De Hems is shut for refurbishment again. At least I hope it is merely for a quick spit and polish because its the kind of large central London specialist boozer that we cannot do without (Oranjeboom on tap). The only thing that worries me is the fact[…]

More on covers: I know what Tom is getting at below, but I think he has allowed himself to step out of the realms of the subjective when he tried to explain the difference between oft cover standards and specific covers. The obvious difference to me […]

A subject which often comes back up here is that of televisions in pubs. We all know the horror of the TV showing MTV while the jukebox is banging out something completely different. And we are all aware that no matter what is on a TV screen the eye […]

That badly researched piece (London’s Rising pub indeed) probably refers to the Rising Sun on Carter Lane in the City – which would make a degree of sense. A little bit more about the initially spurious sounding St Andrew By The Wardrobe […]

It is inevitable that if Will Smith is in a summer blockbuster that he will record the theme tune. And from Men In Black to Wickee-Wickee-Wah-Wah-West they have usually been pretty lousy bits of cut and paste eighties pop rap. However he is truly scr[…]

The refurb merry-go-round spins and spins and this week paints another publog regular (favourite might be too stiff a word). The Pint Pot is dead, long live The Castle. There was something wonderfully alliterative about inviting someone for a drink a[…]

I wonder why the music industry had never thought of this before. If you don’t want people pirating Eminem then put out loads of bogus Eminem files on the web. It certainly comes under the definition of fighting fire with fire. Even better tha[…]

Just an addendum of the pub history stuff, I walked past the board outside the Bull & Mouth on New Oxford Street last night which has a detailed history of the pub and its name. The only part of this it that really interests me is at the end. Th[…]

I am always a but suspicious when I see stories like this: Beyonce Knowles warning kids not to become pop stars. This is not that dissimilar to the bitching Michael Jackson did about the music industry at the weekend, though Beyonce has decided not t[…]

Old English cities are built of pubs: I just spent the weekend in York and like Oxford which I am well acqainted with, and even smaller towns like St Albans, the place is stuffed to the gills with pubs. There is something quite heartwarming about wal[…]