Once again I saw The Girl and The Stone playing tonight and once again they were brilliant. I took a photo and sent it via Whatsap to my daughter because I do that now as we saw their first gig at Jam Cafe, and met up with my friend Gary for the first time in ages so all in all a good night. I'm not going to write about the Twitter argument I got into with a load of misinformed idiots because it just isn't worth mentioning. What I am going to say is that I was very impressed with the venue compared with the last time I saw it.
It was during the 2014 Hockley Hustle that I went downstairs at the Lord Roberts into their grandly named 'basement' to catch an act that I can't remember. Incidentally I think that was with Gary too, and we walked out due to an immense feeling of claustrophobia caused by the room. This wasn't a basement, it was the cellar. Not only that but no attempt seemed to have been made to dress the place up as anything other than a damp pub cellar with the barrels moved to one side. We had to leave and only returned this evening.
The Lord Roberts was closed for a while for a refurbishment and hasn't suffered from the Hockley curse so still resembles a proper pub and sells some proper beer although no Guinness. They have a stout, but I wasn't going to fall for that trick again where they tell you that their product is a suitable replacement for Guinness but the only resemblance is the colour. What was most pleasing about the refurbishment was that they have turned their old pub cellar that smells strongly of damp into an actual basement performance area that only slightly smells of damp.
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