44.
It's a Mystery, the Toyah Willcox
concert pub crawl,
Richard Bradshaw and I decided that it
would be a splendid idea to go and see the legend Toyah
Willcox in concert in
After escaping from there, and a quick
Oxford Tube ride later, I met Richard Bradshaw in the Argyll Arms near Oxford
Circus which was absolutely heaving and was very pokey, especially as a buxom
girl was standing in the corridor blocking the proceedings. The rest of the
rooms were quite small, keeping the old Victorian subdivided pub feel, although
the back room was a bit bigger. However, there was some good beer, Bass and
London Pride, and it was reasonably priced (for London) and quite well kept. I
did not venture to the toilets but was informed that they were up three flights
of stairs. After some solids, we made our way to Ben Crouch's Tavern, a branch
of the Eerie Pub Company. Much better in there, room to move
being a key point, so that one could admire the Halloween-esque
sort of decor that they had in there. The toilets were also most novel
and eerie screams were played as the toilet door was opened. The only beer was
London Pride and it wasn't wonderful.
The next pub was one that we had
deliberately made an effort to visit, the Intrepid Fox on the fringes of the
Our last stop before the gig was the
interesting bar of Garlic and Shots which is unsurprisingly a garlic
restaurant. Our mission was to get beer but all we could find was Ambra Spanish beer in bottles although allegedly there was
some draught beer and some bottled garlic beer.
However we did only try the basement with a very dozy/spaced rocker behind the
bar, so maybe there was some. We sat in a covered yard and listened to the
jukebox which had the Best of Sweet playing. The toilets are awful, and there
is grafitti all over the gents, including 'Bristol
City - Danny Wilson's red and white army' on the condom machine although I
could only think of Mary's Prayer for some reason. Despite these rather
negative points though, it is still worth a visit, just for the atmosphere (har har, no pun intended) and the
cuisine.
Now it was time to go to Toyah!! The Mean Fiddler is a bit of a shithole
of a venue, with very expensive cans of Red Stripe, no seats and all black
paint, and a Swastika drawn in the gents' above the far right urinal. However,
it does its job very well, and you can get very close to the performers. Toyah was magnificent and during the 90 minute set did all
the greats - 'It's a Mystery', 'Thunder in the Mountains', and
finished with an encore of 'I want to be Free'. I don't care what anyone
says, she is the most diversely talented artiste in the world. And well against
the form book; after all, how many short lisping Brummies
make it onto Pop Idol? Obviously an exceptional
talent. So there we are, marvellous, and well
worth buying her latest album too. Out of interest, the backing group was
partly composed of previous members of Kajagoogoo
(not Limahl though).
Back to the main business at hand, and a
quick scoop in the Pillars of Hercules. At last the first excellent beer of the
evening and beer choices were - London Pride, JW Lees Razzamatazz, Hogs Back
TEA, Rebellion Red and the one I picked, Oakham's JHB
which was a fantastic drop of straw coloured ale,
perfect for summer. Our only complaint was that the pub was quite restricted in
room inside and the toilets were in the cellar, I think. Moving swiftly on we
came to the Carlisle Arms which was not very memorable, although they probably
had three real ales on, perhaps Bass and Adnams were
amongst the selection? Oh, and the prices were in halves on the wall. Although
not memorable, there can't have been much wrong with this place.
The Dog and Duck a short
distance away, and is an absolutely miniscule pub with the look of a
traditional over-decorated London boozer, but is quite pleasant inside. Adnams and Bass were on in here, but I had Timothy Taylor
Landlord, which, as Madonna would agree with, is the best mainstream pint in
the country if done properly, and is a very good measure of how well a pub
keeps its beer. Fortunately this one was kept very well, as we were noting
whilst also noting a ‘Lady in Red’ drinking cider in a table about
2 yards away yet on the other side of the pub – almost ‘cheek to
cheek’.
We had tried to get into Nellie Dean's at
10.55 but the tight fuckers had already rung time which was well out of order,
so we had to go to the Bath House where I have already been this year. It was
still a reasonable if rather plain pub, and we were being served as time was
being called. The beer range is actually quite good and although they only do
London Pride as a bitter, they do also have Staropramen
and Hoegaarden. Extra marks were awarded at a late
stage as the bar man was quite chatty.
Final resting spot was Sevilla
Mia, an underground Spanish bar that had the look of a toilet. However, because
it was serving late, this was a good thing, even though it was only bottles of
San Miguel and Ambra. A courteous barmaid dished out
the expensive ales, and olives for those interested in that sort of thing.
Decor wasn't anything special although there were a few scattered Spain themed
posters on the walls. Anyway, an excellent place for late
beers. We had a couple but then Rich had to get the last tube whilst I
could have stayed all night, but elected instead to get the Oxford Tube and get
in at a reasonable time in order to be fit for the Geolsoc
football match and post match crawl.
Dan
Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com
Last updated 18th October 2003.