The Blue Flamingo                        
(Ron Baxter/Dick Gillingham)

Kicked out of the "Gas Tank"; banned from the "Bug",
Fleetwood Arms won't have him, nor any other pub;
Staggered down old Dock Street, one more place to go;
So I went into the place that's called the "Blue Flamingo!"

Chorus:-
        Watered beer and whisky; meths if that's your sup;        
        Fag-ash there it's two feet thick, it's never been swept up!
        VP Wine and Sandeman's, served by a bloke called Joe;
        He's the only sober fellow in the "Blue Flamingo!"

The atmosphere is lurid, with smoke and language too;
Some of the ladies' comments 'ud make your hair turn blue;
And if you try to speak to them, they tell you where to go!
(But that is not so bad a place as the "Blue Flamingo!")

Take a look at the women (if that's what they are!);
Tattoos on each hand and arm, and on their faces scars.
A mate of mine tried to pick one up, she gave him the old heave-ho -
She kicked him in the kneecaps in the "Blue Flamingo!"

All the fellas are ugly, always spoiling for a fight;
Not the sort you'd like to meet on a cold and rainy night!
They look at you, growl at you, their fists to you they show;
If my "DAD" don't get you, me "MAM" sure will,in the "Blue Flamingo!"

Sung by Dick Gillingham and Mike Huntington

The "Gas Tank" is the Gas Workers Club, one of many working men's clubs in the town which offered social and sporting opportunities, entertainment facilities and cheap drinking without the normal pub licensing restrictions. The difficulties of running such operations on a co-operative basis has meant that many have transferred to private hands. The "Bug" is the nickname of the "Prince Arthur" pub on Lord Sreet. Another trawlermen's pub which features in several of Ron Baxter's songs is the "Royal Oak" aka "Deadun's". The explanations of that particular alias are many and various. My friend John Warner of Sydney incorporated as many of these as I could remember for him into a song which I will try to track down and include later on. The "Fleetwood Arms" was known as "The First and Last" because of its proximity to the dock gates - after struggling along for the last few years, it finally closed its doors last year and is currently being converted for use as a dentist's practice and training centre. Many other favourite watering holes for trawlermen have disappeared over the years - the "Broadway", the "Cutty Sark", "Gullivers", the "Ship" and the "Victoria" - which claimed to be Fleetwood's oldest pub, although Ron insists in his sometimes role as pub quizmaster that the oldest licence was held by the Fleetwood Arms, transferred fom another Dock Street hostelry. The notorious "Blue Flamingo" club disappeared many years ago, but there are still a couple of places around that seem to be vying for its reputation!

"DAD" and "MAM" in the last line are the letters tattooed on the knuckles of the fists offered in the previous line.

When I moved to Fleetwood thirty years ago it was said that you could find a place to get a drink at almost any hour of the day or night. (Honest, that's not why I came here!)

Ross