BS: Sigh

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Musket
Date: 27 Aug 15 - 04:13 AM

Aye. It were a good night. Mrs Musket doesn't go for similar early start reasons. The alleged greyhound doesn't bother because he keeps reminding me I sang it better when practicing it at home.

The bar flies were buzzing a bit but didn't prevent the entertainment.

I left at 2.00am this morning. Theakstons may be common or garden but it was slipping down too easily. Then the gaffer stuck a whisky in front of me and it went downhill from there.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 26 Aug 15 - 12:24 PM

Sorry - missed a bit
"you drive there, she drives back"
Only works once - a double-headed coin's much more reliable
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 26 Aug 15 - 12:23 PM

Only works once - a double-headed coin's much more reliable
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 26 Aug 15 - 10:58 AM

Y'know Doug, that would be great if:-

(1) she didn't have to be up for work at 6 a.m.,
(2) we could take the dog with us, and
(3) most importantly, she enjoyed listening to folk music being sung and played to a background of ten or a dozen bar-flies shouting at one another!

In addition:-
(4) She never complains I don't take her anywhere.
(5) I don't do alcohol, so driving's not an issue.

Apart from all that, good idea! :-) :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 26 Aug 15 - 09:14 AM

Take her with you to the folk club, then she can't complain that you don't take her anywhere. Does she drive? If so, offer to share the driving - you drive there, she drives back - that way you're on to a winner all ways round.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 26 Aug 15 - 02:23 AM

Speaking of the local folk club, it's doubtful I'll be able to fulfil my contract tonight - I was out with the band rehearsing last night, and it hardly seems fair to complain about being CTB when The Memsahib's in For'n Parts, and then bugger off out two consecutive nights when she's at home!

I will adopt my 'martyr's' tone of voice, and frequently look at my watch and sigh heavily as 7:30 (my setting-off time) approaches, but she's a hard woman and will almost certainly ignore me (or, most likely, glare at me through her wine-glass, silently daring me to have the nerve to ask her to sign my pass-out docket)!

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 05:47 PM

A donkey jacket, one hopes....

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 04:43 PM

Karl Marx only ever drank tea with made with tea bags. He believed proper tea was theft.

I'll get my coat comrades...

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 03:22 PM

Good thread this. A proper bloody lusty Brit thread. Arguing about communism and beer in the one thread. Brilliant. We could look one other fiercely in the eye, grab lapels nose to nose threateningly, and carry on like this for days. No harm will be done. Bet these bloody yank mods won't get it and'll shut the thing down. Tsk.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 02:46 PM

"As a CP member, I attended many demonstrations, It was one step forward and two back."
It would be with the CP - Did you ever read 'The British Road to Socialism" a cross between Alice in Wonderland and and Melina Mercouri's version of the Greek Tragedies in 'Never on Sunday'?
The people you are so sneery about were largely non-aligned and demonstrated against what they considered unjust - I find your attitude to Blair Peach, who was murdered while opposing racism, beneath contempt.
I'll be honest; I've known a number of C.P. members in my time and I've never met one who comes anywhere near your views on homosexuality, immigration and your defence of the Church and 'thye institute of marriage and traditional family values' (now there's a couple of establishment terms for you)
If that's what was representative of the C.P. - thank whoever that they never won office
Still misusing the term 'liberalism' I see.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: akenaton
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 01:44 PM

Jim...As a CP member, I attended many demonstrations, It was one step forward and two back.
Just down the road from where I live we were out almost every weekend protesting about the American base and the start of the nuclear weapons dump at Coulport, now it contains enough WMDs to turn the world into a desert.
We never got a socialist voice in Parliament, we got Blair
The housing situation is dire, the NHS is about to collapse as now its about avoiding litigation not treating patients...the waste of money is just unbelievable...the wealth gap has widened, youth unemployment is at ridiculous rates...(I'm talking about real jobs here)....."liberalism" has done nothing to make society better, there are millions with no future.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 01:10 PM

