“Just out for one on Arthur’s day, sure I’ll be home early”
[deleted]
Without even a shadow of a doubt this was our finest hour.
Our “mad bastards” peak was that day and we’ll never hit those highs again.
How the fuck did I never hear about/see this until now?
Jesus……..
“1 decade ago” 💀
Forget finding the ice slip guy, where are these two now?
Jesus. Fucking. Christ. What the fuck. Etc, just add in your own.
I remember that video alright, and when they tried to make Arthur’s day happen, all the bands flying in to play the pubs, I met that eejit from stereophonics in one of the bars, he was tiny
If you’re wanking a guy while he is doing a handstand it’s not gay.
That’s some good cocaine
Arthur’s Day was fantastic. Session through the recession.
Sure it was marketing at its peak but things were so absolutely bleak then that any respite or celebration was welcomed.
I thought there was more blood, like a LOT of blood.
And now they’re likely someone’s dad 😅
Was this around the era of bath salts and head shops by any chance?
He got played like a banjo.
I don’t even have to click to know it’s the willie banjo video. I can’t watch it without pissing myself laughing at it still.
Just for context, some of the reasons Arthur’s Day was such a massive fucking mess, based on my own hazy memory of it –
The gimmick was to have a pint of Guinness to hold up “To Arthur” at exactly 17:59, a nod to the brewery’s founding year. Great!
But this meant that pubs needed to have people already in and served by 6, so they would start having free trendy youthy bands and events on from *earlier* in the day to compete with each other. And Diageo were putting HUGE money into it to make Arthur’s Day a thing out of nowhere, so there was a load of stuff on, all over the city, all day.
Obviously, the people with the flexibility to get the best of this – especially given it took place on a Thursday – were mostly students, not reknowned for their restraint with alcohol, and tbf the demo this whole marketing angle was largely aimed at, as Guinness was still trying to bring its age profile branding away from “stuffy old man drink” at the time.
But these were pretty bad times economically, so there were also lots and LOTS of young people on the dole then, or working bits and pieces of hours a week at best, who *would* be in college or in full time jobs if this was today.
Now either due to the gimmick or by arrangment with Diageo, participating pubs would pretty much *only* serve their products, which meant that you could *only* order Guinness on the taps in most places, or else spirits.
And since Guinness – famously – takes forever to serve in big batches, it was often easier to just order the spirits, pre game before you got there, or just sneak in stuff from the pre MUP Lidl spirit section (they used to have a fairly decent Bacardi knock off for 7ish quid) and then order mixers.
And frankly, it’s just not very easy to *drink* Guinness all day, even if you have the money and time for it. It was the worst possible drink for this whole style of event, so, inevitably, when people couldn’t get anything else on draught they’d resort to spirits and sneak-ins too, just by necessity, and end up with the worst of all worlds.
All in all though, heading out for the day to watch Laura Mvula with a bottle of Lidl’s perfectly fine Putinoff and some warm coke was a pretty fantastic value proposition.
Staff were under such enormous pressure trying to pour/settle/top up/serve Guinness that they couldn’t afford to give a shit while you were doing it.
When staff inevitably just *couldn’t* serve the drunkest of the drunk anymore though, and the after work crowd started showing up to make getting served even harder, those folks would migrate out of doors to keep going with whatever any of them could fetch and drag back from the nearest off license. And, again, spirits generally made the most sense for this purpose vs hauling a load of cans around that you’ll only have to find somewhere to piss out later.
So the overall upshot was that lots of folks who were desperate for cheap entertainment and free all day, and an awful lot of students, would just take the *whole* day off to drink whatever they could and go to free gigs, and be absolutely lobotomised by the afternoon, nevermind 17:59.
And that’s why the few Heironymus Bosch-esque videos from Arthurs Day that haven’t yet been scrubbed from existence all take place in broad daylight.
😂😂😂😂😂😂 how have I never seen this before
This wasn’t even close to what got Arthur day cancelled. If I remember correctly this was during the first or second one? It went on for a few years after that
Not sure it was only Guinness comsumed here. Probably blood pressure medication messing with their heads.
I remember one video of a fella jumping around in a pile of smashed glass. Looked like he had sliced his whole back open.
I was working in Temple Bar that day. I watched this particular “banjo” event in real time through the window. The amount of wasted kids walking around with literal head injuries/ gashes from broken glass/ vomit-covered clothing at 6pm was insane. Imagine the most out-of-control paddy’s day and triple it. A Spanish tourist pitched headlong down our (very steep!) stairs, got up and just wandered out to the square like nothing happened. I checked the news for days after to see if any tourists showed up dead from a brain hemorrhage.
Carnage. Absolute *carnage*.
