Drunken disorder - all in the mind

When I was a student, it used to interest me seeing how the various student tribes handled their drink.  At the extremes, the PE students would all sit around in track suits singing rugby songs - I got fed up of hearing the tedious and rambling misfortunes of Constable Peckham - and the drama students would become even more luvvy-ish than usual.  The politicos would sit in corners to talk about the latest international trouble spot, say things like, "It's all happening in Nicaragua", and sup their Greenall Whitley while waiting for the revolution.

If the media caricature of the effects of alcohol had any basis in reality, there shouldn't have been these marked differences in behaviour and instead you'd expect a lot of trouble and fighting, but in fact that was rare.  I formed the view a long time ago that people develop certain habits about drinking quite early on and tend to stick with them, meaning that a lager lout of 20 years ago may well be a saga lout in 20 years' time. 

Kate Fox

I was therefore interested to see this notion supported in an article by social anthropologist Kate Fox, who says:  "The effects of alcohol on behaviour are determined by cultural rules and norms, not by the chemical actions of ethanol."  In other words, if we think we should get aggressive after drinking, then that's what will happen.  Similarly, if we think we should get flirty, then that will happen too, and so on. 

I do recall reading in the 1970s that some researchers asked young lager drinkers to take part in a bogus study and their reward was as much tinned lager as they wanted, which of course was the real research. The drinkers didn't know the lager was alcohol-free and they began to behave as though they were getting drunk.

Kate Fox explains why all our alcohol education programmes are self-defeating - the old Law of Unintended Consequences again - and asserts: "If I were given total power, I could very easily engineer a nation in which coffee would become a huge social problem - a nation in which young people would binge-drink coffee every Friday and Saturday night and then rampage around town centres being anti-social, getting into fights and having unprotected sex in random one-night stands."  She then tells us how she'd do this - it's quite funny, but utterly credible.

Her article also prompts the thought that the excessive penalties heaped upon the heads of licensees who serve under age drinkers only prevent young people from developing acceptable patterns of behaviour in controlled environments, instead sending them to shape their own drinking habits with the help of super-strength lagers, ciders and vodka, heavily influenced by hysterical and inaccurate propaganda about the effects of booze on behaviour.  That old law again.

 

I wonder if the pretend charity Alcohol Concern has read her article?  I doubt they'd want to because in around 1400 words she completely demolishes their entire strategy, which is almost completely funded by public money - now even more obviously a complete waste, especially in the current economic climate.

Ease Olympic stress with a beer ~ official

We all know that London is going to be bulging at the seams during the Olympic Games next year, and that the capital's elderly transport systems that are already operating near capacity will face a challenge (we're not allowed to use negative words like 'problem' anymore).  Transport for London Commissioner Peter Hendy recently briefed London Assembly officials on the capital's readiness for the Olympics and he had several ideas for coping with the conflicting demands of the Games and the rush hour.  As well as some worthy-but-dull advice, such as working from home, staggering working hours, use your bike, telephone conferencing, etc, he also suggested:  "On one or two of the days [London Bridge] will be very, very crowded and the best thing to do ... is to have a beer before you go home."

I suppose that's one way of staggering your journeys.

The full BBC news item is here.

Spoons beerex

The Sir Henry Segrave, Southport

I've just realised that the Wetherspoons Real Ale and Cider Festival, which they modestly describe as the world's biggest, began last Wednesday and will be on at all Spoons and Lloyds No 1 pubs.  Their website says, "This time we are featuring five American craft ales as well as plenty of new and special brews to try. On this site, you will find the full list of 50 festival Ales." 

Our local Spoons in Southport is the Sir Henry Segrave, which I much prefer to our Lloyds, the Willow Grove, but there are those I know who hold the opposite view.  It's on for another two weeks until the 23rd.  On past experience, I'd say it's definitely worth a visit.

Simon Barron and Rosalind Brady in Southport

I don't know a great deal about Simon Barron and Rosalind Brady other than that they live in Devon and their repertoire includes their own songs and interpretations of traditional English folk song.  They are the guests this Sunday 9 October at the Bothy Folk Club in the Park Golf Club, Park Road West, Southport, PR9 0JS.  You can get tickets on-line here, or on the door.  The venue sells real ale from Thwaites.