Bottled Doom Bar, like most bottled beers, is filtered, pasteurised, artificially carbonated and absolutely nothing like the cask beer. I always have a few bottles of the more flavoursome continental lagers in the fridge, though I doubt that I drink more than half a dozen bottles a year. Very nice on a hot summer's afternoon. Apart from that, I avoid all bottled beer apart from bottle-conditioned ones, the ones with a bit of yeast in the bottom and which are unpasteurised and naturally carbonated. Until about 20 years ago, bottled Guinness was bottle-conditioned and was miles nicer than the draught. Lamentably, 'tis no more. My very favourite bottled beer is Duvel, though at eight percent plus you don't want to be necking too many. I pour most of the chilled bottle into the glass in one go then glug the yeasty bit at the bottom of the bottle. Gorgeous!

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 12:16 PM

"Correct me if I'm wrong!"
Not wrong at all - that's exactly it.
A good barman will pour Guinness in two stages - first, full with foam; then more steadily the second time - then, wipe the foam off the top with a knife
As I said, and art form.
You can always tell a sour pint when it fill up at the first go - and each mouthful leave the ring where the previous level was
Jeysus - wasn't intending to go out tonight!!!
The though of the pint and the session calls.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 11:48 AM

I don't compare it to coffee either Steve. I like Guinness and I like most of the "real ales" I quaff. I don't see it as an either / or contest.

Travelling a lot used to mean at least with Guinness you knew what you were getting. Also, concerning beer in the house, cans of draft Guinness are most like the tap version of all beers for me whilst bottles of most of the real ale types tend to be a bit gassy. Doombar being one of the worst culprits (though of course such bottles never saw Cornwall.)

So... Which is the best beer for Liverpool fans to cry into at 4.50pm on a Saturday then? 😎

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 10:31 AM

Many years ago when The Three Horseshoes in Ingleton was a Yates's pub I remember the then landlord showing me why I should not bother trying their 'keg' bitter. From the same barrel came a pipe with a splitter. One branch went to the hand pulled draught pump and the other went, via a small chiller, to the electric 'keg' pump. They sold the keg for 2p a pint more :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 09:44 AM

I note that the head brewer at Sharps, Stuart Howe, has left and is now in charge at Butcombe brewery in Somerset. They want volunteers for the beer flavour panel on Friday afternoons, and your reward is free beer. I did this at Sharps for several years and, if you live anywhere near, I can highly recommend the experience!

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 09:38 AM

Too much beer is served too warm. Our Doom Bar tasting sessions at Sharps brewery always had the beer served at exactly 12C. That recommendation makes allowance for the fact that a pint will slowly warm up before you've finished it. I've been served Doom in some pubs at more like 18 to 20 degrees, which is ruinous. There's one pub near me where the landlord told me he was going to stop selling Doom. The customers were always complaining about it, said he. The pint he'd just poured me was lukewarm. I don't drink there any more.

The affectation of serving Guinness ice-cold is very irritating when you consider that it's cost you nearly four quid. I assume it's because freezing-cold beer is less lively, therefore quicker to pour. Correct me if I'm wrong!

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 09:17 AM

"but it is NOT real ale and doesn't get anywhere close."
No argument there - and I miss good beer desperately, but it's comparing apples and orange
"He said that they were indeed deliberately being made slightly differently because the English were not patient enough to wait for a pint to be pulled in the Irish way"
Nail on the head - would add the temperature of the beer - one of the plagues in Dublin is the tasteless ice-cold stuff that seems to be popular with tourists and those not old enough to know any better.
While I was electricioning in London publs, I worked in The Kings Head on Fulham Broadway.
An elderly Irishman came in every lunchtime and ordered a pint from the governor.
One afternoon, he came in and a young woman was serving, while the governor was chatting to a customer at the far end of the bar.
He said to the girl, "I'll have a pint of Guinness, and I'll have him serving me", poinmting to the governor.
It's an art form!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 09:06 AM

