rhythm and boozeBrews, News, Bands & Reviews - Issue 20 - July/August 2013

A folk music fan has been

awarded the British Empire

Medal for his part in

reviving the Whittlesea

Straw Bear Festival. Named

in the Queen’s Birthday

Honours – for services to the

community – Brian Kell first

heard of the Straw Bear

custom through Ashley

Hutchings’ Rattlebone and

Ploughjack album.

Moving to the area in 1979,

he joined forces with the

Whittlesea Society to revive

the event the following year.

n The Straw Bear Festival2014 takes place on the

streets of Whittlesey over

the weekend of 10-12

January 2014. For further

information, including a

history of the event, visit

www.strawbear.org.uk

EMPIRE OFT H E F U N

British Empire Medal recipient Brian Kell, pictured in 1984, with former World’s Strongest Man

Geoff Capes. Photograph courtesy of Peterborough Morris (www.peterboroughmorris.co.uk).

BUY ONLINE or as a DOWNLOADBY MAIL ORDER FROM www.destructors.co.ukOR AS A DOWNLOAD FROM iTUNES/7DIGITAL

Out Now

PMT / The DestructorsSous Les Paves La Plage

The ‘Noisy punk birdsfrom Norwich’ join forceswith The Destructors forthis eight-track split EP.Alongside a reworking ofPMT’s Drama Queen isThe Destructors’ long-lostPenguin War Blues.

“The insanely prolific Destructors

punk-as-fuck Crass meets Stiff

Little Fingers meets Motorhead

inspired efforts here will cause you

to fling yourselves across the room!

A great record!”

- Big Takeover Magazine

Battle of the Sexes

With the Beer Festival almost

upon us, I’m dedicating this

issue to one of the games

available there, skittles. This

particular variant (and there

are many in this ancient

game) is played with the

nine wooden skittles set up

on a leather lined table that

is fitted with a hood a bit like

an ice hockey goal net. The

players then take it in turns

to throw three wooden

cheeses at the skittles to try

and knock them down. A hint

I was given was to throw the

cheese forehand rather than

backhand as the cheese may

then spin after it hits the table

and so take down more pins.

In Leicestershire the distance

from the table is usually nine

feet, in Northamptonshire it’s

ten feet.

Generally the skittles are

left where they fall during

a player’s turn, though in

Rutland and Leicestershire

they can be removed after

each throw. In some games

the player has to nominate

(before the throw) which pin

will be knocked over first, if

this pin isn’t hit, then none of

the pins knocked over on that

throw count towards the

score. If the cheese hits the

floor before reaching the

table, all players are expected

to sing the Dam Busters

theme tune.

Last year I did an article

on Dominoes and kept on

meaning to update you as to

which pubs have teams.

Around Peterborough you can

find teams at The Cherry Tree

on Oundle Road, Cock Inn in

Werrington and at the Whittle

Way in Stanground. Over in

Whittlesey, The Bull, the Boat

Inn, the Bricklayers, Letter B

and the Straw Bear all have

teams. Though if you know of

any’ more please let us know.

The Surrealist Sportsman’s ClubIn this issue, David ‘Dai’Roll discovers that life is beer and skittles.

749 Lincoln Rd, New England PE1 3HD

www.thecrownonline.co.uk

Tel: 0843 523 5181

4 Real Ales and Cider~

Log Fire Every Evening~

Great Music Every Day~

Pool Table & Dart Board~

Whisky Rack~

Lagers - Bitters - Ciders~

Bottled Real Ales~

Choice of 9 Wines~

Covered Heated Smoking Patio~

Free Parking~

Hot Drinks – Costa Coffee& Twinings Tea

~Big Screens - Live Sports

~Bar Food & Snacks

~Free Function Room

OPENING TIMESMonday - Thursday 12 - 3pm & 5 - 11pm

Friday - Sunday 12 - 11pm

what’s onMondays – Free Pool

Tuesdays – Food Night

Thursdays – Twisted Tunes

Fridays – LIVE NIGHT

Saturdays – Party Night

Sundays – Free Pub Games

8pm Free Pub Quiz

Pub ScrawlThe Eighth annual TS Eliot

Festival (eliotsociety.org.uk)

at Little Gidding (just off the

A1) will be held over the

weekend of 6-7 July and

includes the poets Daljit

Nagra and Robert Crawford.

