Pubs. How about some BOTW-EQs?
1. First pub you ever knowingly went in.
2. First pub you ever had alcohol in.
3. First pub you ever bought your own alcohol in.
4. First favourite pub.
5. Pub you’ve spent the most time in over your lifetime.
6. Favourite holiday bar.
7. Pub you were most well-known in.
8. Most famous/interesting/frightening/odd pub you’ve ever been in.
9. Current “local”.
10. Pub we are to come to your wake at.
Off you go to the bar(s) then … and whilst you’re up, mine’s a large Southern Comfort and ice, please.
1) The Globe in Glastonbury. My parents ran it for a while & I lived ‘above the shop’ from the age of 6 months to 4 1/2
2) Name escapes me but it was in Tondu (Bridgend S Wales). I would have been about 15 at the time.
3) The Llynfi Arms, Tondu. A gang of us in 6th Form used to go and play pool some lunchtimes. Despite the school uniforms the landlord chose to believe that we were all over 18, honest.
4) Coach and Horses, Bridgend – really good jukebox.
5) Probably the Crystal Palace in Aberystwyth. First started using it in my student days & it was my regular for pretty much all the time I lived there. I worked behind the bar off and on for years. It was a spit & sawdust place run by an ex-docker & professional boxer from Salford (he used to coach at the Salford Lads Club & proudly put the Smiths poster up on the wall when that came out) & his alcoholic wife who’d been a Shirley Bassey sound-alike on the workingmen’s club circuit. The place did more business after hours than in legal opening, and most nights (or early mornings) would end with a screaming match & much throwing of ashtrays between the landlord & lady.
Now been refurbished & rechristened the ‘Scholars’
6)Again can’t remember names, but it would be a choice between one in Orgiva, Andalucia (opposite the church on the main square, if anyone happens to know it) & an open air bar in a square in the old town of Side in Turkey, run by an outrageously camp Turkish guy & his partner, brother and brother’s Glaswegian wife.
7) Probably number 1 above!
8) Hmmm – need to think about this one
9)Since I’ve been here in Radcliffe, it’s been the Bridge Tavern, although I exiled myself to The Woolpack up the road last year when I didn’t get on with the new landlord who took over (temporarily thank god). I now hover between the two – live bands in the Woolpack (although of an ilk – if I hear another version of ‘Take A Load Off Annie’ I won’t be responsible for my actions) but better beer & one of those digital juke boxes that is full of obscure and strange things with which to frighten the youngsters in the Bridge.
10)Erm – do you know something I don’t?
ahem…that son’s called The Weight, you know
Song…
Ah, the Crystal Palace! I had a real “oh my god, I’m going to die” moment in there once: as you say, it was a bit spit-and-sawdust for my liking but, when I lived on Loveden Road, it was literally 2 minutes round the corner. My male mates from home turned up on my doorstep one night, dragged me there to watch the England vs Wales rugby match and silenced the pub by screaming wildly when England scored. I finished my drink and quietly slipped out, leaving them to their fate. It’s nicer now as Scholars, but more clinical: I miss the old Cambrian, where we used to have ace lock-ins, the old White Horse, now a plate-glass horror, the Varsity and Lord Beechings, a grotty little dive which is now the Cambrian mark 2. We used to drink in the Seabank a lot and I remember one autumn night rounding the corner by the police station, only to see waves breaking against the front of it: swift turn around and down to Rummers….
hi Tracy – missed this bit earlier (haven’t quite sussed the new lay-out yet). I think your mates would have survived, although there were a good few nats in there (myself included) the landlord was a hardcore English chauvinist who used to love winding us all up. If it had been the Cwps on the other hand…
When I was first in Aber, it was before all day opening, but the Cambrian, as the nearest pub to the livestock market, was allowed to stay open right through on market day – Monday. Doing a Cambrian Monday was a common expression. I had a few other locals during my time there – the Castle, Rummers, Angel (all good for bands/late nights) Ship and Castle (they had folk jam sessions there regularly for a long time) the Fountain on Tuesday nights for a while (Lounge bar – Lesbian and Gay Social, Public bar – off duty firemen…), Boars Head in later years.
I got into a bit of a circuit through working at the CP, there was a gang of landlords of abuot half a dozen pubs – CP, Angel, Vale of Rheidol (by the way if you think that’s a bit dodgy now, well back in the day…), Ship & Castle, Castle – that used to drink in each others pubs, and so I ended up getting to know them.
I quite like the new White Horse (is that Varsity? or am I getting mixed up) – very continental. Which reminds me of my favourite pub related story from the Cambrian News: A couple of the seafront bars applied to the council for a license to have tables on the prom, with a waiter/tress service across the road. A petition against this was raised by Vera Jones (Mrs). When the reporter said that the bars were arguing that it was a ‘Continental’ idea, she replied “If people want to do continental things they should go abroad” When it was pointed out that she wasn’t directly affected by it as she lived in Llanbadarn (a mile or so inland) she said “Well I like to think of others”.
don’t know where the smiley face came from at number 8
once you do a smiley any pub is interesting/frightening/odd!
1. The Six Bells, Horley; used to be a very nice old pub with a wonderful beer garden on the banks of the River Mole, and whenever my aunt, uncle and cousins visited in the summer we’d go there for the traditional bottle of coke and packet of crisps, to watch rabbits in the field on the other side of the river. Is now completely ghastly, and the only reason I’ve been back in the last decade is because it’s slightly less ghastly than all the other pubs in Horley. Nearest decent pub and decent pint are about five miles away.
2. No idea of the name; somewhere in the vicinity of Birmingham. My father and I had been to watch the son of the old college friends with whom we were all staying play rugby, and afterwards I was bought my first pint of beer and fell in love (only ever had wine at home, so I think it was just as important a moment for my father…).
3. Skimmington Castle, Reigate – the sixth form pub (there was a long-standing understanding that we didn’t ever go to the one the teachers used and they never came here).
4. I guess the very first would be the Skim, partly because of the associations and partly because they used to do a very good sausage. At college in Cambridge, the St Radegund for the excellent beer (not Greene King, unlike more or less everywhere else) and the Free Press for the pies.
5. Um. Probably the Highbury Vaults in Bristol. Good cheap food as well as good beer (even after Youngs took over the old Smiles brewery and closed it down).
6. Knoedelweber in Grafenau, Bavarian Forest, Germany: the usual excellent beer, and wonderful dumplings. there’s a theme here: beer and food…
7. None, really. The nearest is probably Knoedelweber, where we know the owners (and are probably readily identified as the weird English who turn up every year).
8. Can’t remember the name, but somewhere on the road between Lampeter and Carmarthen. My father and I had been looking for somewhere for me to live when I was moving there for a job (I couldn’t drive at this point) and we called in for a quick pint on the way home. It was exactly like the pub in an old Max Boyce routine, where he makes the mistake of ordering in English; room goes quiet, everyone stares, and when he leaves he finds that someone has painted his car green. Storms back inside, demands to know who’s done it; man stands up, eight foot tall, shoulders like tallboys. “I did it. I painted your car green.” “Oh,” says Max, “oh, I said, it’s drying lovely.” I think we got excused for actually being English and for nevertheless hacking out a few phrases in Welsh, but it felt like that. Good beer, though.
