A CLASSIC slice of Aussie pop from 1966 was Friday On Mind, by The Easybeats.

A hedonistic paean to breaking free from workplace drudgery and hitting the town with your bird (Sheila, surely? – Sir Les Patterson), the Pub Column occasionally hears its chorus joyously ringing through his own mind after escaping the neon dungeon of Castle Greyskull to celebrate the coming weekend with a beer or three.

Trouble is, as any seasoned suppers may know, everyone else has the same idea, and pub space to rest your bum and elbows around Friday teatime is at a premium, especially in the business sector where Greyskull skulks.

No more so than in the popular Thomas Rigby's, on Dale Street, where even its courtyard usually hasn't been enough to contain the overflow of humanity from the main bar with comfort.

But that has become a thing of the past, now that Rigby's has spawned an offspring. Well, not exactly . . .

Landlady Fiona Watkin has merely used a little bit of Scouse nous to exercise her control over the adjoining restaurant, formerly known as, erm, The Courtyard, into a bona fide alehouse.

It's has been christened The Lady of Mann, after some pontificating between Fiona and her faithful posse of staff and regulars.

“We were thinking of calling it Rigby's 2 or Baby Rigby's but thought nah, that's c---!” explained the straight- talking mine hostess, who eventually plumped for the Lady of Mann, a doff of the cap to the eponymous ferry and Manx brewery Okells which owns the premises.

Fiona has placed Laura King in charge of her “baby”, which, besides the Okells bitter, also has two guest casks on draught and the usual excellent, if truncated, selection of foreign lagers, both draught and bottled, which can be quaffed from the larger bar in Rigby's.

The Lady herself – that's the pub, not Fiona – is very cosy, very woody and very accommodating as Yours Truly and that other esteemed Lady, Penelope of Pensby, discovered during a visit on a much quieter afternoon earlier in the week.

Which brings us back to the pantheon of pop again.

It wasn't the Easybeats that the sentimental fool of a Pub Column could hear wafting through his mind's ear this time, but Van Morrison's wonderful hymn to falling leaves and bonfires, Autumn Song.

It was the perfect imaginary soundtrack as Yours Truly sat in the Lady with the other Lady drinking Everard's dark seasonal brew, Equinox, people-watching through its large, open window as long shadows stretched across the ancient yard as the waning sun dipped below the roof.

This is a fantastically atmospheric place to spend a lazy afternoon, where the ghosts of the past still caper in both Rigby's, the courtyard and the Lady herself.

Fiona believes there are at least five in the main building, including the spectre of an old coachman near the downstairs toilets, plus a poltergeist in the kitchen who regularly uses Tommy the chef for target practice. In addition, a disembodied head has been photographed in the yard and Laura has been “poked” by something down in the Lady's cellar.

Oo-er, missus.

In fact, Fiona has laid down a challenge to Anna and Paul, who run the “little” Grapes across town, in Knight Street, which was recently touted as being Liverpool's most haunted pub. “I can out-ghost them, easy,” claims Fiona.

Let the Battle of the Scouse Spirits commence.