No snow for April's Open Music Night.

It was a real wrestle deciding whether or not to cancel March's Open Music Night because of the weather. I'd watched as other events fell by the wayside and kept an eye on the forecast, which was decidedly unfavorable. Should I wait until the last minute and see what the weather threw at us, or play safe?

The decision was made for me because of the logistics involved in getting all of the equipment together. On Wednesday evening, I would go the the lock-up and load all of the lighting equipment. On Thursday evening I would fill the van with all of the PA, and then on Friday morning I would add the guitars ready to go straight from work to The George.

On Friday morning it seemed as though I'd been a bit hasty as the sky was clear and the roads to Coventry were mostly clear but as the afternoon wore on, conditions deteriorated and I think it was a wise decision.

The weather struck again for MDF, who were booked to play St Patrick's Day at The Two Boats, Long Itchington. The band and PA made it, but audience members were disapointingly thin on the ground. Well, it was either the snow or the celebrations of Irish Rugby success that saw people head early for home.

Fortunately, the snow had gone by the time of The All Fools' Night Celebration

I started things off as per usual with a reflection on funeral arrangements, 'Be Careful What You Wish For When You Die'. This was followed by a Norwegian Wood parody about a dog with a taste for, well, Norwegian Wood. I started the second part of the evening with 'Twenty Spoons of Sugar'.

Steve Edgar's joke was highly entertaining. With a lengthy preamble the moth told the psychiatrist why it had come into the therapy consulting room - the light was on.

His musical offerings included

Bob Dylan's 'Famous Blue Raincoat' and the 60's Irish folk song 'Carrickfergus', and

Dean Martin's 'Memories Are Made of This'. His last song of the evening was Eric Idle's Monty Python classic, 'Always Look on The Bright Side of Life'.

Shirley has been bravely tweaking the mic levels, and it made a real difference this evening. With their foot tapping jigs and reels, No Strings Attached sounded fantastic.Frequent vistors to the English Folk website

Their repertoire included 'The Evercreech Hornpipe' and reels Twin Sisters, Morpeth Rant, The High Level Bridge and The Wonder

Sandi & Tugrul presented what I considered to be the funniest joke of the evening which went along the lines of: “A elderly man arrives home with flowers on the couples wedding anniversary. In the past he has been notoriusly lax, and his wife is so pleased that he’d remembered she told him that as a reward he could have ‘super sex’. The husband though about it for a second or two and said, ‘I’d like the soup please’.”

Their songs began with The Kinks' 'Lazing on A  Sunny Afternoon', Leonard Cohen’s 'Dance Me To The End of Love', which was thoroughly enjoyed by George behind the bar, and the crowd pleasing, Led Belly’s Midnight Special.

In the second part of the evening we had time for two more from Sandi & Torgul The Beatles, ‘When I’m 64’ and one from a very young Michael Jackson, ‘Rockin’ Robin’

With the exception of RD Hunter’s ‘Wait in The Water’, which he sang in the later part of the evening, Lew Bear's songs were of his own composition. Mad Old Girl, The Grass grows greener on the other side and A Northampton Rhyme. The audience particularly enjoyed his critique of ‘White Van Man’ at my expense.

  

MDF were next up, and because there was no Ross tonight it meant that Tracey had all the limelight to herself. 

Josh Turner's 'Longer The Waiting', The Travelling Willburys 'End of The Line'

Creedence Clearwater Revival's 'Proud Mary'. What we did in the second half is a blur.

Paddy Wex was on form tonight with a wonderful song about the importance of neutering your cat, called ‘Calling The Vet’. His second was a more serious piece relating to a local historical event and the social injustice that lead to it ‘The West Haddon Football Riot’ took place in response to The Enclosures Act.

Out On The Mira

The end of the evening was a bit of a blur, with Paddy, MDF and Steve. My failure to immediately write down MDF and Paddy's final songs meant that by the time I came to finish the blog I couldn't remember what they were.  

Paddy brought the evening to a close, dipping into the MDF songbook and leading the ensemble with Steve Earle's 'Galway Girl.

Feelin' the Lurve

The 4^th Annual Night of Lurve love song competition took place at The George, Kilsby on Friday 2^nd February. Originally launched in 2014 as our warm-up for Valentines Day it has become a fixed feature in the Open Music Collective calendar.

