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The Duke of Marlborough, St Albans[Pub]
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The Duke of Marlborough is the great new place to go for live music on Saturday night!
The Duke is a comfortable, friendly, traditional pub, in an excellent position adjacent to the beginning of Verulamium park on the main road into St Albans. The pub was built in 1854, and has been dedicated to serving fine ales and good food to its customers ever since. In November 2004, Steve and Leanne took over, and spent many hours and much effort giving it a complete facelift. By May 2005, it was completely refurbished, in restful colours.
The Duke of Marlborough has an excellent range of wines, and always has at least three real ales to choose from, typically Speckled Hen, Adnams and Green King IPA. Classic British pub grub is served every day from 12 to 5, and there are interesting daily specials as well. The pub has an attractive beer garden that has been open all summer, with an indoor/outdoor barbeque facility.
The most recent development is the opening of a brilliant Thai restaurant in the large and atmospheric barn behind the pub. the restaurant is open in the evenings from 6pm till 10 pm, Tuesday to Saturday. All the food on the menu is also available to take away.
The Duke of Marlborough has a long history as a music pub, and on 24th September 2005 we launched "Marlborough Lights", an exciting programme of music every Saturday night, in the main bar from 9pm. We also host very popular jazz jam sessions featuring Chris Flegg and friends at least once a month. to find out what's on when see below... |
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| Reviews | |
 Write a review for The Duke of Marlborough » | |
 Excellent Hairwide on Fri 13th Jul 07 | |
   Although there was no evidence of thong-wearing, either by the comfortably relaxed Hairwide, or his appreciative crowd of female followers, there was much evidence of really good singing and acoustic guitar playing.
Hairwide plays both originals and covers. His originals may not click with you the first time you hear them, but that is because they are rather more complex than your average pop song: lyrically deep, and sometimes very vivid, he tells stories of pretty girlfriends who turn into basket cases overnight, and other inspiring tales. Listen to his originals a few times on Lemonrock, and you'll see what I mean.
His covers are diverse - ranging from Foo Fighters to Elton John (best acoustic version of 'Rocket Man' I have heard) - and his guitar playing is assured, and highly percussive. His mastering of the muted chord is impressive, while he can turn his hand to melodic finger-picking, and some funky jazz numbers too.
Hairwide's vocals are passionate (he doesn't always need the microphone!) and are mainly sung in a rock/blues genre. With a good choice of material, he kept the small crowd's attention, and had a welcoming manner in his inter-song banter... we were even treated to a vocal interlude (a la Muppets' Manamana, methinks) while he found the words to the next song!
The venue had friendly bar staff, and a couple of good Real Ales. For those who needed to puff, there was a new decking area at the rear of the pub.
Go see Hairwide for some great acoustic entertainment in a pub near you! | |
| Mac MacLaren, Lemonrock Editor, Sun 15th Jul 07 | |
| Marlboro mayhem Strange Folk on Sat 16th Sep 06 | |
 Surprised the band by actually turning up. There was room for more revellers in this intimate venue. I think the band is much better than last I saw it, even if they have dropped the trippy be bop. Tight drums, wicked guitarist, cool bass and that front lady with her crowd charming warmth, I can see why they had fun at festivals.
Just one moan, smoking on stage should only be done with large reefers! | |
| dd, Wed 20th Sep 06 | |
| Reply from Strange Folk: Thanks DD glad you enjoyed the gig!!! Reefers - That's a kind of drink right? ;-)
Liza on behalf of SF | |
| Little sister, grown-up songs Sam's Little Sister on Sat 24th Jun 06 | |
| This band was great, playing rock and rock'n'roll from the fifties, sixties, and beyond. We knew every song, and it was so good to see excellent playing and singing close-up. The band even played a little medley at one point, changing keys, rhythms and styles every few minutes. Great to dance to, and very uplifting! Thanks! | |
| A music fan, Wed 28th Jun 06 | |
| Unplugged but connected Unplugged on Sat 4th Feb 06 | |
 I saw Becca and John for the first time at this gig and had a very pleasant surprise. They were great. A clear sound system that didn't blow your ears out, no feedback from mic and guitars and you could hear all the lyrics... wonderful, (there's plenty of bands that should take note of this). A couple of fun filled musical hours disappeared very quickly. Becca has a great voice, plays guitar, has an energetic tambourine and as a complete bonus she's also very good looking. John is a highly proficient guitarist and you could tell from the range of rock and pop styles he was playing on an acoustic Takamine guitar that he's got a room full of guitars at home and he's just as comfortable with a Strat or Les Paul cranked up playing lead with a band as well.
The set list covered 60's through to 00's and an astonishing variety of artists (Beatles, Stones, Alanis Morisette, Sheryl Crow, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tom Petty, Kinks, Free, David Bowie and KT Tunstall to name but a few). There were occasions when I thought "surely not they can't do that song unplugged" but they did and they did it very well. The chemistry between the two of them is very good and they have fun and enjoy themselves as did the crowd in the bar. I had a chat with them after the gig and Hey, they're really nice people to talk to as well.
If you like rock and pop classics and want a happy energetic band that you can sing along to (or even dance to!!) then Unplugged are thoroughly recommended. I look forward to seeing them again. | |
| Andy McClennon, Fri 10th Feb 06 | |
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| Other Events | |
| There are no regular events listed for The Duke of Marlborough. Venues can add all their regular non-music events to this section! More info » | |
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| This venue page is jointly maintained by Lemonrock and Philippa. If this is not you, but this page represents you or your venue, join Lemonrock and we'll swap ownership of this page over to you to update! |
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| Venue details last updated 3 April 06, gig/event details last updated 3 April 08. |
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| Page first created on Lemonrock 21 June 04. |  |
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