Hello Mr Lowry

An excellent afternoon was had recently when the Pie Tribe went to Salford to see the Pie Student to deliver and share some quality Pie.

Coupled with nice weather, floral gums, a tasty curry, owls, free Car Parking (as long as you spend a fiver somewhere) and a free Lowry exhibition at the Lowry Complex on Salford quays it all made for an excellent time.

You can't beat good food, chat, pie and laughter for time well spent.

Oz Pie

To celebrate Mark Sheds birthday tickets were purchased to see the Australian Pink Floyd Show . En route to the Assembly rooms time was made to sample local beverages and Pie. Selected hostelry the Dolphin proved to be an excellent choice. As well as being the oldest pub in Derby, it had some fine beers and some excellent Pie which the birthday boy, shed junior and the Pieman indulged in. Excellent it was too 8.5/10.

The Aussie Floyd were excellent, playing to a packed audience with little chit chat they waded through a comprehensive tour of the Floyd back catalogue utilising a seven piece band and three backing vocalists.

The light show, inflatables, sound, images etc were excellent leading to a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Not having been overly keen on seeing "tribute bands/acts this was an eye opener and fantastic. We liked the Assembly Rooms as well with a reasonable size, good facilities, sound ok and venue staff good.

Live "The Pie Life"

A visit to Bellis Brothers Farm Shop and Garden Centre produced two fine pastry delights, one from a producer we hadn't come across before. The Pie Life Steak and Stilton Pie is a corker. We can unreservedly give it a 9/10. It is made by the Goldhurst Farm Bakery in Tean, Staffordshire and was delicious.

The Oinker Pork Sausage Roll was from Coopers Gourmet Sausage rolls. Our recent taste of their Poachers Sausage roll was not very good but this was completely different and we would give this a 8.5/10 tasty with good pastry.

National Pie Week: Near Disaster

During the recent National Pie Week the Pie tribe deliberately abstained from pies all week with the intention of descending on Sue Cowards fine establishment, in Frodsham High Street, on the Saturday of Pie week to indulge. Unfortunately we were not aware of her early closing time on a Saturday afternoon aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh !!!!!!

Fortunately we did manage to locate some Pies at the Devonshire Bakery outlet just up the road. They even put them in a box and tied a ribbon around it. We sampled the Meat & Potato Pie (8.75/10), Steak Pie (9/10..."a nice bit of Cow" according to Student Pie), Sausage Roll (7/10), Cornish Roll (7/10) and a Beef Pie (5/10).

Naughty Poacher

On a trip to Bellis Brothers Farm Shop and Garden centre we always have a look at the farm shop which sells some fascinating stuff and usually has some interesting pastries. We picked up the delightful sounding and rich sausage roll from Coopers Gourmet Sausage Rolls called The Naughty Poacher.

It combines Pork, Venison, Partidge, Pheasant, Rabbit, Spices and Red currant Jelly. Perhaps because reading the contents raised the anticipation beyond reasonable levels as this was a major disappointment. A grey, solid mass and quite tasteless. Too many meats for a distinctive taste to be had and so we award this a 6/10.

Chatwins Steak & Kidney

Since the demise of the much loved P & A Davies the new owners Chatwins have not seen much custom from the Pie Tribe. However in recent months we have been in and sampled their Steak and Kidney Pie (warm) a couple of times. It is very very nice and we would give it an 8.5/10. It would be more but it is on the pricey side.

Chatwins retail outlets and coffee shops can be found over most of Cheshire and into North staffordshire. A full list can be found using the link above.

Abominable Snowman In The Market

Simple 1 man 1 guitar & 1 man small drum Kit, light show.. on or off, venue querky and on stage for not much more than 1Hr 20 mins doesn't sound great but it was!! Jonathan Richman with just one guitar (spanish) and drummer Tommy Larkin were just brilliant.

They came onstage to no fanfare and went stright into six bars of Roadrunner before morphing into something else and then onto allsorts of songs, some introduced, some not!!

Some on stage dancing/jigging/movement, chatting with the audience and some very self deprecating humour without turning the evening into a comedy show. Songs in spanish, songs in french, songs to dance to, Songs to think about, songs to sing to, songs to cry to, holler, whoop ...whatever you need.

I don't imagine everyone would like or appreciate Mr Richman but he is different, very different and quite unlike any gig I've seen in a long time.

The audience were excellent joining in and making the evening so much more enjoyable apart one drunken oaf next to me who disappeared after a while fortunately to empty his bladder and couldn't find his way back. The club itself was interesting, the Kazimier. I hope we get the chance to hear/see him again he was excellent.