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The Portland Arms, St Albans[Pub]
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The Portland Arms is a hidden gem, tucked away within the chimney pots, only a few minutes walk from St Albans city centre. It is a traditional Fullers pub with a warm cosy atmosphere serving three fine draught beers on hand pump: London Pride, ESB and Chiswick.
Excellent homecooked food is served from tuesday to sunday lunchtime, with the organic meat sourced locally from Hedges Farm.
It has a large carpark and garden to the rear.
Friendly, relaxing semi-acoustic music is found on sunday evenings. Floorspots are also available for those who arrive early. Chris Flegg, Beau Jangles, Keith Snowden and Pat Crilly amongst others, have all played here. The ideal Sunday night alternative, guaranteed!. Jazz jams on the 3rd thursday of each month are another favourite.
The pub is under new ownership, and its friendly atmosphere is refreshing. Come in and see for yourself.
Forthcoming acts (4 of 9 total): Sun 11th May: Chris Flegg... Thu 15th May: Portland Arms jazz jam... Sun 18th May: Pat & Kristin Crilly... Sun 25th May: Woodface... Newest gig: Sat 21st Jun: Pip |
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| Sun 11 May | Jazz/Folk
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|  | Chris Flegg  Laconic vocals, ace jazzy guitar playing and Chris's blend of standards and folkier original numbers will make this another great night. 8.40pm - 10.30pm Another visit to the P by ace player Chris |
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| Thu 15 May | Jazz (instrumental)
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|  | Portland Arms jazz jam Chris and fellow jazzers return for a blowing session. All welcome - call Chris on 07775 504059 if you'd like to sit in. 9pm - 11pm A friendly jazz jam session - all players welcome |
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| Sun 18 May | Jazz/Blues/Soul
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|  | Pat & Kristin Crilly Kristin and Pat will be playing his great original compositions and tasty covers with Pat's great new band. 8.30pm - 10.30pm Great original compositions and tasty covers |
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| Sun 25 May | Acoustic Guitar/Piano
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|  | Woodface Pop covers 8.30pm - 10.30pm |
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| Sun 1 Jun | Jazz
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|  | Ellie Smith & The Sock  Acoustic jazz with some standards and some more unusual ones! Ellie Smith is on vocal backed by Andy Hopkins and Tim Randall on acoustic guitars. 8.40pm - 10.30pm |
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| Sun 8 Jun | Acoustic Covers & Originals
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|  | Alan Fraser Wide ranging acoustic covers and originals from Alan. 8.30pm - 10.30pm Wide ranging covers and originals from Alan. |
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| Sat 21 Jun | 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s Covers
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|  | Pip The Portland Arms are running an 80s themed evening with food, drinks, more food and plenty of music from yours truly!
So get your perm done, your banana clip to the ready and a nice pair of leg warmers to boot!!!! 9pm - 11pm 80s Themed Evening with Food, Drink and Music!!! £TBC |
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| Sun 29 Jun | 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s Covers
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| | Pip Pip returns with a solo set of quality pop, rock and soul covers. Special guest guitar slinging mates (Mark, Jonathan, or possibly both) are likely to leap up and deliver hot picking at a moment's notice... 8.30pm - 10.30pm Pip returns with a solo set of quality pop, rock and soul covers. |
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| Sun 13 Jul | Jethro Tull Acoustic / Experimental / Folk / Rock
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|  | Sossity Original music inspired by Jethro Tull, with a few Tull covers thrown in for good measure! 8.45pm - 10.45pm Original music inspired by Jethro Tull, with a few Tull covers thrown in for good measure! |
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| Reviews | |
 Write a review for The Portland Arms » | |
 Brilliant gig Sossity on Sun 16th Mar 08 | |
  Two multi-talented musicians with a wealth of experience played their first gig as "Sossity" at the St Albans pub, The Portland Arms.
