Selected by Rusty\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first time I went to The Gun was with Nick, maybe 2014, asking me to come and have a look at this pub that would be soon be coming on the market that he was interested in. It was a really grim, drizzly old late January night\u2026 proper London weather.<\/p>\n
We walked in and I\u2019m not sure whether the atmosphere was more grim inside or out, really unwelcoming and horrible\u2026 possibly worse than The Slaughtered Lamb in \u2018An American Werewolf\u2019 except this wasn\u2019t make believe. We got a pint of some kind of piss and sat in the corner\u2026 where the now legendary \u2018Seceret Plans, Clever Tricks\u2019 neon would come to be (and break often), and many a vortex session would unfold.<\/p>\n
Somehow, Nick saw the potential, and where others would have run a mile his infectious enthusiasm and optimism, as we\u2019ve all come to know and love, convinced me that this indeed was a go-er. Within six months, The Gun, in its new incarnation was open\u2026 and \u2018100% committed to breaking even\u2019.<\/p>\n
Immediately it felt like home, fast became mine and many others Cheers, except in Hackney, not Boston\u2026 and with Nick Stephens at the helm, certainly funnier and arguably more handsome than Sam Malone.<\/p>\n
Ahhh the memories, if only I could rememeber them. Seriously, there were so many highlights, the meeting new people and others I hadn\u2019t seen for some time, on both sides of the bar that have gone on to become firm friends\u2026 off the scale DJ sets that ripped off roofs, only to be replaced and ripped off again\u2026 \u2018that\u2019 first pint after covid restrictions were lifted\u2026 the birthdays\u2026<\/p>\n
In 2024 my girlfriend Lizzie asked me what I wanted to do, half asleep I replied \u2018I wanted to walk into my favourite pub, see as many pals that could make it, with \u2018Where Everybody Knows Your Name\u2019 (The Cheers theme tune) playing, with Bez sitting at the bar so we could have a pint\u2019 (I don\u2019t know him, but our birthdays are on the same day). I walked in\u2019 \u2018Where Everybody\u2026\u2019\u00a0 blasting out, everyone in there holding up facemasks of me and Bez, and little Grateful Dead party cakes! No Bez unfortunately, but thanks to Andy Bell it very narrowly nearly happened\u2026 I got a birthday video message from him instead and much fun and hilarity ensued!<\/p>\n
For a track, I am choosing The Undisputed Truth\u2019s \u2018Ball of Confusion\u2019. There was a Gun radio show takeover and there was a few of us in attendance, a good mix of The Gun\u2019s eclectic sound \u2013 I believe it was Jean Young, Cherrystones, more than likely Scott, maybe Nathan Wilkins? Nick, Josh and myself\u2026 I dropped this stone cold slice of psychedelic soul\u2026 that incomparable Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong production. It bounced around the place like a tennis ball on Mistubishis in the breakdown\u2026 and Nick screaming at me \u201cWhat the FUCKING HELL is this track!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Selected by Rusty\u00a0 The first time I went to The Gun was with Nick, maybe 2014, asking me…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,53267,5554,393,4884,257,53268,53269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-119012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-closure","10":"tag-community","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-nick-stephens","15":"tag-the-gun","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114544257466252451","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}