1068. Fri 21/05/21: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Nethergate Suffolk County 4.0%

First Friday night down the Bricks since the end of October. Seven months. Bloody Nora.

It’s different down the Brickies since lockdown two but, overall, it does seem a little more relaxed this time round. Not that we’re taking anything for granted – but we do have liberty to order drinks at the bar, and to venture outside if we want to. We won’t want to tonight. May has been terribly inclement.

Whiting bros and AJK are in the pub. Front bar. Table by the barrel, under the Lady Godiva print.

AW has recently bought a badge maker, and is here with his wares. He’s some bespoke designs made up of images provided by SW and AJK – bloody obscure jazz legends et al – showing off their high faluting frames of cultural reference. Thankfully, that’s not obligatory. I stayed away from that message strand without feeling pressed into requesting a badge of… I dunno… Roger Daltrey? Bernie Bresslaw? Jeez Louise… my middle-class status relies on cultural capital, and I’m bereft.

Still, bloody ‘eck, proper beer in a proper pub is going down lovely.

The beer chat is based around plans of releases to mark the 20^th Anniversary of The Knockouts “Cannibal Lounge”. It’s a niche thing – anyone reading this will likely be in the know already – there may be limited numbers of CDs, tapes and badges available.

Steve, sitting next to me, has to put up with my hoary line of “the future of the left” rhetoric. That normally kicks in after four pints – and gives us both opportunity to swear about Boris Johnson and his cronies.

It’s good to be back.

1590. Fri 1/9/23: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Nethergate Suffolk County 4.0%

LUTON TOWN           1-2       WEST HAM UNITED

We woz robbed (we wasn’t).

Back down the pub is packed, but not heaving. Still, having managed to procure pints, we wander outside to find a vacant a-frame table on which to sit.

A small group of lads have their pints perched on our table and are talking, rather too loudly and critically about the clientele of the pub. It is, they rightly establish, a real ale pub and that “this lot” (ie us lot) are CAMRA types. They’re right… I wouldn’t necessarily say we’re the quintessential CAMRA stereotype, but maybe we are these days. Don’t really matter, but the sneering put down at close proximity is a bit of disappointment. You get all sorts here, in this famously quirky pub, and that’s largely appreciated, sometimes even to be celebrated. Blokes here are not, one suggests, regulars… I hope not but, hey, takes all sorts dunnit? Makes you appreciate the regular regulars dunnit?

Crowds thin out, we get a second in, we vaguely lament the start of the season. It is going to be a toughie – and Sky’s obnoxious scheduling is going to f*ck up weekends aplenty.

1376a. Fri 9/9/22: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Nethergate Suffolk County 4.0%

One day on from the Queen’s death. The front bar television is tuned into programmes covering the news, reviews and reactions.

It’s quieter in the back bar. A couple of blokes had been debating which countries Britannia had, at some point, conquered, and whether or not Britain had, at any time, been in a war with Portugal, but they move on before TPK and L8s join me. L8s gives me a copy of Quatermass. Looks brutal.

Soon after we’re settled in, Nick is over. He’s keen to share a board game called Mill, or Meal, and thinks we’ll like it. The instructions are in Romanian. Nick explains them, though as we start playing, Nick leaves on bar duties and we have a few questions unanswered. The chap with the ‘tache thinks he knows some rules, and I’m sure I’ve seen the thing before. Is this Nine Mens’ Morris? Yes; phones suggest it is.

Looks like one of those games it’s easy to pick up, but a lifetime to master. 

After a few games and variations of Meal, Mill or NMM, AP joins us. I tell him about a Canadian horror film which had received a 12 rating on Talking Pictures, but was easily an AA, if not an X. Just as I had last week.

1440a. Fri 6/1/23: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Nethergate Suffolk County 4.0%

A normal Friday night. The pressure and humours associated with the festive period haven’t altogether disappeared, but things are getting back to something like normal.

Just me and TPK out. We’re on a general kind of ‘early in, early-ish out’ pattern these days. Which means we get to mix it with the after work set – it’s a lot busier at 7.30pm than it is at 8.30pm.

TPK’s brought me my Christmas present from SRW. It’s an excellent package, which includes The Rounders’ 1971 Party Songs album. There’s some debate about the clothing, and most particularly, whether or not the lady on the (second) left, is showing cleavage, or whether said cleavage is actually a neckerchief:

You probably need a bigger picture. I’m initially in the neckerfchief camp with AP, but on closer inspection, concede to the cleavage.

TPK and I play chess, then drink beer. At some point, a baffled bloke, who looks a little down on his luck, comes through. Nick guides him to the lav. You don’t seem to get these oddballs drifting into pubs so much these days. Guess it’s just too expensive.