9. I guess it’s the George Hotel in Castle Cary, since the town council (on which I now sit) adjourns there after most meetings, so I’m in at least once a fortnight. Shame the beer’s a bit rubbish, but it could be worse.
10. I shall have brewed a couple of commemorative barrels myself, rather than any of that commercial stuff, so all back to mine.
1) The Netherton Hotel. Litherland, Liverpool. This was the closest pub to our house and most of the men from our estate drank in there. In the 50′s there were always youngsters hanging around outside. As young kids it was fun to see how far, and for how long, you could get into the bar without being detected.
2) At the age of fourteen, with the help of my friend Eric, who was one year older, a trip into Liverpool City center ended with a visit to the Calledonian bar in Lime street. We were amazed to be served and got rotten drunk on 10 shillings (50p).
3) See above.
4) The Rose and Crown in Wallington, Surrey. This became my local during the 70′s and 80′s.(although it was at least 2.5 miles from home) Could be found in there every Friday night at least. Remember once walking there in the snow one bad winter.
5) The Kings Cellars in Croydon. During a bad period in my life I spent every night after work in there over a period of about a year. Sometimes not getting home.
6)The roof bar at the Bristol Hotel in Sorrento, Italy. Wonderful place at night looking over the Bay of Naples towards Pompei and Vesuvius.
7)See 5.
8) The Trip to Jerusalem, Nottingham. Only remember this place vaugely as it was a guys weekend away in the 70′s. But I do remember it was carved into the cliffs under Nottingham Castle, was dark and cold and had a tunnel leading up to the castle.
9) Bar Camioneros, Los Carasoles, Spain. It is a typical old fashioned, dirty, noisey, small Spanish bar. But I get to it by walking for 3 minutes on paths through 2 fields one of olives and one of oranges. The choice of drinks is not up to much but a large draught Mahou is only €2.20 (just under £2.00)
10) Not yet decided.
1 First pub I sat outside in the car listening to Two-Way Family Favourites with a bottle of coke and a packet of crisps while my father was doing the traditional Sunday lunchtime keep-out-of-the-house-while-the-little-woman’s-making-the-roast was the Builders’ Arms in Potters Bar.
1b First pub I actually went into was the Green Man in Potters Bar, where they had the folk club.
2/3 A pub in Enfield just beyond our school playing fields, where I went with a gang of friends on the last day of A levels. Like you, exodus, we were all in school uniforms but nothing was said. We were all 18 anyway.
4 The Chequers in Potters Bar – a ‘real’ pub with no machinery of any kind – no slot machines or juke box. There was no musak in those days. You could hear what your friends were saying. I still like this.
5 The Black Horse in Great Linford, Milton Keynes, where the drama group I was in used to congregate after rehearsals. It got bought up by some evil conglomerate and renamed the Proud Perch (it’s by the canal) but luckily the name was changed back a few years ago. Very good cider.
6 Casbeers in San Antonio, where Matt plays many gigs, solo and with the band. Very good frozen margaritas.
7 The Black Horse
8 The Dirty Duck in Stratford-upon-Avon. I went on a school trip to see a play (can’t remember which one) and because I was in the 3rd-year 6th (I’d stayed on to retake an A-level) they let me go in mufti, so I went into the pub and there was Paul Schofield reading the paper.
9 -
10 The Black Horse…unless I’ve gone to Texas, in which case you’ll all have to come over to Casbeer’s!
1. If ‘knowingly went in’ is the same as ‘can remember being in’ – my dad had a Saturday job delivering pop (Corona, I think) and I can remember being sat on a high bar stool with a wineglass-type of glass of lemonade and two straws. I’ve NO idea where the pub could’ve been (but we lived in Seven Kings/Ilford, sand I suppose it wasn’t too far away) and I reckon I was about three – he’d probably taken me along with him to give my heavily-pregnant mother a rest.
2. Dozens of possible answers to this one – my teenage years were spent accompanying my dad (theme developing here?) and his jazz band around various pubs, with plenty of opportunity for grabbing an illicit drink. This was back in the days when the entire entourage got their drinks free, and no-one seemed at all bothered about the contents of my glass.
3. Probably the Marquis of Granby, opposite my school in Colchester. Many a lunch break spent in there (The teachers frequented the Stockwell Arms, just round the corner – I’ve not been in there to this day!). On my 18th birthday the b*st*rd landlord decided I was too young to be served, despite my having been a regular for years. Grumpy old sod.
4. The Chequers at Goldhanger. I liked it because the jazz band had a regular gig there, and I could just wander off along the sea wall (it’s on the Blackwater Estuary) when I got fed up. (Oops, that’s not saying much for the pub, is it? It was run by a very nice family with blond teenage sons. That might have been another factor). These days I’d probably ooh and aah at the building itself, but lots of the pubs round our way were ‘historical’ and we just took all those beams and open fireplaces for granted.
5. Pass. I was too busy enjoying myself to notice the time…
6. The bar at Camping la Forêt in St-Julien-des-Landes. I spent one summer working on the campsite and only ever paid for my drinks when the boss was around. The bar was in the stable bit of the château’s outbuildings, and I used to hang there with the lads from the village while the tourists all sat outside in the courtyard.
7. Pub you were most well-known in.
8. Used to take out-of-towners to Ton Peerstall, just off the Reeperbahn, run by ‘Katharina’ and friends: I could never understand why being served a drink by a transvestite was so unsettling for many men, but it was.
9. My front room
10. The Pauper’s Arms (unless TheBoyWonder’s paying)!
Forgot to answer #7. Probably a Hamburg pub called Villa im Park, which was my last ‘local’, back when my kids used to sleep over at their father’s once a week – I’d always meet up with people there on my ‘evening off’. Now I only go there once or twice a year, usually when friends are visiting, but they still know me and even know my old ‘regular’s’ number for their computerised till!
To start off you need to know that way back when, kids weren’t allowed in pubs, and kids were defined as 18 on down. That said my pub experiences began in WW2, age about 7-8, when my parents and a dozen or so other lefties went hiking in the Peak district almost every weekend in the summer. The destination was always a pub and one I remember was Fox House, then there was another near Ladybower, and the typical plan was that when they all went inside to set the world in order, I’d sit on the steps with a packet of Smith’s crisps and a lemonade, no wonder I grew up to be a loner!
After the war when at Woolwich Polytechnic I discovered N.O. jazz, we were living in Barnehurst, I was 14 and by some fortune of the gods just about the only pub in England at that time featuring live jazz was the Red Barn in Barnhurst, it was about 1/4 mile from home. So every week I’d be sitting in the pub garden outside an open window listening to the George Webb band or to Humphrey Lyttleton’s band, it was the beginning of a lifetime’s addiction.
