After the wonderful reception at the House of Parliament, we knew we had our day cut out. Arrangements had been made with Chris Gill one our Co-ALE-ition brewers and Derrill Carr, the brains exraordinaire behind the whole project, to visit three J. D.Wetherspoon outlets in London.
The first being ‘The Rochester Castle’ in Stoke Newington, Knigel Knapp led the way cause it was his local, he knew where to go. So we hot footed it down tube stations, on buses and finally got there at 4 o’clock, where they had ‘Monsters in the Dark’ and ‘Hope and Glory’ on hand pump, we were treated by Angela the landlady to sample our own beer, which of course we accepted! We also met some of the North London Loony contingent, notably ‘Stanley Bad’ who plays guitar, and will be joining the ‘Big Fibbers’ at our conference in Wales later this the year!
Then we made our way back into Central London to a Wetherspoon flagship outlet called ‘The Crosse Keys’ they also had ‘Monsters’ and ‘Hope’ on, the bar staff were impeccable, and very pleased to see us, invited us behind the bar for photo’s, under instruction from the management, “don’t you dare miss this opportunity” was the order of the day. It was also very pleasing to see their Electric Tariff board with both our Co-ALE-ition brews, sticking out like a thirsty tongue!
Off we went again, by underground train, to Tower Bridge, after a leisurely stroll across the bridge, on a nice hot day, we were only too pleased to finally come upon our third stop ‘The Pommelers Rest’, actually in Bermondsey, which of course was the place in history where the Official Monster Raving Loony Party first stood under that name in 1983, our illustrious leader ‘Screaming Lord Sutch’ was the first ever candidate, he was well remembered! Once again we were welcomed with open arms, like long lost friends, it had been advertised that we would be there, I don’t know if the beer, once again ‘Monsters’ and ‘Hope’ tasted better, or if it was that we were just thirstier, but once again thanks to the management (we weren’t left short)!
We would also like to thank Henry, Portia and Rob, from Deuce Films, for following us around and showing an interest in putting a Loony Party documentary together, they haven’t finished yet, they will be at the conference .
All in all a wonderful time was had by all, Leon Slater, Steve and Joy Lawson, Loony Party sympathisers, who have been to all the Brewery Launches, were invited to be our honoured guests for the day, thanking them for their support!
There was just one down side to the day, Derrill Carr,who had worked so hard on our behalf, arranging and co-ordinating, was unable to be with us, he was so looking forward to it, but went down with a serious bout of flu.
Happily to report that he seems to be OK now, but such a shame, we missed him!
Howling ‘Laud’ Hope
Party Leader.