DISCOUNT PRICES
As the season is now over the guides are available at discount prices of £2 each and £8 a se
The beer is almost ready and dates have been arranged for its promotion. To sample the ale, meet the brewers and support the presentation of their award join me at any or all of these events.
11th October Wellington Birmingham
12th October The Smithfield Derby (This is a recent change of venue)
19th October Anvil Wigan
2nd November Dove Ipswich
More details on the ARCHERS PAGE
DARLINGTON
Thanks to a kind invitation from the Dafts crew I had a great weekend in Darlington. It coincided with the Rhythm and Booze beer festival and consisted of a few beers, a curry with the lady and gent Darlington fans who arrived from all over the country and Norway, then the game and more beers on Saturday evening back at the festival. The best bit was a surprise review that appeared courtesy of Steve Duffy in The Match day programme, a copy of which will appear on the site once I have scanned it in. Many thanks are due and offered here.
PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN
The last few weeks have been used to promote the guides. Glyn has contacted and arranged a large number of newspaper and radio interviews. This means that in between contacting pubs re orders and sending out copies to those who are buying direct I spend my time talking to the press. The consequent reviews and interviews are published when I get to see them on the REVIEW SECTION. I know that I only see a few of them so if you see an article please let me know.
For example tomorrow sees me in the Bulls Head in Burslem, Sunday in the Woolpack in Stockport.
ARCHERS BREWERY
Exciting developments are taking place at the Brewery that won my Brewery of the Year award.
To celebrate the award and the concept of football fans drinking great beer before a game there are plans for a new brew called AWAYDAYS
As plans are formalised they will be posted on the new ARCHERS BREWERY on the home page
MORE REVIEWS
Reviews are coming in thick and fast. The best are posted on the review page to the left The latest are from Dafts, Ipswich and Bristol Rovers Supporters club. Many club websites have topics within their forums but links soon change and so it is not worth putting here. Thanks especially though to Villa Talk and others
RADIO INTERVIEWS
This last week has found me doing some radio interviews with local radio in Cambridge, Coventry and Leeds.
They are available to listen again for this week only at the following links. I will try to make them available when I sort the technology to save them permanently.
Radio Coventry The Hawaii 5 -0 show starts about 15 minutes into the programme after an 9interview with jimmy Case!
Radio Leeds The Martin Kelner Friday thing has an interview in two parts about 20 and 50 minutes into the show
It is interesting how Martin thinks readers will be too drunk to remember the web address yet The folk from Coventry reckon it is perfect in saying exactly what it is. The Leeds one is a heavily edited version to fit a small space. It was good fun to do and Sally Fairfax was great fun.
The Radio Cambridge interview went out live yeasterday morning but is not available to listen again as yet.
Should anyone wish to help me by contacting their local radio station then please feel free to do so. I am not shy and any publicity is good publicity.
PRESS NEWS
Articles and reviews will appear in the following publications and websites this week
Peterborough Evening Telegraph
 Picture taken in Brewery Tap Peterborough by Hannah Redshaw Stuart Wright is the boss at the Brewery Tap.
Time Out In the sport pages of the magazine this week> Review will appear here soon.
www.gasheads.com
www.villatalk.com
Should you see any other reviews please let me know
GBBF Friday the 4th August 3.30 Book signing
this was another good day. Thanks are due to all those who made it possible, especially Jo Copstick at CAMRA and the folk who staffed the bookshop.
Glyn and myself also attended the trade day where we met with quits a few friends from the year. Sales through pubs are going well, if you are in a pub please remind the landlord to order some copies at a discounted rate so he / she can sell them direct.
It was good to meet with the people who have already agreed to write for the guides next year.
Photos will appear soon on a separate GBBF page in the guide
WRITING FOR NEXT YEAR'S GUIDES
I am contacting people who have said they would like to write for next year's guides. They will be given access to a private message board to share ideas and information. If you would like to join the team then email me and tell me what towns you would be interested in writing about. As towns are covered they will be posted on the new page called 2007 - 08 Guide which will appear in the list of pages above.
Thanks to those who have already joined. I hope the new message board will be of use in sharing ideas.
BOOK LAUNCH
I will be launching the books in the first week of August. The two main opportunities so far are arranged around the Great British Beer Festival at Earls Court. The trade day of Tuesday the 1st of August is the first opportunity for the press to find me for a chat. The Friday session has a book signing at 3,30. There is a new page called BOOK LAUNCH above to find details of where and when to find a book signing.
The books are now with the printers, TLVisuals of Yate, they return to me finished on Tuesday the 25th of July.
2006 -07 Guides
All research is done, pages are being prepared and the panic to get it out on time is fully underway.
The designs for next years guides are moving quickly towards completion. The team now consists of four people, myself, Keith Brown, Glyn Watkins and Phil Littlewood. Phil has joined to take care of the technical bits re printing the guides.
The new guides have many improve,ments made thanks to the feedback from you the website readers.They are:-
- Up to five pubs per town.
- More pubs closer to the ground but all still friendly and serving great real ale.
- O.S. Street maps rather than my sketch maps.
- Glyn Watkins' humourous cultural guides to each town.
