Huddersfield Literature Festival might not be the biggest literature festival but it always feature some excellent authors. It returns after a two-year absence with a new director, Michelle Hodgson. Highlights include Kate Atkinson (March 15, 7.30pm, Hudds Uni), Joanne Harris (March 16, 10.30am, Waterstones and 7pm Hudds Uni), Yorkshire roots of Ted Hughes (March 17, 2pm, Hudds Arts Gallery), Michael Stewart/Gaia Holmes (March 17, 4pm, Art Gallery), Jeremy Dyson (March 17, 5pm, Art Gallery) Festival website
Congratulations to the fantastic Elland brewery for winning CAMRA's Supreme Champion Winter Beer of Britain award with their 1872 Porter. In an age of whippersnapper new breweries harping on about hops on their fancy websites, it's good to see an 'old school' brewery with consistently high standards geting recognition.
New Huddersfield bar... Northern Taps, next to Zephyr - and it looks like it's aiming for a similar vibe to its neighbour. Taps is nicely furnished and lit, with old fashioned parcel tags on the different ciders and beers (five ciders and a Mallinsons, Phoenix and a Jennings). Surprised there were no bottled beers on offer but the Phoenix Porter was in good order and I'd visit again. Taps also does food. UPDATE: The food here is excellent, hearty, homely and freshly-cooked judging by the wait (I'd rather wait a bit and get decent food). Pies, platters, steaks all good and it looks like word is getting around - no seats at 6 on evening I went.
More monkey business... the rather splendid HDM Beer Shop and bar is looking to spread into the empty shop next door - if it gets planning permission - just months after it opened. This quirky little place, with its ridiculously high bar, has a great selection of Yorkshire bottled beers rarely seen anywhere else (although they could dim down the lighting a bit).
Refurb for the best pub in which to watch rugby league... Dusty Miller, Longwood could soon have new owners and a refurbishment after licensees Bob and Sue Kendal retired. Ivan, the boss of the Field Head, Quarmby, is helping to run the DM at the mo and is Punch's first choice to take it over full-time, but he disagrees with Punch about how much needs spending on the pub - the pub co says £100,000, he says more. The Miller is a charming, cottagey pub which seems in good nick to me. It has three decent ales on, including Tetley's Mild, but is one of the few places in Hudds guarenteed to show the rugby league (Some info - Huddersfield Examiner). UPDATE: pub has reopened, still has real ales BUT NO SKY! Gah! (It does have vases of nuts on the bar though)
Perhaps the biggest is the omission of the King's Arms in Salford a super pub with a great selection of beers.
Quite a few changes in nearby Manchester - out go 57 Thomas St, Bull's Head (S Manc pub of the year), Common, Crown and Kettle, Grey Horse and Rising Sun. In come the Jolly Angler, Piccadilly, the fabulous Port Street Beer House and the Wheatsheaf.
All change in Halifax too - in come Dirty Dicks, New Prospect and the Sportsman, out go Barum Top, Shears, Westgate and William IV.
Otley's changed too, reflecting the opening of some great independent pubs - Fleece and the Horse and Farrier - and a Wetherspoon's, the Bowling Green, a faint echo of the great Otley pub it replaced.
In Huddersfield the no-nonsense Vulcan and the lovely Slubbers are in, the Cheery Tree and Marsh Liberal Club leave.
In Bradford, newbies are the Ginger Goose and the ace Sparrow Bier Cafe.
In Leeds new entries include Kirkstall's West End House and Meanwood's East of Arcadia, while Mirfield's Pear Tree is a newie. Full list of ins and outs to follow.
OLDER BITS
HYLDA BAKER: I speak without fear of contraception - you’re sat sitting there supping while we should be going to Blackpool hallucinations.
BARNSTONEWORTH: Yorkshire Premier League 1922: Haggerty F, Haggerty R,Tompkins, Noble, Carrick, Robson, Crapper, Dewhurst, MacIntyre, Treadmore,Davitt.
BEST BREWERIES: Where were the northern beers in the list of Great British Beer Festival winners in 2006? Were the judges all from Chiddingfold-on-Sea and used to watery, headless brews? Here's THE 10 best breweries.
BEST PUBS:
BOWLING GREEN, OTLEY: Stuffed snarling badgers, gas masks and a skeleton were among the 3,500 items inside. The landlord, Trevor, was a rather forbidding character. It looked like you had to pull a thorn from his paw to get on with him.
NELL BRYDEN: She called me sweety when I bought her CD off her. I don't think anyone's called me sweety before - mind you I was dressed as a Mars Bar at the time.
