ian "stan" matthews

I think probably like most people you knew somebody – older brothers or a relation – into classic rock music and you just got moved on a little stepping stone, which slowly took you to the Tavern.

I’d have my flares on, my Adidas trainers on, a denim shirt on, denim jacket. Afghan. I think everybody had an Afghan when you left school, just out your first wage packet...Afghan.  And that was it. T-shirt. Long hair, obviously. When I first went in when I was fifteen my hair was just over my shoulders, probably when I left school at sixteen it was a bit longer. A little ’tachey thing that was just about showing. 

Skip was a good landlord. He didn't take any hassle off anybody. He knew how to run a pub, but he was quite a fair bloke as well. I mean, we was only fifteen, sixteen then. I think, sometimes, if he knew the police was about he'd just say Come on. I think you might need to go out the front door. And off we'd go, toddling. Next day you'd be back in, as long as it was quiet.

It was a rough pub, but it was a friendly pub, it was…it was home. You could go in any day of the week and there'd be somebody there you know. If you kept your head down it was OK, but you know, it could be rough at weekends. You always knew somebody in there, and to be fair age didn't really matter, you could be talking to a thirty-year-old when you’re fifteen and that’s how it sort of worked. You just got into a little group and then you spread out. I know him...and he knows him...and then Hang on, I'm not hanging with my mates now that I've come in with. I'm with somebody else.  

I think the first ever time I went in the Tavern was going to see a band...might have been AC/DC at the Civic. This was when I was fifteen. 

I’m a big Hawkwind fan. I’ve seen them 107 times and we’ve got tickets for three gigs this year already, hopefully, if Dave Brock’s still alive. And then that’ll be 110.

You're always going to miss that Tavern. Maybe it's just cuz it's your first pub and you're young. It's part of my life, and the amount of people that I know still from the Tavern, and everybody talks about the Tavern still. And it's not been there for thirty years.