This year’s John Clare

Festival will be held in

Helpston over the weekend of

12-14 July, kicking off with

the poetry smack down (and

other events) at Torpel Manor

on Friday night, and the

school and church for the

rest of the weekend. For

further information, visit

johnclaresociety.blogspot.co.uk

The Blyth Power Ashes

(www.blythpower.co.uk) will

be held at The Plough in

Farcet Fen over the weekend

of 23-26 August and among

the crusty/folky malarkey

will be punk poet Attila the

Stockbroker, AJ Brewster

(purveyor of twisted tales),

Project Adorno and The

Antipoet. There is still time to

enter the John Clare Cottage

(www.clarecottage.org)

annual poetry competition;

this year’s subject is

‘Landscape’. Poems can be up

to 20 lines long, the deadline

is 31 July and the entry fee

(for the adult competition,

younger age groups are

free) is £4.

Congratulations are due to

Teresa MacLean who won

the post of Stamford Poet

Laureate at the final held in

Stamford on 24 April, taking

over with the change of mayor

in May.

Congratulations also to

Mixy for landing a part in

Richard Tyrone Jones’ Big

Heart which will be broadcast

on Radio 4 before too long.

On Thursday 11 July,

Rachel Joyce, author of The

Unlikely Pilgrimage of

Harold Fry, will be at Central

Library speaking about her

new novel Perfect. The event

starts at 1pm and tickets are

£5 (£4 concessions and

reading group members) and

are available from any

Peterborough library or

Waterstones in Bridge Street.

If you know me, you’ll

know that I’m a geek for

space, so I’m looking forward

to the series of lectures to be

held at Peterborough Museum

as part of the Space: Fact &

Fiction exhibition season. On

Thursday 11 July Professor

Carolin Crawford talks about

space, on Monday 15

Professor David Cullen talks

about detecting evidence of

life on Mars (using a

pregnancy test); Anu Ohja

talks about how space science

has changed our lives on

Monday 12 August, while

Victoria Lonnon talks about

satellite technology on

Thursday 5 September. Talks

start at 7.30pm and tickets

cost £5 for adults. To book

(and you’ll have to as these

will sell out) ring 01733

864663 or email museum

@vivacity-peterborough.com

As part of the end of the

Peterborough Festival there

will be a Literature Tent

over the weekend of 7-8

September. Look out for

details of poets who will

be performing on the

Vivacity website.

In the next issue I’ll be

telling you more about the

We Love Words festival

(www.welovewords.org)

and The King’s Lynn Poetry

Festival (www.lynnlitfests.com)

Cardinal Cox’s act Lapsed

Agnostic is now available for

book groups, clubs, societies

or arts related events.

by C

ard

ina

l C

ox

The Cardinal’s Calendar 10 July/14 August – Pint of Poetry, Dash of Drama @

Charter’s. August marks the groups sixth birthday. So

look forward to cake and balloons. The evenings now start

at 8pm, and you have to be there early if you want to read.

31 July/28 August – Stamford’s Pint of Poetry takes place

from 8pm in the cellar bar at the Arts Centre on St Mary’s

Street.

Author Rachel Joyce is at theCentral library on 11 July.

Offering more than 350 cask

ales, plus wine, cider, perry

and bottled beers, the

Peterborough Beer Festival

is Britain’s largest beer

festival outside of London.

Taking place on the

Embankment between 20

and 24 August, visitors

come from around the world

to enjoy good beer, exotic

food and live entertainment.

As ever, Rhythm & Booze

offers its unofficial guide to

the Festival.

Who to watch…

From an open mic session on

the opening night to Think

Floyd (a tribute to Pink Floyd,

complete with laser show) on

the Saturday, there’s a varied

programme of live music

throughout the Festival.

