The Legendary Christmas Singalong
Sitting in the Golden Lion on Christmas Eve with my friends, surveying a pub full of teenagers. With a complete disregard for the age of the clientele, I'd hit the jukebox hard with stuff I liked, including Faith No More's "Epic" (it was a damn good jukebox).

My selections reached a crescendo of showing-my-age with the final one, The Monkees "Daydream Believer". I was a little worried that a pub full of pubescent scrotes would scent me out as the purveyor of this sixties pablum and tear me limb from limb.

Instead, the entire pubsworth of people - whose parents were almost certainly spotty teenagers when it last charted - burst into song:

I get HIGH neath the WINGS
of the BLUEBIRD as she SINGS
the SIX O'CLOCK alarm NEVER rings
but SHE RINGS and I RISE
wipe THE SLEEP out of MY EYES
the SHAVING RAZOR's cold, and IT STINGS.

the harmonies of 60 people all shouting

"CHEER UP SLEEPY JEAN"

in ever so slightly different keys sent chills up my spine. Somehow everybody in the entire pub knew every word to a song that was a hit in Decemver 1967. The sense of cameraderie by the time the song finished has not yet been surpassed.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Thu 5 Feb 2009, 21:44, 5 replies)

Well...
...that song is a classic. Seems to consistently find its way into party/wedding reception playlists - I think all DJs have to play it, by law or something.
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Thu 5 Feb 2009, 23:04, closed)

It's like the common cold of songs
there is no cure.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Thu 5 Feb 2009, 23:20, closed)

I have spent my whole life in pubs...

yet couldn't think of a single story to post...

Until I read this and it reminded me of a time when...

*starts typing*
( Pooflake braces for an onslaught..., Fri 6 Feb 2009, 8:46, closed)

Lyrical accuracy
I'm terribly sorry to break this to you old chap, but the correct opening line to this splendid tune is "I COULD HIDE neath the wings" and not "get HIGH". I just thought I should say in case some pubescent scrote actually did get high neath the wings of a bluebird, saw the face of the devil, pissed through their ex-bird's letterbox, ate raw onions out of their neighbours garden (without washing them or anything), then stole an electric Milk Float and went pure mental with it in a housing estate before 9pm. I'd hate to see the lovely Monkees being labelled as a bad influence.
(DJ_MicroClimate, Sat 7 Feb 2009, 0:28, closed)

Is
this the golden lion in fulham? if so, good choice. what a cracking pub. The landlady there is aweseom, there's a pub quiz every week which is free entry, free food and prizes for the top three teams. Legend.
(Hippo_of_Doom, Sun 8 Feb 2009, 17:49, closed)