Yesterday I was Walton Vale, Liverpool, and agreed to go for a pint with my friend Tom in the Raven, the local Wetherspoons, but he had something to do before he could join me. After I'd ordered two pints of George Wright Cheeky Pheasant at £1.85 a pint, I said to the barmaid that, for a horrible moment, I thought I'd left my money at home (it was merely in the wrong pocket). She asked if I lived far, and I replied, yes, Southport. She laughed and said she'd have given me the money.
At this point, the man next to me said, "Southport? Are you the one I've seen playing at the Southport CAMRA beer festival?" I said, yes I usually played on the Saturday afternoon. At this point the friendly barmaid said, "If you're in CAMRA, you get more off." And so the two pints were £3.10; very nice, especially as a few hours later I paid £3.05 for a pint in the city centre.
My companion at the bar said that he thought he'd recognised me from the festival when I'd come in but didn't say anything in case he was mistaken. So we chatted about beer festivals, and I gave him a copy of Ale & Hearty, until Tom rolled up. I suppose this kind of recognition is something Sting has to put up with all the time - but then again, I doubt he'd be seen in Wetherspoons, which is a pity as the beer was in good nick!
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Speaking of Wetherspoon, the new "Queens Picture House" opens in Waterloo's South Road on 17th April. The Queens cinema on the site closed in 1959 and for years after that was Waterloo Furnishing Stores. I hope some of the cinema's original features have been uncovered and restored as it opened in the heyday of the 'flicks when these places truly were people's palaces and there must've been some fine plasterwork in there. One only has to look to Wetherspoons in Llandudno and Gloucester to see what CAN be done. Here's hoping!
ReplyDeleteThe Wetherspoons in Cardiff was converted from an old theatre, and you can still see, but not sit in, the old boxes, and you can drink upstairs on the circle. A wonderful use of a building that would otherwise have been stripped out and used as a warehouse, or demolished.
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