But for me, the best of these

has to be The Librarians.

Influenced by The Libertines

with a hint of The Pogues,

and none of their history of

substance abuse, the band will

be the first act to play on

Thursday evening. If you

want a preview of their sound,

you can download five tracks

from fb.bandpage.com

/TheLibrariansmusic

…what to wet your whistle

with…

Last year, Oakham Ales

followed its usual Beer

Festival tradition in making a

song and dance to herald the

arrival of its festival special.

Called Carioca, the name for

residents of Rio de Janeiro,

a colourful procession from

the Brewery Tap to the Beer

Festival took place, with

participants dressed in

carnival fashion, banging

drums and blowing whistles.

Who knows what the

company will pull off this

year but one person who’s

louder than any Brazilian

rhythm section is the

Destructors’ lead singer,

Allen Adams. With the 30th

anniversary of the band’s

temporary split fast

approaching, Allen is

commissioning Castor Ales to

brew him a commemorative

ale, which is expected to be a

light and hoppy session beer.

Good I

Steve Saldana, owner of

Bexar County Brewery, is also

‘brewing quite a few special

things’ for the Beer Festival,

and like Market Deeping’s

Hopshackle Brewery is worth

looking out for.

…and Where to Wander?

The festival has all a real ale

fan could possible need but if

you fancy a wander, then

you’re never too far from a

decent pub. The nearest pub

to the festival is Charter’s, the

converted Dutch barge, which

like its fellow Oakham Ales’

pub, The Brewery Tap, serves

a large selection of ales and

offers a Thai food menu.

A ten to 15 minute walk,

starting from the footbridge

directly to the right of the

festival, takes you to The

Woolpack on North Street,

Stanground, the closest you’ll

get to a village pub in the city.

Woodston has two very

good real ale pubs, The

Coalheavers’ Arms on Park

Street and The Palmerston

Arms, Oundle Road. Billed

as a permanent beer festival,

‘the Palmy’ mixes ancient and

modern with its large window

into the cellar. Landlord Ian

‘Bertie’ Benton has recycled

old car seats to make the best

of the small beer garden to

the rear.

In the city centre itself,

there’s The Ostrich Inn on the

other North Street, which

serves six real ales and a real

cider, and has a landscaped

beer garden. As it’s not too far

from the bus station, why not

jump on a Number 1 bus from

Bay 14 and pay The Hand &

Heart, Highbury Street a

visit? Normally open from

3pm, for the Tuesday of the

festival, Landlord Bram will

be serving his well-kept ales

from lunchtime.

If you pop back on to the

bus and get off outside the

old Great Northern Railway

Cottages, you’ll find The

Crown on the other side of the

road. Recently reopened after

a year, the pub has a selection

of ales from local brewers.

n-tents

From Left to Right: Plenty of beers on offer, the new beer garden at The

Palmerston Arms, The Librarians enjoy a different kind of brew.

Hand & Heart12 Highbury Street. Peterborough PE1 3BE

01733 564653

A traditional back-street pub withup to six real ales at any time

nBeer garden and stage for live music

nTraditional pub games

nTraditional cider and perry available

nCAMRA Cambridgeshire Pub of the Year 2010

nCAMRA Gold Award Winner 2010

nLocAle Accredited

nListed in the CAMRA 2012 Good Beer Guide

nCheck our Facebook page ‘Friends of the Hand & Heart’for updates on beer festivals and live music

publishing books we’d want to buy

This time,next year...A game by game account of one

of the most gripping seasons in

Peterborough United's history.

Available for £9.99 from

Waterstones on Bridge Street,

www.amazon.co.uk and

www.divisionfourpublishing.co.uk

Also available on Kindle.

