Another "review" from Ethelred the Unsteady: The Blue Bell in Bolsover.

"In the 1970s, pink-faced, well-scrubbed young coal miners would drink Mansfield bitter in this pub, accompanied by their attractive, denim-clad girlfriends, and all to the strains of "Sweet Home Alabama" or "Free Bird" on the jukebox. That was, when they were not being enthralled, by the energetic renditions of this-or-that pub rock ensemble, venturing over from Sheffield or from Nottingham. If you got hungry, then there were always pies and peas.

The air outside was heavy with the coal-tar miasma from the nearby Coalite works.

There was a motor workshop to the rear, where a long-haired man, of bear-like build, would service vehicles, especially sports cars. He didn't bother with jacks, but simply lifted them onto blocks. At the end of his day, he would wash his hands in petrol.

The panoramic view from the car park was in large part a heavy industrial one, well, when it wasn't foggy, that was.

I hope that my few supplementary words have helped you, to read the detailed and informative review below from an angle, which would give it more resonance than it might perhaps otherwise have had."

Notwithstanding my concern that, apparently, only Lynyrd Skynyrd records were available on Bolsover juke boxes in the 1970s, and the impact this might have had on the productivity at the local Coalite plant, I have to agree with what aleandhearty wrote here: by accepting his postings, "we run the risk of opening the sluice gates to a river of unwanted and irrelevant content".

The Report a review sub-forum does not allow discussion, so I have copied and expanded my post there into the Chit Chat forum. I would be interested to hear other people's views.