With kind thanks to the Edinburgh based company Beer52*, we are going to bring
you a regular, monthly review of some fine guest ales from across the
UK, Europe and beyond. The dedicated team up there source these beverages
from far and wide from a selected range of micro-breweries. They offer a monthly, quarterly or yearly membership, for what I believe to be a very reasonably price and for that you'll receive a box of eight different craft ales, delivered for
free to your door. Ours took just two days to arrive in November and
we couldn't wait to see what was inside. They are pre selected and
boxed up by Beer52 so you'll always be in for a surprise, and judging
by last months delivery which we'll go into detail about below, these
are not mediocre, run of the mill beers.
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| (Photo - Tina Korhonen) |
I’ve always been a fan of instrumentals, call it a guilty pleasure if you like but they’ve consistently found their way into my playlists over the years, and from such a wide variety of genres too, progressive rock, jazz, classical not to mention a stack of techno….sometimes vocals just get in the way. So with that in mind, Mexican classical guitar pairing Rodrigo Y Gabriela’s visit to Leeds, the first of seven live UK dates on the back of their latest album release ‘9 Dead Alive’, was always likely to pique my interest, particularly with their heavy metal overtones. The duo’s profile has never been higher either, the current album is grazing the US Top 20, their stint at this summer’s Glastonbury Festival was extremely well received, all evident tonight as the O2 is packed out on both levels and must be pretty close to sold out.
When they burst onto the scene with the ‘We The Working Class’ EP earlier this year, Seán Grant and the Wolfgang looked all set to follow the likes of Frank Turner along the conscious-punk-folk pathway to success. Now they’re back, telling stories of WWII on new EP ‘War Machines’, and they’re pushing on, although at more of a stumble than a sprint.
