retiredmartin
retiredmartin
Martin
Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.
Latest Posts
March 2026. Nottingham. The Americans were in town in early March, giving me as busy a gig schedule as I’ve ever had. Actually, Leith Ross is from Ontario, but since Russ is taking a break from commenting I can confidently tell you that...
March 2026. Maltby. Rotherham. To add some colour to the monotony of the Waterbeach to Sheffield run I stopped in Maltby on the way home. It only adds 5 minutes to the trip, but gives you the joys of the A634, Roche Abbey and all, before...
March 2026. Shepherd’s Bush. London. Half an hour till my Shepherd’s Bush gig, ought to squeeze in one GBG revisit, surely ? Not a lot of choice in W12, the Defectors Weld has really fallen from grace, but the Crown & Sceptre is one of...
March 2026. Shepherds Bush. London. From Balham, a trip across a foggy Thames to Shepherd Bush, where I suddenly found I had nearly two hours to fill and Westfield in front of me. Just like Charlene, I’d never been to Westfield W12’s...
March 2026. Balham. London. A second London pub tick in quick succession, the Southeastern service presumably making a request stop just for me at Balham, where I had a restorative double espresso in a cute station obssessed with the...
March 2026. Beddington. South London. Wallington. Bandonhill. Hackbridge. Beddington, where I head now to explore the vibrant cultural scene. Names to conjure with, as you wander aimlessly west of Croydon and stare back to where the...
March 2026. Wallington. South London. Another week, another American troubador*, another chance to makes inroads into London GBG, another chance to marvel at the capital’s integrated transport system as I whizz from St Pancras around...
March 2026. Tuxford. Nottinghamshire. Mr Protz wrote the definitive book about the pubs along the Great North Road, but there’s far less of them than you’d hope if you had to make the trek up and down the A1 weekly. I took the sliproad...
March 2026. Sheffield. Back from Driffield in triumph, East Yorkshire GBG complete, I find Mrs RM in full-on “Operation Yank Invasion” mode, with a list of jobs to make the house ready for Chicago guests (not Dick and Barb) last weekend....
March 2026. Beverley. Well, this may prove to be a completely pointless post, attempting to describe the magic of a Sam Smiths pub without pictures. But the route to the White Horse (aka Nellies) takes you past St Mary’s, which is almost...
March 2026. Beverley. There’s more to life than pubs. “No there’s not”. My blog, my rules, time for culture. One of the bonuses of parking up in the campervan at Driffield Riverhead (£10 donation to canal conservation), apart from a...
March 2026. Wansford. East Yorkshire. A mile south of delightful Driffield, our final Humberside + tick, and once again not a classic, but plenty good enough. Always best to leave your final East Yorkshire pub to Hull. Not much to say...
March 2026. Hornsea. East Yorkshire. Saturday at home in Sheffield means tearing at the leash to get out Sunday, despite, you know, weeds to pull and all that. Two hours later I’m in Hornsea for my penultimate East Yorkshire tick, which...
February 2026. Edenham. Lincolnshire. Not quite Greater Grantham, more Bigger Bourne. Have any of you ever been to Bourne ? I knew nothing about little Edenham, 15 minutes off the A1 and Newton’s house, just past that Corby Glen I wrote...
February 2026. Islington. 20 minutes walk from Bombay Corner to my gig at Islington Assembly Hall over Regent’s Canal. Walking London is a joy, questionable football clubs apart. Not the most, or best, pubbed part of London, but great to...