To the uninitiated Snakebite and Black is a delicate blending of lager, cider and blackcurrant cordial. Don't ask me why such a drink came into being or who was responsible for it - although I do know that my sister took it a stage further by mixing Special Brew and Merrydown to make a concoction called Merry-brew! I also know that Snakebite and Black was the drink synonymous with my late teens and the beverage of choice at the only truly alternative nightclub in my part of Essex - The Pink Toothbrush!
Essex gets a bad press - blonde hair, white shoes, ford fiestas and the like. But there has always been an undercurrent of Essex-onians outside that particular bracket. And, I'm glad to say, I to finally managed to move to the dark-shoe side. But it wasn't always the case as at school I was at a lost fashion wise. Although thankfully I never fell into the set we knew as the 'Casuals' - those folk who only wore clothes sporting a known 'label' (along with white socks!) It took until I was about seventeen to finally hit the mark, aided in my conversion by my sister and other friends.
Overnight I went from a lanky, specky, geek, with a school-boy hair cut, pastel shirts and stretch jeans, to a long coated, 501s and check-shirted wearing, monkey-booted alternative. My hair was cut to a flat-top (great for having the ladies come up and stroke the back of your head), however the arrival of Bros put an end to that. Instead I went the other way to a long-haired look - which the girls also took delight in by holding me down and giving it the full Robert Smith treatment. My friends agreed that I'd found myself and sealed the deal by taking me along to the aforementioned nightclub.
The Pink Toothbrush was situated in Rayleigh and was a Mecca for the unconventional. Originally called Crocs (with live crocodiles on stage apparently) the place changed hands in the early Eighties and eventually changed name (as well as putting the crocs out to pasture). To enter The Brush was to leave the Essex everyone knew behind, strangely passing a bar (called Palms I think) that had so much ultraviolet light and people in white that you could probably see it from space! You'd pass through the doors, check your coat (if didn't mind waiting a hour to get it back again at the end of the night), move past security and finally fall through the looking glass into a beautifully dark alternative.
This was the land of the Goth, the Punk, the Psychobilly and a hundred other indie strains. Also a small crew of New Model Army fans were on hand for wrecking duties during the evening and invariably taking centre stage to stomp along to 'Vagabonds'. 'Alternative' covers a wide spectrum when seen together in one place but amazingly I don't recall any trouble in The Brush. It was as if we gathered to dance united against a common enemy. The floor would fill to the sounds of The Wonder Stuff, The Smiths, The Housemartins and The Cure. Knackered and happy we were finally rewarded with a trip to the bar, there to partake of a pint of the blackcurrant-beverage, presented to you with two straws to further speed up the enjoyment process.
I've lost track of how many nights I spent in The Pink Toothbrush, partially due to the memory lapsing side-effect of SB and B no doubt, but mostly because there are just too many to mention. Sadly after a few years my friends and I began to move on or away to university and work. On a visit back home during my Higher Ed years I drifted into The Brush one night. I was glad to see that the place was the same but I could feel I was changing once more, as no doubt we all were - new lives and new venues awaited us. At that time my family also moved away from Essex and I never returned.
However, I was pleased to learn, upon starting this entry, that The Pink Toothbrush is still going strong and still keeping the alternative faith alive. So if you're close enough and feel young enough please go along this weekend and raise a plastic-glass of the true-blackened-brew in my absence...
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