as this is the BBC –
… other drinks are available …
This continues from Loudspeaker LS3/5A
Dave Mundy
Guinness …makes you fart, I am reliably informed, by some Welsh riggers who got through 10 pints in one night, so the story goes! (As does Adnams, from personal testimony!).
Geoff Fletcher
Back in the 1960s, the only place I knew where you could reliably get IRISH brewed Guinness – draw a face in the froth with a matchstick – was at the Earls Court Boat Show. Dave Jorgensen and I used to go just to tank up on the stuff – – a wonderful brew! There were probably other venues, but that’s the venue I remember.
Tony Grant
Brings to mind being told by Geoff and Dave about a pub in Shropshire that brewed its own beer, and many people travelled well over 100 miles to sample it. Some over-exaggeration there I thought at the time. Several years later, on holiday in Shropshire, I went to the Three Tuns in Bishop’s Castle, and had a few pints of John Roberts beer – wow! Simply the best beer I’ve ever drunk, if you don’t include Guinness.
Now here’s the exception, and I’m sorry for all the younger generation who never had the fortune to visit Ireland and drink Guinness when it was a ‘real’ beer, i.e. unpasteurised. Like all ‘real’ beers, it relied on proper storage and dispensing, but I can honestly say that it used to be streets ahead of any other draught beer when properly served, the best I ever had was in pub in Drogheda, and it took the barman 20 minutes to pour and serve it. After the first (very long) swallow, I immediately ordered another one!
Sadly, once CAMRA got under way, John Roberts was unable to keep pace with demand, and sold out to – CAMRA. A few years later I made a side trip to the pub, and the liquid on sale bore no relation to previous beers (OK, similar in colour, poss. NTSC). Real Guinness died a death around the same time, although I keep sampling a pint or three every visit, who knows, miracles may happen.
As an aside, after I got married, Dave visited our flat and looking in the garden said ‘You’re not going to waste those, are you?’ ‘Those’ were elderberries, and so started me on wine making. Now the shop I got my wine-making supplies from had some beer-making supplies past their sell-by date, and so gave me a kit to try, with no guarantee of success. Well, worth a try, and once brewed I put it in those Tolly Cobbold bottles (the Tolly being my beer of choice for home consumption at the time). When I supposed it to be ready for drinking, I invited Dave round to try the first bottle, or two. A very pleasant surprise, it tasted good, and slipped down a treat. We both agreed it was fine to drink, and so broached another couple of bottles, although I did say that it didn’t appear to be anything like as strong as home-brews were reputed to be. I can’t answer for Dave, but when he decided it was time to leave my legs refused to work properly, and getting up was seriously difficult, remaining upright, not for the faint-hearted.
Terry Meadowcroft
A basement pub in Dublin’s fair city was my best real Guinness experience, moons ago. The barman just kept on pulling them, behind the bar, as many as seven of them lined up, in various degrees of settlement! And were they good!! (‘Course I didn’t quaff all seven!).
Working next day was another memorable experience – not as good!
Nick Ware
Never been much of a fan of Guinness, except on one occasion when we were with Bono (U2 for anyone who doesn’t know), staying in his Clarence Hotel. He assured us the Guinness in his bar really was made from Liffey water, but I sincerely hope it wasn’t!
Pat Heigham
Two things about Guinness:-
1. There was quite a taste difference between UK brewed product and that made in Eire (softer water maybe?).
I remember one summer, years ago, the Irish breweries were having difficulty keeping up with demand, so tankers were sent over with UK Guinness*. I gather that the would be empty vehicles were sent back full of Irish water to make the brew more like the native stuff.
2. If you happen to be chatting up a lass at the bar, bet her £5 that if she wrote her phone number on the head of Guinness, (best with a fountain pen), it would still be readable when you finished the pint! You lose the bet, of course, but you have her phone number!!
The Guinness brewery in Park Royal, London closed in 2005. The production of all Guinness sold in the UK and Ireland was moved to St. James’s Gate Brewery, Dublin
Sláinte!
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Dave Mundy
I was on the OB Sports Unit 2 (SUE2 to Martin Hopkins) with Roger Prior for several years. We were in Dublin to do a rugby shoot at the time of St. Patrick’s Day, which was a day off. We asked the locals what we could do that day. They advised us either to stay in Dublin and see the commercial celebrations, or get as far away as possible and see the real celebrations.
