There was a tense moment when we left the comforting womb of the Prince Of Wales. Mainly that the pub crawl commander seemed to have “misplaced” a pub. Still in the long run this was a good thing as that would have made this PUB 9 – which would not work.

So we finally hit Ladbroke Grove, via seeing some West London youths dressed in red bin bags for no good reason. The Elgin is a pub we had all been to before, and truth be told is the most popular pub on the Grove. It is big, has an okay selection for beers, a big screen, pool, food and is really rather comfy. Would they have Live 8 on the TV? Yes, yes, and perhaps yes to a degree we had not expected.

Out back, the big screen was down and Live 8 was on at earsplitting volume. Under the circumstances not a bad time for Madonna to come on. And go on she did. We got a little bit bored of not being able to talk to each other when Madge told us for the eighty-fifth time that “Music, makes the people, come together”. Still the volume increase was in parallel with her performance which was very enjoyable.

We then had to explain to Emma who Snow Patrol were, and it was very clear that her life was not enriched by the knowledge. We took ver Patrol’s advice when the played Run and legged it. But you could hear the Elgin halfway up the road.

PUB 8 RATING: 7 (Really nice pub, marked down for being just a little bit too loud)