BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!

Subject: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Alan Day
Date: 03 Oct 10 - 06:10 PM

Oh those were the days.
A pint of Red Barrel please and a 7 pint can take away.
It's all got a bit quiet around here.
Lets liven the place up and have a party !!
Who can remember those cans exploding when you stuck a can opener in them and spraying the ceiling with beer.
You may not have liked the stuff but we did have a lot of fun
Al

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Oct 10 - 06:58 PM

Can opener? Luxury! We had to go into my mate's dad's garage to find a bloody screwdriver to bash a hole (two holes were better) into the tin. Those seven-pint party cans were a miracle of nature. When you eventually managed to make a hole in it you got sprayed with "beer" (note the quotes), it was that lively. But pour some into a glass (or teacup if you were desperate) and it was immediately as flat as a w*tch's t*t. Amaxzing.

Anothger thiong about Red Barrel and its eq

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Oct 10 - 07:08 PM

Hey, I got cut off! Here's my post again in its entirety.

Can opener? Luxury! We had to go into my mate's dad's garage to find a bloody screwdriver to bash a hole (two holes were better) into the tin. Those seven-pint party cans were a miracle of nature. When you eventually managed to make a hole in it you got sprayed with "beer" (note the quotes), it was that lively. But pour some into a glass (or teacup if you were desperate) and it was immediately as flat as a w*tch's t*t. Amazing.

Another thing about Red Barrel (and its equally-repugnant partners-in-crime such as Watney's Special and Tartan Keg) was that you could drink eight pints and feel horribly bloated yet peculiarly unpissed. Very odd.

But who cares. I associate such memories with those necking sessions with slightly dodgy but suitably randy girls from the secondary mod in your mate's bedroom...it was only the fact that the last bus home from Bolton was at half ten that got in the way of, er, something possibly capable of long-term damage. Happy days, and what's a spot of NSU between friends!

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Alan Day
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 03:59 AM

I remember those parties Steve, taking a girl back to her home in Brighton from Crawley. She had just drained all the glasses and I feared that she would fall off the back of my Vespa scooter.
She fell into the door into her Mothers arms and her Mum apologised to me.
Who was the idiot who suggested going for a swim in the sea at Brighton beach at four in the morning.
Al

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 04:15 AM

One of the good things about being a Boy Scout was that we usually had marlin spikes (you know - the things for taking scouts out of horses' hooves) which were ideal for opening beer cans. A lot better than the "tin openers" on our jack-knives which were more likely to destroy can and contents before opening them.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 05:06 AM

Shudder!

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 05:56 AM

Never mind shudder! We 'ad next to nowt but we knew 'ow to 'ave FUN!

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 07:04 AM

Yes I remember those Red Barrel parties - together with the cheap vodka and lime cordial for the girls. We thought we were so sophisticated and the vodka could not be detected on our breath. I wouldn't want to go through that agony again for all the tea in China!

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 07:20 AM

Remember the jingle to the tune of "Come landlord fill the flowing bowl"?

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Alan Day
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 08:23 AM

When you think of all the advertising stuff associated with Red Barrel
Beer mats,Pub windows etc.
Ralphie tells me he had a Red Barrel mug. Have you still got yours Richard ?
Al

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 09:17 AM

My boyfriend at the time did this little party piece with a beer mat flipping it and catching it on the glass or something. Oh what exciting lives we led back then!

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: bubblyrat
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 10:34 AM

I had a "Red Barrel" key-ring (still got it somewhere,I think). Plus, in the Royal Navy, we all had "can spanners" ; these were openers designed specially to cope with the canned beers / lagers of the 1960s, ie before aluminium ring-pulls. There were invariably one or two "can spanners" in every case of "Tiger" or "San Miguel",of which we supped a lot in the Far East. I vividly remember drinking "Red Barrel" in Gibraltar, after months of being in Capetown,Aden,Hong Kong ,Fremantle & Singapore, (all , happily,Red Barrel- Free Zones,) and being VERY sick & getting a TERRIBLE headache ; Red Barrel ?? Yeucch !!!

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Arnie
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 11:47 AM

Wasn't there a Watneys Party Seven thread a bit earlier this year? I recall writing something on there about the trials of getting the can open with a screwdriver. Anyway, Patsy mentions that her boyfriend could flip a beermat. The game was to flip a whole stack of beermats and catch them in mid-air once they'd completed one somersault. I used to be able to catch about a dozen of them at a time, but only after a few pints. Oh the fun we had in those days!! Now does anyone still play shove ha'penny or the original bar billiards?

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 11:52 AM

Watney's wee! Nectar ... or possibly not ...

