Recently I and some friends had the opportunity to go to a band night at a local venue. It was a cool place and had been open for many many years. We went to the gig and afterwards, I had a fair old chuckle comparing the last time we were there, in the distant past, to the night we had just had.
Let me take you back to when Dinosaurs roamed the land... Oops, no. Not quite that far.
It was fifteen years ago. I and a group of friends were going to the local bar to see a band. It was a metal band, we were dressed for the occasion. Long hair and leather biker jackets. There were four of us, a mini posse. One of us, Mr C, suggested we drink a few drinks in the house before we headed out.
To a man we scoffed. Drink in the house? Are you nuts? Let's go out where the action is! Yeah! In those days only old people drank in the house.
There was much devil horn sign making with the hands and shouts of Awooo, Awooo!!
Perhaps we fancied ourselves as part wolf.
We arrived at the gig. Being a gaggle of young men we hurriedly threw pints of beer down our necks whilst shouting viking cries at each other. The pints were served in plastic pint glasses. The floor, even at the beginning of the night was festooned with empties, crunching underfoot. The air above was thick with dry ice, shouting and cigarette smoke. This was the start of the new millennium before any cigarette bans and naturally, it seemed like everyone smoked.
The music was loud and occasionally at particularly energetic parts of the gig people threw their beer in those plastic cups over the crowd. Several times myself and my friends were soaked in it. Even when it extinguished our cigarettes it did not dampen our mood.
The night was spent dancing, drinking, shouting and smoking. Only one of our merry band did not smoke. That was Mr C. He was roundly ridiculed at every opportunity.
Have a cigarette!
Was shouted with monotonous regularity..
He huffed and puffed about the smell clinging to his clothes despite the fact that every five minutes we were being drenched by yet another pint of 'cleansing' beer that had been enthusiastically launched into the air.
Eventually, the night came to an end. We all made ready to leave. Mr C had been kissing a girl, we were going to leave without him but as we headed out he came running after us shouting rather rudely,
Wait up guys, I'm coming. She tastes like an ashtray!
The same group of friends had gathered together. None of us had long hair. We were going out that night. By now we were all in our early forties. The same venue was having a live band night and we thought we would re-live some of our youth and head down for some drinks and some fun.
We started a whatsapp group.
I suggested maybe catching a bite to eat before going.
Great idea!
Said my mate Stu. He then went on to suggest that we come around to his place and he could supply the food and some pre-going out drinks to save some money. He also said he could drive us on account of having to get up to work early in the morning.
Splendid.
We all responded. We met up at his house a couple of hours before the night of "madness." We had a couple of beers and some snack food before heading to the venue. It was very civilised.
As we arrived at the venue, Mr C said he would catch us up in a minute and went off to stand forlornly in the cold with the other smokers outside. None of us smoked anymore so we all went in shaking our heads at his habit.
It was busy already. We all headed to the bar to get some drinks. Apart from Stu that is, being the designated driver.
I was handed my drink and made a face at the plastic cup it came in.
Damn man, beer tastes rubbish in these things.
We all nodded solemnly and agreed that beer should never be served in a plastic container.
At that point Mr C came in from his cigarette smoking antics outside.
Ugh, you stink man!
Arrgh smoky Mr C, can't believe you smoke, no one smokes now?!
Mr C, shrugged it off. He had bizarrely started smoking when most of us had stopped. The smell of it wafted off him in big obvious waves. Fortunately for him the music started and we turned out attention from him and to the stage.
It was a popular band and people were jumping about and shouting. In less than five minutes the first pint of beer had been thrown and some of it arced over our little group.
We made disapproving humphing noises and moved nearer the back of the area away from the beer throwing wildness of the front. We still got regularly splashed though.
Mr C regularly disappeared to go outside and smoke.
Despite the regular beer soakings and stinky Mr C, the night was fun. Eventually however, it drew to a close. We started gathering our stuff and made our way to the door. As we did we looked behind us. Mr C appeared to be making moves on a girl. She recoiled when he leaned in for a kiss and rather drunkenly shouted something about him
Stinking of cigarettes!
We had a good old laugh and headed off into the night.
Everything changes, I thought and yet nothing changes.
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So tell me. Have you gone somewhere recently that you have not been to since you were a slip of a lad or lassie? Do you remember when it was perfectly acceptable to smoke like a chimney indoors and no-one batted an eyelid? And of course, how acceptable do you find the beer throwing at gigs? I used to think it was great, now I think it's awful!
Give us your best tales of then and now in the comments. I will be there to listen!
All pictures created by me.
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