A Few Pottles And A Lot Of Blues

Beeston micropub A Pottle of Blues held it's first music night tonight, and of course I went along to support it.

Ralph the landlord is a blues guitarist and entertained us for around two hours with a wide range of blues songs. Darren the barman played bass on a song or two. He was a bit nervous, as he hadn't picked one up in a while. But he needn't have worried, as he was very good, and the audience enjoyed every note.

The pub has been opened about a month now  They've recently added a few more music themed artefacts, and with a regular change of beers, the pub has become quite a favourite amongst the locals. And so may it continue.

Foor For Thought

As there are so many eating places in the city centre, it's often difficult to know what to choose, as there is so much on offer. Italian, Spanish, French, pizzas, pies, burgers, fish & chips. Nottingham has it all.

This woman is studying the menu of the Cock & Hoop pub in the Lace Market, situated opposite the Galleries of Justice.

The pub is linked to the hotel next door, and both have been closed for a while, as the hotel closed for some reason.

But a new owner has been found, and so both businesses have reopened.  But they might have finished painting the door before they did.

All Together Now

This is a friend of mine called Russell. We met several years ago when we were both involved in amateur dramatics. Although he is a lot better at it than I am. He's even been in a film; Santa Claus - The Movie, where he played one of the toymakers. His dad was in it too.

Besides having a normal day job, Russell earns a bit extra organising karaoke nights. He came to Beeston tonight to one of our pubs, so Gail and I popped along to see him in action.

The pub was very busy, with only being a week until Christmas. Russell was going through his gigantic CD collection when we entered.  As well as acting, Russell has quite a good singing voice, and I snapped him here whilst he was in full flow.

Russell also does a Sunday afternoon (4-6pm) radio show on Acacia Radio called The Golden Years. He plays all sorts of music, old and new. Eurovision songs and even old editions of Captain Kremen.

The radio is Internet based, so here's a link, should you wish to tune in sometime: http://acaciaradioaw.weebly.com

Night Life

The Pitcher & Piano in the Lace Market is a fab bar, set in an old converted church, complete with stained glass windows.

It has been open a while now and is very popular with young and old alike. So when they recently announced that they were building a new outside area bar, I was quite excited.

I follow P&P on Twitter, and they ran a competition the other day to win tickets to their special opening night party. I entered, and fortunately I won. Gail was busy doing something, so couldn't make it.

So after work I popped along to see what was going on. I met up with a few of my Twitter pals, who I didn't know were going to be there. There were waitresses walking around with plates of free nibbles, which were very tasty, especially the stylish fish fingers.

As you can see the building is very modern with a good stocked bar. Obviously not as well stocked as the one in the main building, as that's huge, and situated in the middle of the ground floor. There is a garden too, complete with a flower covered piano.

I should think the new endeavour will do well, as it's like being outside, but inside. I wonder how it will look when it's decorated with Christmas decorations.

Beware The Yellow Peril

This weekend is dedicated to England's heritage, with lots of events taking place up and down the country. Beeston of course is holding a number of events around the town, as it has done since the idea was first suggested.
As I have been going to such things for years, I have seen practically all the things on offer, but this year I was pleased to go somewhere that I don't think has been involved before.

The Boat and Horses pub in the Rylands had quite a variety of things to see and do. I saw a friend of ours who does wood turning and was giving a demonstration of his talent, a local beekeeper who was giving tastings of her home produced honey, a display of some old glass bottles and of course a cake stall.

There was also some female Morris dancers and then there were these three characters. There were a number of people dressed as they would have been in say the 1940s, and these two ladies were certainly enjoying themselves as period housewives. The fellow in the centre was part of another Morris dancing troupe, which I couldn't stay to watch, as I had some more visits to make.

The Fab Four

Here's a shot of local band The Madeline Rust that I took the other night at Oxjam's rock night at a pub in Beeston.

They were excellent as usual, and introduced a couple of new songs to the appreciative audience.

There were also another three bands playing on the night; I Am Jupiter, These Skies and Paradise Pill.

