Baffling music scarecrow Bob Dylan once write, no doubt in an attempt to seem clever, ‘the times they are a changing’. Now; far be it from me to point out that the time is always changing, you only need to look at a clock for evidence there but, as Bob helpfully points out in his semi melodic dirge, the passing of time is as inevitable as your own certain death.
Today it is my turn to write about changing times; although once I’m finished I’m not going to intermittently sing this article through my nose for the next 40 years whilst I grow to resemble a homeless pirate who’s worked out how to play the harmonica.
Silence has been the prevailing wind on this once well loved and maintained blog for more than a year and it’s time for that silence to be broken with some news. The Pub Raider is no more.
Having escaped the clutches of the banker infested hellscape of our capital I now call the north home. Consequently there will no longer be weekends foraging for rough pub diamonds in the arse ends of London or sardonic reviews about places I went to deliberately because I knew I’d hate them and could be mean for fun (yes I’ll finally admit I did that on purpose).
However; much like the last Lord of the Rings film you’d be foolish to assume that what you thought was the end is much more than a new chapter…
Aside from providing a ‘vital’ service to the readership The Pub Raider was an excuse for the writers behind it to go to the pub, talk bollocks and define who they were as brothers and friends. So as much as The Pub Raider is dead our mission will refresh, renew and resume with Manchester as a new focus; risen from the dead like Jesus, Harry Potter, Aslan or whatever bullshit fairy story floats your boat.
We do hope you’ll join us as we announce the new project. In the meantime the picture for this piece teases the plan ahead. Now drink up, drink up; as that lyrically competent mop headed dementor also wrote; ‘It’s so hard to get old without a cause’ and we’ve just renewed ours.
Raiders of the Lost Pubs 