Pushing All The Wrong Buttons

Many bad things are imposed on us during our brief lives that we reluctantly have to accept. Examples such as taxes, politicians and penalty shoot outs to name just a few. Sadly the same has to be said of music. And it’s mainly down to the death of the Jukebox! Shit mix tapes played in pubs these days have replaced the choices of the consumer (drinkers) of what they want/have to listen to whilst having a pint with their mates. Even worse is the fucking god awful background music some pubs and clubs choose to have. These places sometimes make you feel like your attending a wake rather than a pub! If you don’t believe me, take a trip to The Derby Lodge or The Crofters Arms in Huyton. Take a good book while your at it as well Even worse are the places that choose to have no music what so ever! Take the rather pathetic and extremely tasteless Weather Spoon’s as an example = no atmosphere, shit clientele and utterly shit food! This, in my opinion, is the result of not having any music played. One word = soulless Now, many of my avid readers will know my much-loved ability in the fine art of ranting and some of you may well think I have a certain degree of tongue-in-cheek about my Blog’s, but I can assure you hear that I am deadly serious when it comes to music that is imposed on you. As for the reasons behind these ‘changes’, I firmly believe the main reason Jukeboxes no longer exist (in most pubs) is down to the nation’s obsession with food, the owner’s chance of making money and family-friendly environments. Now don’t get me wrong here, pubs with families in them aren’t completely bad places (apart from the scum bags who spend all day getting pissed while their six year old kids play on the fruit machines), but in most cases it does mean the sacrifice of the music for the sake of the food. That for me makes it more intolerable. If you don’t believe me, I was once told to stop swearing and being generally loud in one of the above mentioned pubs as it might upset the children … it was 9.00pm at the time. Needless to say the member of staff was (politely) told to get fucked (I think my exact words were “is this a pub or a nursery?”) and I’ve not been back their since! But there are the odd exceptions to the rule: superb places like Ye Craic, The Pilgrim, The Fullwood Arms and the legendary Swan all situated in Liverpool possess the finest jukeboxes I’ve ever had the pleasure to spend fifty pence on. I particularly love the rotating jukeboxes with the hand written labels on them that obvious contain a ‘Blag CD’. Superb stuff! Places like this are the exception to the rule and you will usually find they are independently owned by people who enjoy their music more than their profits. They also contain some rather superb characters who love their music and a more of a pleasure to sit with than most snobs and WAG’s who do drink in some of the soulless places I have mentioned above So, in honour of the good souls that choose to have juke boxes in their pub, I offer a toast … “Raise your glasses and shake your arses” Anyone got a quid? Mol