The hardy lads and lasses of Tyne & Wear are well known for their take-no-prisoners approach to drinking. It stems from the good old industrial days when real things like ships and bridges were built up north and copious quantities of beer refreshed and re-hydrated the welders and riveters. Nowadays, the alcohol presumably numbs the cold felt when the girls go tottering round the Bigg Market in skirts up to their ears and midriffs exposed to all the elements. "What's the fishbowl?" said I to the tenant, having seen this word chalkboarded all over the back bar. "It's like, well, a fishbowl, you know, but with no fish." "Why's that?" "Well, pet, the alcohol would kill the fish, like." "So, what do you put in this fishbowl?" I asked. With this, she whipped out a clear plastic bowl from behind the bar. "A bottle of white wine, then six shots of vodka, four measures of any of them spirits or liqueurs from over there." She pointed to a range of multi-coloured liquids which looked like an explosion in a paint shop. I'd never seen such a collection. "Then they top it all off with a bottle of pop," added her friend cheerfully. "How much do you charge for that lot?" "Twelve quid and they can have as many straws as they want for free." "Ay, and the girls really go for it," chipped in her partner. What was even more remarkable was that they weren't alone in making their money out of selling sickly sweet yet potent concoctions to young drinkers. Virtually every bar I went into in the area had test tubes on sale, with some unbranded horror inside it waiting to catch out the unwary with its kick hidden behind a cloying and colourful front. This struck me as a sad sign of the way our industry is changing. In a place where drinkers' heritage was beer and "Broon" a right of passage, they are now only a part of the scene. And what about our image as an industry? I'd no evidence that these tenants were setting out deliberately to appeal to under-age drinkers. In fact they seemed otherwise very responsible and knowledgeable about managing drugs and violence. But surely the track they were on was also fraught with risk and what was missing was an awareness of social responsibility. Before I could ask her about the tenancy agreement she was on, she said she wouldn't even consider moving to a fully-tied lease. "You see, pet, you don't stock all of those." And she swept her arm towards the cornucopia of bottles. Do you know, I think I was rather glad.