I'm not saying that draught Guinness is not a palatable quaff, but it is NOT real ale and doesn't get anywhere close. It is filtered, pasteurised and served under gas pressure. Everything that was wrong with mass-produced keg beers in the miserable 70s. In fact, draught Guinness is probably even more mucked about with than they were when you take into account the shenanigans needed to get that head on it. Faint kudos to Guinness for producing a distinctive and popular product, but beer aficionados will look elsewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 08:46 AM

My mate used to work at BOC and they started selling the mix as 'Hospitality Gas'. Of course it soon got re-branded by the staff as 'Hostility Gas' :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 08:45 AM

Beware of asking for "a ginger", if you want a ginger beer in the west of Scotland.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 08:43 AM

Kampervan. I can confirm from being sad enough to recall what they say on the brewery trip. It is the same.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: GUEST,Kampervan
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 08:39 AM

You may be right Steve, I was merely passing on what I had been told by a Guinness brewer.

Is all draught guinness injected with 'beer gas' (nitrogen/CO2 mix)now?

When did that start?

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 08:27 AM

As far as I know, the "settling" of Guinness has nothing to do with its basic ingredients and everything to do with the nitrogen gas that is injected into it to make it foam and the mechanical action of the gizmo fitted to the tap on the bar.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 08:24 AM

Not a huge fan of the commercial ginger beers available in bottles but Ginger Tom from Robinsons is very nice as is Ginger Mable from Manchester's Marble brewery. I think the difference may be that the former is brewed as Ginger Beer and alcohol is added while the latter are brewed as beer and ginger is added in the mix. I don't really know but I am pretty good at making things up... :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 08:21 AM

With the noble exceptions of G&T and the odd glass of port or Madeira, sweet booze doesn't do it for me at all. Well, that is if you don't count Baileys on ice cream.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: GUEST,Kampervan
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 08:14 AM

EEeeeekkk

I just mis-spelled Guinness!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: GUEST,Kampervan
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 08:13 AM

I know I'm compounding thread drift, but I just throw this in on the Guiness debate.

At the time when the Park Royal brewery was still in operation I met one of their brewers socially and asked him about the supposed difference between the Dublin and London brewed products.

He said that they were indeed deliberately being made slightly differently because the English were not patient enough to wait for a pint to be pulled in the Irish way and the English version was made to settle more quickly.

Whether they now make a different version in Dublin specially to be shipped over here I don't know.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 07:56 AM

I'm rather fond of Crabbe's Alcoholic Ginger Beer, although the Sainsburys Own AGB is equally good... a little less sweet and just as gingery.

:-P

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 07:25 AM

"She was quite promiscuous, to the point where dating her was similar to the experience of sitting on a warm toilet seat" T
she was quite promiscuous, to the point where dating her was similar to the experience of sitting on a warm toilet seat"
Tucker Max

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 06:44 AM

"Guinness is Guinness is Guinness and it all comes from the same well near the brewery, as opposed to The Liffey."
Thhen why does it taste different over here?
It most certainly does.
Jim carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 06:40 AM

Guinness is Guinness is Guinness and it all comes from the same well near the brewery, as opposed to The Liffey.

The horseshit about best in Ireland is great for the tourist dollars in Templebar, but as someone who has lived and worked in most parts of the world including ironically Dublin, I can say that properly kept draft Guinness, allowed to settle for a minute (not the four bloody days some Irish bars insist for voodoo reasons) before pouring in the last drop is the same anywhere.

It travels well, and to be honest, will get less jogging in the lorry going to most places in The UK, straight from the brewery to North Wall docks and onto decent motorways in The UK than trying to get to some Godforsaken village beyond the peat bogs on the West coast.

