queen 3

It’s a Friday night. We’re sitting on the floor in the public bar. This is back in the days when you had to go outside to get from one bar to the other; when you had to go outside and round the corner to go the gents; when the pub still had a boules court, before it was converted into a carpark; before beer reached a pound a pint. When the juke box still played.

The juke box is playing anything from: Another Girl Another Planet; Steve McQueen; Police and Thieves; Baby Jane; and many more. We know our favourites. For 50p you get 8 plays. Our songs are stacked up.

We’re sitting on the wooden floor, next to the fire. The bar is packed. Every seat is taken. Nowhere else lets us sit on the floor, but nowhere else is like The Queen. Everything’s going swimmingly. Then Ruth knocks her pint over and it goes even more swimmingly.