Last Orders-The Demise Of The British Boozer

The pub in the photo is the Bulls Head on Coventry's Binley Road. In the 80's it was my social Mecca. I had many great times in there. A hybrid of colourful characters packed the place out most of the week. Discos were the staple diet in midweek back then. None of today's quiz and curry nights. People were out on the pull seven nights a week.

With no moblie phone, internet and just four TV channels, there was little to keep you in and much incentive to go out. You could venture out on your own with no prior arrangements and be sure to find familiar faces in regular places. There was a genuine feeling if had a night in you were missing something. While this often wasn't true, you could guarantee if you stayed in, you would miss, "The best night ever".

The rise of the pub meant the social clubs went into decline as memberships fell dramatically. Young people didn't want bingo and Beatles cover versions. The pubs tried to move with the times by installing the revolutionary video jukeboxes. It was the start of the MTV era. Or as I once cynically put it, the chance to see the groups I hated as well as see them.

The video jukebox was labeled the "Great conversation killer." as heads turned to watch the acts of the day in their latest flashy promo. Often the songs weren't changed often enough, meaning you'd be asked if you knew if was Christmas at the start of February. With little live TV football in those days the video jukebox provided a distraction and brought welcome revenue in for the pubs.

There were also plenty of live bands, many emanating from the pubs themselves. I was a member of a group called The Jolly Dwarfs. We grew tired of seeing bands we disliked on the Bulls Head video screen and formed our own, making our live debut in that very pub. It was a raucous affair to say the very least.

Throughout the seventies and eighties, the pubs were a breeding ground for musical talent. Venues like the Dog and Trumpet and The General Wofle regularly put on live acts. You kind of felt you'd made it when you got play those places. There were others's in Coventry.  Gosford Street was full of pubs back then, heaving with hardened drinkers, unforgiving audiences for bands sweating it out on a cramped stage.

Over time it changed. As mentioned at the beginning, beer prices rose in pubs fast as they fell in the shops. Home entertainment became a big thing. Computers and Sky TV, cheap drinking at home. Pubs, now with extended hours, became more and more eating places, some with great success. But it wasn't the same.

I'm pleased I was around during the last golden era of the public house. When that was the main source of enjoyment for many. Knowing you were going out in the week and it would be good, got you through the mundanity of work. Beer stained carpets and smoke filled rooms may not seem that appealing today, but there are many good times I'll happily drink to in fond recollection.