When my brother was living near Forest Fields there was a quintessentially battered boozer at the end of his road. So, situated at 169A Noel St, Hyson Green was the Frog and Onion. In true Rovers Return style, it was contained within a residential area and resided naturally on a street corner.
It was also beneficially right opposite Beaconsfield Street tram stop so was regularly visited after a night in town as the place never seemed to close, thus a night didn’t end until the Frog and Onion had been visited!
It was a large pub with all components of human life and society contained within. You had seasoned drinkers, blokes playing crib and dominoes in the corner, Sky Sports on, semi outdoor lavatories, fruit machine and a separate pool room that was barely big enough to contain the table.
They had reasonable beer on and occasionally edible patties on sale at the bar. It wasn’t by any stretch of imagination my favourite pub, but it had a comforting community presence as it felt like it was a step back into the 1980’s.
The pub clung on for many years always looking like it was on its last legs but then I am led to believe did finally bite the dust in late 2015.
They sporadically had live acts there and we managed to catch Harry and the Last Pedestrians on New Year’s Eve 2006. The core of the band is Harry Stephenson, signed to Stiff Records in the 70’s (now a local painter and decorator) and Wayne D Evans who combined with other members to create a highly competent blues-based band. The years of expertise and experience shone through as these kids could really play.
They came on about 10.30, did a set to 11.45, closed the bar to give the staff a break to celebrate and bring the new year in and reconvened for a second set at 12.15 which completed an enjoyable evening.
A further five minutes’ walk away from there into a more industrial area lies the Lion Inn at Basford. Again, it is conveniently located next to a tram stop but it is in a slightly sparse location in the shadow of the Shipstone’s brewery and you would probably need prior knowledge of its existence to find it.
It is a cracking homely real ale pub with normally about 10 different beers on at one time and they commendably promote a lot of local brews. There is a small beer garden at the side for sunny days and they hosted an enjoyable quiz night on Sundays which we attended a couple of times. They also had some tasty bar snacks.
On the musical front they had a rehearsal room upstairs and a decent size stage in the main bar. I attended five gigs there in total.
They had live bands performing there between Wednesday and Sunday and within the regular Sunday afternoon gigs I saw the afore mentioned Harry and the Last Pedestrians twice in 2005 and 2010. I also saw a covers band called Toasted Frog there on 09/04/11 who I think were a spin off from the above band.
The remaining two gigs were fairly unmemorable sets from local bands Scoobies in 2009 and Midnight Pumpkin Trucks in 2011.