The Daily Tonic: Oliver Reed’s Very Wet Pub

Ordinarily, we wouldn’t get stuck into the seasonal stories quite as early as December 1st, but fuck it. It’s been a long, tough year – and we’re all up for getting fully festive. So we want to hear your stories about showbiz and celebrity Christmasses.

Which stars have you got smashed with at the office party? Who gives the best gifts? Who have you done pantos with? Who’s a grumpy old Scrooge? Which superstars still sleep on the floor of their parents’ box rooms come Christmas Eve?

Whatever the connection to Christmas, however tenuous, send your seasonal stories to hello@popbitch.com and we’ll dole out some stocking fillers to the best ones.

A writes:
“I had quite an awkward encounter with Lana Del Rey just before the release of her Ultraviolence album. She was staying at the hotel where I worked at the time and I was sent to her room to help her with her sister’s birthday present. I walked into the room and heard her music playing. She looked up and said ‘Oh, how awkward. I’m listening to myself’. Unfortunately, she was listening to a song called ‘Fucked My Way Up To The Top’ and that line is repeated throughout the song.

“I spent hours helping her and she tipped NOTHING. Still a little bitter about that.”

CD writes:
“Back in the mid-80s, hirsute naturalist David Bellamy came to our house for dinner. He ended up staying the night and for some reason he got my bed while I ended up on the sofa (I was 8).

“In the morning, he complained that his feet had stuck out of the end of my bed and got cold – which, even at the time, I found a bit rich. He did give me a signed album of some whale song he’d recorded though, so there’s that I suppose.”

HM writes:
“While at uni I spent a summer back home in Guernsey working at the local pub, the Kosy Korner. Oliver Reed used to be one of our regulars in the Town Bar, but you had to limit how much he drank or he’d destroy the place. He would drink neat whiskey and only buy doubles. The amount of alcohol you could serve him depended on what time he arrived – after 10pm, and it was a 2 drink maximum. He was a super fun drunk, full of great anecdotes and utterly charming to the bar staff. However, once he turned, he was a nightmare.

“My Dad ended up in a bar with him at a local hotel one night – Reed was staying there at the time. He went round the bar betting everyone he could jump out of his hotel window and land in the swimming pool. Everyone in the bar watched him fly past the window and land in the pool fully dressed, after which he came into the bar in his wet clothes, to collect on the bet and keep drinking.”

Today’s audio round is made up of ten songs that were all UK No.1 hits in December at some point in the last 50 years.

You get a point if you can name the song title and a second point if you can name the recording artist too. With ten songs to identify, that’s a total of twenty points…

[Here it is]

A one man band takes on Technotronic’s Pump Up The Jam
[Watch on Twitter]

Covid Preacher x Heavy Metal
[Watch on YouTube]

Mexican cartels are getting popular on TikTok
[Read on NYTimes]