The place is a five minute walk from the town centre and I must admit initial impressions aren't great, the building is a bit of an eye sore from the outside..
..and things don't really improve when you walk in, firstly the place doesn't have any windows so it is ridiculously dark, and secondly the place (or should that be plaice?!!) stinks of chips !!
The pub is referred to by locals as the 'snooker club' as the venue's top floor possesses several full sized snooker tables. The main room is adorned by a huge array of sporting memorabilia, shirts, pendants, photos etc. I will admit there is a bit of a v*lla bias but look hard enough and will find Blues stuff, I spotted three Blues shirts and a photo of legendary Frenchman Christophe Dugarry.
It is a great place to watch sport, aided by the fact that it possesses the dodgy foreign channel which means it literally shows every game. Whilst the venue is a lucky one for my nephew Simon (he has seen his team West Brom win here away at Anfield and Old Trafford) it is less so for me, I've seen Blues lose in the play offs, I've seen Blues lose to Wolves, I've seen Blues lose 5 0 to Manchester United....should I go on?!!
The day we visited was to watch the Liverpool v Manchester City game, and what a cracker of a game it was, Liverpool romped to a early two nil lead only for City to peg it back to two two, then with ten minutes to go Liverpool grabbed the winner. Real drama especially for the couple sat next to us, she was decked out in a Liverpool shirt whilst he wore the light blue of Manchester City. Thankfully they were still speaking after the final whistle.
My visit that day was made complete when as we were leaving I noticed a poster advertising some forthcoming live entertainment, on May 4th AC/DC tribute act Hell's Bells are in town !! Expect an update from this venue on May 4 !!
UPDATE 27th April
For us to spend both Friday night and Saturday night at home is practically unheard of but that was indeed the case though it did not mean that we went drink free on either night with Shelley enjoying a bottle of red wine and me enjoying bottles of different types of real ale.
I woke up on Sunday morning with a clear head due in some part to the fact that my last bottle of ale was a bottle of Mann's Brown Ale weighing it at a pathetic 2.8% ABV.
After going out for a Sunday morning walk and breakfast we had a walk into Tamworth town centre to watch the final run in to the Premier League season with a pivotal match between Liverpool and Chelsea.
As always the lack of windows at the Tamworth Sports and Rock bar meant that walking into the place was like fumbling around in the dark but once my eyes got accustomed to the light I managed to order myself a pint of Carling and Shelley a pint of Hereford cider.
We selected a couple of seats in the far back corner of the bar and watched the tail end of the relegation battle between Sunderland and Cardiff.
I must have startled everyone when I took the following photo as the flash went off meaning that the place was subjected to a rare moment of light.
Though the real ray of light in the place was shining above the bar, the photo of legendary Blues striker Christophe Dugarry I talked of in my original post for this venue.
The main event was a good one, Stevie G made a costly mistake just before half time to hand Chelsea the lead. I too thought I may have made a mistake at half time, I noticed that Caffrey's was now available on draught so switched my drink choice from Carling to Caffrey's. Was this an error of judgement seeing that I was working the next day and Caffrey's used to be notorious for inducing some cracking hangovers back in the 1990's? Time would tell especially as I risked another pint in the second half.
Despite plenty of second half Liverpool pressure Chelsea scored a breakaway goal in injury time to come away victorious much to the dismay of the vast majority in the bar.
We made our way home (via The Gate) at full time though not before I had my first experience of the relatively new phenomenon of photobombing i.e. random strangers gate crashing photographs..
How very dare they?!!
UPDATE 4th May
Although we were both feeling the effects of a long weekend in Brean, May Day Bank Holiday Sunday saw us walk into town to the Tamworth Sports & Rock Bar. Well, there was no way that I could stay in when these boys are in town...
The venue was pleasingly full though one look round the room made me realise that Old Father Time hadn't been particularly kind to many members of Tamworth's heavy rock fraternity, with receding hairlines and expanding waistlines very common place and that was just the rock chicks.
Support for Hells Bells came in the form of a dj who played some rock classics from yesteryear, I sipped (rather than guzzled) my pint of Carling (it was maybe one pint too far following the previous days exertions on Survival Saturday) and listened to tracks from the likes of Sabbath, Scorpions and Motorhead.
The announcement was made by the dj that the band were ready to start so we all politely filed into the adjoining room. They were excellent, like every good tribute should be, they were true to both the look and sound of the band in question, with Brian Johnson look a like complete with trademark flat cap and waistcoat and Angus sporting regulation school uniform including satchel.
Their set list was a varied one with obligatory AC/DC standards mixed in with some lesser known modern material like Money Talks and Stiff Upper Lip. Angus performed his customary striptease before launching into song of the night TNT with the knowledgeable audience joining in with the chants of Oi, Oi without the need for a prompt.
Although we were both hanging at the end of the night due to us being totally exhausted I'm really glad we made the effort and will definitely catch them next time they are in these parts though maybe not after an all dayer next time !!
Hells Bells, we salute you !!
UPDATE 22nd November
The Tamworth Sports & Rock Bar is a place that shows Saturday afternoon Premier League matches via a foreign satellite channel. To do so breeches copyright laws so they were understandably cagey when I phoned to enquire as to whether they would be showing the Chelsea v West Bromwich Albion match. I was told that the only way my nephew Simon and I could watch the game was to obtain a membership card. We called in ahead of our visit to join up. How attractive I look in my mug shot..
Neighbour Alan was at a loose end so he joined us for an afternoon of watching sport in the relative darkness of what we refer to as the snooker club.
Women's football has really taken off in recent years with England internationals attracting crowds in excess of 50,000 and if the photo in the entrance of the bar is anything to go by then the reason for its popularity is understandable...
I've watched a few Albion games with my West Brom loving nephew in the snooker club in the past and the venue has proved to be a lucky one so much so that he was keen to sit in the same seat that he sat in to witness Albion's win last season away to Man Utd. Unfortunately the luck appeared to have run out, a ten man West Brom lost two nil. Maybe his luck had transferred to me, news came through that (much to Alan's disgust) Blues had won away at Rotherham and were out of the bottom three !! Time for another drink, okay it was only Carling but good value at £2.50 a pint.
It really is a sport lovers paradise in the Sports and Rock bar, you could settle down at lunchtime and watch sporting event after sporting event on the bar's multitude of tv screens until the place closed at midnight. I'm sure it must have been the cause of numerous domestic disagreements over the years !!
We decided to stay and watch another game, Arsenal v Man Utd, well the beer was flowing, we were settled and you never know there might have been a game of women's football being shown featuring the girls from the poster in which case we would have to stop to the end of the game to watch the teams exchange shirts !!
The Arsenal v Man Utd game was a good one, a fast flowing encounter with Utd snatching a fairly fortunate victory. There was a night of boxing starting just after the final whistle however there's only so much sport that you can watch so Simon and I left Alan to it and made our way to meet Shelley in the curry house..
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