I stayed and chatted to him in the Brewhouse & Kitchen on the Portsmouth crawl in 2019 when the team moved on. He had some good tales to tell.
I stayed and chatted to him in the Brewhouse & Kitchen on the Portsmouth crawl in 2019 when the team moved on. He had some good tales to tell.
'Beer is for all day, not just for breakfast'.
I don't remember meeting him on any of the crawls in which I participated, but I guess I might have forgotten a fleeting meeting. I'll make the crawl if I can.
I first unknowingly saw him about nine years ago at his local, The George (or Leyton George as he called it - nice pub but some very uncivilised customers, thankfully in the minority). On entering, I looked over towards the bar and saw who I initially thought was Bill Bailey, only then realising that this man was too old. It was only when someone posted a picture of him (probably after the Newcastle under Lyme crawl) that I realised it was him, when someone mentioned the 'Bailey' similarity, and his mentions of the Leyton George.
I met him briefly on the Portsmouth crawl but because of his slow pacing, he disappeared after about the second pub and I don't think we saw him again.
I met him again in Shrewsbury but then bumped into him on walking through St. Pancras station a week later, he seated on a bench taking a rest away from the long walk from platform to Tube. I smiled and raised my hand but he didn't recognise me, so I left it at that.
He was also with us in the later stages of the Manchester crawl in December that year IIRC
181012 Manchester 1.JPG
Sorry to hear this, I can't claim to know the chap personally but I always enjoyed reading his reviews.
Very sad news. I didn’t always agree, but I would always take the time to read anything he wrote here. A really informative reviewer too.
Am honoured to say that I was part of the advanced party to the Wellers Micropub on the NuL crawl when we entered to an empty bar except for this strange bearded bloke tucked away in the corner. We were expecting to meet him at some point during the day and I think it was Neville who finally plucked up the courage to ask “are you Aqualung?”
I don’t remember much about the beer in Wellers, except that it was decent, but I do remember the bars homage to the Mod Father , and meeting Aqualung for the first time.
I take every ones points about a potential crawl and I think we will probably have to use some poetic licence with the term ‘local’ and focus on Walthamstow and on the pubs I know from my discussions with him that Aqualung had frequented but may not have considered his ‘locals’ compared to those aforementioned in the tribute.
As long as the government doesn’t move the goal posts (again) I,ll put something together when it looks like we will be given our freedom for vertical drinking.
Work is the curse of the drinking Class - Oscar Wilde