16th December. 6.18 pm. My clock card was about to take its final dive into the machine of the week. Always a joyous moment. My phone rang. I clocked out and answered. It was Josh. “What are you doing later geezer?” he asked. I explained my plans and that I was out with Dave as we were popping our heads into the licensees of The Oak Inn’s 7th anniversary party, of them taking over the pub that is. I know not of their marital or not status.

“I take it you’re celebrating the momentous Walsall FC news?” he further queried. I hesitated. I hadn’t heard any such news. Clearly something had occurred since I came off my break 3 hours earlier. I further paused as I tried to guess what this could be. Walsall FC only dabble in momentous news very sporadically and it usually doesn’t end well. If you don’t know, we owned our old ground Fellows Park, sold it, paid to clean the land up where Bescot sits and for the stadium to be built and ended up not owning it and having to pay rent on it for the next 32 years. The news was that we now owned the ground albeit with a mortgage but we would no longer pay rent to the much disliked former Chairman and owner of the club.

I dashed home. My head was spinning. We’d dreamed of this day for so long. To quote Pink, I was eager to Get The Party Started, so much so I even ordered a taxi to The Oak. It arrived quickly. Neither myself nor the driver tried to instigate conversation which I think suited both of us.

I strutted into the Oak. I’m unsure of the landlady’s name. I think it’s Annabelle but I’m willing to be wrong as I am about lots of things. Anyway she was behind the bar, I wished her happy anniversary which she thanked me for. I ordered a pint of Thatchers Cloudy Lemon Cider and she said it was on the house. This pleased me, especially as I was going to buy her one. Like the tables being turned in my favour.

I’d not taken a sip out of my pint when Adam the landlord, doing a stint behind the decks played the original Last Christmas. I’d gone out of Whamaggedon on day 1. Looking round the pub and nobody else reacted so I guessed they’d all been Whammed too or were not playing. I’d have been gutted to go out then though just after arriving in the pub and without even a mouthful of booze having passed my lips.

Adam played “Rockin’ All Over The Word” and this was Josh’s cue to arrive. He was chuffed this song was on as this was the first tune to be played at the Millenium Stadium after Tom Bennett lifted the trophy following our epic play off final win in 2001. It will always bring back great memories for us Saddlers this number.

Dave arrived, Josh departed after one drink and we headed to The Red Lion. We were greeted by a drag queen behind the bar with a mic which was a bit unusual but we liked it. He then played Thriller commenting “I don’t know why I’m playing this as it’s Christmas” although I’d had a similar thought when Heart 80’s played Ghostbusters at work a day earlier.

The music was good in here, song of the night occurred “Red Light Spells Danger” although I got annoyed when the drag queen talked all over the second half of it so I necked my pint and declared it was time to move on.

The plan was to re-tick off what used to be Harleys now called Memoirs Bar but as soon as we got outside a bouncer rushed over saying that the place is now only for private parties. How he knew we weren’t on this guest list is beyond me. I instructed Dave to book this for his 49th birthday and we moved on. It’s good that this place is back open though. There was an application to turn it into a gym not so long ago. Us Walsall folk don’t want gyms. We want booze and word must have reached the applicant as it didn’t happen.

We also wanted to re-tick off the former Colliseum which was reopening this evening. It was very possible that we were the first customers as the place was empty. It is now bottles only so there are no pulls on the bar which makes it look a bit odd. Selected drinks were half price and our two bottles came to about £7.50. Dave queried if this was half price and the barman after a bit of a conflab with coleagues confirmerd that it was. £7.50 for 2 bottles is reasonable to me but if that is the half price total I don’t think I’ll be rushing back when it’s full price.

Anyway back in the day it was The Colliseum downstairs and at the weekend there was an upstairs strip joint called Club X. I used to go in The Colliseum after work as it was cheap drinks. One night a workmate (who has asked not to be named) came as some of his friends wanted to try Club X. I’d only been upstairs once but agreed to show the group where the place was as it’s slightly out of the towns main drinking area. Upon walking in Angie the barmaid said “alright Evo? Pint of Carling?” My colleague shot me a right look and exclaimed “you said you’d only been in once you lying get”. I tried to explain that I knew Angie from drinking downstairs in the week but he was having none of it.

Anyway in Club X you’d buy your drinks and take a seat. The ladies would come up and start polite conversation in the hope that you would agree to a dance which they’d take you into the back room for. One time I had my jacket nicked while in said back room. On my last visit a nice lady came up and made the usual small talk. She was most put out though when I eventually pointed out that it was her colleague (who had a white bra on) that I wanted a dance with.

So back to the present day. The Colliseum part is now called Valesha’s and the Club X part is Savannah’s. I popped to the loo and noticed a poster for upstairs and it had the slogan “where fantasies become reality”. I wondered which of the various ladies of Walsall that I’m keen on would be waiting for me, but opted not to go up there.

We opted to move on. Now Dave has this very odd trait that when drinks are finished and you do the mutual “move on?” chat, he’ll try and stall the departure. Usually by going to the loo for half an hour or deciding now is the time to start striking up conversations with folk. He’d done both of these in The Oak (I could have had another pint while he was in the bog), and now on the way out he decided it was time to go back up the bar to query the prices again. This was answered quickly and clearly didn’t waste enough time as he then started chatting to everyone on the way out. I was still thirsty, hopeful of being home by midnight, and never really up for talking to people so I left him to it and started the walk to Flans.

He caught up with me on the market and we were soon in Flans. Wayne was dj-ing and Dave is proper obsessed with him for some reason so he darted into the dj booth to bother him. There was no room in the booth for me which bought a bit of a Mary and Joseph feel to the proceedings so I sat on a stool in front of a radiator and was quite happy. I started to make some notes for this blog, and then Dave leant out of the booth and said “put your phone away, they are all looking at you”. I glanced up. There was a small group of men and women dancing around in front of me but nobody was looking. I asked who was looking and why but neither of these questions gleaned an answer. I finished my notes and glanced up. Still nobody was looking. So I opened Wikipedia and started to read about the development and subsequent construction of the Elizabeth Line. I got a third of the way through and got bored. Still nobody was looking.

It had been a good night but it was home time. I finished my drink and departed. After 32 years Walsall FC now hold the deeds to Bescot Stadium. Fantasies become reality.