- Large print size for easier reading
- Half a page per pub
- A separate entry for each London Club and a central London section
- A 96 page bound book rather than 64 pages lat year
Advance orders will be available, email me to do so at stedders@footballandrealaleguide.co.uk The planned publication date is August 2006 to coincide with the GBBF at Earls Court and the start of the Football, Season
The site may be a bit quiet in the next few weeks as I will be finishing off the last twenty or so towns. Towns to visit can be seen here
ORDNANCE SURVEY MAPS Dotted Eyes will be making maps for theguides. Their work can be seen here
WE ARE ENGLAND Listen here for what should be the World Cup anthem for 2006 The Negatives are from Bradford.
CITY GENT and Bradwan
Had a great week oop north that included some time talking with the makers of the excellent City Gent. Please take some time to look at Glyn Watkin's site at www.bradwan.com and when you are in Bradford buy the City Gent
YOUR VIEWS
I really want you to comment on the pubs in the guide. Please look at the YOUR VIEWS PAGE and get your view published.
REVIEWS
I have added some more reviews to reviews 2
BRADWAN CULTURAL GUIDE
One interesting contact made this week was with Glyn Watkins. Glyn is the author of "Wayne Jacobs little Red Head book" and I feel there is a great chance that we are kindred spirits going by the conversation we had this afternoon. Check out his website at www.bradwan.com you never know where it might lead you. If only my Mum could make a jumper like that!
PRINTING FOR NEXT YEAR
Negotiations are now in place for costing next years guides. I will also be talking in the new year to CAMRA re the possibilities for a Rugby and real ale guide. In the meantime I am travelling the country again hence the lack of website updates.
MAN FLU
I have been hit by a bug this week so have not fancied walking the streets and concentrated on getting costings for maps by the O.S. and printing of the 2005 -06 guide.
KEITH BROWN
Keith and Marisa are Ipswich Town fans who live relatively close to my home town. They have offered to help out with supporting the publication of next years guides, overseeing my sometimes wayward ideas of how Real Ale and football might be written in the guides. I am glad to have their unpaid help and I hope that next years guides will be even better as a result.
2005 - 06 GUIDE
I have started to research for next years guide, aiming to find up to six pubs rather than three for the next guide. As yet I am not in a position to employ anyone. Thanks to those people who contacted me in the last months. I do intend to expand the team but as yet I cannot do so.
WATERSTONES
I am now ploughing through the list of Waterstones shops to get them to stock the guides. This is a rather onerous task and a long way removed fromthe fun bit of the venture. As outlets are agreed and stocks ordered the locations will be posted on the outlets page. PLEASE LET ME KNOW OF ANY OUTLETS THAT STOCK THE GUIDES. I am usually the last to know.
WEBZINES
The webzine page includes football websites that have review copies and / or have started debates on forums related to the guides. Some may take a bit of finding but they are there.
SALES AT GBBF
Sales were in the thousands! Thanks to all who made their way to Olympia, I was truly gobsmacked by the interest.
REVIEWS
I have just seen the first review of the guides in "What's Brewing" Thanks are due to Tim Hampson for the kind words. A copy appears in a new reviews section here .Many will soon appear on club websites. a list is found on the webzines page
CLUB SHOPS
I am slowly getting around club shops to see if they wish to take copies of the guides. I am making my way from south to north with some good progress especially, dare I say it at, Bristol City and Q.P.R. (Thanks)Please show your support by enquiring whether they have copies in your local club shop alongside the usual pyjamas and underpants.
NEW PUBS PAGE
I am starting to get calls from landlords not included in the guide and wondering why. The NEW PUBS page will outline the names and addresses of pubs that I will be visiting before next years guide. Please help me out by letting me know what you think of these pubs.
If you know of a great pub that is not included then please let me know so we can look at getting an entry for next year.
RADIO INTERVIEWS
Three Counties coming up in early September. More details to follow
I was interviewed by BBC Radio Bristol on Friday 22nd July. The interview aired on Saturday afternoon and as soon as I have learned the technology will be available for you to hear via the website.
ANY OTHER RADIO STATION out there wanting to do the same? I can now forward a copy of the Bristol interview to get an idea of the sort of stuff I can talk about. It appears to have gone down well with the local landlords.
All pubs should get their guides by the end of this week. They were sent out on the 11th of July. I have also contacted quite a few CAMRA newsletter editors / chairpersons with a view to giving them a copy to review in their local magazines.
Gardners, Britain's largest book wholesaler now have copies of the guides.This means that your local shop can get individual copies through them just by you asking them. You can of course help me by pestering the local WH Smiths for a copy.
JULY Grand tour is now of football club shops. I will gradually be working my way from South to north trying to get a stock into your local club shop thus helping them to make some money out of the guides.
WEDNESDAY 3rd AUGUST book signing at Olympia
Chris Swift of the Bristol Evening Post kindly wrote this article in the Green Un (Bristol Evening Post), thanks Chris
A copy of the text
PRINTING
I will be using TL VISUALS of Yate to print the guides. This company was chosen because it prints the Best programme in the country, i.e. the award winning Bristol Rovers programme.
WEBSITE
The design of this website is provided by 1and1.co.uk They advertise it as easy to use and modify and, by golly, that is the case with the exception of multiple voting forms. Should you wish to set up your own site then they are well worth using.
@Richard Stedman 2004
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