When travelling, I tended to opt for it wherever as at least you know what you are getting, whether it be in Sydney, Singapore, Seattle or Sunderland. When I lived in Munich, I fell in love with Weissbier, but that's another story.

And Guinness has been just Irish since the UK production ceased, although it is still brewed for bottles in Nigeria, (tastes different to be fair) and one or two other places for local consumption, according my when I did the brewery tour last.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 06:25 AM

I wasn't at the rally when he was killed. Blair was a down to earth bloke who liked nowt more than to go for a pint or three after an East London Teachers' Association union meeting, not necessarily to talk politics. He taught in a special school and his kids loved him to bits. He had no big ego and had a lovely sense of humour. He wasn't a big bloke, slightly built and he had a bad stammer which would occasionally leave him momentarily when he was particularly impassioned (often when railing against racism, a matter on which he was well ahead of his time). He was absolutely unswerving in his socialism. As the wiki article says, he was a member of the SWP, but he never proselytised about it. I've never heard of the "Socialist Teachers' Association" which wiki mentions, but there was a Socialist Teachers Alliance (STA) which he was, most decidedly, NOT a member of. The left-wing NUT group we were aligned with was Teachers' Rank And File. We were allies on the committee of ELTA and were delegates to the Inner London Teachers' Association, ILTA, basically the London NUT. I was active in the East London branch alongside Blair from 1974 until his death in 1979. I left shortly after that. We all knew straight away what had happened to him at the hands of the police, and nothing can diminish the feeling of anger at the lies, the cover-ups, the closing of ranks and the demonisation of the anti-fascist left that went on for decades.

I have only good memories, Dave. Except for that terrible wallpaper in his flat that appears in some of the somewhat unflattering photos of him that we have. I have to assume that he inherited it and probably never even noticed it!

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 04:52 AM

The first line on my last post should read

"For those that believe police are there to 'keep law and order'. But in reality the police happen to murder civil rights activists and student wannabees (whatever they are)"

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 04:50 AM

"Neither the Sixties generation, rights activists, nor student wannabees, have made Britain more socialist."
No - but they attempted to make life better instead of sitting at home taking a poke and telling us where we were going wrong.
The students in the sixties helped change the laws on how Travellers were treated - the present lot have dismantled those laws and outlawed them virtually out of existence.
Those who turned out on the hundreds of anti- Vietnam war rallies helped end that particular obscenity.
The Anti-Apartheid Movement with its demonstrations and its boycotts was part of the changesd in South Africa.
None ofd this managed to change the world, but it at least drew attention to where it was going - a first step.
Safer to stand at the window and sneer rather than actually do something.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 04:34 AM

For those that believe police are there to 'keep law and order' but happen to murder civil rights activists and student wannabees (whatever they are)

The death of Blair Peach.

Well done, ake, you have managed to show your ignorance, insensitivity and bigotry all in one post.

Steve, sorry if it brings up any bad memories.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Raggytash
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 04:15 AM

Further tastings included Mosaic Blonde 4.3% from Oldershaw Brewery in Grantham and White Rabbitt 3.8% from the Ossett Brewery

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: akenaton
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 04:11 AM

Neither the Sixties generation, rights activists, nor student wannabees, have made Britain more socialist.
In fact we are now living in a society where capital controls every facet of our lives and the wealth gap has widened to an obscene extent.

We tend to confuse social law and order, with opposition to change in the political system.
The police are there to keep order no matter whom holds political power
Do you think that a socialist Britian would not need a strong police force?.....If so you are living in sixties cuckoo land.

