lives just across the Strathclyde border), and a rather lopsided GBG map. If you’ve ever wondered what’s below Ayr, which you haven’t, it’s Girvan. I live in hope that Girvan’s Art Deco cinema will be revived by Brew Dog Twa Dugs. My exploration of the… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No.61 – AYRSHIRE AND ARRAN

August 2024. Larmer Tree Gardens. Wiltshire. The most noticeable thing about End of the Road is that everyone looks like us. Retired or near retirement folk in campervans, a lad of 25 in a tent. Of course, our little group is far better dressed, more appreciative of new music, and doesn’t sit round in a… Continue reading END OF THE ROAD 2024 – DAY 2 – FRODSHAM ISN’T S**T

Only seventeen (7 Teen), GBG entries in the mysterious Argyll & the Isles section of the Guide, which must include ALL the cask pubs (surely), so picking half a dozen must be a doddle, no ? I love those Instagram reels where American students are asked to name 3 countries outside America and start with… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY NO.60 – ARGYLL AND THE ISLES

August 2024. Larmer Tree Gardens. Cranborne Chase. This was my 12th End of the Road festival (and probably Mrs RM’s last, but that’s for later), four days out of my life in a field in Wiltshire, that’s (loads calculator function on PC) nearly 1% of my life !!! Actually, while Larmer Tree Gardens are in… Continue reading END OF THE ROAD 2024 – DAY 1

Over the border (unless you live in Paisley) for the next thrilling series of top pubs from every GBG chapter, and Scotland is where the Guide counties get even more odd. I’m sure this one used to be under “G” for Grampians once, but I guess it is a bit dominated by the granite city,… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No. 59 – ABERDEEN AND GRAMPIAN

The month started (traumatically) in a campervan in a car park in Ely and ended (traumatically)* in a campervan in a field near Salisbury and in-between took in a dozen trips up and down the A1 to tackle Dad’s care needs. Bing Maps will only allow me to plot points A to Z, so take… Continue reading AUGUST ’24 STOCKTAKE AND SEPTEMBER PREVIEW

Sounds like a King Crimson track, doesn’t it ? August 2024. Salisbury. We’re just back from our annual venture into Cranborne Chase for weird music in posh gardens and NO WI-FI. A near five hours slog due south from Sheffield, with time for a lone Wiltshire Guide tick (my first and last of the GBG… Continue reading ANIMAL FINIALS IN ODSTOCK