Chain pub bars chains shocker
Not so much me being banned, but all my mates clothes...

Back in the Welsh days of my youth, there was a lovely (read - scummy and welcoming) pub in the hole known as Bridgend called the Kings Head. Many a happy hour was lost in there, giro cheques shared, part time job wages frittered away, cider drunk, nails painted black... and much money spent - those giros were mostly shared with the purveyor of Special Vat cider who stood behind the bar. There were loads of us 'people in black' who effectively lived there; whenever they were open at least one or two of us would be there waiting for the rest (and their money).

As with many thriving pubs, the usual rumours went round about it being taken over and in this case, they turned out to be true. Our lovely, grotty, grimy, cheap, regular and well loved local was going to be turned into an O'Neill's.

Bad enough, we thought, but it'll still be homely. This was the first wave of O'Neill's expansions so we didn't have much idea of what it'd be like, but we kinda knew it wouldn't be good. Little did we know the dastardly plans that went with this seismic shift. Army boots or clothes, chains, leather jackets, ripped trousers - all were banned. So while the landlord didn't actually ban any of us from going in, they made it quite clear that none of our clothes were allowed.

Needless to say, none of us went in naked, and really, never went back again. Our group disintegrated shortly afterwards, never to reform. It was almost as if the landlord's comment, 'The King is dead', referred as much to us as to the pub itself…

Happily, I've since found lots of lovely pubs that let me and my clothes in, and lovely people and am once again part of a 'people in (admittedly tidy and not usually ripped) black who sit in a corner and drink a lot' group. But no more cider. Tastes like vomit nowadays.
( ancrenne doesn't eat anything that can play video games, Thu 31 Aug 2006, 12:29, closed)