I rather like this video of one of their songs:

Bert Jansch

I've just learnt that Bert Jansch, one of the most influential guitarists of his generation, died last night of cancer at the age of 67; I hadn't known that he was ill.  Bert Jansch was admired as a solo performer, but was also known for many musical collaborations, particularly as part of a duo with John Renbourn and as a member of innovative folk-jazz band, Pentangle.  Many guitarists in the folk and the rock worlds have acknowledged their debt to and admiration for Bert Jansch, including Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin who recorded Jansch's arrangement of Black Waterside virtually note for note and renaming it Black Mountain Side.  This was controversial as Page neither credited Jansch or paid him any royalties.

I saw him several times on solo gigs and once with John Renbourn, and the first LP I ever owned was the Bert Jansch Sampler; my own attempts at the instrumental Angie were derived from playing the track from that album over and over again.  I still sometimes like to listen to his lyrical album Rosemary Lane. 

The video below is of Bert Jansch playing Black Waterside, a song that he learned from the legendary folk singer Anne Briggs, a debt that that he did acknowledge.  BBC report here.

Kellie and the Lion

Singer-songwriter Kellie While is making a return visit to the Bothy Folk Club after an absence of several years.  Kellie used to live in the Southport area and is the daughter of singer Chris While, who has herself performed at the Bothy on several occasions.

Kellie has performed with many folk luminaries, including a spell with the Albion Band and E2K and has worked as a duo with her mother.  The Sydney Morning Herald said that she had "surely the greatest voice to emerge from the English folk scene since Sandy Denny".  That's quite a compliment!

I first saw Kellie about 19 years ago when she agreed to play at the Bold Arms Beer Festival for which I had arranged a folk evening featuring various local artists (headlined by Kellie's mum!).  Although she was then only in her mid teens, she impressed the audience with her voice, her songs, some original, and her endearing stage presence.  One friend said to me on the night: "That girl is really going to go places."

The gig is at the Bothy Folk Club, Park Golf Club, Park Road West, Southport, PR9 0JS, on Thursday 13 October at 8.00pm.  Tickets on-line here, or on the door, subject to availability.  The venue sells real ale from Thwaites.

Lion Tavern Singaround
Unfortunately I can't make Kellie's gig as the event clashes with my monthly singaround at the Lion Tavern in Moorfields, Liverpool, which starts at around 8.30 pm, is free and all are welcome.  The Lion serves eight cask beers.  It's disappointing when things clash like this.

CAMRA ... there for the well-heeled?

I've just read a headline in October's What’s Brewing (the CAMRA newspaper), "Booming real ale sales", and below it in the article, "cask only dipped by an estimated two per cent". Since when does a dip constitute a boom?

Also portrayed as good news in the article is the fact that 69% of real ale drinkers are now in social class ABC1. Is real ale expanding its customer base upwards or, in a declining market, is it losing its working class customers? I suspect a bit of both, but the loss of the working class market to whole swathes of inner city pubs that serve only smoothflow is not the good news that the WB article implies. 30 years ago my uncle ran a back street pub in Bootle, which sold real ale through electric hand pumps – not unusual then, but almost unheard of now. A mass market for real ale was wiped out without, apparently, a single tear from CAMRA, possibly because these pubs didn't meet the approved ABC1 demographic.

With above-inflation beer duty rises and pub company rip-offs, ale is increasingly an expensive niche product that ordinary people - not your wealthy professionals - are finding harder to afford. Feel-good articles should not blind us to the reality of the situation: beer sales are dropping and pubs closing.

If CAMRA is turning into the voice of the well-heeled drinker, as this article seems to suggest, I may begin to have doubts about being a member.

Cigarette machines banned in England

As from today, cigarette machines are banned in pubs in England, with the rest of the UK following suit next year.  The BBC News item with stats and arguments for and against is here. 

I was in the Thatched Pub and Grill on Monday when a man came in from the vending machine company to tell the licensee that they would probably collect the machine by Saturday (i.e. today), but if they hadn't, to turn the machine around so it faced the wall.  I thought that odd - why not just switch it off? - until I learnt that licensees "must ensure all tobacco advertising on vending machines is removed.  Any person found guilty of displaying cigarette adverts on a vending machine could face imprisonment for up to six months, a fine of £5,000, or both."

