The Fox and Weeds!

I used to go to a pub (long gone now) in the back streets of Brum called the Fox and Grapes. I was just 18 when I first went in there. I drank cider in those days. It was there where I had my first pint of Guinness and the rest as they say, is history.

In those days pubs were supposed to close at 11pm. Last orders would be shouted at 10:55 and the staff would put the lights on full blast and yell at you to leave by 11:15. The Fox and Grapes wasn't like that! It was an Irish 'afters' pub and I loved it as they'd lock the doors, close the curtains so it looked dead from outside and carry on serving into the wee hours. You could spot all the off duty policemen in there with the tell tale boots and blue shirts enjoying their after hours pints like the rest of us.

Everyone always went to the Fox and Grapes to finish off their evening. I usually came from the Costermongers - my favourite rock pub - and I had some marvellous nights in there! I took Dad in the Fox once after we got the train back from Wolverhampton following a Chuck Berry concert at the civic hall. We'd missed the last bus and thought we might as well go to the Fox, have another pint and get a taxi home from there. It was nearly 3am when we did get home. Mom told me the next day that she had pretended to be asleep when Dad fell up the stairs drunk, knocked the lamp off the bedside table getting into bed, farted three times, started laughing and then fell asleep snoring loudly!

When I spoke to him after, he said he was so hungover he couldn't go to golf next day but loved the Chuck Berry concert and what he remembered of the pub..

Oh well. That was the Fox and Grapes and my picture is the fox and weeds! He was in the garden by the bird feeders early this morning.

Track? Thanks, Thin Lizzy for writing this one for me! -
Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed