Wednesday 17 February 2010

All the young punks

I was at Leed University in 1976. The release of the first Ramones album that year was a pivotal moment in my life.

Listening to the Ramones turned right up to 11 on the balcony of my student flat in North Hill Court is one of my strongest memories of that year. Maybe it's the guilt. I should have been studying for my first year exams. Or maybe it's the home-brewed iced Mild we were drinking as Blitzkrieg Bop stormed from the speakers. Who knows.

A few months later the Ramones the Ramones played Leeds Poly. A whole bunch of us went along. Me, my brother, Pete, Matt, Tym. We started the evening in the Eldon. A Tetley's pub, like most others in Leeds. Several pints of Tetley Mild got us nicely warmed up for the evenings fun. They might have played just 50 minutes, but they crammed in almost as many songs.

Over the next 10 months I saw most of the punk greats - The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Jam - and culled my record collection. I've never looked back. Never returned to the pretension of progressive rock. And what was the beery accompaniment to all things punk? Mild. Tetley Mild.

Mild: beer for punks.





The arrow marks the spot where the iced Mild was drunk:

13 comments:

Alistair Reece said...

surely you mean super hopped, barrel aged, American imperial mild is for punks?

Ron Pattinson said...

Velky Al, er, no. I thought I'd made my point clearly.

Rod said...

Ron - what on earth is iced Mild? Please don't tell me Mild with ice cubes in it..........

Gary Gillman said...

One cannot mention "Leeds" and "rock" in the breath without making me think of The Who's Live At Leeds, recorded live February 14, 1970 at Leeds Uni refectory, then as now a rock haven. (The 40th anniversary of that recording has just past, unheralded as far as I know). The Ramones and other punk groups were heavily indebted to The Who, so it all ties together.

I saw the Who in 1996 in West London (the big arena in Earl's Court), when they performed Quadrophenia in toto. The beers I associate with that show are pints of Young's Ordinary and Special in a small pub along one of the big streets northerly from Earl's Court tube, a small place with a fireplace, on the east side of the road.

Gary

Ron Pattinson said...

Rod, iced Mild is . . . Mild with ice cubes in it.

It was a boiling hot summer and the beer was sitting in a plastic barrel in the kitchen where the temperature was at least 25 C. A couple of ice cubes got the beer down to a reasonable temperature.

For the homebrewers: it was a full mash dark Mild, from a mild malt base, coloured with chocolate malt, OG about 1040, around 4% ABV. Served from a 5 gallon plastic pressure barrel, the type down-market offies sold dodgy sherry from.

Mike said...

By "punks", I assume you mean the people who did to music what geeks are doing to beer.

Ron Pattinson said...

Mike, revitalising it?

Gary Gillman said...

This was it!

http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub1831.php

The Brittania Tap! Really good Young's beer, we're going back 15 years now but it is still going strong, I remember it like yesterday. I came out the west entrance of Earl's Court tube, found Warwick Road, and then turned north past Cromwell Road, on the right side. Wish I was there now.

Gary

Rob Sterowski said...

Or playing the same three chords faster and louder. I think that analogy works quite well.

Tandleman said...

Still available is Tetetley Mild, in both original and dark forms. The dark one started out in Warrington and was transferred to Leeds when Dallam closed.

Ron Pattinson said...

Barm, you're forgetting the shouting.

Matt said...

It's funny you should write about music and beer, I was just watching a DVD of 'Supershow'. It's an impromptu gig featuring Buddy Guy, Roland Kirk, Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton filmed in a disused linoleum factory in West London in 1969 in front of an audience of spliffed out hippies and other cool types. I'm not sure where exactly but I was thinking the experience would have been complete if Fullers had set up a temporary bar...

Vaughn Stewart said...

Just like drinking/making great beer, punk is a state of mind, not a particular style.