The fact that this endearing thread has been resurrected serves to remind me that I never did get round to posting any "Gilroyisms" as I promised to do so. Originally "Gilroyisms" were slips of the tongue usually committed while running the night in a state of excitement and, no doubt, excess. Those that come to mind are the nights that he introduced such singers as Martin McCarthy, Nivel Denger, Ian Anderson (the guest was actually Mike Cooper) or announcing that the pub was also selling sandwiches and that they would be on stale at the bar (maybe not a slip after all).
Later they came to encapsulate some of his retorts such as the night we were invited to a party thrown by Derek Proctor who was undertaking a year's sabbatical at Durham University and was renting a house just outside the city. We were meeting in the famous Colpits pub in Durham and mingled with the students who inhabited the hostelry. Asking one young lady what she was doing at the University she replied that she was taking her PHD. "Got mine years ago" said Bob. "Your PHD?" she questioned "Yes; Plumbing, Heating and Domestic"
Or the time he took to the stage at South Tyne Folk and Blues to run the night opening with his customary "Good Evening" at the very moment a regular, an overbearing Southerner, entered the room and piped up in best Cockney accent "What's good about it?" quick as flash Bob retorted "Well since you walked in – nowt"
Then there was the occasion when I was running a packed night at the same venue and rushing around to fit singers in for the second half and frantically seeking one particular person I entered the little foyer just outside the club room to encounter Bob quite nonchalantly standing there…..wearing a papier mache pig's nose