Prison for displaying a cigarette advert?  That's worse than the smoking ban laws whereby a failure to display "no smoking" signs could result in a fine of up to £1000, or even the £2500 maximum fine for not preventing smoking on the premises, even though the actual smoker faces a maximum fine of only £200 (I've never thought it fair that the licensee faces heavier punishment than the smoker).  Such criminalising of licensees for these offences is grossly disproportionate.  As a regular pub goer, I don't recall ever seeing children buying cigarettes from pub vending machines, which is not to say it never happens, but I do wonder how far the stats and figures quoted are speculative?  The BBC news item states:  "It is ... estimated that 35 million cigarettes are sold illegally through vending machines to children every year."  (My emphasis)

Also, Trading Standards sending in under age volunteers and finding children can buy cigarettes this way isn't proof that children do in great numbers. Besides, isn't this a form of entrapment?

If the government wishes to ban cigarette machines as potentially being subject to such misuse, fair enough, but the penalties introduced are draconian and excessive*, seeing that cigarettes are not actually illegal.  I wonder whether any trade association is taking the matter further?

* Please note:  I am not referring to the existing penalties for selling tobacco to children, but to the new penalties for not closing the machines down and for not removing the adverts.

Sarah MacDougall at Grateful Fred's

Sarah MacDougall is a Canadian singer songwriter who is making waves, not only in her home country, but also over here in England.  She was born in Sweden, and Canadian newspaper 24 Hours Vancouver described her as "one of the most promising exports out of Sweden since Abba".  Yes, well ... so, here's what else they're saying:

• “She could make stone weep. Classic North American folk.” - Q Magazine ****
• “Heartbreakingly beautiful” - Americana UK
• "I love your album." - Bob Harris, BBC 2

She is appearing locally with Bob Hamilton on bass and Tim Tweedale on lapsteel at Grateful Fred's in the Freshfield Hotel, Massams Lane, Formby on Thursday 6 October.  Support is by British singer songwriter, Steph Fraser.  The Freshfield has a good range of real ales. 

Tickets on line here, and as some recent G/Fred events have been sold out, advance purchase may prevent disappointment.

Treasury boosts foreign imports of beer

Following on from my previous post, I learnt about this news item on Tandleman's Beer Blog.  The extract below is from the Morning Advertiser, the pub trade news paper:

"Illicit beer now accounts for up to 14% of total UK sales, up 40% in just one year, according to figures from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).  Duty: £800m in lost revenue from duty and VAT.  It means the Treasury lost an estimated £800m in 2009/2010 in lost revenue from duty and VAT. In 2008/2009, the figure was £550m, with illicit beer making up 10% of the market share.  The figures suggest that rising duty and the VAT increase at the start of the year is fuelling the rise in illegal imports of beer that generate no tax revenue for the Exchequer. Meanwhile, there was also a noticeable rise in illicit spirits in the UK. Illicit spirits in 2009/2010 accounted for up to 11% of the market share (2008/2009: 8%), with estimated losses for the Treasury as much as £440m (2008/2009: £310m)."

Tandleman opens an interesting discussion about how accurate the figures are, with contributions from other people, and while that discussion is relevant and informed, my main conclusion is this:  if the government believes these figures, no matter what doubts any of us may have about their accuracy, then they are fiscally irresponsible to continue raising alcohol duty above the rate of inflation, especially when the economy is still in the mess the bankers created.  As an aside, I'm not sure which is going up more quickly - beer tax or bankers' bonuses?  Either way, we're being ripped off.

Freezing beer tax (I'm not naïve enough to foresee a cut) therefore would:  help save pubs from closure and reduce job losses; help the economy by not making illegal imports even more attractive; and will help our brewers by restricting illegal competition.  Will a fiscally prudent chancellor see it that way?

A plague on both their houses

On Radio 4's You and Yours yesterday, there was a discussion about the report by the Business Innovation and Skills select committee on pub companies (‘pubcos’) that recommends "the introduction of a statutory code, with a genuine free of tie option, based on an open market rent review to help balance out the tenant/pubco relationship".  The select committee chair was adamant that, as pubos had failed with self-regulation, statutory regulation was required to safeguard the pub industry.