There were a number of lessons that could be drawn from the evening. Mine, as compère, were quite simple; no beer near PA! For the performers there seemed to be a distinct advantage for those that played songs that were more familiar to them. Those that chose previously unperformed material suffered from the lack of exposure.

Seasonal Lurgy had once more taken its toll among the regular performers and I hope that those that found themselves thus afflicted are already much recovered. You were missed.

Because of the relatively short list, all of the entries were completed by ten thirty. This meant that there was time for the winning performers to have another turn at the microphone; and we still had time for a collective 'Wagon Wheel' jam at the end, courtesy of Steve Edgar.

While it was difficult for some to grasp, voting for oneself was allowable. If you thought that your performance was the best, then why not? But, in keeping with The Open Music Collective tradition, the voting did reflect the quality of performances on the night, and not the performers with the largest entourage. Interestingly, the band with the most members got the least number of votes.

Sadly, there was no contingent from Napton this year, and they were sadly missed, though this might have been a blessing in as much as someone else had a chance of winning for a change.

The evening got under way with the order of performances being drawn. In order to be fair, as there is a perception that later acts do have a slight advantage, possibly relating to the age of the audience and their capacity to remember, a randomising process took place. Thanks to audience member Janet for her assistance. On reflection, it may hav eproved completely unnecessary as the first two acts made their way into the topThis was followed by a summary of the voting rules and an explanation of the way the evening would run.

Then, before the first act, a poem.

Some Love Songs

some love songs they are very sad

some of them are funny

some bring a tear drop to the eye

some make your bits go runny

some love songs tell of longings

that threaten to explode

while others tell of true loves

a walking down the road

some love songs are for young folk

just starting out in life

looking for a tender husband

or a pretty loving wife

some love songs are for older folk

who haven't give' up yet

are just happy for some int'rest

and take anything they can get

it's a love song for a lover

it's a love song for a fool

it's for all those things you wish

that they had taught you while at school

it's the love songs got you ready

when things were about to start

it's what's happening in your loins

it's what's happening in your heart

some love songs they are tragic

when everybody dies

and some of them are magic

with rainbows and butterflies

they leave you feeling happier

though your heart is broke in two

and that's the most important job

a love song has to do

© George Houguez, 2018

The performers and their competition entries:

Photographed by Debbie Smith

The ice was broken by ODDS & ENDS, featuring Nigel Lewis and Darren Smith, with a little help from Hedley warmed up with Sam Cooke's 'Wonderful World'. They were staying safe with their entry numbera song we have heard them perform a few times their entry was Ben E King's 'Stand By Me'. This was well delivered and that was reflected in the scoring.

Second up was IAN, a regular contributor to the Open Music Collective, created mayhem when his guitar seemed quiet. Lesson number two, don't assume a performer won't unplug their instrument just to prove to themselves it was plugged in. How the speakers survived I'll never know. His warm up was the Todd Rundgen classic, ' I saw the light'. 

There aren't too many Tom Wait love songs to choose from, so Ian did well to find this one among Tom's repertoire as his competition entry; 'I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You'.

In an oversight and a half, SANDI & TORGUL were left off the list. Sorry! Fortunately, on the off chance of a late arrival, two spare places had been put in and they were given one of those. They warmed up with a Lennon and McCartney song 'Things We Said Today'. Their official entry was a song called 'I Can't Love You Enough', by someone with an L in their name; possibly Lavern Baker.

Frequent visitors PETE & MARION were the fourth up, warming up with Pete singing the lovely Lionel Richie song, 'Easy Like Sunday Morning', with Marion providing the "oohs" as backing vocals, and Pete improvising a delightful Kazoo solo in the place of the electric guitar. For their competition entry Marion was vocals for the Patsy Kline song 'Crazy'. The singing along started here, which might say something about the average age of the audience. Pete runs a very pleasant sing around night at The Bull, Clifton.

LEW BEAR

Lew has been threatening to visit us for such a long time, and it was great to have him with us this evening.

Lew warmed up with Robert Burns', 'Green Grow The Rashes O', a song about the pleasure he found in the company of lasses. Lew's competition entry was a song of his own, 'The End is Never Near'.

