THE WUNDER BAR WEBSITE
PAGE: STEW'S NEWS 5 7 7
LAST UPDATED: 5 7 7
CONTENTS: Bon Voyage
Hey hey boys and girls, aunts and uncles, friends, neighbours, wives, girlfriends and that annoying bloke over the road - howthehellavyabin? This is me with what could well prove to me my valedictory missive from the Black Tower. Not, you understand, that I'm leaving the Tower, heaven for fend, the family seat might get a little chill without your's truly to warm it, no no, I am referring of course to my tenure at the watering hole which has become to many of us over the years the Theatre Of Drinks.
Yes, there is a season, as they say, and a time for all things to end and I shall be, as of August, just another punter, Joe Schmo, stood in line hopefully waving my pound note in a vain attempt to catch the barmaid's eye.
"But Stew," I hear you cry "how did this come to pass? Surely you and the one known only by the infamous monosyllabic moniker of 'Wilb' cannot have suffered a sundering of the friendship which has seen you two bosom buddies since the third year of secondary school."
Hush now, calm yourself, have a small cup of this nerve settling tonic. The one known only as 'Wilb' and I have endured no rupture in our brotherhood. It is merely our professional, or if you prefer, business dealings which sadly must come to an end. 'Tis often said that all things must come in threes and I'm sure many of you must have wondered , what with first Tony Blair, then Thierry Henry who would fulfil the aforementioned prophecy. Which and who's departure would be the fabled third? Well I am here to reveal all. Yes, as Tony and Thierry take their respective bows, I have been quietly, and with my by now legendary modesty, preparing for my own, rather more significant departure.
"Whither now the Wunder Bar, oh Barlord of mine?" I hear the veiled and passionate entreaty in your cry. And I am here today to say unto you - 'Fear not!' for I am not winding up the whole boiling merely stepping aside for a younger man to pick up the torch and run with it. My not inconsiderable stake, which the years of hard toil has built to a by now impressive peak, is forfeit to me, for I shall, in a gesture of incalculable generosity leave it to the generations which come after me so that the Bar may continue to thrive, and provide a backdrop to the adolescent dreams and mid life crises of many a booze addled Friday night for years to come.
A bar is only as dynamic as the people who make it so. There is a fine balance betwixt punter and proprietor. One eggs on the other, so to speak, and both feed from one another's enthusiasm in a mutually fulfilling frenzy. That balance has, alas, been somewhat tilted of late and the fault lies solely with myself. I have failed to place the full and overwhelming might of my creative forces at the disposal of the Theatre Of Drinks for no small amount of time and as such the symbiosis mentioned above has, I fear, suffered.
So this is adieu! My last, final and ne'er to be repeated performance as tender to your thirst slaking needs will be on an appropriately quiet Tuesday night, the 31st of July. We shall, in my honour, be holding a Scalextric tournament on that night. This has been planned for a while now, but seemed a fitting way to sign off, the Scalextric night symbolising just one of the many quirky and dare I suggest, bizarre evenings I dreamt up over the years to entertain folk. I've played my last jam as landlord, I will pass on the Bar conker basket to those who come after me, my final quiz questions are being honed and I have been invited to play a small part in the forthcoming Xerox Pig evening which musical mayhem and cream cracker related tomfoolery sums up, for me what is right and good about the Wunder Bar, i.e. inclusivity, open mindedness and a willingness to be entertained by as diverse an array of talent as can be imagined without prejudice, rancour or judgement. And above all, without paying for it.
The King is dead, long live the Wunder Bar.