When there was smoke!

Posted by Ray on March 6, 2008 9:15 AM | Permalink

I remember the great atmosphere you used to get when going into a pub. The clash of glasses knocking together, the chatter, the smoke, the ambience. What did I say there? The smoke. Of course we've taken that out of the equation with the no smoking rule.

Now let me say straight away that I don't smoke and never have. But I certainly don't think I have the right to tell others not to. I can always move away if I want to.

But what surprises me is the comments of people who previously called for the ban.

Over the past few months I have heard many people say that when they go into a pub now they don't get to experience that great atmosphere that they once felt.

In fact, they say, because the smoke is missing, all they get now is the horrible smell of BO. Well, BO might not kill you, but it certainly kills the atmosphere.

Also, when you see large groups of people standing outside the pub, say on the main street, it can be slightly intimidating for young girls or ladies in general who have to pass by - especially when the group is all men who have had a few pints.

Just a thought - but I wonder what spoilers will move onto next?

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Comments (6)

John Bage wrote...

My friends and I welcome the smoking ban.
We go to several clubs where there is dancing and there used to be maybe one smoker in about 50 people. The smoke (might I remind you that it is highly toxic) was a major irritation. Several of the dancers had heart conditions and the smoke would not be doing them any favours! I am an ex-smoker (20 to 30 a day) and have lost several close friends who were in their late fifties, to lung cancer.
The clubs do have a different, unpleasant smell now but that could be rectified by the owners if they put their minds to it.
I would prefer it if everyone packed in smoking, not for my sake, but for their own well-being so that they don't end-up with terminal illness when they should still be enjoying their life.

Posted by: John Bage | March 7, 2008 12:42 PM

sol wrote...

It does seem strange that since the smoking ban attitudes have changed. As you point out people complain about other odours they object to. Most surprising to me was when a young couple had been to a night club and on returning complained about the smell of urine coming from the toilets. Presumably they hadn't noticed it before.
John above writes:"The smoke (might I remind you that it is highly toxic)", I just wonder if second-hand smoke - which I presume he is referring to - is any more toxic than the atmospheric air we breath 24hr a day? But I agree. Smoking doesn't do the individual any good.

Posted by: sol | March 14, 2008 2:25 PM

Alec Cowan wrote...

Ray - You will kill me for this. Instead of smoking can I offer the other nostalgia of: Cold chips after hours in your aunty's fish shop in Gateshead. (Joblings, on Sunderland Road).
Crab football on the black and white tiles at said chippy.
I might have been the lad who brought the news of Munich when we played doors with Duggy Watson, Mossy, Jimmy Charles and others. cos I was a paper lad.
Duffies on the bankies.
Ray, I am now an exile in Fleetwood, Lancashire, subject to terrible tortures for my beliefs. My family are all Mancs and in defiance I travel to SJP with my season ticket and always come back with a " just you wait kind of debrief" Imagine, currently they seem not to be shaking in their boots.
Anyway this might not be the most appropriate way to make touch - the last time I saw you I was furious because Laurie McMenemy asked me to turn out for Cleveland Boys because you had not turned up. Except you did, too late for me to turn out for his team.
Ray, be great if you could get in touch.
I am only now catching up with your excellent Memeory Lane material. I have a great interest in all things Deckham and Sherrif Hill, in gateshead. Regards Alec Cowan

Posted by: Alec Cowan | March 20, 2008 10:23 PM

alan simpson wrote...

We should not forget that pubs rely on smokers and non smokers alike to keep them in business, it's not all about serving meals and being family friendly. The pub is an oasis from work and the dreaded gas bill and is something to be cherished. I don't smoke, and take no pleasure in seeing those who do shivering in the cold, through no fault of their own. Politicians are just buying votes from non-smokers taking the high moral ground and are treating smokers like lepers, and in the process, failing to see the bigger picture

Posted by: alan simpson | March 23, 2008 4:36 PM

Paul wrote...

No offence but I think you are talking nonsense on this one.
A bit of "atmosphere" in a pub v spreading disease and cancer through second hand smoke?
Ask Roy Castle's widow what she thinks.
There used to be smoking on buses and offices as well and I wouldn't want to see that return either.
I like to be able to have a drink and not have the horrible stench of other people's smoke cling to me the next day.

Posted by: Paul | March 30, 2008 2:22 PM

Ronnie Lambert wrote...

Interesting topic Ray, as an ex-smoker of 20-30 a day ordinary tabs + exotic, I'm relieved to be able to go for a pint now without suffering the consequences, and stinking like a stinky person when I get home, and having to strip off to hoy my kit in the washer.
As an ex-pro pub/club singer too, it was horrendous having to do two 45 minute sets with billowing nicotine clouds filling my lungs and harmonica at every breath, with visions of Roy Castle constantly in my mind. I only wish it had been banned during my tenure in the trade as I have a mild asthma now.
I started at age 14 and chucked it at 22-ish so those eight years may have contributed to it. But yes, I see your point about the falsely romantic atmosphere, especially from a musician's perspective. I'd once pictured myself singing in Ronnie Scott's jazz club in Soho, low lights and an air of blue smoke hovering like stage fog just above our heads, with cool music coming from the mercurial fingers of Oscar Peterson.
Even the more realistic scene of a Friday night in Leam Lane's Black Bull at the end of a hard week on the hod, effortlessly downing 10 bottles o' broon dog, smoking 20 Number six, with my name on the dartboard, loud gadgeys cajoling for a moment of comparitive silence to slip in the sharpest bit of sarcasm, laughing amidst that same blue air. That was Ronnie Scott's jazz club, that was Nirvana.
The seamless collective taste of brown ale, scotch or ex with tabs was the drug of my dad's day, and for some years mine. In the eternal winters of the fifties and sixties, when compacted snow stayed on the ground for what seemed months, we at the bottom of the Leam were blessed with an NCB railway crossing on Lingey Lane, with a beautiful brick gatehouse.
It had an owld gadgey inside who let usually about five of us play cards with him for halfpennies in front of his perpetually blazing coal-fire ......and smoke tabs. Rollies, dumps, anything we could find. And that fond memory was mainly about the tabs ... plus the coal-fire. It does actually look demeaning for the people huddling together outside of pubs when they need a smoke, especially in winter, but there's no way back for society now on that ruling with the tremendous cost ' to society ' in health care that smoking imposes.
What next? I suspect that overweight/obesity will be the next hypocritical Orwellian attack on us all. Hypocritical because for decades big brother has socially engineered the nation's food into few places of purchase i.e. supermarkets. Killing corner shops and virtually herding us into eating unnatural chemically poisoned trash, filled with growth hormones and colouring. We weren't fat in the fifties/sixties, now almost everybody has a weight concern and I put this down to corporate greed and/or darker agendas. Now there's a loaded new blog topic for you Ray, if you dare......

Posted by: Ronnie Lambert | March 31, 2008 1:24 PM

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