I left UK in ’58 so that’s really my only exposure to any specific pubs, whenever I visited I always enjoyed the country pubs in Suffolk and Norfolk, the Swan in Lavenham comes to mind. Here in California there used to be a pub in Santa Rosa that I often frequented, it was run by a Geordie and was called the Queen Vic, he lost the lease and it became a bar, I’ve never been back.
1-5: Lee Hotel, Smith’s Falls, Ontario (near Ottawa). Some of us from high school started going in when we were 15 or 16, which was a few years too early but no one complained if you behaved. .No entertainment or anything (except an Asteroids video game at one point), you just went every Friday night. Young people on one side, older people – including several of our teachers – on the other. A bottle of beer was 90 cents and we’d go in with $10. If you didn’t tip, the 11th was free. And then we’d all drive home afterwards. Silly.
6. holiday bar. Presthaven Sands, I go in early with iPod on and save a table until the kids and any other adults arrive to watch Rory and friends.
7. Pub you were most well-known in.
I’ll dodge this slightly by telling about the time I ‘chucked a moon’ at some little place in a small town in Ontario as we were leaving, and when the barkeep shouted after us for my name I shouted back ”Guy Lafleur.” From that moment on one of the most colourful scorers in National Hockey League history has been banned from the place.
8. famous/interesting/frightening/odd etc
I used to live in Windsor, Ontario and going to Detroit was like going from Birkenhead to Liverpool. A few minutes in a tunnel and there you were. I made some friends over there from going to see bands and some of the places they took me ,,, well, you know how they say young men think they are invincible? Downtown Detroit at night is a dangerous place, and I don’t mean a little bit. Being the only white person in neighborhoods I couldn’t have located on a map never mind navigated out of wasn’t clever in retrospect. On the other hand, .the blues and R&B clubs were about the music and if you were there for that then you could be purple for all anyone cared.
9. Next time you’re in Harrison Hot Springs (B.C.) I’ll take you for a pint. Your treat.
10. Pub we are to come to your wake at.
Like I’d care.
1.The Glyn y Weddw Arms in Llanbedrog whilst on holiday as a kid.
2. The Hare Inn in Scorton North Yorkshire
3. The Hare Inn in Scorton – my how they laughed at my gruff 14 year old “A pint of your best bitter, please”!
4. The Malt Shovel in Hovingham
5. The Ship Inn in Saltburn-by-the-sea.
6. La Marea in Chipiona, Cadiz. Great tapas and reasonable lager, considering…
7. The Ship, Saltburn.
8. The Yew Tree in Cauldon, Staffs. A sort of junk shop that sells beer!
9. A pizza place with a small bar – swome of you will be able to guess the name of the owner.
10. The self same pizza place – they’ll treat you well and I will have left a hefty wad of cash behind the bar!
1. First pub you ever knowingly went in: Cross Hands, Winterbourne Down. I was 2 and had wandered away from home. The landlady found me.
2. First pub you ever had alcohol in: The Trident, Downend, with my friend and her boyfriend. I didn’t know what to ask for so they got me a lager.
3. First pub you ever bought your own alcohol in – possibly the Royal Oak in Clifton, a cider house at the time. It had a snug, and a painting of tombstones on a cliff, and “Whiskey in the Jar” on the juke box.
4. First favourite pub – Eldon House, Clifton Wood / Hotwells. Superb juke box, dart board, bar skittles and seats outside.
5. Pub you’ve spent the most time in over your lifetime – possibly the Phoenix, St Judes, Bristol – if it’s still there it will be surrounded my multi-storey buildings now.
6. Favourite holiday bar – used to like The Ship in Mousehole but don’t have “exotic” holidays any more!!
7. Pub you were most well-known in – Eldon House, where I was known as Stewed Vole. Best not to ask.
8. Most famous/interesting/frightening/odd pub you’ve ever been in – there’s a pub in High Holborn called The Cittie of York, which dates back to the 15th century or something. You can see the old walkways at the top of the beamed roof and there are little booths where you can sit if you want to have a private chat. It’s quite extraordinary – used to be a nice pub but haven’t been there for years and years.
9. Current “local” – don’t go out these days, The Grove in Leeds is about the only pub I ever go to now, once in a blue moon – unless I’m in Bristol in which case any Bath Ales pub.
10. Pub we are to come to your wake at – you’ll all have to go to Bristol and chose. There’s The Hare on the Hill, The Wellington, The Masons Arms … let’s make it the Masons at Stapleton, there’s a nice garden.
Excellent stuff, people. I was a bit afraid this thread might be one of those that tincanman (amongst others less vocal) sometimes considers “too revealing”, so I’m particularly pleased to see his participation.
Off for my bath now that the kids (& DsMam) are in bed, then back with my own answers.
Later, gator.
1) there was a pub across the lane from the farm my dad managed – I started there at 9 months – the whole farm/village descended for lunch, with a very famous local bobby that ended lunch cycling his bike into the hedge most days.
2) by the time I could toddle the kids had the glass dregs.. and slept the afternoon under the apple trees – it was a different world then. (my brother had whiskey for tooth ache!)
3) I have demon charm – never knowingly bought my own.
that’s so not true -
technical college in Broadstairs, beautiful pub half way up the cliffs.. spent the two years there polishing off their southern comfort supply… got snowed in for 24 hours once .. had our own snug, with instruments left out for us.
for legal reasons more stories will not be told ….. but finally celebrated my 18th there after 2 years drinking.
last time I went it was an Aussie theme pub – I cried.
4) see above.
5) too many – too long – sorry liver.
6) now my holiday is visiting mates in Bournemouth.. so I go back to the Goat and Tricycle – if we head out past Swanage the ‘square and compass’ is worth (Matravers) anyones pocket money.
7) Talbot (I worked there, starting at 6 am – sometimes I left – before I came back. We programmed the music too. (indie grunge era) and the Gander – we created a magazine in the afternoons when the pubs shut – I wrote the Horoscopes and made up the crosswords (with spelling issues) and designed it all from a bar table – between games of pool and chess.
8. the gander would have been on the first night – but they made me feel normal – but I can pick the oddest bar in any town or country – I have an interesting knack.
9) only drink out if I go to see a band at Norwich Art center .. great place.
10) you ain’t having a party if I’m not there!
Matthew Ryan has just come on my playlist – good timing for you DsD
1. Some place in Edinburgh when I was helping my parents with their/my family history research when I was 16 years old. It was the only place where we could get a meal. Alcohol was unimportant, especially to my parents and even (gulp) to me.
2. Some bar in France when I was sixteen (a few months after the Edinburgh trip) and (don’t you know this?) it was legal for sixteen year olds to drink alcohol (yeah!).
3. The Howcroft, Bolton
4. The Howcroft, Bolton
5. difficult…. but I’d go for The Westleigh in Bradford where I spent most of my first two years of university and, in final year, did frequent raids from our (Dsd) house across the road during advert breaks in Hill Street Blues to buy a couple of Newkie Browns to take away…..
………..What?
6. I’ve done loads of travelling and done loads of drinking in places with people I didn’t know in places I didn’t think I’d ever be in but I’d probably have to nominate the bar in N’Awlins where I met a vietnam vet one night and a rather interesting lady on another night or failing that it would be the San Francisco Sports Bar I frequented for a few nights a few weeks later.