Whining about personal "rights" only alienates half of society, divides and obscures the real important change which has to be political and economic

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 Aug 15 - 03:27 AM

It has not made a hap'orth of difference Rag... Guinness in England is still swill and always has been.
Even in Ireland, you have to pick your pub - and steer clear of most hotels (especially the large ones).
When Pat and I got together, the first holiday we took was to Ireland.
She had tried Guinness numerous times in London (with my encouragement) and hated it, and when we reached New Ross, I persuaded her to give it one more go - bang - 'The Thunderbolt!" as they said in 'The Godfather' - she was hooked forever.
She has been an addict ever since (beats all the chat-up lines I could ever come up with!).
"Blair Peach. Now there was a socialist."
A warmly-remembered socialist martyr
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Raggytash
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 03:30 PM

Jim

In 2005 I was down the Beara Peninsula just heading to the Dursay cable car, In the 1 o'clock news there was a statement that said all the Guinness sold in England was henceforth to be brewed in Ireland. Very sad for the workers at the former Guinness plant in London (and formerly Manchester) but great news for Guinness drinkers as our pints were going to be made in Dublin.

PS I know it's not from (and never has been) from the River Liffey

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 02:51 PM

I supped a good few hundred pints round Mile End meself, Jim, in the early to mid-70s. Many of 'em with my mate Blair Peach. Now there was a socialist.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 11:21 AM

"Guinness is not to be discussed in the same context as real beer."
All an acquired taste really.
I was in Oxford last year on a recording trip with a Irish friend and I introduced here to real ale - thought I was going to have to find her a sick-bag.
Takes all kinds.
One of the most memorable drinking nights Pat and I ever spent was when we were recording the Travellers on the Mile End Road in East London.
We invariably had to search for a pub that would agree to serve Travellers, usually only the ones were the dives that sold crap watered-down beer.
On this occasion, we found a real ale pub that had Watneys as a basis, but regularly brought in 'guest' ales'; on this particular night, it was Everards and Theakstons.
The company wasn't particularly discriminating and asked for "a pint of bitter" when ordering - the barman obliged with whatever was nearest to hand.
By nine o'clock, the place was like The Somme (not to mention a controversial subject) - minus the stretcher-bearers.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 10:26 AM

are achieved :-(

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 09:33 AM

Guinness is not to be discussed in the same context as real beer. It is made from watered-down burnt unmalted barley and is low in hops. Its head and frothy texture is achieved entirely by mechanical means via nitrogen gas and a device in the tap. Good for you if you like it, but there is real beer out there too! In the bad old days, when many a pub had no decent cask ales, Guinness came in handy as something at least tolerable. That role has greatly diminished.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Musket
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 08:29 AM

Certain things here are getting surreal.

Mind you, the Russell T Davies quote had me laughing out loud Ed, and being on a train, that guarantees nobody squeezing into the seat next to mine. I must have heard it at the time but can't remember it.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Ed T
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 08:02 AM

"You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: they don't alter their views to fit the facts; they alter the facts to fit their views." 
― Chris Boucher

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Ed T
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 08:00 AM

"Rose: 'If you are an alien, how come you sound like you're from the north?'
Doctor: 'Lots of planets have a north!" 
― Russell T. Davies

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 07:55 AM

What is your point over my cenotaph post Keith? Seems on the button to me.

Thanks Musket.
I gave up waiting for you to answer Raedwulf. I am glad you approve of my selection. I was afraid you would claim I was quoting out of context again.
I actually agree some of the sentiments in it myself.

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 07:53 AM

"My normal tipple is Guinness"
Repeat - English Guinness - euch!!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Sigh
From: Musket
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 07:39 AM

Bloody hell. I forgot how eloquent I am!

What is your point over my cenotaph post Keith? Seems on the button to me.

By the way, those on here sounding like the self righteous brothers over how we operate Musket. Keith has just yet again demonstrated why. Although I have no idea why he put that post up, he and others love to judge the poster not the post, so come up with irrelevant snippets about a person posting in order to cast doubt over them.

It is unsavoury, creepy, nasty and puerile.

Multiple people under one name confuses the fuck out of them. I think we'll carry on doing whilst ever M, I and yours truly feel it appropriate.

By the way, we all post separately in music threads, but as this section is called bullshit, it takes a narrow simpleton persona to behave in the way Keith does.