15th March 2012, The Lamb Lies Down

Today's a day to celebrate ( a line from Supper's Ready by Genesis) as myself and a friend were off to Manchester to see The Musical Box, a tribute band from Canada that faithfully recreate the music of Genesis up to the time that Peter Gabriel left around 1975.
We left Taunton station on the 9.51am to Manchester but had to fight for our pre-booked seats with the crowds going to the Cheltenham Festival. We arrived in Manchester around 2.15pm and as we could not check into our hotel until 3pm walked over the road from the station to the Bulls Head.
This was large open plan type pub that served mostly the Marston stable of beers. I plumped for a Brakspear 'Special' , a full bodied seasonal ale with a hoppy aroma at 4.3% abv.
With the first beer under our belt we walked back to the station to get a cab to the hotel and drop off our bags. Soon after we were on our way back to the city centre and a rendezvous with Andy's son Alex. We found him in the Sandbar with a pint of Ilkley Brewery's Mary Jane on the go ! I decided to join him and soon was enjoying a crisp pale ale at 3.5%.
We then decided to move onto the Grey Horse.

This was a very small old fashioned pub, with the rarity of an outside gent's loo, something I've not seen for years. The beer was pretty uninspiring though and I chose a pint of Hydes Winter Fuggle, a seasonal ale at 4.2%.
Next stop was real gem ! The Crown & Kettle was a fantastic pub that reopened after being derelict for 16 years in 2005.

Ceiling in the Vault

There was a drinking hall, a snug and the vault which had this ornate ceiling incorporating beams from the R101 airship.The ale on offer was pretty good too and we all went for 'Black Gold' from the Copper Dragon brewery in Skipton , a creamy dark ale with coffee flavours at 3.7% and my personal favourite of the trip.
We now moved onto the Angel, a welcoming free house with a roaring log fire and 10 beers on hand pumps.
I had a pint from the Rochdale brewery Pictish. Black was another seasonal ale. This was a stout with distinctive flavours of chocolate malts and was 4.4%.
We now made our way to the Marble Arch and another meet up. This time it was Alex's friend Joe . The Marble was the busiest pub we had visited and was full of football fans,mainly City, watching their rivals United crash out of the Europa League
This is a brew pub with their own products on the pumps. I started with a pint of 'Pint' at 3.9% and was a pale hoppy beer. I then moved onto the Manchester Bitter which was a yellow 'hoppy' beer at 4.2%.
All too soon it was 7pm and time for Andy and I to leave Alex and Joe and make our way to the O2 Manchester Apollo and the gig. Joe kindly organised a cab and soon we were in the venue waiting for the band.
After the support had been on we were treated to a great rendition of Genesis' 1974 album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway complete with the original slide show and costumes that Gabriel used in the original tour. The Musical Box are I think the only tribute act that are officially endorsed by the original members of Genesis. The lead singer also had all of Peter Gabriel's theatrics from the show off to a 'tee'.
They played for around two hours and finished with a rousing encore of , of course The Musical Box and Watcher of the Skies.
I was lucky enough to see the original tour by Genesis back in '74 at Wembly Empire Pool Arena and was very impressed by the accuracy of the music.
I was a very happy Genesis fan on my way back to the hotel.