BS: Irn Bru

Subject: BS: Irn Bru
From: Senoufou
Date: 07 Dec 19 - 02:31 PM

My sister up in Scotland has just 'given me the wire' about the latest Irn Bru TV ad 'Irn Bru - The Sequel'.I've watched it on Youtube. It's set to the music from The Snowman and follows on from the first ad in which the Snowman pinched the wee lad's can. He pursues the thief in a small aeroplane, singing, "You greedy snowman thief, I'm coming after yoooou!"
Irn Bru is disgusting, especially since they've changed the taste by removing any sugar. But these two ads are so clever - really funny spoofs.
Anyone else watched it?

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Charmion
Date: 07 Dec 19 - 03:08 PM

Yikes, Eliza, you Brits go in for ferocious fantasy!

Irn-Bru is not a thing here. (Is it a thing anywhere but Scotland?) A local shop that caters to ex-pats and homesick immigrants stocks it, but the Londoner behind the counter denies ever having tasted it. "I'm told it's nasty," he said when I asked.

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Senoufou
Date: 07 Dec 19 - 03:31 PM

It's sold down here in England, in Tescos Charmion. I used to drink it sometimes when I moved to Glasgow from Edinburgh in the Seventies. It was a ghastly lurid orange colour and contained no end of 'secret' ingredients. My sister tells me it's revolting now.
The ads are so funny in that they mimic the voice of the original singer of The Snowman song, and his style.

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Dec 19 - 03:40 PM

It's very good for washing down a deep-fried Mars Bar.

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Dec 19 - 03:45 PM

Boston, Massachusetts has one restaurant/bar,
down in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood I believe,
where the proprietor is Scottish and
much about the cuisine and the bar is Scottish.

He has Irn Bru at the bar, largely because
it is a key ingredient, he has told reporters,
for his homemade hangover remedy;
all I have heard about what is in it
is rumors of a high caffeine content.

Have never tried it.

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Jack Campin
Date: 07 Dec 19 - 04:10 PM

They did a big sales push in California about ten years ago, with what lasting result I know not.

There was a study that linked it to an epidemic of oral Crohn's disease in Glasgow.

Yes it's disgusting.

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Senoufou
Date: 07 Dec 19 - 04:41 PM

I always pronounce it "Earrrrn Brrrrue" because that's how my pupils in Glasgow said it in the Seventies. But English people usually say "Eye-yun brew". Perhaps Gallus Moll or Tattie Bogle will be along to set me right?
I believe it contains a cocktail of additives and flavourings plus 'e numbers' and it's absolutely ghastly.
There will soon be a third ad to complete a Trilogy. Maybe the wee lad follows Santa to Lapland and receives a whole crate of the stuff as a gift?
Oh Steve, I'd give anything for a deep-fried Mars bar just now. I'm trying to lose some weight and have been existing on raw spinach leaves, chicken slices and chopped tomatoes. Sigh.

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Dec 19 - 04:57 PM

I last tried it whilst waiting for the Inverness bus in Callander in 1974. The bus didn't come. It was a bank holiday and the bus didn't run that day, I found out after checking in the post office. The next bus was in a week's time. None of this endeared me to Irn Bru. Thank God for the hitch-hiker's thumb. I found out on that trip that you couldn't get a lift on Sundays. Probably still can't. I could tell you some stories.

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Jack Campin
Date: 07 Dec 19 - 06:05 PM

The usual Glasgow pronunciation is "ginger".

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Senoufou
Date: 07 Dec 19 - 06:18 PM

In Scotland in the late Sixties I much preferred a half of 'sweet stout' or even McEwan's Heavy. I've always liked strong, flavourful beers.

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 07 Dec 19 - 08:05 PM

Ah, that's another song, as in Bill Barclay's "12 Days of Christmas" - "a wee heavy and a half pint". Think it's in the DT, or at least in some thread somewhere on this site.

That was Aled Jones who sang the original "Walking in the Air" song for Snowman: he now regularly presents "Songs of Praise" on Sundays on BBC TV.

Yes, the parody version videos are hilarious. Pronunciation? I think most of my Scots friends would say something like Eye-rrun I don't like it much myself: the only time I drink it is when we go to play for dancing at a primary school for their Burns Supper!

Our nephew in British Columbia thought it was fab: this was 20+ years ago when you could still get Irn Bru concentrate for Sodastream machines, and we took a couple of bottles in our luggage when we visited the family!

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 08 Dec 19 - 02:44 AM

Peter Auty was the singer on the film in 1982 but when they came to record the song for the Christmas market in 1985 his voice had already broken so Aled Jones got the job of recording the single.

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Senoufou
Date: 08 Dec 19 - 04:02 AM

I was interested to notice in the 'sequel' that they'd included the new V&A centre (a weird and unattractive piece of modern architecture in my opinion), the Kelpies, and the Discovery.

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Dec 19 - 06:54 AM

Aled wasn't the original singet, Tattie, but he did release it on record.

Snowman singer finds voice at last

Easy mistake to make!

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 08 Dec 19 - 07:14 AM

They used to say ' Irn Bru, made in Scotland from girders '

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Dec 19 - 09:11 AM

There were several patent medicines in the States which were sold as soft drinks with lots of iron and stuff in them. Some of the stuff was alcohol, lots of caffeine, opium, cocaine, and so on. Most of them were regulated out of existence (and good riddance!) by 1930, but some still survive in much "weakened" states. Good old Geritol was/is one such.

Never tried it, don't know where to get any, don't want to try it. I'm not the Irn Mon type -- I can't hardly cleave a stone with a claymore any more.

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 08 Dec 19 - 08:06 PM

Thanks for the correction, Manitas and DtG: just putting on the Michael Caine voice: "No' a lo' o' people know that"!

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 07:42 PM

Well, I've tried it all now! Tonight we were offered an Irn Bru variant: ginger and spiced Irn Bru! Probably nicer than the original!
An OK substitute for a real drink if you are going to be driving.

Subject: RE: BS: Irn Bru
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 13 Dec 19 - 10:36 AM

Just went To Scotland, Again and heard that (despite the new ads) Coca Cola has just over taken Irn Bru as the most popular soft drink there.