7. Ah, now,… actually I don’t like to be well known in a pub. Back in 1993 I had to commute between Altrincham and the north end of Bolton which involved a long wait at Bolton Bus Station. I usually had to take shelter from the cold in the pub across the road from the bus station but the day that I walked in the door and the landlord immediately reached for the suitable glass to pour me a pint of Guinness made me realise that I was probably being too frequent a guest at that particular place.
8. The Westleigh (see above) was the home pub of New Model Army. But I couldn’t stand them. Does that count?
9. The Marsh
10. The Marsh
PS
I was thinking to myself earlier, ‘Is there a song called “Ice Cold In Alex”‘ but I don’t think that there is and it looks like Darceysdad has got the photo rights
1. First pub you ever knowingly went in.
Earliest memory is watching an outdoor production of “The Taming of the Shrew” in the garden of the Rose and Crown, Salisbury. I was 3 or 4. Cultured, me.
2. First pub you ever had alcohol in.
A half of cider in the Sevenstones, St Martin’s, Isles of Scilly – aged 14 or so
3. First pub you ever bought your own alcohol in.
Probably the New Inn, Salisbury – 6th form music students’ local
4. First favourite pub.
The Red Lion, West Dean – the Wiltshire/Hampshire border runs through it, so you can stand in two counties. There was a stream outside with a little bridge, where we sometimes saw crayfish. It’s a private house now.
5. Pub you’ve spent the most time in over your lifetime.
Having never had a long-term local, probably also the Sevenstones – for a week or two on holiday every year for the last almost 30 years.
6. Favourite holiday bar.
See above. It’s actually not that great a pub, but the view is so beautiful, and enhanced by a pint of Tribute.
7. Pub you were most well-known in.
Not many. The owner of the Arun View in Littlehampton knows who I am, but don’t think he knows my name.
8. Most famous/interesting/frightening/odd pub you’ve ever been in.
In my gap year, I had to catch an early morning train in Proserpine, a one-horse town in Queensland. Plan was to kill as much time in a bar as possible then find a bench at the station. I found a small bar that was showing a rugby game. Eventually got talking to the barman and ended up staying for a lock-in with the family. Aussie rednecks. I was a shy kid about to go off to study drama at university, feeling acutely embarrassed of my slightly camp English accent. There was a fair amount of piss-taking, but they were well-meaning really. The barman offered me a bed upstairs and woke me in time for my train.
9. Current “local”.
Haven’t really got one since moving – there’s a couple of pubs close by, but neither much cop, although one has a playground in the garden, so it will probably be there – The Windmill.
10. Pub we are to come to your wake at.
See 2,5 and 6.
1. When I was 10 or 11 my parents split & I remember evenings sitting in a place called The Branding Iron with my brother & cousin watching my mom & Aunt try to reel in their halcyon honky tonk days. There seemed to be some unwritten rule that if the kids were the other side of the dance floor from the bar it was ok ’cause we weren’t the only ones. It was ok as long as my Uncle kept us in cokes & hot dogs.
2. From the ages 12 to 16 I sold newspapers on the street in Sparks. Part of the gig was to hit all the bars on B street (the main drag) numbered about 25 in those days. Now the clientele differed in each & if they sold food the atomosphere was better. A couple were downright scary & on a holiday they would buy everyone a drink including the paper boy even if he was scared witless. Think it was called the Old Sparks Tavern.
3. In the outskirts of our city was a place called the Dew Drop Inn notorious for selling to anyone if they had the nerve, Total biker bar & I was 16 going on 12 when I did it. Package to go.
4. I think it was called the 3 Nags in Charleston, S.C. True pub with chess boards embedded in the tables & sets for loan from the owner. Great food & beers I’d never heard of before.
5. 2 of my best friends tended bar at a place called the Library in my college days. It became the hub of all functions.
6. Gosh that could be a long one. Harrigan’s in San Francisco is one. The Horse Brass in Portland, or & ’cause My wife & I enjoyed our selves so much I’ll throw in The Ship Tavern in Holburn ‘ tho we only went the once.
7. see 5
8. I’ll go for most scary. Went into a roadhouse in Lake Charles, La once. Place was L shaped around the bar with pool tables on the up side a dance floor & band area in the crook and tables on the foot. we took a seat in the back of the tables where the rear door was(turned out to be locked ) When the first fight broke out the bar keep settled it with a baseball bat. 2nd fight was poolplayers using their sticks & a knife. Barkeep used a shotgun to the ceiling which from the look was not the first time. We made as discrete an exit as possible.
9. Great Basin Brewery home of the Ickie (a really good IPA)
10.The Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City.
1. First pub I ever knowingly went in.
Bit of a cheat: The Portland in Cresswell. My grandparents’ pub.
2. First pub I ever had alcohol in.
The Old Ship in Worksop. Grandparents moved there around 1970, and Grandad used to get me to help refill the bottle shelves in the afternoons between openings. My reward for that was a slurp or two of Mackesons or Theakston’s Old Pec, followed by a packet of Polos that surely never fooled my parents.
3. First pub I ever bought my own alcohol in.
Can’t remember the name, but it was the Greenall Whitley (UGH!) pub right between the Town Hall and the Odeon in Chester city centre. There were three of us at 14 who “physically matured” enough to persuade a landlord to turn a blind eye. Oddly, the police walked through that pub a lot, but always in one door and out another which gave them a view of every table in the place except one. Provided we stayed there (even to the point of ringing the bell set into the bench for service – anyone else remember them?! – instead of walking up to the bar), were sensible and quiet, we were allowed to stay.
4. First favourite pub.
The Eagle (circa 1979-82), again in Chester city centre. Absolutely ram-packed every Friday and Saturday night with hormonal teenagers.
5. Pub I’ve spent the most time in over my lifetime.
Probably The Westleigh, fifty yards from our front door at Uni. We lived there so much, we’d even stagger over there in our ‘jamas on a Sunday lunchtime!! Remember that, Gordon? And an aside into financial waters – if they knew you, licencees John & Malcolm would cash cheques for you over the bar, by grossly overcharging you for your first drink, and giving you change to (almost) meet the difference. For overdrawn students desperately avoiding their bank managers, this was a godsend. The trouble was, my account was back in Chester, and the manager at Barclays knew my mother. He once took her into his office to ask if I was “getting into trouble“, because I’d gone through a chequebook in under six weeks: 27 out of 30 cheques being made out to C&J Hotels (Bradford) Ltd, always for amounts in multiples of £10. My mam pressed him, and he eventually admitted his thoughts were (i) drugs; (ii) gambling; or (iii) paying for prostitutes!! Given how much she needed him to extend her overdraft, my mam didn’t slap him, but I bloody nearly did when I went in a fortnight later to move my account out. I should have sued his arse off for breach of confidentiality, shouldn’t I?
6. Favourite holiday bar.
Ooh! Difficult!! Who set these ques…ah! Um, er, loads of contenders:
80s: Cottage Loaf, Llandudno; Frog & Parrot, Southampton;
90s: The Ship, Dunmore East; Hog’s Breath, New Orleans; or that nautically-themed timber-built one on the bend of the main road through Fort Augustus, maybe?
