Dancing with Dylan

Countryside Column for 1st November

Dancing with Dylan 

It’s 7.30 on a Sunday evening and the joint is rocking. They’re only a two-piece band but the rhythms from the Ghanaian percussionist get right under the skin, and the guitarist is putting heart and soul into Lou Reed and even Eminem covers. Dylan is dancing down at the front. With his mother. And his grandmother. And just about every other customer in the pub. And, once again, I give thanks that our little village has such an enterprising landlord, prepared to give his main bar over to excellent music every month. 

On other nights you’ll find the Rotary Club there, or a darts match, or a group discussing books or media matters. It means that just about everyone feels they have a personal connection with their local, and so go out of their way to choose it over rival hostelries. 

Not all publicans have that magic touch though. The second village pub, once the only place to go, now languishes.  And many other country pubs are closing -nationally the figure is around 25 a week. In this area a few have managed to buck the trend. The old Bull in Sissinghurst has just reopened, if under a silly new name, while the Queens in Hawkhurst will soon be back following major renovations. 

Restaurateur Marco Pierre White recently argued that pubs could only save themselves by providing truly “excellent” food. For which I read truly “expensive”. In the same article, a local was quoted as saying he’d much prefer simple pub grub to posh nosh: “I couldn’t pronounce half the things on Marco's menu let alone eat them,” he told the Telegraph. 

I have some sympathy with that view. I know it’s costly employing a chef, but I can seldom afford up to £20 for a main course.  Whatever happened to old-fashioned bangers and mash, or liver and onions, or fish and chips that didn’t describe itself as local line-caught, sustainably sourced, white fish, cooked in a handmade beer batter, served with chunky potato wedges? 

And don’t get me started on the outrageous mark up on wine in most pubs. A hundred percent is just acceptable. But three or four times that is simply fleecing the customer. Which, along with an overly expensive menu, will surely just serve to keep people at home and contribute to the slow decline of the village pub.