I was having a clear out of one of my cupboards the other day, the one with loads of beer glasses in. Stuck in the back was this one, which I had forgotten all about.
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| The Great Tyneside Beer Festival 1973 |
I have to say I haven't a clue how I got it ; Ive been racking my brains over Xmas. It was either given to me as a present or I visited the festival and got so blotto its wiped from my memory.
A fellow CAMRA mate has thankfully come to my rescue as he has hazy recollections of the day. This wasn't a real ale festival, there was precious little of the stuff in those days. It was held in a large marquee at Gosforth Park - Newcastle Racecourse.
He recalls going to see if he could get some Australian beer to welcome a new
cricket professional, Australian Bob Thomas, to the South Shields Cricket Club. At that time - 1973 - Fosters and Castlemaine 4X were quite rare in this country so the objective was to buy as much of the stuff as he could with what little money he had.
He has vague memories of the festival being a total cock-up and meeting the
organiser who was dressed in a sheepskin coat and looking very flustered ( sounds like Arthur Daley - Ed). He was at the end of his tether when he met him. Desperate for
any amount of money, hence his "How much money have you got to spend?"
I have a friend who now lives in OZ , he keeps coming back on visits every 5 years or so. One year, as a welcome, one of us bought him a can of Fosters. He rolled his eyes and said " no one drinks Fosters Lager in Australia". They have inflicted it on us but don't drink the stuff themselves !
Anyhow, back to the glass. I googled "Great Tyneside Beer Festival 1973" and the results only show memorabilia of the day. So there is what appears to be a beer mat from Federation Brewery ( remember them ?) advertising a 7.3% beer. Some wit - and I'm being generous with that description , has suggested I was drinking that all day, hence the memory loss !
The truth is out there somewhere.
