So our Indian summer was short-lived then! However, neither rain, flood nor surprise environmental health inspections can dim Ma’s appetite for kicking Pa’s arse up and down the riverbank when the urge takes her, so he’s been doing his best to keep her happy with such delights as:
Beeses’ 2nd Annual Beer Festival: Friday 14 - Sunday 16 September
Pa’s still fine tuning the list of ales but it is likely to include some, few or more by our regular favourites Bath Ales, Butcombe and Wickwar, one or two of the more popular ales from last year’s festival (Badger Fursty Ferret, Hogs Back TEA), and some brewers new to Beeses (Butts, Ramsbury and Wye Valley).
Tickets will finally be available this weekend: £3 per day or £6 for a three day ticket. You can buy them over the bar, or by sending a cheque made payable to ‘Beeses’ and a stamped/addressed envelope to this address. We’ve got a pretty good music line-up:
• on Friday 14 September we’ve got four acoustic acts who are touring the country together under the moniker New Fangled Folks. They’re hand-picked fingerpickers, and you can check them out at:
www.myspace.com/oscarcainer
www.myspace.com/petergreenwood
www.myspace.com/tombaxendale
www.myspace.com/markalexandermusic
• On Saturday 15 September we’ve got two bands: in the afternoon it’s The Big Blues Tribe, a nine-piece band from the Midlands who have played at several prestigious blues festivals this summer. The Tribe play material by BB King, Ray Charles and other blues stalwarts.
In the evening Pa rocks things up with Rattlesnake Shake, who will be delivering a set of classic ZZ Top and perhaps some rocking r’n’b as well.
• On Sunday 16 Septmber...well, negotiations are still ongoing for Sunday’s music, but you can be assured that it will be music to drink ale by!
Ma and Pa’s first anniversary
On this very day in 2006, Ma and Pa rose in the morning, tripped over several hundred of Ma’s shoeboxes and started trading. 29 years prior to that Elvis stopped trading, so you can celebrate whichever anniversary you choose this weekend. For the former, you can allow us to buy you a drink by bringing a copy of this e-mail with you over the weekend as evidence of devotion to Beeses. Devoted Elvis fans will be assisted in commemorating the King by Pa who has promised to struggle into his low-cut, sparkly jumpsuit before giving a stirring rendition of Devil In Disguise. Pa sings this song to Ma every night (“She walks like an angel...”), although a swift kick to Pa’s own Gracelands usually restores the peace...
On The Town
You may have noticed that the average age of the Beeses staff is pretty low (even with the skewing factor applied by the number of summers that have passed over Ma’s head), and Ma and Pa have been mighty impressed with the hard work they have put in this summer, despite their tender years. A staff knees-up was their reward for this, but with various people returning to school/college/university/travelling/their home country, our choice of dates was limited,
so we decided to hold it straightaway. As you can see,
a great time was had by all (well, most of the time anyway). You can also see a slideshow of a few
pictures here.
Wallets, staff and good sense all went AWOL at various points in the
evening and following morning, all I can say is it’s a good job we
were closed the following day!