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Alan Day
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 01:03 PM

Many of us drank Red Barrel because we did not know that the alternative real ale was available. Be honest the drink before that was lager and lime now that was yuk.
I should have known better I went to school and worked near to Youngs Brewery at Wandsworth and regularly saw the lovely teams of Black horses that delivered their beer around London. The girls that used to work there met in a cafe on the corner of Garratt Lane SW18 ,some characters there.
Al

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 01:08 PM

Red barrel - took you straight from sobriety to hangover without the tedious intoxication in between.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 01:41 PM

Red barrel was disgusting stuff which has fortunately passed into history. But there are still beer manufcaturers (I hestitate to call them brewers) who market been in oversized cans - for examples see here.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 01:42 PM

Red barrel was disgusting stuff which has fortunately passed into history. But there are still beer manufcaturers (I hestitate to call them brewers) who market beer in oversized cans - for examples see here.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 01:43 PM

Red Barrel yuck Red Barrel That was for southern ponces LOL :-)

This was our drink in Birmingham

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiHIUzdSp_0

or this

Mitchells and butlers Brew XI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchells_&_Butlers

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 01:56 PM

Well I spent a year at college in Dudley and I thought Banks's bitter and Holden's Golden were brilliant. That was early 70s. Can you still get 'em? At least the bar at the then Dudley College of Ed had Newcastle Exhibition, which was an agreeable brew I seem to recall and it was 13p a pint. I don't know why I'm telling anyone this.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Paul Burke
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 04:14 PM

We knew a Party 7 that was taken from one party to another (you had to take something), and passed on by its new reluctant owner for about a year, until someone threw it to the bottom of their garden. It remained there for two years, then was rediscovered, and taken rusty to yet another party...


where someone DRANK it.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 04:17 PM

There you go Steve

http://www.marstons.co.uk/brands/bankss.asp

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 05:21 PM

I hope it's as good now as I remember it then. But then I may have evolved.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 05:31 PM

Did you ever manage to get a pint of bank's bitter here Steve.

http://www.thecrooked-house.co.uk/page14.htm

I have been there several times, and I felt pissed without drinking.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 05:32 PM

While we're at it, why not bring back the filthy white wine called Hirondelle which teenagers used in fruit cups at parties in the late 1960s? It had powerful notes of sodium metabisulphate with a lingering suggestion of witch hazel. There was an equally horrible red called Corrida used for the same purpose.

Does anyone remember a mercifully short-lived beverage produced by Watneys called Biarritz? It achieved the brief distinction of being mentioned in a parody of 'I'm the Urban Spaceman' : 'I'm the Watneys W***er'.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 05:51 PM

I remember having Black and Tans in Birmingham.

It comprised of a Mackeson http://www.bakersandlarners.co.uk/mackeson-stout-275ml-bottle-p-5068.html and Guinness. By god was it powerful after a few of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Alan Day
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 06:36 PM

And the yearly Beaujolais Run
It was more suitable to use as a vinegar alternative than to drink.
Now that was dreadful.
Al

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 07:00 PM

Aargh... I remember the Watney's Party 7 that got transferred from party to party without anyone actually opening the can. And also (thanks Valmai) the Hirondelle... and (preceding that) Corrida....

Kitty

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 07:10 PM

"While we're at it, why not bring back the filthy white wine called Hirondelle which teenagers used in fruit cups at parties in the late 1960s? It had powerful notes of sodium metabisulphate with a lingering suggestion of witch hazel. There was an equally horrible red called Corrida used for the same purpose.

Does anyone remember a mercifully short-lived beverage produced by Watneys called Biarritz? It achieved the brief distinction of being mentioned in a parody of 'I'm the Urban Spaceman' : 'I'm the Watneys W***er'.

Valmai (Lewes)"

Begod, Valmai, it could have been me writing that! Remember all those ads in the papers, featuring some highly-improbable sketches such as pigs flying, which had at the bottom: "It's as unlikely as a duff bottle of Hirondelle?" I was incredibly poorly the night before my wedding in 1976 with the most horrendous cold in the head, but I managed to imbibe a whole litre bottle of sweet white Hirondelle that evening. Somewhere there's a long-lost photo of me wearing nothing above the waist except for my wedding tie and I'm swigging the Hirondelle straight from the bloody bottle. Corrida was the cheapest red you could get in those days. I remember that drinking it just made you feel very miserable (you didn't want to but you had to if you know what I mean), and your gut wasn't right for days afterwards and it seemed to give you a chesty cough to boot. There was this Corrida night in a student flat in Lewisham...arrgh...
And Bierritz (I think that was the spelling) - "cool, long and deceptively strong" - was a frequent resort in those pubs that didn't have decent ale. It was oddly drinkable yet at the same time quite disgusting. I'm ashamed to think that I once used to actually drink the stuff...

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 05:15 AM

But then there was the clearing up afterwards rushing around making sure everything looked normal before the parents got back.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 05:39 AM

Nowadays, they don't care, they just trash the house and leave the parents to sort it.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 06:10 AM

I've just found an Internet reference to Biarritz. Its main virtue was that it had a predictable rhyme, as in,

'I'm the Watneys W****r, baby, I drink Biarritz,
It - gives - me - the - s***s'.

The poignant ditty ended:

'I'm the Watneys W****r, baby, here comes the twist,
I - don't - get - p****d'.