NAH! Almost certainly Bombas, heading out of Holetown back towards Bridgetown in Barbados.
00s: er, the Country Club at Sherwood Center Parcs. I know, I know, I’m a sad git. All I can say is that I’ve always, ALWAYS felt utterly de-stressed, at peace, quite fit, and happy with my beer when I’m there.
7. Pub I was most well-known in.
Hmmm, probably The Fox on the High Street in Thrapston, where all the “outsiders” drank. When I did my placement year from Uni, I found Northamptonshire villagers even worse than Abahachi’s Max Boyce experience. Stepford meets The Slaughtered Lamb!! The Scottish landlord never stood a chance at The Fox, because only young’uns and outsiders would give him money. I liked him a lot; even more so when, in full view of the brewery reps, he was ripping fixtures and fittings out of the pub to convert into a motorhome the coach he’d parked in the car park. When the time came, we all had a night out “on tab”, and I took a full-size fruit machine home to Bradford.
8. Most famous/interesting/frightening/odd pub I’ve ever been in.
Biddy Early Brewery, Inagh, Co. Clare
Fits the “interesting” and “odd” versions of the question, that’s for sure!
A microbrewery, that serves my favourite Irish Stout, we were once responsible for stopping production when the driver of our party asked for a coffee. They looked at Anne for a moment, then fetched a kettle from somewhere. Having re-arranged a couple of extension leads, the barmaid flicked the switch on the kettle … and blew the fusebox cover off! From there on in, the next hour or so got more and more Father Ted-style surreal.
9. Current “local”. Sadly, since The Royal Oak at the top of our lane went the way of so many other non-food-serving establishments, I’d say the pub I go in most is The Marsh, near Gordon’s house. Three times a year, if I’m lucky.
10. Pub you are to come to my wake at.
Look, I’ll have done the dying bit, and I’ve already picked the music and form of bodily disposal. Do I have to arrange EVERYTHING?? I’ll have a bottle of Jack Daniels in the coffin with me, please. The rest of you can sort yourselves out!
Damn! It was the Frog & Frigate in Southampton, not the Frog & Parrot. Spit, sawdust, no electricals, one piano, GREAT BEER.
And it was The Golden Eagle in Chester too.
Blame all that alcohol, eh?
1. First pub you ever knowingly went in.
Café Jeuken (now Leo’s café, see somewhere further) Pey-Echt NL, then (late 1960′s) located just across the road from the RIOS ’31 football pitch, at halftime and after the game our dads went for beer, we got the Coca Cola
2. First pub you ever had alcohol in.
Sef Bar Pey-Echt NL (doesn’t exist anymore), school party, aged 16, first & last time I’ve got physicaly sick after too much beer…..
3. First pub you ever bought your own alcohol in.
see 2.
4. First favourite pub.
De Perroen, Maastricht NL, still one of my favourites, a regular there for 30 years…..
5. Pub you’ve spent the most time in over your lifetime.
see 1, 4, 6 or 7…..
6. Favourite holiday bar.
The hotel bar @ the Allalin Hotel, Saas-Fee CH, nothing spectacular, just a nice beer, some interesting local regulars, and no need to walk home afterwards….
7. Pub you were most well-known in.
Proeflokaal de Ridder, Rotterdam NL, about the same atmosphere as number 8, walked into this pub after being away for 4 years last week (after visiting my sister when she was still doing relatively well, but that’s a different story…), and it was just like 4 (&14) years ago, all the old regulars, all the old music, all the old great atmosphere….
8. Most famous/interesting/frightening/odd pub you’ve ever been in.
Stehgraa, Aachen D, the smallest pub in the world, perfect Kölsch beer, and a very ecclectic crowd, when I walked in after not having been there for about 15 years, I was just being greeted and welcomed like just had been there yesterday….
9. Current “local”.
Leo’s Café, Pey-Echt NL, see 1, the football pitch is gone since about 20 years, it’s about a 3 minute walk from my house, it’s nothing special, just a nice place to be, lots of local regulars, you can sit outside watching the sun set in summer, and Sonja (mrs. Leo….) serves a perfect glass of Heineken!
10. Pub we are to come to your wake at.
….no plans just yet….
1. It was the Admiral Jellicoe on Canvey Island. I was about six and we were on holiday.
2. Probably the Crooked Billet in Epping Forest with my parents. My dad used to let me have real beer shandy when I was 11 or 12.
3. The Alexandra on Victoria Park Rd in Hackney. I was with friends and we were all about 15 or 16. It is called something else now, The Lauriston.
4. The Britannia in Mare St in Hackney. It isn’t there any more. It has been replaced by the extension to the Hackney Empire.
5. A tough one, probably the Bunch Of Grapes in King St, Bristol..
6. La Rotonde in Montparnasse in Paris.
7. Either The Britannia or the London Hospital Tavern in the Mile End Rd in Bethnal Green (the LHT is also called something else now)
8. I’ve been in a fair few hardcore biker pubs over the years, none of them scary. The scariest was probably a S&M lesbian night at a pub I can’t recall the name of in Earl’s Court. Some seriously dangerous looking women there and some very aggressive leather lesbians.
9. I rarely go in pubs any more so, but if I do, it tends to be the Hatchet in central Bristol.
10. Seeing as we are all unlikely to ever be in the same place, I am nominating a fictional pub. It is the Prancing Pony in Bree.
1. Really can’t remember. I’m guessing a pub in Britain when I was little, with my parents, for lunch. I remember going to The Trout? Maybe? in Oxford with a friend of my Dad’s who was a don. (The friend, not my dad.) Very impressed with the ploughman’s lunch.
2. I’ll answer with the first time I drank legally at a bar…Corner Tavern. Maybe a day after my 21st birthday. I got a whiskey sour. I had a big crush on a fellow that was playing there that night. Sigh. Actually he might have bought me the drink.
3. Not sure. I was a dedicated barfly in my early twenties. Went out every night. BUt I rarely drank (I liked to go out on my own, and that didn’t mix well with drunkenness) And I never really had to buy my own drink, when I did drink. Tough question.
4 McCormicks – couple of blocks from my house. Worked at night, went there after, all my friends would be there. I met David there. I had a big crush on him, and I was trying to talk to him, but he can’t not watch a television if it’s on, and there was some dopey close-captioned show on. I thought he wasn’t interested at all. Well, he wasn’t at that point, as it happens. Sigh again.
6 Rose and Crown in Edinburgh on some side street. We found it on our honeymoon and went there many nights. David was wearing a Motherwell shirt (his grandma is from there). The bartender said he didn’t look depressed enough to be from Motherwell. (OF course not! He was on his honeymoon!!)
5 & 7 Court Tavern, New Brunswick. Famous in it’s own odd way. Pavement played there…Ween and the Smithereens got their start there, Patti Smith recently played a tribute concert and auctioned off a guitar for the bar. I spent a lot a lot a lot of time there. They named a drink after me – the nutty claire…amaretto, frangelico, whiskey, milk, ice, all blended to milkshake-like consistency. Bartenders and bouncers were friends, so I grifted my way to most shows. Dark, dirty, divey, lovely bar.
