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. Burton-on-Trent. A third Bass in rapid succession, perhaps too rapid, but breaking up pints with espressos leads to madness. The “We Bass” Facebook page had suggested the Roebuck and the Devvie for the best in Burton, but I...
March 2026. Burton-on-Trent. A Friday afternoon in search of Burton Bass, and a couple of votes on the Bass fan page for the Burton Bridge, another GBG regular that has had it’s share of turmoil of late. But nothing like the turmoil of...
March 2026. Burton-on-Trent. Never blog after six twelve glasses of Kolsch. Never mind, it’s nearly all pictures from the home of Bass, I’ll leave the prosaic descriptions and history to others. I guess Bass in the Coopers is as iconic...
March 2026. Burton on Trent. Last week seemed like mental torture, another weekend without making it to that Guisborough brewery tap that only opens 3:30 to 4 on Saturdays. But in fact I did manage East Grinstead (whoopy doo) and Burton...
March 2026. East Grinstead. West Sussex. Our weekly trip from Sheffield to Waterbeach was followed by the monthly mercy mission to Kent, where we took father-in-law over Sussex border to the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead for...
March 2026. Sheffield. Our friends from Chicago roused themselves at an uncivilised hour on the Monday and we ferried them back to Luton, a journey which might have shattered their illusions about pastoral England. By Tuesday I needed to...
March 2026. Sheffield. It was two-thirty on our “cultural Sunday” and we still hadn’t taken our Chicago guests (a bit wary of an extended pub crawl, perhaps), in a pub ! Apart from the breakfast pint in Spoons. Five and a half hours...
I’ve never been to Chicago (or Minneapolis), but it’s been on my Bucket List since Ferris took us there on his day off forty (40) years ago. Yes, yes, press PLAY now. Having had their bit of Peak onm Saturday, Sunday was for culture. No,...
March 2025. Hilsborough. Sheffield. Much of the non-political discussion that Saturday night with our guests from Chicago centred on “service” culture and Wetherspoons. Dave (not THAT Dave) was in awe as I described folk drinking beer...
March 2026. Sheffield and the Peak. Last weekend we “hosted” (ugh) Meighan and Dave from Chicago during their whirlwind tour of Europe. I have never seen Mrs RM go into such a cleaning frenzy, which sadly extended to getting me to mow...
March 2026. Nottingham. My Nottingham gig ends at a quarter to ten so Rescue Rooms can put on a Harry Styles “Fandom Party” (aka disco), a change from my usual London gigs that start just before 10pm and ensure I’m dashing to Kings Cross...
March 2026. Nottingham. Gig night in Nottingham, a first pint in the Olde Trip in years, and I would have had tea in another contender for the “Oldest pub” title, but the Bell looked a bit scruffy and unloved, so the Joseph Else, my...
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...