PADDY was on good form this evening with a couple of his own songs. Paddy's warm up was about all about gardening, 'Sowin' me seed bumkin' style'. There was a lot of forking, something about an overgrown bush and a clematis, but as I don't know much about gardening I didn't really understand much of it, and I've no idea why there was so much laughing.

His competition entry was 'The Anderson I Lurve'; a celebration of one of Paddy's cricketing heroes. This was sung to the familiar Bob Dylan tune 'Make You Feel My Love'. I jumped every time Paddy shouted 'Owzat!'

Every now and then we get a little glimpse into the lives of the performers as they reveal details or aspects that were previously unknown. This evening Paddy confessed to buying Cliff Richard as his first record, and then not being allowed to buy any more because of what his Mum considered was Cliff's depravity. 

MDF were without Banjo Grandad and The Gurl, one was making haunted train noises, the other was under a blanket covered in Vic; their absence was telling.

The warm up performance was The Cure's 'Friday I'm in Love'. We should have gone with this as our entry. It was a superb effort, possibly the best we have ever played it. Instead, our official entry to the 2018 Night of Lurve was Josh Turner's 'The Longer The Waiting'. We smashed this at rehearsal on Thursday night (honestly we did), and I was pretty confident of a place for the band if not a win. Our lack of practice told, and on the night we were terrible; the voting reflected it.

It has been a while since we last saw him, but for the love song competition, TONY COLLINS was back; no guitar, no auto harp but with his ukulele. Tony's warm up song was one we've heard him perform before, 

The Haughton Weavers' 'Rooms In The Sky'. His entry was what is possibly the best known love song of all time, Eric Clapton's 'Wonderful Tonight'. I've not heard it played on a uke before and it really suited the song.

The final performance of the evening fell to last year's runner up, STEVE EDGAR,  who also benefited from a little help from Hedley. This year he didn't fare quite so well in the scoring. His warm up song was Bob Dylan's 'One More Cup of Coffee'. Steve managed to sound suitably brooding and melancholy in what is quite a tricky song to deliver. Anyone who says bob Dylan can't sing should have a go at this one. 
Steve's competition entry was Ketty Lester's, 'Love Letters Straight From Your Heart'.

While #1 Roadie added up the scores I sang a couple of songs and then the results were announced.

The voting for the top three places was as follows

Third place – Odds And Ends – 8 points 
A box of  Roses chocolates and a compilation CD of love songs.

Second Place – Ian – 18 points
A bottle of Champagne, a box of Roses chocolates and a compilation CD of love songs

First Place – Lew Bear – 22 points
Dinner for two at The George, courtesy of Prasath, a bottle of Champagne and a compilation CD of love songs.

Ian and Lew were invited up to sing a few more songs. Ian giving us on of his favourite Tom Waits songs 'Chocolate Jesus' and Lew Bear with his own true story of a crow named Charlie, called 'Charlie The Crow' and a wonderful parody of Wild Rover


The evening ended with a melee of performers gathering for a rowdy rendition of Guy Clarke's Wagon Wheel with Ross and Ian providing vocals and everyone else joining in. 

We are back together at The George again for a regular Open Music Night on Friday 2nd March. It would be great to see you there.

It isn't Christmas until Noddy Holder says so

The Warm-Up for Christmas is the last Open Music Night of the year. With it being on the first of December this year it seemed a bit early to be too Christmassy; but Mel had put the tree up and was hanging decorations as we arrived to set up. So while Christmas songs still hadn't been heard on the radio, never mind 'that one', it did feel that Christmas was close enough.

In comparison to the mayhem and madness of the previous few months, this evening was a much more sedate affair, with the majority of the audience being made up of the performers; and most of them were MDF.

In fact, the last few months have been so packed that I’ve tended to limit my performances to playing with MDF. So it was a pleasure to have the opportunity to sing a whole six songs.

My first half set was all self-penned, beginning with a song written in 1999, 'A Christmas Present for Shirley' which was about ...., followed by my second Christmas themed song 'Sad St Nicholas', inspired by the desperation of last minute Christmas shopping. Then, because there were so few of us performing I gave 'Old Town Blues' and 'Canary' a run out too.

In the second half I did a couple of covers, the first Bob Dylan's 'Forever Young' followed by Neil Diamond's 'Solitary Man'. Hedley accompanied me on violin, and it was a pleasure to play along to the instrumentals and refrains.

