Greets to all from a Connecticut Yankee & newbie in Japan .
Back in 1982 , I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Neil Cutts at the White Bear in Masham . My buddy and I were in the midst of a two week pub crawl through Cumbria and North Yorkshire when we zoomed into Masham in our Ford Fiesta . Our impetus for visiting Masham was to do a tour of the Theakston Brewery , which we did , but that is another story . Anyway , after the Theakston tour , all of the tour members were taken to the White Bear for a meal courtesy of Theakston , and this was when I first met Neil , briefly . My friend and I decided to stay in Masham for the next two nights ( Kings Head ) , and we ended up spending quite a bit of time at the White Bear ...hehe...Neil was a jovial & quite interesting fellow and since he , my friend and I were all huge Fairport Convention fans , much of our conversation centered around FC and music in general . Neil was kind enough to present us with cassettes of AT2 , and also suggested we quaff a very special drink called " The Executioner " , which he explained was a
favored drink amongst the locals and consisted of 50% hard cider and 50% Old Peculier . Being a tad naive ( ha ? ) , and having gone to N. Yorks with the " when in Rome " spirit in our souls , we imbibed ...I shall never , ever forget my friend Dick waking the entire hotel in the middle of the night , sick as a dog . In the morning in the dining room , somehow , all the other guests instinctively ( ? ) knew that one of us was the midnight culprit . Perhaps it was my friend ordering a coca cola and declining the full English breakfast that gave us away ?
