The Bull Crowd:
We were resident in the Bull for 13 years.
Can you imagine the number of people we got to know, and the friends we made in that time?
Of course it wasn’t only locals who came to the Bull, we also had regulars from the Renton, Dumbarton, Balloch, Helensburgh and even Clydebank. Sometimes our regulars would have family members visiting from overseas. USA, Canada, Australia…….. wherever.
Some of them were real characters……
We had The Two Bettys, affectionately known locally as our own Fran & Anna. The first Betty would sing “Lucky Old Sun” then “The Dark Isle”. you could hear a pin drop. The second Betty sang “funnies”. (Ordinary songs with her own comic lyrics). Then her party-piece………..”Amen”.
The audience would be swaying their arms to the music and singing along with her.
In fact, the two Bettys arranged a surprise party for my 30th birthday.
(You’ll see the photo in the photo album)
No names, no pack-drill: This guy is a gem…a good pal too…… & he’s followed us everywhere we’ve played.
He appears….buys a pint…..sits down then falls asleep!
End of the night:- he shakes our hands and says, “Hey guys……brilliant night, you were great”.
I remember one guy… He was belting out a song, when his false teeth fell out and landed in a wummin’s drink. What an uproar….. The biggest cheer of the night!
He still hasn’t lived that down.
We christened another guy “Glesga Davy”. He was actually from Kilmarnock, but the only song he knew was “I belang Tae Glesga ”…………………sung with a broad Ayrshire accent………….hilarious!
“ Oor Neil “. At that time Neil was living in London, and he also ran a football team down there.( all typical London Geezers).
One year he brought a squad of them up for a week-end visit.
If you closed you eyes, you would think you were in The Queen Vic. I’ll tell you, these guys could drink.
After we finished playing we took them for a real bevvy.
Everywhere we went, the guys were made welcome. They were up for a fun time and they had it.
We arranged a football match for their next visit.
That became an annual event, and every year we played them we humped them.
We had all stopped playing football years ago and they were still playing, but we had a plan!!!!!
Simple, we took them up to the Bull on the Friday night and got them wrecked for the Saturday morning game.Aye……we humped them every game.
I have to say that every time the London Boys came up the Bull Crowd made them welcome, and there was never any sign of aggro.
When you read through this you will see words like “fun”, “hilarious”, “enjoyment”.
That, more or less, sums up how it was with the Bull Crowd.
Sad to say there’s no Black Bull now, but plenty of people have good memories of those days.
I’m sure that when you browse the Photo Albums, you will remember some ot those good times.
As for us…………we’re still going strong, and lots of the Bull Crowd still come to listen to us.
bravenet.com