1557a. Fri 26/5/23: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Nethergate Suffolk County 4.0%

Pre-play-off final day pints. It’s hot and busy. Brian and Mark Stein are in, signing the second volume of They Played for David Pleat. Emeka Nwajiobi as well. We all loved Emeka. Built like a blooming outbuilding, now resplendent in colourful African dress, looking cool as a pile of cucumbers.

Andy, Max and Bobby are all in, picking up autographs. But then they’re off again, as Mick’s up from Wales, heading for Todd. Now, look; here’s PtM Fuller and Brooksey. They pick up a ticket for their mate; then they’re off. We’ll see them all tomorrow. There are other people too, from the end of last century; some of TPK’s old muckers’n’mates, no less. It’s like being in the old days, looking forward to a future, looking back at the old days. Or something.

1035. Fri 17/7/20: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Slaters Premium 4.4%, Nethergate Suffolk County 4.0%

First time, since lockdown, in the Brickies garden. They’ve made a good job of it too. It used to be an extended, rather desolate, carpark with a couple of ramshackle garages/out houses at the back. It’s all been gravelled over now, and a decent amount of new garden furniture added.

AJK in before me, and he’s secured one of the wooden A-frame benches.

It’s a very pleasant and nicely balmy summers evening. The Slaters Premium only lasts for one round, which is a shame ‘cause it was quite good.

The garden is nicely populated, with plenty of folk with plenty of room. It’s pretty near empty in the pub though. People don’t seem to be flooding back to boozers since lockdown. That seems sensible. I work in the office of a huge great (but not necessarily/fundamentally evil… yet) pubco – this is the end of furlough week XVI. It’s nice to be back down the pub myself – but I’m not necessarily brimming with job security right now.

The smells from the takeaway shops, just down the round toward the station, waft over. The curries smell lovely, the deep-fried chicken vats somewhat less so.

Also in the air, climbing above the multi-storey carpark, we see a decent number of Wizz aeroplanes back in service. No easyJets.

1080a. Wed 16/6/21: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Nethergate Suffolk County 4.0%

I decide to get out of home(work) early, and in time for a pint ofrtwo at The Bricks, before going on to meet my friend P at Radlett. An excellent idea and the perfect opportunity to get some pub reading in.

Wales FC are on telly and winning against the Turks. I trundle off to the back bar, determined to polish off my Le Carré and get back, properly, into reading. The noise from the front bar is a reassuring burble, loud enough at one point for me to establish that G Bale’s skied a pen. Oh well – the Dragons are still winning by the time I leave to catch the train.

1183a. Fri 19/11/21: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Nethergate Suffolk County 4.0%

Luton Town on the telly, away to Queens Park Rangers. The thinking why this is a grudge match for both sets of supporters round these parts revolves around the similar size and status of both clubs. I’m no fan of the Hoops, though this is mainly because we never seem to beat them.

Today’s no exception. We don’t really have a great record on live telly. After ten minutes of looking decent, our recently dependable goalkeeper, Simon Sluga (pronounced ‘See-mon Slooo gah’) has a rush of blood and gets lobbed from a breakaway. Chris from the Black Horse (no longer at Black Horse) joins us for the second half. He’s talking about leaving the country for some family business.

After ninety minutes of looking decent, the Town lose 2-0. The recently dependable defence let some old lag have a free header from a corner, early in the second half, and we don’t really look like scoring.

1110a. Thu 26/8/21: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Nethergate Suffolk County 4.0%

A sneaky reading pint while Anj is off to some gig or other. It’s pretty busy and too lively to read indoors, so I head out to the garden.

I’m alone. Just me and a bike. Oh, and another bloke. My bat senses suggest this bloke’s a bit of a maverick and not conducive to my mission. I bury my head in my book. The other bloke’s coughing like a good ‘un and is up and down and shuffling around, this way and that. Surely he’s a nutcase….

But still, he doesn’t bother me. Nor do the noise of the air conditioning or the cars outside. As a consequence, I get a decent amount read. I even feel kindly towards the bloke for leaving me alone. Should have known; when I get up and pass him by, he’s reading a book of his own.

1111a. Fri 27/8/21: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Nethergate Suffolk County 4.0%

Back to the Bricks after tasting the latest Lutonian vision of the ‘high life’ at the Leaside Hotel. TPK’s waiting for me and SRW.

We chat about that, then a little about the next issue of Clod Magazine. After SRW departs, I produce a magnetic wallet size chess set. TPK produces a sturdy, more three-dimensional set. He wins this contest, though in a sense, we both lose. Beer has led to a chaotic game and left a pattern of chess pieces that look haphazard, like a lab spider on hallucinogens.