TED CHIPPINGTON: Walking down the road the other day, this bloke came up to me and said: 'Can you tell me how far is to the railway station?’ I said: (gruff voice): ‘One mile.’ He said: (gruff voice) ‘One mile?’ I said: (gruff voice) ‘One mile - roughly speaking.’
CUD: Was Carl's voice up for it? Would new guitarist Felix fill the considerable boots (Hey Boots!) of the assistant headteacher from Tadcaster? Would the band gel like the greasiest Ted? Yes, yes and yes! Carl bellowed like a moose, holding a note like Pavarotti. Felix is the indie Jimi Hendrix and the band were tighter than a gnat's chuff.
DOCK PUDDING: People flocked to Cragg Vale to taste Doris Hirst’s championship winning pudding
ROBERT ELMS: Ludicrous clotheshorse
THE FALL: A member of the opening act assaulted Smith with a half-eaten banana and the band played on while MES chased the banana-assassin into the parking lot, where a scuffle ensued.
GOOD BEER GUIDE HIGHLIGHTSForget all the other pub guides - unless you want to take your granny for Sunday lunch in an unbearably twee Cotswold village where they rethatched the roofs in 1973.Includes pubs in west Yorkshire, west Lancashire, Manchester, Sheffield and York.
RAY GRAVELL
There used to be/Detonations on the telly/It was Grav discussing rugby
There used to be/From the radio great warmth surging/Grav conversing.
VAL GUEST: He hated Arthur Askey, but he made his directing debut with him in Miss London Ltd, about an escort agency. It probably wasn't that kind of agency,although, you never know - "A handjob Arthur?" "Well stone me!"
HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT: I went to see the Bootleg Beatles as the bootleg Mark Chapman
HUDDERSFIELD: Pubs, trains, beer, buildings (see index)
LEEDS: Britain's most overrated city is just Wakefield with delusions of grandeur and good PR.
JEFFREY LEWIS: He says he's not even a glass half-empty person, he's glass half-full - half-full of nothing. There's also some delightful rhymes - on one song about a dead pig he sings: "He's called Jonathan or Jason/It depends which way he's facin'"
LORD OF THE RINGS: It's all completely huourless and is desperately in need of Brian Blessed SHOUTING LIKE HE DID IN FLASH GORDON. "HAWKMEN,DIIIIIIVE!" (When he was in his patrol car in Z Cars did he shout: "POLICEMAN, DRIIIIIVE!"?)
MARBLE GINGER It’s ‘gingier’ than Liverpool supersub David Fairclough in a carrot-top love-in with Tori Amos
STERLING MORRISON: Interviewer:Is New Wave rock 'n' roll or is it folk?Morrison: I'm afraid it's folk singing and this pains me.
CHIC MURRAY: It was raining cats and dogs. I stepped into a poodle.
NORTHERN FILM LOCATIONS:Hell is a City - Grim Up North Noir with Stanley Baker as a copper so hard-boiled he's been left in the pan for a week.Everyone smokes. Trains stop at GMEX.Levenshulme, East Didsbury, Huddersfield, Medlock, Burnage, Withington andOldham are the other locations.A Kind of Loving - Alan Bates throws up on Thora Hird's carpet. Thora, in Dame Edna glasses, calls him a pig. Steep park where he gets Thora's daughter pregnant is in north Manchester, also Preston, Stockport, Salford.
ERIC OLTHWAITE: It were always raining in Denley Moor, except on days when it were fine; and there weren't many of those - not if you include drizzle as rain. And even if it weren't drizzling, it were overcast and there were a lot of moisture in the air. You'd come home as though it had been raining, even though there had been no evidence of precipitation in the rain gauge outside the town hall.
PIES: There’s been a run on Hofmann’s “growlers” since he won the World Cup of pies
REAL ALE TWATS:'I'm remindful of The Lamb and Tuppence in Pontypridd, a splendid little pub which serves Bishop's Gleet'
JOHN SHUTTLEWORTH: Go caravanning in Dyfed or Clwyd/Order a pizza and get it delivered/ How to be happy in a sad, sad world
SOUTH PENNINE DAY RANGER EXCURSION Emley Moor mast follows you round like Mona Lisa's eyes
EDDIE WARING A choirboy Kaiser Chief sang at his funeral
WIGAN INSULTS:
To someone who’s ugly:Who knitted thi face an dropped a stitch?
To someone with a terrible memory:It’s a good job thi balls are in a bag
0 comments:
Post a Comment