8. NOt really sure, maybe the Court on all counts.
9. I suppose the restaurant I work in. I don’t drink there, but I go twice a week. They have potentially the nicest bar imaginable (physically a wonderful space, good beers on tap) If only they weren’t such psychos. THere are two lovely lovely lovely bars in town we used to go to (and travel big distances to get to) before…the…children!!
10. Wouldn’t be in a bar, I don’t think. Maybe an island in the middle of the atlantic
Hey Steen – ‘friend of my Dad’s who was a don’ – Can we name the family of which this friend was Don. I’ve suddenly developed a tremendous respect.
1. Probably the ‘Hit and Miss’ at the bottom end of Watford High Street. Affectionately known as the Shit and Piss’
2. Ditto.
3. The Green Man in Rickmansworth. Definitely under-age. I remember celebrating my 18th in there and having to pretend to the bar staff that it was my 20th!
4. The Dog and Partridge in Huntonbridge. Affectionately known as the ‘Bog and Dartboard’
5. The Southern Cross in Watford which was local for many years and was the first pub I ever went for a drink in with ToffeeGirl.
6. Le Cafe Des Artistes in Le Roque D’Albere/Laroca Dalbera in French Catalonia. Say ‘hi’ to Feargal if you’re passing.
7. The Southern Cross (see above) or The White Bear in Rickmansworth.
8. The Cat & Fiddle at Flash on the Cheshire/Staffordshire border. Real ale heaven.
9. Ironically, given my socio-political leanings, it’s a Police Club bar. It also happens to be the ‘clubhouse’ of my girls’ football club.
10. I have no intention of dying …
1. First pub you ever knowingly went in.
The Court Oak in Harborne, Birmingham, was one of the only pubs that allowed children in, although we were confined to a side room. On the plus side, we had the run of a lovely, (possibly) listed garden with a small pavilion at one end. The pub is built in the Spanish vernacular and the sign outside is definitely a listed structure.
2. First pub you ever had alcohol in.
The Blue Ball in Wednesbury, West Midlands. The Highgate Mild was rich without being strong.
3. First pub you ever bought your own alcohol in.
A half of lager after a rugby match away in Bristol. We all got served, despite being the U16s.
4. First favourite pub.
The Old House at Home, Harborne. Once upon a time, before it was ruined in the transformation to a Wacky Warehouse, it was run by a couple who went on to run a restaurant, and the food was wonderful. Fresh ingredients and that, instead of microwaved Brake Bros food. The restaurant was done out in dark wood and felt very grown up, or it did when I was 17. These days, it’s so badly laid out that even with seven screens showing the football, it’s a game trying to get a decent view in any of them. I hope the designer has since had a career change.
5. Pub you’ve spent the most time in over your lifetime.
I expect it’s the Court Oak. Although I’ve spent a lot of time in recent years on the wall outside the Sandon by Anfield.
6. Favourite holiday bar.
Drinking cans of Efes under the sun in Istanbul’s Taksim Square before the 2005 Champions League final was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
7. Pub you were most well-known in.
The first pub I worked in, the former Bass House in Edgbaston. I was glass collector there and was constantly asked to serve because I looked 18 at 16.
8. Most famous/interesting/frightening/odd pub you’ve ever been in.
I went to see AFC Wimbledon a few years ago and went for a pint beforehand – Liverpool were playing away at Old Trafford so I decided to catch that first. We lost 4-0, but that wasn’t the most notable part of the day. The pub – I can’t remember its name – looked a bit grotty but it had the Sky Sports sign outside so I decided to chance it. I was served without incident and settled down with a soft drink for the second half. Then a regular walked up to the bar. “Alright, cvnt?” said the manager. I assumed I’d misheard. I mean, wouldn’t you? He proceeded to address all of his customers like this, apart from me. I can only think it’s because I wasn’t a regular. At the time, I was working with an AFC fan and he asked me how their game had gone. We christened the pub The Cvnting Arms in the landlord’s honour.
9. Current “local”.
I don’t really have a local, but I know some excellent pubs to visit after record shopping on Berwick Street or to watch the football in.
10. Pub we are to come to your wake at.
If I could wangle it, The Three Kings in Clerkenwell. Art on the walls, London’s best jacket potatoes for lunch, at least four real ales on tap, no TV and an old-fashioned jukebox on the second floor. The best pub I’ve ever been in.
1. First pub you ever knowingly went in.
The Queen’s Head, Wilnecote, which had a lovely garden out back for the kids to play in.
2. First pub you ever had alcohol in.
The Queen’s Head, Wilnecote, whose landlord turned a very blind eye to us underage drinkers, even when accompanied by our economics teacher’Stu’, though because I was short and babyfaced, others had to get my drinks for me.
3. First pub you ever bought your own alcohol in.
Dosthill Working Men’s Club. My friend Jane gave me perfume to drink as we walked into her house to disguise the stench of malibu, which I then threw up all over her hall floor. Auntie Linda not amused.
4. First favourite pub.
Hamlet’s Wine Bar in Tamworth, which I have never ever seen anyone drink wine in: it’s always been the goth hangout, and hence the only place for the ‘alternative’ people to feel comfortable. Went back in November, still hasn’t changed, which is heartwarming. Everyone drinking cider-and-black still.
5. Pub you’ve spent the most time in over your lifetime.
Hard to say: Queen’s Head when I was young, Seabank, Rummers and The Cambrian in Aber, The Moon Under Water (which is the original Marquee site) on Charing Cross Road, not for ambience but for ease of meeting large groups of people for gigging, The Cock in Hitchin, where we used to win the pub quiz 9 out of 10 Sundays, The Hub ‘pub’ in Machida (where we saw England win with Jonny Wilkinson’s amazing kick, surroundeed by suddenly silent Aussies) and now, probably now Dogma in Lincoln, which is more of a bar but the sofas are comfy and the garden’s nice in the summer.
6. Favourite holiday bar.
We went to the Castle Inn in Lulworth Cove at Easter.
http://www.thecastleinn-lulworthcove.co.uk/real_ales
After three sips of their amazing perry we decided to book ourselves in for a week in August! great walking country, fabulous selection of beers, ciders and perries (NOT PEAR CIDER!) , huge portions of filling food and the owner takes a photo of every dog that stays there. Yes, dog: and occsaional cat.
We also highly recommend the Brunning and Price chain, centred around Cheshire/Shropshire/North Wales. They have lovely buildings, a great selection of real ales and the food is delicious: we’ve been the the Chester and Shrewsbury branches, absolutely fab, espcially the Cheshire cat session beer, nomnomnom.
http://www.brunningandprice.co.uk/
7. Pub you were most well-known in.
The Cambrian, where I was having a fling with a lovely young man who was alwasy to be found propping up the bar: well-known here may well mean notorious. The Bay was my proper haunt but not for the booze, for the dancing. Everyone knew me there.