John & Mike were next up, and complete with appropriate props sang 'Christmas in Australia'.

Their second song was also another Christmas themed one, 'Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer'. 'What did they say their song was called? whispered #1 Roadie. When I repeated the title she asked, 'Is that a real song?' 

Moving from the seasonal to the sublime they then performed the Willie Nelson/Elvis Presley/Pet Shop Boys', 'Always On My Mind' and  Rod Stewart's 'I Don't Want To Talk About It'.

In the second part of the evening, after an extended counting exercise, they performed 

Peter St John's 'Fields of Athenry' and Creedence Clearwater Revival's 'Stuck In Lodi Again'. Did Mike really sing 'come into town on one eyed Stan? Who is 'One Eyed Stan?' and why would CCR have sung about him?

It was great to have Paddy with us again, and he was certainly on form this evening, providing an emotional roller coaster of songs. Paddy's first song was his own Christmas parody of Good King Wenceslas, the cautionary tale of Whatsislad and the over cooked sprouts. 

The mood then became more somber as he sang Glen Hughes' 'Whiskey on A Sunday', also known as 'The Ballad of Seth Davy'.

Up we soared again with the seasonal Brexit song 'TheTurkey's Referendum', another example of Paddy's genius, before he ended the first set with the Ralph McTell classic 'Streets of London'. In the second part of the evening he delighted us with the Percy French song, 'Mountains of Mourne'. Paddy finished on a high with his Humbug Christmas song, in which he admitted to being pumped up, but not with Christmas cheer.

There was only TCB missing from a full line-up of MDF this evening so Hedley stepped up to make up the numbers and to ensure that there were  more people on stage than in the audience. The Christmas selection from MDF hurtled through the decades and included  the 1934 sensation 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town', the 1958 sensation, 'Rocking Around The Christmas Tree' and the 1974 sensation, 'Lonely this Christmas'. Added to these were the distinctly not -Christmassy Travelling Wilburys', 'End Of The Line' and the John Ims song, 'In Love With The Boy', recorded in 1991 by Trisha Yearwood.

As a seasonal novelty, and as a thank you to those regular performers that had supported our Open Music Nights over the year, I raffled a plectrum maker. It was won by Ross, possibly the only performer that really has no use for it. Perhaps it will find it's way into a Tombolla over the next week or so. As I extolled the virtues of the device and the possible savings John almost stole my punchline about credit cards.

Proceedings ended a little earlier than usual, which meant that No 1 Roadie got to bed at a reasonable time for a change; no bad thing given that she was up early for work on Saturday.

So Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year from The Open Music Collective. If you are celebrating then why not raise a glass to a music packed 2018. Our season resumes in February when I look forward to hosting The Fourth 'Night of Lurve' love song competition on Friday 2nd February.

Banging Tunes and Smashing Performances at The 4th Bangers and Mash Night

I don't know if it was the news that Maggie was ending her stay at The George with the uncertainty that followed, or that the summer was quite a busy one, but the blog dropped a notch or two on my list of priorities. So while a few things had happened, like the birthday bash and Maggie's Farewell celebrations, there's not much in the blog. Perhaps I can do something about that in a summary of the year; and what a year it has been. The Open Music Nights has become increasingly popular and I had so many ideas for developing it further in terms of various stage area improvements and getting some really good paid performers to visit us from occasionally to provide a bit of inspiration, and then on the night I was going to ask Maggie about it she told me about her retirement plans.

The first indication that things might turn out in our favour came quite late in the day, and while October's Open Music Night had been guaranteed, the exchange only took place towards the end of the month. A brief chat on the phone confirmed that November's Open Mic Night was on, and a few days later, a visit to The George got 'Bangers and Mash' on the menu; well you can't have The 4^th Bangers and Mash Night without them really. “It could be a busy night Mel” I remember remarking. We had no idea.

When Friday eventually came around, it was another early start for me, and I was on my own as #1 Roadie wouldn't be finishing work until later. For a change, I was set up and ready to go by 7.30pm, all that remained was to make a quick change in the carpark. As it was, with a full house, kitchen under full steam and more musicians arriving, we were a bit late on getting under way.

No Strings Attached, with no strings at all.