I don't know how much money was raised on the night, but it will go towards the final figure that will be raised during the Oxjam music festival in October.

Spirited Away

It's not everyday that you come across an empty pub, but sadly I did today.

The Cock & Hoop pub in the Lace Market closed last year, when the hotel that it's attached to also shut its doors.  There have been announcements that the hotel and pub will be reopened. But obviously this hasn't happened yet.

Paper Doves

Here is my friend, musician Emma Bladon-Jones appearing at this year's launch of Oxjam, with fellow musician Christine.

Besides being a singer in her own right, Emma is also part of a duo called Midnight Special and now she has joined multi-instamentalist Christine as Paper Doves.

It's A Midnight Special

I had a busy day with my photography yesterday, with most of the day spent recording Beeston's Carnival. Then I went to a 50th birthday party, and finally I went to a local pub to see two friends of mine, who are musicians in their own right, and also perform as the duo Midnight Special.

Joe loves the blues, while Emma is a folkie, but together they are quite impressive with a mix of the two styles. The Hop Pole was busy, as they have quite a following across the area, as they are really very good and should be snapped up by a record company very soon.

Super Star

The Star Inn in Beeston has a new owner and has just gone through a major re-fit over the last few weeks.

Today was it's grand opening. Alas, we weren't able to be the first customers, as it opened during the day, but we popped down tonight to see how they had done up the old place.

It was originally a coaching inn, hence the large doors you can see where the coaches went through. The pub also appeared in two TVdrama serials that were made in the 1980s, Auf Weidersehen Pet, which was about a group of builders and Boon, which concerned an ex fireman who became a private detective.

As you can imagine the place was heaving, as locals were seeing what the place now looked like from it's earlier 'spit and sawdust' incarnation. In fact it was that packed, I found it a little difficult to take any decent photographs, so I took one of the freshly painted brickwork outside instead.

Maybe when the publicity dies down & no so crowded, we will visit again and I'll be able to take some better shots, of the different rooms. Although you can see one of the rooms which has been designed like a library, with book wallpaper. But there is a small collection of real books that you can read whilst enjoying your pint.

Timber!

The old Wilkinson's shop began to be demolished a few months ago after being empty for a year. But for some reason they stopped. But now they have started again and most of it has been removed. All that remains is some rubble and a load of timber planks.

One thing that taking down the store has done has let more light into the Last Post, a Wetherspoons public house that used to be a Royal Mail sorting office.

Good Knight

Whilst we were eating our lunches in The Trip to Jerusalem, I got the feeling that we were being watched. And not by the ghosts that are meant to roam about the place.

Looking around I saw a suit of armour looming over us. Not sure how old it is. But I hope the knight isn't still inside!

Ghost Ship

I had lunch today with some old colleagues from where I used to work. We tend to meet up most Wednesdays at different eateries across the city centre, where we have a good catch up and have a bite to eat.

This week we went to the Trip to Jerusalem; Nottingham's oldest pub, and which dates back to 1189AD. I've been in a couple of times, but have never ordered any food before.

Besides being very old and supposedly haunted, there is also this old model ship that is meant to be cursed, in that whoever touches it, dies! So of course no one has dared go near it. A few people have tried to clean it in the past and all have apparently died within the year in strange circumstances.

You can see from the dust clinging to the rigging and sails that it has not been touch for years and years, and everyone is safely protected by a case over it.

Friday Night Folk

Last week was Dave Mitchell's first gig of the year, tonight it was Emma Bladon-Jones'.

She put a message on Facebook saying that she was doing a gig at a pub in Beeston called the White Lion.

I've seen a few musicians there before, and was expecting to see her downstairs near the bar, but I was told that she was playing upstairs. So up I went, and I was in for a surprise and something that I hadn't come across before. I had walked into a folk club meeting, and Emma was down as a guest performer.

The club is called the Second Time Around and meets at the pub every fortnight. I didn't know what would be happening, but the old guy that appeared to be in charge explained who would be the first few people to perform. So I listened to various musicians and singers do turns. It was all acoustic too, so microphones or backing tracks.