What happens after the video, did the guy attack him?
I don’t know what I was expecting to see. But it wasn’t that.
That was gas, impressive and fairly wholesome
Drunk Guitar hero? It’s called Willy Banjo and I’ll recognise no other name.
To Arthur
I remember being in Vegas and they’d have these big screens outside with advertisements and every 10 minutes they’d repeat those fucking ‘To Arthur’ ads
Watching this video with a big smile on my face 🙂 – Ya dirty fecker
Great bunch of lads
I remember the lad from this video. Himself and his mates did a kind of irish jackass. Did some seriously elaborate backyard wrestling too. Serious effort went into it.
The name was like mamba crew or something.
The same lads did some stunt dressed as santa on grafton street. My memory is hazy.
Casual hole in his chest
Thank Christ everything was shot 144 p
It was absolutely terrible but by god was it fantastic
He got his lad out
What the fuck did i just watch
A friend of mine was part of the communications department for Diageo around this time. She said that after the first couple of years everyone knew that it was a ticking time bomb and when this happened they knew they had massively fucked up. They were watching web cams in real time and at one point thought they would have to cancel any events that hadn’t already started. She said they were literally praying in the office at mid night that there wouldn’t be a riot and that no one would get killed.
I remember they were on the front of the Sunday world saying they had more crazy stunts planned.
Arthur’s day was messy, but the speed at which it got shut down also puts pay to some of our self flagellation as a nation that’s overly fond of the drink. Arthur’s day is basically Friday and Saturday night in a lot of UK city centres. And have you ever been to a Kings Day in the Netherlands?
We pulled down the shutters pretty quickly.
Wow.. had never heard about this. Can’t unsee.
One of these is now a guard, and the other is the Tanaiste.😁
Even though it was a gimmicky marketing ploy, Arthur’s day was some craic for a few years! I was an 18-20 year old student while it was at its peak. I know the Irish don’t need another stereotypical “drunken paddy” day marked in the calender but it was great marketing by Guinness and a great days craic, drinking 15 pints of stout in the middle of the day and losing the run of ourselves. To Arthur!
This was a fucking diabolical idea that should have been axed way before it became a thing. A quasi public holiday designed around a drink brand in a country with a history of huge alcohol related problems.
Ohh I’m sure they are lurking here somewhere. 😂
How long ago was this?!
47 comments
Jesus Christ haha
“Just out for one on Arthur’s day, sure I’ll be home early”
[deleted]
Without even a shadow of a doubt this was our finest hour.
Our “mad bastards” peak was that day and we’ll never hit those highs again.
How the fuck did I never hear about/see this until now?
Jesus……..
“1 decade ago” 💀
Forget finding the ice slip guy, where are these two now?
Jesus. Fucking. Christ. What the fuck. Etc, just add in your own.
I remember that video alright, and when they tried to make Arthur’s day happen, all the bands flying in to play the pubs, I met that eejit from stereophonics in one of the bars, he was tiny
If you’re wanking a guy while he is doing a handstand it’s not gay.
That’s some good cocaine
Arthur’s Day was fantastic. Session through the recession.
Sure it was marketing at its peak but things were so absolutely bleak then that any respite or celebration was welcomed.
I thought there was more blood, like a LOT of blood.
And now they’re likely someone’s dad 😅
Was this around the era of bath salts and head shops by any chance?
He got played like a banjo.
I don’t even have to click to know it’s the willie banjo video. I can’t watch it without pissing myself laughing at it still.
Just for context, some of the reasons Arthur’s Day was such a massive fucking mess, based on my own hazy memory of it –
The gimmick was to have a pint of Guinness to hold up “To Arthur” at exactly 17:59, a nod to the brewery’s founding year. Great!
But this meant that pubs needed to have people already in and served by 6, so they would start having free trendy youthy bands and events on from *earlier* in the day to compete with each other. And Diageo were putting HUGE money into it to make Arthur’s Day a thing out of nowhere, so there was a load of stuff on, all over the city, all day.
Obviously, the people with the flexibility to get the best of this – especially given it took place on a Thursday – were mostly students, not reknowned for their restraint with alcohol, and tbf the demo this whole marketing angle was largely aimed at, as Guinness was still trying to bring its age profile branding away from “stuffy old man drink” at the time.
But these were pretty bad times economically, so there were also lots and LOTS of young people on the dole then, or working bits and pieces of hours a week at best, who *would* be in college or in full time jobs if this was today.
Now either due to the gimmick or by arrangment with Diageo, participating pubs would pretty much *only* serve their products, which meant that you could *only* order Guinness on the taps in most places, or else spirits.
