"My grandparents used to take me to the Sandford Arms across the road from their house in Leeds on a Saturday afternoon to play the jukebox and since I remember records like Boney M's Rivers of Babylon this must mean I was about four. My other grandparents, meanwhile, actually ran a pub in the city centre. Their days usually started with my grandad, who did not have the bonhomie of a natural landlord, groaning to my grandmother: You open up, Kath, I can't face it!"
"Soon, the Faversham had a dramatic makeover. Out went the flock wallpaper, crepuscular lighting and cider-and-black, the goth tipple of choice. In came a soundtrack of thumping house music, video screens showing fractal patterns, projections of lava lamp bubbles, and bottles of K Cider. Rave culture had hit Leeds, and my friends and I plunged in enthusiastically. One minute we were staring at our Dr Martens while listening to Curve and Chapterhouse;"
Personal experiences are anchored to pubs attended from early childhood through university years. Grandparents took the narrator to the Sandford Arms at around age four, and other grandparents ran a city-centre pub whose daily routine began with the grandad's reluctance to open. Teenage work in a tap room exposed the narrator to male-dominated local pub culture. University social life centered on the Faversham, which transitioned from a goth haunt with flock wallpaper and cider-and-black to a rave venue with thumping house music, video projections, K Cider bottles and students dancing in Global Hypercolor T-Shirts.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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