There were quite a few people in the audience, more than normal and it was observed that it was probably because of Emma; who is quite well known now in Beeston and Nottingham.

She wasn't very well at Christmas, and actually ended up in hospital for a few days, so it was great to see her performing again.  The audience certainly appreciated her style of folk music and received a good round of applause after she had finished her set.

Mine's A Pint

You don't very often see these types of beer glasses in pubs now. The classic handled tankard. I'm not sure why they've gone out of fashion. Possibly because they can't promote ale and lager brands on them in the same way that they do with the more modern pint glass.

I took this at the Lincolnshire Poacher pub in-between Dave's two sets.

Six Strings And A Pint Of Beer

My first gig shoot of the year, and also for the musician in question; Dave Mitchell. It was also my first visit to the Lincolnshire Poacher where Dave was playing.

Dave is a good friend, so not only did I go to take photos, but also to support him. There was also a number of neighbours there as well, as he used to live on the same street as us, before sadly having to leave.

Dave had obviously practiced quite hard as he was very good and the whole audience enjoyed his two sets. On some songs he was accompanied by a guitarist called Phil. He was very good too.

One of the songs that Dave covered was Stan Rogers' Lock Keeper's song. So I thought I would share the original song with you.

Inn of The Seventh Happiness

The Trip to Jerusalem is Nottingham's famous pub and is situated at the base of the castle.

Popular with locals and visitors alike, it's one of the places to see if you ever come to Nottingham on a visit.

I've put on a few photos of the actual pub before, so today I thought I would show a close up of the sign, especially as the sun had come out from behind some grey clouds that were passing overhead.

Cheers.

Still Life

Spotted these three old cameras on a high shelf in the Lion pub in Basford.

I have no idea if they work or not, but seems a shame that they are up there gathering dusk, while they could be filled with a roll of film and taken out and used. After all that is what photography is all about.

Still, saying that, since I got my Olympus OMD last year, I've hardly touched my Nikon D3s, and it sits lonely in the cupboard surrounded by expensive lenses.

The Ace Of Spades

Driving past the White Hart pub in Lenton, We came across a gathering of motorcyclists. Oh, I said, a photo opportunity. So I parked up and we went to investigate.

The White Hart is a pub that I cycle past every day on my way to work, but I've never actually been inside. So this was also an opportunity to put this right.

As we were both hungry, we went in for some food. We both went for the enchiladas; and very tasty they were too. I think we will be eating there again, as it was good food, well cooked and quite reasonably priced.

So onto the motorbikes. Although I'm not that keen on them, I was impressed on how they riders had customised them. We were particularly impressed with the main one in the photo, who's owner is stood by Gail, explaining the in's and out's of his machine. He said that the skulls that adorn the bike were made by someone in the West Midlands, who is now so good at such things, that he has gone into business for himself.

Apparently the Nottingham Aces group have been meeting at the pub for about the last fifty odd years. So we had a look inside their club room. The walls were adorned with loads of photos of club members, both past & present, memorabilia and motorbike artworks. They even had a old wall mounted jukebox that had loads of Sixties hits. In fact I didn't really see any tunes that were later than about 1972.

It was quite an interesting time we had, and the group is certainly something that I'd known nothing about, despite my continual scanning of local events that are advertised in all forms of social media.

All That Dragon Slaying Does Make A Saint Thirsty

St George's Day today, and across England celebrations of all kinds have taken place.

Here in Nottingham, they had a bit of action in the Old Market Square in the form of people dressed up as knights and riding on horses. Very similar in fact to last year. There was also some musicians entertaining the crowd with their take on old English tunes.

I pumped into several photography friends, and Tim, who plays Robin Hood at many local events.

From the Square, the small procession their way up to the castle and then down to the Trip to Jerusalem pub, where they stopped so people could take photos and enjoy a pint or two of real ale. Here's Tim on the left holding his bow, whilst St George is relishing his beer.