The difficulty in being Master of Ceremonies for The Bangers and Mash Night is that most of the performers are also partaking in the bangers and mash supper. While there is a running order, it is a bit fluid. No one wants to belt out a big number when there is a danger of imminent burping, and I certainly don't want residual sausage on the microphone at the end of the evening.

There were ten acts on the list, so I invited No Strings Attached to open for us. Their first half performance was signature No Strings Attached,  ending with a very lilting waltz 'Ashokan Farewell'. They abandoned their strings altogether in the second half, rising to the a'capella challenge with the sea shanty 'Paddy Lay Back'.

Next up was 'Silent G'; named after the explanation Torgul has to give as to the spelling of his name. The G is silent.  Tonight they were in a decidedly blue mood. Blue Skies smiling at me, Blue Day, it's been a blue blue day. Their last song of the night was also a blue one; Guy Mitchell's 'Singing The Blues'.

There was fresh meat on offer this evening in the form of The A'Cappella Fellas. There is always a little excitement generated by performing strangers, we never know quite what to expect. I can't speak for the old days, but this was the first time since I took over that a barbershop quartet have performed at The George Open Music Nights. Being a busy night there was a two song first half limit, so their first two songs were Billy Joel's 'Longest Time', The Drifters 'Under The Boardwalk' and the an old St Louis blues number. We didn't mind, because we enjoyed it so much. In the second half, with one song only, they sang Bobby Darin's  'Somewhere, Beyond The Sea' followed by Billy Joel's, 'Goodnight My Angel'. A bit cheeky, but as this was the first time we'd seen them, and they sounded so good, I let them slip an extra one in. There definitely wasn't room for a third.

Once again the Mother Ship landed and king of the gizmo, Dangerous Derrick Meyer, gave us a signature performance. His first song of the set was Buffulo Springfield's 'For What it's Worth',  Jack Savortetti 'Written In Scars'. Sadly Derrick disappears after the fist half, so that was all we got to hear from him. Because I can't guarantee that my newsletter always goes out in time I'm going to mention his open mic nights. The first is at The Royal Oak, Crick on the last Thursday of the month. The second is at The Bulls Head, Stoney Stanton, on what appears to be the second Wednesday of the month. Derrick supplies the PA and Tracy is in charge of the list.

Alex has been to see us a few times now, and his performances always delight whether dueting with Derrick or on his own. Tonight he braved a couple of new tunes for us; the first, Sting's 'Fields of Gold', and then the Fionn Regan song 'Abucus'. 

Jason and Rachael killing it

Occasional Kilsby OMC performer Dave Pepper came along to lend us his support and to demonstrate his variety and versatility, beginning with a country song, 'Ain't Got To Be Rich'; which I knew to be one of his own composition. However, he was also responsible for the two Flamenco pieces, the first called 'The Dance' and the second called 'El Soro'

It is always good to have performers coming from Napton, except when it is the 'Night of Lurve' love song competition which they have dominated since its inception. Tonight Jason gave us 'God And Satan' by Biffy Clyro and then he was joined on the stage by Rachael for a very acomplished Buggles' 'Video Killed The Radio Star'. Sadly family commitments meant that they were unable to stay for the second half .

Steve had a little help to throw the curtains wide.

Sue turned up on her own saying that Andy and Paul were on the way. The name 'Sooty Sweep and Sue' appears to have stuck., though this evening it was Sooty, Sweep and Sue, and Hedley too. Their offerings this evening were Tina Turner's 'Proud Mary' and something by the Old Crow Medicine Show.
Their second half song was Bob Marley's 'Three Little Birds' and then the snuck in another, Van Morrison's 'Brown Eyed Girl'.

Steve Edgar, possibly our best hope for The 2018 Night of Lurve, was accompanied first by Hedley on violin for 'The House of New Orleans' and Bob Dylan's 'It Hurts Me Too'. Then his second half finale was a more theatrical affair than we've been used to when he was joined for the chorus of Elbow's 'One Day Like This' by The A'Capella Fellas. It wasn't quite as startling as Grandad Banjo hijacking Ian's performance last month, but was spectacular enough.

Ending the evening was the Mighty MDF. They were joined by Tea Chest Brian in the first half performing 'Werewolves of London', and The Cure's 'Friday I'm in Love'. It wouldn't be right to let Brian leave without a song, so he gave us Putting On The Style'. Brian went home at the interval and the second half of the evening was brought to a close with The Water Boys' 'Fisherman's Blues', and Dire Straits Walk of Life, with Ross adding the harmonica parts.