Then came a spokesperson from the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) who said that inflexible statutory regulation was unnecessary as the industry was sorting the problems out, and that the pub tie was an excellent businesss model whereby people who wanted to run their own businesses could do so quickly and easily.  She said that if politicians were so concerned about the pub trade, they should stop piling on the beer tax, which has gone up by 35% in recent years.

Both of course are right and both are wrong:  each correctly criticises the other, but neither takes responsibility for their own part in the problems facing pubs, including the high rate of closures.  As someone once said, take the plank out of your own eye before offering to remove the speck of dust from your brother's.

In the meantime, a new report from accountancy firm Ernst & Young states that British beer tax accounts for 40% of the entire European beer tax bill, even though the UK accounts for only 13% of EU beer consumption.  In my view, increases in beer tax have become self-defeating, with no increased income for the government as people drink less and less to compensate for the rocketing prices, and despite what you read alcohol consumption in the UK is slowly dropping.  Throw in the costs of businesses going bust, including bankruptcies, job losses and state benefits, and you'd probably find that further increases in beer tax will actually lose the Treasury income.

And as for the BBPA's rosy view of the pubco tie, there are so many people (some I have spoken to) who have sunk their savings into running their own pub only to find the figures for turnover were exaggerated, that they have to pay well over the market rate for supplies of all drinks, that if they manage to turn a pub around despite pubco restrictive conditions and it become a success, the rent is arbitrarily increased so that it is the pubco, not the licensee, who reaps the benefits of all that hard work, and that if they are less successful, they may have to give up the pub and are left with nothing but debt.

If it were up to me, I'd take the BBPA's recommendations on beer tax and the select committee's report on statutory regulation.  That couldn't solve problems overnight, but would perhaps begin a process of recovery rather than the slow decline we are now witnessing.

Sandgrounder Beerfest Beer List

The beer list is now available for the Southport Beer Festival - click here.

For times, entry charges and a map, click here.

It begins tomorrow at 6pm and is open all day Friday and Saturday.  I hope to see you there.

Dave Thornley and the Dharma Bums gig

A free gig by Dave Thornley and the Dharma Bums at the Park Golf Club on Thursday 29 September, beginning at 9.00 pm:

The Park Golf Club is on Park Road West, Southport, PR9 9DU, and it sells real ale from Thwaites.

If you want to sound knowledgeable, The Dharma Bums is a novel by Jack Kerouac, author of On The Road.

Sandgrounder Beer Festival 2011

Next weekend, Southport plays host to the 12th Sandgrounder Beer Festival.  It opens at 6pm on Thursday 22 September and at midday on Friday and Saturday; it closes at 11pm on all three days.  Entry is free to CAMRA members (£1 on Friday after 6pm), and £3 to non-members (£4 on Friday after 6pm).  The extra pound on Friday evening is for the local band Gallimaufry who went down rather well last year.  They play a wide range of music from folk to the Beatles, and are not deafening.

I have decided not to do my usual Saturday afternoon slot after complaints from one or two individuals yet again that my solo voice and acoustic guitar were too loud!  The festival is in two rooms, so if you don't feel like listening to the music, you can go into the other room; the bars are in the room without the music.  There will be more than 60 beers, ciders, perries and fruit wines.

The festival is upstairs in the Scarisbrick Hotel, 239 Lord Street, Southport, PR8 1NZ, about 5 minutes walk from the railway station.  Click here for more details and a map.

Just in case you're wondering, a Sandgrounder is a person who was born in Southport.  As I was born in a certain city 20 miles to the south, I don't qualify.

Southport's pubs are "thriving"

The latest edition of our local paper, the Southport Visiter, has a cheery headline about local pubs: "Pub scene thriving as nine Southport locals make CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide."  The article itself is okay as far as it goes, but it's the headline that drew my attention.  Are our local pubs really thriving?  Sadly, the answer is no, they're not.  As I reported in July, according to the British Beer and Pub Association, pub sales were down by 4.5% in the three months to June as beer tax and VAT rises wiped out the positive impact of the warm weather and the royal wedding, and in the year to June, beer sales were down by 7.1% as the various tax rises added 10p to the price of a pint in pubs.

I added that pubs that used to be packed may still be fairly busy, but have lost trade nonetheless, and pubs that weren't so busy are facing lean times.  Southport is supposed to be a holiday resort, but many of the local pubs were almost empty at the height of summer, which should be their peak time, and I fear that some may close.  The full post is here.