8. Most famous/interesting/frightening/odd pub you’ve ever been in.
Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem has amazed my Japanese visitors and I really like the one by the river in York that always gets flooded, ah, the King’s arms.
9. Current “local”.
The Adam and Eve on Lindum Hill, Lincoln, a short walk from school and guardanteed not to have any of our kids in on a Friday. I like The Morning Star too, Deuchars on tap and proper fires in the autumn and winter.
10. Pub we are to come to your wake at.
I reckon you’ll need to do a fancy-dress pub-crawl after flinging my bits off the top of Constitution Hill in Aber, so, Glengower -> Varisty -> Salt -> Scholars -> Vale of Rheidol (good luck) -> Cambrian -> Inn on the Pier -> Castle ->Ship and Castle -> Rummers -> The Fountain -> liver failure. It’s what I would have wanted.
Tracey – when you are on holiday in August take a trip along the road to:
http://www.thesquareandcompass.info/
at Worth Matravers towards Swanage.
have a couple of Ciders (they are stunning)
then trek to the cove – then back for a well earned Couple more – if you can, climb down for a dip in the sea too.
oh – we never made it back to Bournemouth when we went out there – always had a friendly farmer let us crash in his field –
and if you are over 5′ tall – you’ll crack your head as you go to the bar – all part of the fun.
as was the grumpy landlord but as he was 382 when I was there a lot 20 years ago – maybe he’s retired now.
Sounds ace Shane, maybe I’ll let Jon do the walking and stay for those ciders!
Thanks again, everyone, for the responses.
One of the things I was hoping to throw up with this thread were some unexpected connections: pubs more than one of us knew independently of the other.
From that point of view, Bradford’s The Westleigh and Cleckheaton’s The Marsh don’t count, as me and Gordon drank together in both. Tracy & exodus‘ Aberystwyth memories were the sort of thing I hoped for.
I hate to pick a fight with Toffee, but whilst the Cat & Fiddle is just inside Cheshire, and the village of Flash is on the Staffordshire border, those two things are actually nine miles apart.
http://www.multimap.com/directions/?qs_1=flash&countryCode_1=GB&qs_2=sk11+0ar&countryCode_2=GB&mode=driving&optimizeFor=time
There are some pubs which have definitely been added to the “Must try to visit” list; in particular, I’m sure I’ve been in the Castle Inn at Lulworth Cove, but I don’t recall it at all.
And I forgot to say – donds to Maki for the Glyn y Weddw Arms in Llanbedrog. Now THAT brings back memories!!
Hope there’s still time before last orders to answer these:
1] That would be aged 14 – the Conquering Hero, Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood, London, which is more or less opposite my mum’s house and also across the road from my old school, hence…
2] …also the Conquering Hero aged about 16, bought a couple of pints of cider by Mr Kinsey, my Welsh History teacher (he was Welsh: the History wasn’t, apart from Churchill sending in troops against the miners in Tonypandy in 1911). I went in to have a shandy with Greg Wilson but when we mentioned that to an already pissed Mr Kinsey, he grumbled to the bar with what I remember as the actual words, “Blah blah blah proper drink.”
3] Once again, the Hero – while I’m a fairly young-looking 43-year old, I obviously had the look of a weathered old boozer when I was 16 or 17 because I was never asked for ID and, once I got into whisky in preference to beer, one barman even asked me if I wanted “the usual”, a singular souce of pride at the time.
4] Now, the Hero I loved and hated in equal measure so I’ll travel north for my first favourite pub and it isn’t really a pub but a Bistro, namely the Everyman Bistro in the basement of the theatre on Hope Street, Liverpool. Most of you who know Liverpool will know the Bistro, which hasn’t substantially changed in the 25 years since I became a devotee of the 3rd Room, considered at the time an inner circle of Liverpool celebrity cool (which probably amounted to Pete Wylie, a few Wild Swans, Tracey Corkhill from Brookside, and Ian Hart before he was famous). I used to sit in there with a green Trilby and a Marks&Spencer trenchcoat, like if Humphrey Bogart got dressed by hus mum, and people who’ve since become friends have told me they used to spot me and think, “Who is that funny-looking P*ki?”
5] I guess the Everyman has accumulated the most time, even though I’m no longer on what probably isn’t called ‘the scene’ anymore, but it’s a safe environment for old has-beens and I’ve also been back there in a professional context because of poetry nights (where I met my partner) and Irish music jams (administrating, not playing).
6] Another basement – a tiny cocktail bar next to the humidor in the Hotel Nacional in Havana, Cuba. Cool down with a mojito, then relax with a daiquiri.
7] I would probably say Peter Kavanagh’s on Egerton Street, Liverpool – another boozer with a place in the city’s boho folklore. Had a couple of years there in the early 90s when most of my friends lived on the neighbouring streets and we’d gravitate towards there just before closing time and a regular lock-in.
Have to have a think for the next one…
8] Plenty odd, none too frightening, several not all that interesting, so I’ll go with famous. I could cheat and say The Cavern, since that’s now a pub, though to be honest I’ve only been in there to meet or show round Polish friends visiting Liverpool. Otherwise, we’re back in Havana and the bar where Ernest Hemingway did most of his drinking when he lived there.
9] I suppose that would be the Penny Lane Wine Bar. I’m just a walking catalogue of Merseybeat alehouse culture, aren’t I? Not that I go there that often, spending more time at my girlfriend’s in Grassendale, where the nearest place we might go for a drink is the tapas and cocktail bar of the Gulshan restaurant on Aigburth Road, which would be a great place for a curry regardless, but the added enticement of a Manhattan, Kir Royale or the “Gulshan Special” really raises it to legendary status.
10] Smuggler’s Creek, overlooking the beach at Rosnowlagh, Co. Donegal. Order the seafood, have a pint of Guinness and don’t dwell too much on my memory, since my only connection to the place is a few visits on holiday, but if you’re going to throw a wake, may as well treat yourselves and go somewhere they do it properly, and where there’s a beach nearby if it turns out nice.
In case anyone’s still hanging round this thread past chucking-out time, I hope you don’t mind me offering these appendages to DsD’s brilliant questions, perhaps as a conversation-starter for when we’re in the queue for kebabs:
11] Favourite pub that no longer exists?
12] Clip Joint has probably covered this but, inspired by the photo, favourite pub/bar on film?
13] And what memorable lines did your landlord have when trying to get you to leave at the end of the night?
My answers would be:
11] Pepper’s at the bottom of London Road, Liverpool – across the road from the T&G Union building, it was where Jimmy Nolan, the dockers’ leader, and the likes of Eddie Loyden, former MP for Garston, used to drink. The pub that has forever summed up what I love about Liverpool – I had fiercer debates about Kronstadt and the Russian Revolution there than I ever had at the University. It got knocked down for the expansion of the Empire Theatre in one of the first moves to gentrifying the city centre.
12] Obviously, everyone comes to Rick’s so that’s up there but my favourite film is Swingers which is a hymn to cool bars where you sit in the corner, wasted, watching unattainable beautiful women in mellow despair, while your disreputable mate manages to cop off.