Cupid Stunts: The Life and

Radio Times of Kenny

Everett

By David & Caroline

Stafford, Omnibus Press

‘If you seek his monument,

look around you,’ says the

tribute to Sir Christopher

Wren in St Paul’s cathedral, a

phrase that could be applied

to music radio and YouTube

when talking about Kenny

Everett. Not only famous for

the silly voices and ridiculous

costumes, he was a pioneer

of audio editing, splicing

together the spoken word with

the hits of the day for comic

effect. And while it’s much

easier to do with the advent

of digital wave recording,

‘Ev’ had to rely on scissors

and sticky tape to produce

this literal cut and paste

comedy gold.

Pushing the comedy

envelope, not always ‘in the

best possible taste’, it’s little

wonder that the former

Maurice Cole was at times

shy and retiring, enjoying a

ramble through the Peak

District with his bank

manager. There are happier

moments though, featuring his

time at sea as a radio pirate

and the burgeoning Radio 1.

Although he was often

sacked for the odd on air

infringement, which seems

tame then, let alone now.

There are plenty of

anecdotes from close friends

and colleagues including

Cleo Rocos and Barry Cryer.

Despite struggling to come to

terms with his sexuality and

having worked with Jonathan

King, Chris Denning and

Jimmy Savile, we’re reminded

that ‘before any hint of guilt

by association can begin to

form, let it be said now

and let it said loudly that

Kenny Everett was only ever

attracted to grown up women

and big strong men.’

The Eccentronic Research

Council @ London Village

Underground, 17 May 2013

Maxine Peake and her fellow

“hard grafting bastards”, Dean

Honer and Adrian Flanagan,

were given a warm welcome

as they made their London

debut, performing 1612

Underture – their radiophonic

tribute to the Pendle Witches

– in its entirety.

Initially too low in the mix,

Peake’s recognisable voice

was soon brought to the fore,

delivering a darkly humorous

narrative over lively analogue

synths. Backing vocals,

additional keys and

percussion came courtesy

of Flanagan’s The Chanteuse

& The Crippled Claw

colleagues with Lucy Hope

taking lead vocals on the

triptych Pendle Wind/No

Hackney Cab To Gallows

Hill/The Hangman’s Song

while wearing a glittery dress,

accessorised with a noose

around her neck.

Returning for an encore, the

group performed Black

ChristMass, their only (so far)

non-album track, but for me,

the winning performance of

the night was for Another

Witch Is Dead. With Flanagan

freed from his keyboard to

sing, he ran round the stage,

throwing microphone stands

about, much to the cackling

Peake’s amusement.

British Electric Foundation

Music of Quality and

Distinction Volume 3

Wall of Sound WOS120CD

Having spent the past decade

developing 3D sound

installations, Martyn Ware

returns with an album

designed to take advantage of

that technology. Like previous

BEF releases, Volume 3

features an all-star cast but

this time the electro-assisted

covers have been stripped

back to reveal the darkness of

their lyrics.

Much of it works well, from

Kim Wilde’s opener, Every

Time I See You I Go Wild, to

Glenn Gregory’s tribute to

Billy Mackenzie on Party

Fears Two. But Gregory’s

Heaven 17 colleague Billie

Godfrey fares less well with

her reading of Smalltown Boy.

Like Kate Jackson’s take on

Picture This, it can only have

been rearranged with the John

Lewis Christmas advert in mind.

With a macho sounding Boy

George performing Lou

Reed’s Make Up and Iggy’s I

Wanna Be Your Dog, you’ve

got to look elsewhere for

camp. And while the intro to

Sandie Shaw’s cover of

Gladys Knight’s Just Walk In

My Shoes is a close contender,

the award has to go to Max

Pokrovsky. His Sparks-esque

take on ABBA’s The Day

Before You Came moves

Ware’s desire for an

atmospheric soundtrack to

one kind of theatre, the

cinema, to another, cabaret.