Southport is fortunate in having some great pubs, better than many seaside towns I've been to, but I find the complacency of that Visiter headline irritating.  I understand it was meant to be a "feel good" article, but if it misleads people into thinking that all's well with our local pubs, I'm not sure that it's doing them many favours.  Perhaps I'm overreacting; let's hope it encourages a few more people to go out and enjoy what's on their doorstep.

It was 50 years ago today ...

... when a group from Hawthorne in California called The Pendletones attended their first real recording session at Hite Morgan's studio in Los Angeles. They took their name from the classic Pendleton wool plaid shirt, which then became popular among American youth.  The band recorded Surfin’, a song that would help shape their career as The Beach Boys.  Later with albums like Pet Sounds, they went way beyond the surfing sound that they, and groups like Jan and Dean, popularised.  As it happens, Brian Wilson is currently on tour in Britain.

The Beach Boys sound is present and correct here, although a bit rudimentary compared to their later classic pop singles.

Deregulation - music to the ears!

The government has finally announced proposals to remove regulations from a whole swathe of activities, including live music performances.  You can read the announcement and a link to the consultation paper on the DirectGov website, and in an article in the Morning Advertiser.  This is something I've written about before, most recently in July last year (here if you're interested), and the document echoes my comparison between acoustic music played in a pub and big screen sports ~ I'd like to think my blog is read by ministers, but I doubt it!  The consultation paper describes the current confused situation as:

"You will need a licence if you want to put on an opera but not if you want to organise a stock car race. A folk duo performing in the corner of a village pub needs permission, but the big screen broadcast of an England football match to a packed barn-like city centre pub does not. An athletics meeting needs licensing if it is an indoor event, but not if it’s held outdoors. A free school concert to parents doesn’t need a licence, but would if there is a small charge to raise money for PTA funds or if there are members of the wider public present. A travelling circus generally needs a permit whereas a travelling funfair does not. A carol concert in a Church doesn’t need a licence, but does if it is moved to the Church Hall."

The proposal is that music events will require no licences with audiences up to 5,000.  This is rather more than the 100-200 figure that some groups were lobbying for.  The document sensibly asks whether unamplified music needs any limit at all, on the basis that "no audience limit is necessary due to the self- limiting possibilities from the event’s acoustic reach", but I can't think of any unamplified event where a 5,000 limit would ever be even remotely approached.

In the run-up to the "New" Labour government's implementing the current regime in 2003, Kim Howells, a junior Culture Minister at the time, contributed to the debate in 2001 by saying, "For a simple urban boy such as me, the idea of listening to three Somerset folk singers sounds like hell."  This caused a lot of anger in the folk world and provoked West Country folk group Show of Hands to respond with the song Roots, which includes the lines:

And a minister said his vision of hell
Is three folk singers in a pub near Wells
Well, I've got a vision of urban sprawl
There's pubs where no-one ever sings at all
And everyone stares at a great big screen
Overpaid soccer stars, prancing teens
Australian soap, American rap
Estuary English, baseball caps

Apologies and attempts to claim it was a joke soon followed but I can't help wondering whether it was just such personal prejudices among many MPs about all types of live music, not just folk, that led to the dog's breakfast of regulations we are stuck with now.

This consultation is looking very positive, as the government says it is inclined to accept deregulation unless persuaded otherwise; when I work out how to take part in the consultation, I'll publish another post.

The Pitmen Poets, Wigan

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Friday the 14th October will see a rare line-up of four of the North East's most popular folk singers and song writers for a special concert to celebrate the coal mining traditions of their region.  Billy Mitchell, Bob Fox, Benny Graham and Jez Lowe, under the collective name of the Pitmen Poets, will be playing at Wigan Parish Church from 8pm (there's no support act) with doors at 7.15 pm.  I'm posting this more in advance than I usually would as I've been told tickets are going fast.  They cost £15 in advance and £17 on the night. Phone 01942 824291 or e-mail for tickets and further details.

The church is on Crawford St, Wigan, WN1 1NL, about 5 minutes' walk from the railway stations and close to the bus station. I understand wine is available in the venue, and I know that there are several good real ale pubs just a few minutes' walk away (click here).