How about the slogan for Younger's Tartan: 'Worth passing a few pubs for'? Damn right it was. There was also Whitbread Tankard, which lent itself to being Spoonerised.Thank goodness I can now wallow in Harveys Best Bitter. Some things do get better as we get older.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 06:15 AM

Possibly all these things should be made available from Past Times, together with hard lavatory paper (which would see the renaissance of paper and comb as a musical instrument).

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 06:17 AM

It was spelled Bierritz. Ah yes, Titbread. Heheh. And Grotney's. These days I'm a regular attendee,along with a few other "men and women on the Clapham omnibus" at Sharp's brewery, near Rock, to sample all the latest batches of Doom Bar with the head brewer. At our session pub we get free beer for playing and they have Doom Bar. My life isn't entirely a vale of tears.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 06:22 AM

Heheh. You can still buy Izal I think, though I can't imagine 'em shifting much of it these days. When I worked in a school in London I remember lockable toilet roll holders and the cheapest, nastiest non-absorbent paper with "Property of LCC" printed on every sheet!

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 06:24 AM

Thanks for the spelling correction, Steve, I've checked again you're quite right. Thanks as well for the wonderful vision of your bottle-and-tie-photo.

Yes, Doom Bar is a very decent drop.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 06:29 AM

I think they wanted it to sound sophisticatedly continental, with the element "bier" telling you it was actually booze of some exotic nature and "ritz" sounding very "society." The whole adding up to a flashy French resort. The name on the label was a thousand times cleverer than the stuff in the bottle!

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Arnie
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 07:31 AM

My drinks of choice at Bradford Uni bar in the '70's were Black Velvet, which was Guinness and Cider (couldn't afford champers) and Newcastle Brown. Certainly did the trick and not too expensive. I have vague memories of irate taxi drivers refusing to let me get in their cab.......

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 08:01 AM

Izal had a lovely medicated smell medicated and made the bathroom smell all clinical, it made good tracing paper too.

Other than beer or cider my tipple was Babycham which was embarrasing to ask for because of it being so girly but if I had been in a rush to get out the cherry on the stick would take away some of the hunger pangs.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 08:07 AM

The most economical way of getting pissed was to order "light and bitters." you always got at least 3/4 pint of bitter in your glass then a half-pint bottle of pale ale to top it up. It was utter crap but we were poor... The only time this didn't work was if you went into one of those pubs which had gizmos for dispensing exact pints or halves from those disgusting kegs!

"the cherry on the stick would take away some of the hunger pangs."

Aye, we 'ad it tough!

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 08:13 AM

I remember in the 60's, they did a pub out as a bier kellar, just 10 minutes walk from me in Birmingham.
It was called The Drakes Drum in Great Barr.
It was incredible. Staggered home from there a few times, I can tell you.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 08:41 AM

There was a terrible pub in Dudley called The Gypsy's Tent in the early 70s (apologies to the establishment if it's still there and been done up!). They sold a pint of rough cider that looked like it had cheesy bits floating on top. It wasn't particularly good for you.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 08:45 AM

I think it was actually spelled "Gipsies Tent" (following a quick google). I think it's gone.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 10:30 AM

Pony with a kick in it, I am not even going to go there. I was warned!

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 11:09 AM

Quote from Stev
They sold a pint of rough cider that looked like it had cheesy bits floating on top. It wasn't particularly good for you.


Oh that's the pub that had it on tap, direct from the gents toilet :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 12:07 PM

I remember Younger's Tartan when it first appeared in Sandy Bell's. Originally we had the three founts - Light, Heavy and Special. Then the Special Fount was removed and replaced with this shiny new thing that said Younger's Special on it. A few months later the word "Tartan" appeared in small letters, which slowly became bigger over time as the "Special" got smaller. The founts have gone from Bell's now and been replaced by hand pumps, so if you want Scottish real ale tasting as it should you have to go to the Royal Oak (Deuchar's IPA and a guest).

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: GUEST,Woodsie
Date: 09 Oct 10 - 07:30 AM

Courage brewery produced their own 7 pint can "Jackpot Bitter" which believe it or not was "real ale" and could not be kept very long (12 week sell by date) as it would explode = the seams of the can were designed to give so that you just ended up with a spray rather than a huge bang! Not bad stuff I think they stopped producing it in the late 70s or so.

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Oct 10 - 12:46 PM

I thought this was going to be like that Nelson joke, Bring Back Brown Trousers!

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: akenaton
Date: 09 Oct 10 - 01:45 PM

"Wot we want is Watney's....Watney's draught Red Barrel" was the ad I remember.

About the same time, a film crew visited our little village which was a centre for timber felling and extraction.

They did a nationionwide TV advert for United Caledonian Breweries "Piper Export",featuring locals felling and extracting timber.

The catchphrase was, "Piper export....for the strong men of Strachur!"

Subject: RE: BS: Bring back Red Barrel !!
From: Leadfingers
Date: 09 Oct 10 - 02:29 PM

Interesting Fact !! Watneys Red Barrel in USA Actually tasted like BEER !! Not very strong , but tasted OK ,not like the foul stuff I tried when I came home in 74 !!