August 2026. Coventry.
The last of our eight/nine/ten (appropriate as appropiate) Coventry pubs last Wednesday, though just because you have “Tavern” in your name doesn’t make you a pub.
Things get more interesting on the approach to the station from Chapelfields,
with many, many, decisions about crossing the dual carriageway or braving the underpass.
Life After Football insisted we nipped in the Sky Blue Tavern, a collaboration between the football club and Dhillon’s brewery, and it was his crawl, even if he’d forgot to have special commemorative T-shirts printed like a hen party would.
All of Coventry City’s highlights celebrated on that mural outside. Escaping relegation on goal difference in 1995-96, escaping relegation by a point in 1996-97, a Number 61 hit with their 1987 FA Cup final record.
Inside, you get the actual seating from Highfield Road,
one of the “old school” grounds, replaced with a shiny new all-seater very far from this official (?) bar.
It’s all very nostalgic,
but also well done and a lot of fun, not that “fun” has any place on pub crawls.
Oxford Nick, with big Steve “Oggy” Ogrizovic in the background, thrashed Leicester Quinno after I’d docked Quinno 5 goals for wearing a Simple Minds t-shirt.
Sadly, the best thing about Dhyllon’s beer is that it’s named after Coventry’s other claim to fame (“Ghost Town”),
and it’s served in a glass that celebrates the REAL Blues.
retiredmartin 
Not “eight/nine/ten Coventry pubs” for me as the heat reduced me to only six, although I did manage an M&B Brew XI as well as a Bass in the Gatehouse.
Fifty years ago when M&B Brew XI was probably the biggest selling beer in the Midlands I wouldn’t have believed that by now it would have become an “unknown beer” to most pub goers.
I avoided “decisions about crossing the dual carriageway or braving the underpass” by plodding along Queens Road, Regent Street and Westminster Road towards the railway station.
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M&B Brew XI is all the rage. I seem to recall Life After Football agreed to start a spreadsheet listing everywhere it’s on sale. Just as good as the Bass in the Gatehouse, I thought.
Thank goodness the new FIFA Simple Minds shirt rule had come into force before my ill-advised table football game. Who would have thought it’s so difficult to control 11 little men in the 9th pub of the day?!
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” eight/nine/ten ”
Probably the number of goals Arsenal will put past Coventry tonight in the first PL game of the season.
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Remember Jimmy Quinn !
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Jeez. Already???
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Yes by all means celebrate the Real Blues in Manchester. We remain the real SKY BLUES!
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The “Ghost Town” video really should have been shot in Cov not that London.
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Or in the Eagle and Tun that UB40 used, a lovely Digbeth pub now sadly gone, and the subject of my only fridge magnet, one made by the late Pete Allen.
I’ve just found this picture Martin took in Rugby;
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That was a great day out. I thought those Rugby pubs were consistently better than good that day.
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Great memory for you Paul. If you have not already seen it there is now some Birm band art in the underpass in front of The Mailbox inc UB40’s Labour of Love cover.
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Thanks Lana, though sad memories as the three pictured – Pete, Richard and Peter – are no longer with us.
No, I’ve not seen that art. I’ve been to Birmingham more than usual this year, twice ( meeting with college friends and meeting with even older school friends ), but managed to avoid the underpasses.
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I guess you learnt that at the Cov Music Museum I’m going to have to go back to now !
It seems very hard to make music museums really interesting in the UK, which in general does museums brilliantly.
For no reason at all, here’s one in Roskilde, Denmark.
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Actually I already knew that piece of info before the museum plus I used to live near Coventry. I will check our your link, thanks!
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