13] “Come along now, you lucky lads, do your talking while you’re walking.”
Having thought about it I think the Crystal Palace covers all of the options for Number 8!
It had some famous connections – regulars in my time included an ex-member of The Incredible String Band, future members of Catatonia and the Super Furries, the immediate family of Charles Bronson (the long-term guest of her maj, not the film star), 2 future MP’s & 3 future Assembly Members. Robert Plant popped in a couple of times when he still had a house in the area.
Interesting/odd – As Tracy will know, most pubs were either student or towny (& god help the student who ventured into the wrong one), but the CP was a good mix of allsorts. You could find yourself propping up the bar between a PHD and an out of work labourer ( & there was a good chance he had a PHD as well..).
Frightening -As I say, I worked there off and on for years, and it wasn’t always the fluffiest of places…
@Tracy – looks like I’d better volunteer as guide for the wake!
@tfd – didn’t know that’s what that song was called. I think I only know it from hearing dozens of hairy-ass covers bands playing it in bikers’ bars over the years – couldn’t swear that I’ve ever heard the original, not even sure who it’s by! (cue, I would imagine, severe intake of breath, mutterings of ‘call yourself a music fan? etc by several spill readers)
@ exodus – if you can bear to hear The Weight one more time …
You been putting on the weight a bit lately dsd?
Damn you in that Woodpecker costume, Tinny!!
[whispers:] Does it show?
Not in those jeans, no
*sharp intake of breath*
In fact, exodus, there weren’t as many people in The Band as that.
thanks for the musical education ( I did have a sneaking suspicion it was The Band). It’s not that I particularly dislike the song, but week after week…
Going to be off the radar I expect for a few days at least – so Tracy, thanks for the nostalgia!
Exodus, if you’re offering, that’d be a lovely thing to do! I recommend Gwesty Cymru on the Seafront if any of you ever go to Aber, http://www.gwestycymru.com/, amazing Welsh rarebit with fabulous bacon for brekkie and stunning sea views. The fancy dress choice will obviously have to be pop stars, though we did this twice back in 1989 and 1990, where I was respectively Morrissey (quiff kept flopping) and John Lennon. Agree with what you say about town vs gown (though god help you if you were ever poncy enough to use that phrase in Aber!), I was eventually accepted as a towny after working at Cafffi Morgan for a couple of months (alongside Aled, Chris Moyles’ mow producer, boo hiss! nice guy though), so I fondly remember the Angel on RocSoc nights and sometimes going to the Caving Club meetings at the Fountain (at least till I got drunk at a house party and insulted their jumpers). I lived on High St for a while (I went back to Aber at Easter, took pics of all 11 places I lived over the years and climbed Pen Dinas) and used to like the Ship and Castle and the Ship pub quiz and Sunday lunch were always a good way to spend a hungover day.
@Littlemissindie – You’d be most welcome if you wanted to put a team in for the Pub Quiz at my local, Cafe du Cerf in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Fortnightly on Tuesday nights; questions in English with ropey French translation on request.
Advert over; more about hazy pub history later.
Easy pub quiz question – play DsD’s ‘Weight’ clip above with your eyes closed and tell me which vocal group was ‘guesting’…
1. First pub you ever knowingly went in.
Don’t recall the name or exact location, but it was in North Wales, probably in one of the villages around Moel Famau (Loggerheads, Llangynhafal, Pantymwyn..). A church walk led by my dad (the rev, for whom Moel Famau was a favourite walking area) split into two groups, one of which, not including the rev, took the quick way down and slipped into the pub to wait for the others. I’d have been about 11 at the time; never been in a pub before, as dad was a church minister and mum thought that all pubs were Victorian dens of iniquity where men spent all their wages, leaving their families destitute. She still does, far as I can tell…
2. First pub you ever had alcohol in.
Same place and occasion as above. It was an episode of bravado, really; one of the guys asked me what I wanted to drink, I fronted up and said ‘lager’, he fronted up and bought me a half, I fronted up and drank it.
3. First pub you ever bought your own alcohol in.
Hmmm. Possibly the Roundhouse in Weston Point, Runcorn, or the Golden Lion (aka the Corner House) in Frodsham, Cheshire, which had rock bands on Thursdays and jazz on Sundays. Either way, I’d have been 15 going on 16, and in the company of Bigbrobach and his mates, who’d have been 2 years older.
4. First favourite pub.
For normal drinking, the Wellington Hotel, Runcorn. Known as ‘Kenny’s', for the particular member of the Massey publican clan who ran it, it was a two-bar downtown boozer with a telly in the bar for the racing, and a pool table and juke box in the lounge. Kenny was a decent bloke and a good landlord. First publican who ever insisted on changing a slightly-cloudy-but-fine-tasting pint (Marston’s; I soon grew out of that Greenall’s nonsense) for me, because ‘people could come in and see it like that’.
For music, the Golden Lion, as above.
Sadly, Runcorn is now a desert for decent pubs (as Tinny found out when we met there at Christmas); the Welly has joined most other establishments in the town in going real-ale free. I could rant on about the Smoothflow/Creamflow con, but here’s probably not the place. Drinkers pay absolute top dollar for their poison, and have every right to insist on a quality product that reflects the price. Significantly, the only jam-packed pub that I went to in the Runcorn area over Christmas was the Helter Skelter, Frodsham’s specialist real-ale pub…
5. Pub you’ve spent the most time in over your lifetime.
Dulwich Wood House, Sydenham Hill, London SE26. Local for about 12 years. Young’s tied house with another great cellarman as landlord.
6. Favourite holiday bar.
Too many! Notables:
Breakfast Creek Hotel in Brisbane, where by tradition they continue to serve Castlemaine XXXX from the wood, and surprisingly good it is, too.
All Nations Hotel, Richmond, Melbourne
Chloe’s (Williams & Jackson), opp Flinders St station, Melbourne
Three Chimneys Freehouse, Biddenden, Kent
Bell & Jorrocks (guess the nickname!), Frittenden, Kent
Dering Arms, Pluckley, Kent – the best seafood!
Red Lion, Royal Head, Angel and Mount, all in Llanidloes, Powys, mid-Wales where my mum lives!
7. Pub you were most well-known in.
CdC. See 9.
8. Most famous/interesting/frightening/odd pub you’ve ever been in.
Can’t think. The Skirrid, Llanfihangel Crucorney, with hangman’s rope marks on the staircase beam, maybe.
9. Current “local”.
Cafe du Cerf, Neuchatel, Switzerland. Beer bar with a pub feel, originally owned by Pepe and Mamasan, a Cambodian couple, but bought from them by an Irish couple who were regulars. Now run by them and members of their extended family with a more Irish slant, but not as a plastic Oirish bar. Live music three nights a week, pub quiz, rugby (and football) on the telly, friendly atmosphere and staff – why wouldn’t it be my local?
10. Pub we are to come to your wake at.
CdC as above, or the Old Absinthe House Bar in New Orleans, from whence the funeral cortège will depart, and to whence the second line will funk its way back.
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