They performed Jethro Tull favourites such as Jack in the Green, Weathercock, Skating Away and Reasons for Waiting beautifully; accurately, but also adding some of their own unique style. Paul sounds like a young Ian Anderson and played and sang these very naturally, making them look easy. They interspersed these classic numbers with some of their own songs, which were excellent in their own right. Marcie gave the audience a little background information as to what these were about and when they were written, which was interesting. Sossity also played Crazy Man Michael, as done by Fairport Convention and House of the King by Focus (Saxondale theme tune!) with amazing vocals and flute work from Marcie.
Exquisite harmonies abound! Both Paul and Marcie are experienced performers and really looked like they were enjoying themselves, which gave the gig a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
If you missed getting tickets for Jethro Tull's spring tour, never fear! Go and see Sossity for a great night out, you won't regret it. (Even if you got the tickets, go and see Sossity as they will be right up your street.) | |
| Claire Gilbert, Thu 20th Mar 08 | |
| The Lady Sings The Blues And Jazz Ellie Smith & The Sock on Sun 9th Mar 08 | |
  I normally hate it when a singer changes the melody to 'improve' a song. This lady is different, she really can improvise. Her versions of "I Heard It On The Grapevine", "Teach Me Tonight" and "Respect" were really re-worked and sounded terrific. "I Put A Spell On You" came over well as did the humorous Latin flavoured "Not In These Shoes".
Anything she sings has her own special touch. If you like Billie Holiday and Amy Winehouse you will love Ellie. She has a mellow tone and sings in tune (not always the case with some 'jazz' singers). One of the best singers I've heard in a long time. Put her on your 'must see' list. The jazz jam every 3rd Thursday is popular.
The pub is good too - friendly and cosy with a real fire. Apparently under new ownership it still carries the quality Fullers range of real ales and now has a more extensive menu. | |
| Derek, Watford, Tue 11th Mar 08 | |
| homo bionicus Phoenix Blues Band on Sun 6th Jan 08 | |
 Just a stones throw from Verulamium lies a cosy pub with log fires. Playing tonight was half-man, half-machine Ray James. Bluesus acousticus from a smaller band. Acoustic guitar, drums and vocalus raucous Ray on saxes/harp. The band played softer (eh?) versions of their wide repertoire which really suits this venue. Usual enthusiastic versions of Walking The Dog, Without Love, Shake Your Moneymaker and, unbelievably, He'll Have To Go which must have had Jim turning. Again a 100% full-on performance from the band. Good chill-out pub with quality ales, cider and wine. Look out for the occasional Jazz session - that's a good gig. | |
| Derek, Watford, Fri 11th Jan 08 | |
 Successful night for good cause Charity Event on Sun 16th Dec 07 | |
| A successful night for a good cause - Gary Sear was on first, playing some self penned songs including the pointed "Borehamwood girl" and finishing with a rousing version of "New England". Next up was Keith Snowden, playing a characteristically flying fingered picking of blues and roots numbers, joined at one point by a harp player (who was he?) and the house rhythm section for a final number blast through "Brown eyed girl", with the whole pub singing the 'La La La' part. Third up - Pip and Mark - opening with a Jackson Five number (surely a first for the Porty), Joni Mitchell's heartfelt "River", and in conclusion an acoustic take on "I love rock 'n' roll". I was next with pals Simon and Dave, and Pip on excellent second vocals - modesty forbids too many words on my own performance... but then Jack and Luke took over to rock the house 'till closing time, at which point performers from throughout the night got up for an inevitable series of looser and looser jams... in all great fun was had and some great music played, and most importantly £133.20 raised for Crisis at Christmas. Thanks to all who played and supported the event. | |
| Jonathan, Tue 18th Dec 07 | |
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| Print 3 flyers per A4 page, with marked cutting guides. Hint: setting your start date to the first of a month, and your end date to the last day of a month, gives a neat heading on your flyer, e.g. setting 1 May 2008 and 31 Aug 2008 as the start and end dates will produce the heading: 'MAY - AUGUST 08'. Try it! You can also set the font size to a decimal value (e.g. 9.3) to make the gigs fit exactly onto the page. | |
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| This venue page is jointly maintained by Lemonrock and sara. 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 20 March 08, gig/event details last updated 1 May 08. |
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| Page first created on Lemonrock 18 April 05. |  |
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