And since Guinness – famously – takes forever to serve in big batches, it was often easier to just order the spirits, pre game before you got there, or just sneak in stuff from the pre MUP Lidl spirit section (they used to have a fairly decent Bacardi knock off for 7ish quid) and then order mixers.
And frankly, it’s just not very easy to *drink* Guinness all day, even if you have the money and time for it. It was the worst possible drink for this whole style of event, so, inevitably, when people couldn’t get anything else on draught they’d resort to spirits and sneak-ins too, just by necessity, and end up with the worst of all worlds.
All in all though, heading out for the day to watch Laura Mvula with a bottle of Lidl’s perfectly fine Putinoff and some warm coke was a pretty fantastic value proposition.
Staff were under such enormous pressure trying to pour/settle/top up/serve Guinness that they couldn’t afford to give a shit while you were doing it.
When staff inevitably just *couldn’t* serve the drunkest of the drunk anymore though, and the after work crowd started showing up to make getting served even harder, those folks would migrate out of doors to keep going with whatever any of them could fetch and drag back from the nearest off license. And, again, spirits generally made the most sense for this purpose vs hauling a load of cans around that you’ll only have to find somewhere to piss out later.
So the overall upshot was that lots of folks who were desperate for cheap entertainment and free all day, and an awful lot of students, would just take the *whole* day off to drink whatever they could and go to free gigs, and be absolutely lobotomised by the afternoon, nevermind 17:59.
And that’s why the few Heironymus Bosch-esque videos from Arthurs Day that haven’t yet been scrubbed from existence all take place in broad daylight.
😂😂😂😂😂😂 how have I never seen this before
This wasn’t even close to what got Arthur day cancelled. If I remember correctly this was during the first or second one? It went on for a few years after that
Not sure it was only Guinness comsumed here. Probably blood pressure medication messing with their heads.
I remember one video of a fella jumping around in a pile of smashed glass. Looked like he had sliced his whole back open.
I was working in Temple Bar that day. I watched this particular “banjo” event in real time through the window. The amount of wasted kids walking around with literal head injuries/ gashes from broken glass/ vomit-covered clothing at 6pm was insane. Imagine the most out-of-control paddy’s day and triple it. A Spanish tourist pitched headlong down our (very steep!) stairs, got up and just wandered out to the square like nothing happened. I checked the news for days after to see if any tourists showed up dead from a brain hemorrhage.
Carnage. Absolute *carnage*.
What happens after the video, did the guy attack him?
I don’t know what I was expecting to see. But it wasn’t that.
That was gas, impressive and fairly wholesome
Drunk Guitar hero? It’s called Willy Banjo and I’ll recognise no other name.
To Arthur
I remember being in Vegas and they’d have these big screens outside with advertisements and every 10 minutes they’d repeat those fucking ‘To Arthur’ ads
Watching this video with a big smile on my face 🙂 – Ya dirty fecker
Great bunch of lads
I remember the lad from this video. Himself and his mates did a kind of irish jackass. Did some seriously elaborate backyard wrestling too. Serious effort went into it.
The name was like mamba crew or something.
The same lads did some stunt dressed as santa on grafton street. My memory is hazy.
Casual hole in his chest
Thank Christ everything was shot 144 p
It was absolutely terrible but by god was it fantastic
He got his lad out
What the fuck did i just watch
A friend of mine was part of the communications department for Diageo around this time. She said that after the first couple of years everyone knew that it was a ticking time bomb and when this happened they knew they had massively fucked up. They were watching web cams in real time and at one point thought they would have to cancel any events that hadn’t already started. She said they were literally praying in the office at mid night that there wouldn’t be a riot and that no one would get killed.
I remember they were on the front of the Sunday world saying they had more crazy stunts planned.
Arthur’s day was messy, but the speed at which it got shut down also puts pay to some of our self flagellation as a nation that’s overly fond of the drink. Arthur’s day is basically Friday and Saturday night in a lot of UK city centres. And have you ever been to a Kings Day in the Netherlands?
We pulled down the shutters pretty quickly.
Wow.. had never heard about this. Can’t unsee.
One of these is now a guard, and the other is the Tanaiste.😁
Even though it was a gimmicky marketing ploy, Arthur’s day was some craic for a few years! I was an 18-20 year old student while it was at its peak. I know the Irish don’t need another stereotypical “drunken paddy” day marked in the calender but it was great marketing by Guinness and a great days craic, drinking 15 pints of stout in the middle of the day and losing the run of ourselves. To Arthur!
This was a fucking diabolical idea that should have been axed way before it became a thing. A quasi public holiday designed around a drink brand in a country with a history of huge alcohol related problems.
Ohh I’m sure they are lurking here somewhere. 😂
How long ago was this?!
Comments are closed.