So I drove across to Galway, parked, and wandered through the town. We saw a nice looking hostelry, and feeling hungry we entered and ordered a couple of pints of Guinness. After a quarter of an hour I said to Roger that it was very slow service and Roger explained that it took that long to get a pint of real Guinness in Eire! While we were drinking this heavenly brew, I had seen that all the tables had reserved signs on them which wasn’t good as we were both hungry. A waiter passed by and said ‘Will you be eating, gentlemen?’. I said we would like to but all the tables were reserved. “Ah,” said the waiter, “we knew you’d be coming!” Needless to say we had Irish Stew, followed by lime jelly, custard and cream (very similar to the Irish flag!).
The parade outside consisted of the local school band, a steam traction engine and a DeLorean car, plus other floats. A day to remember, much better than Dublin!
The OB sports unit spent a lot of time in Eire either horse racing or rugby stories. At the start of a multi-country shoot about the ‘5 nations rugby’ tournament, it didn’t start off too well when my suitcase was left in Dublin on a flight to Galway. We did the shoot on Galway beach in a howling gale before I drove down to Cork where my suitcase arrived at 22:00! After that I drove back to Dublin and then flew to Edinburgh (more interviews), then Corsica ( where we had to stay an extra night as the French team were threatening to go on strike!), back to Nice, then London, and drive to Bath for the second half of a match and then drive to Cardiff for the night! Next day, interview the Welsh captain and back to London for the edit! Eight flights and about a thousand miles driving. Happy days!
During the ‘troubles’ in Northern Ireland I had three attachments to BH Belfast to sound mix Studio 8, their TV News Studio.
On one day off I went down to Dublin on the train and found my way to Montrose where the RTE studios were. I went into reception and asked if if I could have a look round their studios etc. After a short break I was given a tour of the complex by Eamonn Timony, one of their Senior Sound Supervisors. After lunch we visited the RTE Symphony Orchestra studio in rehearsal and found that the stereo was very off-centre (Eamonn and I agreed on that!), their radio studios had all the latest German equipment but the TV studio was very basic, being used just for News.
Eamonn rushed me back to O’Connell Street in the heart of Dublin, to Madigan’s bar, for a pint or two of Guinness before I had to run to Queen’s Street station for the last train back North! I couldn’t find my ticket and had to vault the barrier to get the train and spent the whole journey in the toilet as it was the only empty space!
Alasdair Lawrance
I once had to fly to Edinburgh from London with an assistant and Sound to do an interview with Peter Maxwell Davies (who died in March 2016).
The hotel we stayed in was doing an evening promotion of Black Velvet, (Guinness + Champagne). This was being dispensed liberally by the promotion staff, mostly young women.
The next day’s (Betacam) tape was nearly all in focus…
Pat Heigham
Did you carry out a ‘black’ balance?
Terry Meadowcroft
That reminds me, when I started work at Bush house (overseas services) as a country boy, down to the smoke…
A certain T.O., Roger Williames, delighted in introducing us wee ones to ‘Poor Man’s Black Velvet’ at lunchtime in the BBC Bar across the road. The effect was staggering to one used to Newcastle Brown (‘dog)!
He also used to enjoy dropping editing razor blades onto a spooling BTR2!
Bad man!
Tony Grant
Pat’s picture of a pint glass reminds me of one of the best purchases I made last year, their new design pint glass. If awards were given for glass design, I’d award the top one to this glass, it just feels so right in the hand, full or empty, or should I say, full to empty.
I got three of them in a shop in Donegal Town for 10 Euros. This year they’re selling at 5 Euros apiece. Now, here every time the price goes up this year. it’s all because of Brexit. But even larger increases are happening in the Republic. What’s their excuse?
Bernie Newnham
I worked for RTE across the time when they changed to the Euro. When I started the taxi from the airport to the hotel was around £10 – very cheap. When I last worked for them a couple of years later after the change it was the equivalent of £30.
In the RTE canteen there was a countdown clock to Euro day. It was only when there was about five days to go that they noticed it was counting down to the wrong date. "That’s very Irish" an Irish person said.
I used to be flown over business class on Aer Lingus till there was a change of government. The new media minister asked RTE how much an episode of “Fair City” (Dublin “EastEnders”) cost. Back, from two different departments came two different amounts. Big clampdown, no more business class.
Pat Heigham
Don’t you just love the Irish sense of lateral logical thinking?
On holiday in Southern Ireland, my friends and I stopped for supper on the way to a B & B which had an address of ‘Halfway House’.
We asked our waiter to direct us to this. He thought for a moment then said: "Sure! If there isn’t a house halfway between here and any other place you care to mention!"