R E V I E W S

LISTINGSCharter’s Bar, Town Bridge,

Peterborough PE1 1FP

01733 315700

July

05 - Stone Pony

07 - The Guards

14 - Skulduggery

19 - Derrin Nauendorf

21 - Les Woods Bands

26 - Shake Hands Eric

28 - Groove Cartel

August

02 - The Last Echoes

11 - Motor City Vipers

17/18 - Peterborough Folk

Rootz Festival

23 - Lexie Green & The

Indigo Blue

25 - Tom & Pete

Cock Inn, 1305 Lincoln Rd,

Werrington, Peterborough

PE4 6LW

01733 322006

July

05 - Bon Rogers

06 - Lee Major

12 - El Tano

13 - The Returns

19 - Be Bop A Lulas

20 - The One Eyed Cats

26 - The Influence

27 - Code Red

The Crown, 749 Lincoln Road,

Peterborough, PE1 3HD

0843 523 5181

July

05 - Ramshackle Serenade

12 - The Influence

19 - The Veltones

26 - Soulweaver

August

02 - Children Of The Revolution

09 - Zeb Rootz

16 - The Guards

23 - Fen Boy 3

The Hand & Heart, 12 Highbury

Street, Peterborough PE1 3BE

01733 564653

July

11 - Open Mic Night

18 - Captain Backwash & the

Barley Boys and Girl Rafter

Raisers

25 - Cheese Club

August

01 - Open Mic Night

15 - Captain Backwash & the

Barley Boys and Girl Rafter

Raisers

26 - Bram’s 55th Birthday Bash

- Bands TBC

29 - Cheese Club

The Ploughman

Staniland Way, Werrington,

Peterborough PE4 6NA

01733 327696

July

05 - Hooker

06 - Nil by Mouth (3pm)

Motor City Vipers (9pm)

07 - Children of the

Revolution (3pm)

Citizen Smith (8pm)

13 - Rocket Dogs

19 - Grove Cartel

August

02 - On The Ceiling

10 - Hooker

16 - Citizen Smith

17 - The Nuggets

The Ostrich Inn, 17 North Street,

Peterborough PE1 2RA

01733 746370

July

05 - Kickback

13 - Electric Warriors

19 - Chill Factor

20 - Porky Pig

27 - The 707

August

02 - Retrolux

03 - The Limit

09 - Wild Honey

16 - Grumpy Old Men

30 - The Mistreated

31 - Easyersaid

All listings given in good faith,

Rhythm & Booze cannot be held

responsible for any discrepancy.

An Open Letter to Landlords

Everywhere

Here we are again, another

two months since I last delivered

your copies of Rhythm & Booze

and you’re still not quite

getting it, are you? I see you

immediately turn to the listings

page as I’m walking away,

muttering that you’re not in it

again, and why’s that?

Simple, I don’t own a crystal

ball so the best way to get a

mention in this magazine is

by dropping an email to

simonstabler@aol.com

The cut off date for the

September/October issue is

9 August so you have a couple

of weeks to do something about

your lack of coverage.

Thanks

Simon

Rhythm & Booze, Issue 20 - July/August 2013. All written material, unless otherwise stated, © Simon Stabler

The Palmerston Arms82 Oundle Road, Peterborough

PE2 9PA Tel: 01733 565865

Vinyl Night(Dates TBC via Facebook)

Bring your favourite record along.

Philosophy Night(Dates TBC via Facebook)

Share ideas about life's big questions in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere.

Lazy SundaysEnjoy Peterborough’s finest acoustic

acts, every Sunday from 3pm.

Every Sunday QuizFree Buffet. Cash Prizes. Win a

weekend in Norfolk. Starts at 7.30pm.

For more live music and events,please see our Facebook page

O p e n i n g T i m e s : Monday - Thursday 15.00 - 23.00

Friday and Saturday 12.00 - 00.00 Sunday 12.00 - 23.30

n Open all day, every day

n Up to four real ales available

n Food served Tuesday to Sunday lunchtimesand Monday to Saturday evenings

n Quiz on Sunday evenings with cash prizes

The WoolpackNorth Street, Stanground,

Peterborough PE2 8JF (01733) 753544

Stanground's Best Kept Secret- A 15 minute walk from the centre of town

Cider Festival16-18 August

10+ Real Ciders

Live Music (Acts TBC)

Barbeque