phil wynter

I started working there cuz my mate Paul Woodcock got there and I got a bit jealous. So two weeks later I was working there. I was probably there about five or six years. At one time I was doing the Tavern and the Giffard.

To be honest, I didn't really go in the Tavern until Paul got the job. I knew about it. It was really popular. It was just a bit awkward, cuz it was a rock pub and they didn't appreciate black guys in there. 

It was a busy pub and I was good at maths, and I was good at remembering people's drinks. Everybody wanted to get served, so if you could add up quickly – because we didn't have tills that could add up – and you knew what people wanted before they walked in, that worked.

Once they got to know me it got really good. I really got into the music and the atmosphere was good. The people. I loved the people in there.

I vaguely remember somebody giving me some grief cuz of asking them to leave. They were having a go, then all of a sudden I looked round and there was a load of customers behind me saying to them, You better go.

Oh I had lots of trouble.

I was gunna leave, and I can remember it like yesterday because I'd gone in and I’d said I was leaving on the Friday. I remember Bish – I always liked Bish, and Bish was always fine with me – he says Can I have a word with you outside? I thought, Shit…Oh Dear. Oh Dear. So I said Yeah, OK. We went in to the little porchway and he said I hear you're leaving. I said, Yeah. He asked why. Because I'm getting so much shit off your blokes. I didn’t’ really need the job. It wasn’t about the money.

Bish just said No, you're not. I said, Yeah, I am. He said, No, you’re not.  I said, I am, I'm leaving! He got his finger out and said You are not leaving! And I thought, Hmmm. OK. But I knew I was going to. Apparently – I heard this afterwards – what he did is he called all his blokes out, took them down the club house and said Don't give Phil any more shit.

Don and Pam, the gaffers, were very good. I went to work for Don afterwards when he went to The Wood Hayes. I followed Don round all the pubs. He had a pub in Bilston. I went there as well. I was surprised to got a job in the Tavern in the first place, because Don was very, very, very fussy about his bar staff because everybody wanted to work there. How I got a job there, after deciding two weeks before that's where I wanted to work, was beyond me.

It was the era when rock music was probably at its highest and biking was getting back to popularity. Still got a bike now. A Honda Blackbird. GSX750, I think I had at the time. I’ve had all sorts really.

The Tavern changed after Don left. It really changed after Don left.