The Next Kilsby Open Music Collective is on Friday 1st December. It feels a bit early for Christmas songs at the moment, but by then perhaps we'll all be ready for them, so bring them along and blow the cobwebs off them. Perhaps MDF will lead in some of their Christmas repertoire as part of their rehearsal for the Christmas Busking in Crick, which I think is on December 15th. I had better find out as I'm going to taking part.

Maggie's Farewell and the end of an era.

Maggie's Farewell sounds like the title of a folk song, and no doubt it's a sad one. This Maggie's Farewell was another packed open music night by The Kilsby Open Music Collective, and while there were one or two somber moments, the evening was mostly a celebration of appreciation for our lovely host, Maggie Chandler, who leaves The George towards the end of October. The Kilsby Open Music Collective, Open Music Night, once known as 'Paddy Wex and Friends', has been running for years. The last four years has seen the progressive development of the event from an acoustic folk music evening to a 'gig' with PA and lights. The latest addition being a multichannel mixing desk that #1 Roadie has taken a shine to. It was also the first open music night since the news of Tom Petty's passing, so a few of his songs found their way into the performances.

Proceedings began on time, ten minutes late, and I opened with two of my favourite songs

Mike and John follwed, with John on the spooky sounding autoharp 'Hardworking Boater' and 'Come By The Hills'.

They ended their evening's performance in the second half of the night with their rendition of the well known Eskimo mealtime song, 'Whale Meat Again'. Actually, it was an interesting delivery of the Vera Lynn saying good bye song

Nigel and Darren, as Odds and Ends with accompaniment by Hedley on violin. When I booked them in I asked if Hedley was joining them and they didn't know. At that moment, as if by magic Hedley appeared. Their Bob Dylan repertoire is growing and their delivery just gets better and better. Tonight we had a Ben E King sandwich. Dylan's 'You Ain't Going Nowhere', followed by Ben E King's 'Stand By Me' and then back to Bob for 'Knocking On Heaven's Door'.

Inspired by the prospect of Maggie's retirement Steve Edgar raised the cultural component by performing 'Leisure',  by Welsh poet, W.H Davies "what is this life if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare" with a musical accompaniment. This he followed

by the most popular funeral song, Frank Sinatra's 'My Way', not the sex pistols version, but one we all knew and joined in with.He ended his evening's selection with a superb account of Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven'. Hedley joined in on violin and between them they made the hair stand on the back of my neck.

It was great to have Stained Grass Bluegrass with us again. This evening they performed Special Consensus Band's, 'Leaving Town' followed by Gordon Lightfoot's, 'The Redwood Hills'

Left handed legend 'Dangerous Derrick' once more had the mothership of electronic wizardry at his feet for his delivery of Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks, 'Stop Dragging My Heart Around' and The Eagles, 'Take it Easy'. 

 

Pete and Marian provided the next Tom Petty song, 'Free Falling'. They were were then joined by MDF's Mark on accordion, The Levellers 'What A Beautiful Day'

The first song from Ian was a swinging version of Tom Waits' Chocolate Jesus.  This was followed by a song written for Nina Simone, but made famous by The Animals, 'Lord Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood'.

After the break Ian began with 'Wide Eyed and Legless', but he'd probably had too much beer, so he stopped and performed Mungo Jerry's 'In The Summertime' instead. It isn't often that a performance is highjacked by a member of the audience, but John, mistaking an empty proseco bottle for a musical instrument leapt to his feet and puckered up very intimately. How Ian maintained his composure I'll never know, but he couldn't have minded too much as he invited John to join him at the subsequent 'Folk At The Oak' night the following Thursday.

An almost complete MDF lineup offered the last of the Tom Petty tributes, from their regular set list, Travelling Wilburys' 'End of The Line' and then a crowd pleasing rework of Bob Dylan's 'Maggie's Farm'. The lyrics of which were laminated and signed by all of the evening's performers for Maggie to take away with her.

The evening ended as they often do, with an ensemble peice; this time lead by MDF. 

The new owner of The George is keen for things to carry on, so we are back in November, though I can't say that there will be bangers and mash just yet.