Christmas Carols @ The Ribs of Beef

Sunday 20th December 2020. This should have been our Annual Carols night. Except COVID-19 has closed the pub.

The phone and email are usually busy from mid August with enquiries about the date of this event despite it being always the Sunday before Christmas and it’s always advertised on our website. Years before social media I would spend ages sending out personal invites, writing to the local radio stations, local press to ensure we got a full house. Every year I vowed I would not advertise the occasion again as we could hardly get another person in the bar. However the Charity collections were amazing!

We first started pub Carols at the instigation of Mike Parle & Rev Jack Burton way back in the early 1970’s. Jack was a regular at the Adam and Eve and we became great friends. Jack was a full time bus driver and part time Methodist minister, he would use the public bar to talk to all who would listen, he didn’t preach to you but would make you feel really special and you usually tried harder to behave when he was in view. Everyone seemed to know him and he knew everyone by name. If you were in trouble or sad he would listen, he attended the sick and elderly, nothing was too much trouble. He christened many of my nieces and nephews and relatives of customers. He blessed weddings and officiated at many close friends funerals. In 1976 Jack had a book published called Transport of Delight, it is still available today on Amazon something that wasn’t even heard of all those years ago. The book received rave reviews from people all over the globe and was apparently read by our Queen. One night over a pint or two the Pubs Carols night was born! The first one as we try to remember was at the Mischief Tavern. Jack dressed in full thick heavy Cassock would perch on top of a step ladder in front of the huge Tudor fireplace, with an accompanist on the piano, we were lucky to have some of the counties finest musicians play over the years including Mike Parle , Harvey Buck, Mike Davenport and The Big Smile Band and the virtuoso voice of Geoff Kelley. Jack would conduct Carols, act out the extended Twelve Days Of Christmas and end with a blessing. One night a German choir visiting the Cathedral just happened to be passing and heard the singing. They joined in and sung a beautiful rendition of Silent Night. It was a joyous occasion. Jack would call it our Home & Away as we would shut the bar dead on 11 pm on Christmas Eve and pile out into St Clements Church where he was caretaker for Midnight Mass, after which everyone would pile back into the pub for coffee and mince pies and maybe a few shots from the top shelf! From a young age our son James would carry the Altar Cross at Christmas midnight mass, Jack would loan him a cassock, each year he grew taller and the same gown got shorter and shorter until it looked silly. Many years after James left home to work in Scotland, he would always call Jack after the service to reminisce. Jack mentions James in one of his books. Jack would light the church with candles along the pews….. one Christmas Eve Rogers Dad Ted was sitting in the pews with a fur trimmed parker coat, Ted was a short man and got a little close to the candles and his coat caught fire causing such a commotion, Jack managed to carry on the service with a few jokes off the cuff. Another night at carols in the Mischief Jacks cassock started steaming when he got to close to the large fire. After that he decided to go commando for comfort! The Carols night carried on in the Ribs after we sold the Mischief in 1989. It was difficult at first as the Ribs is much smaller than the Mischief but we stopped advertising which helped. Over the years our first generation customers brought in sons and daughters then grandchildren…. the girls would do choruses with the boys trying to out sing us. We had fabulous soloists some who could really sing and some who would do impressions! We were devastated when Jack became sick and had to retire from the bus company also was told he must not drink alcohol again…. so we had to find a replacement. How on earth do you replace Jack Burton. Well you don’t.

Heavenly help came in the name of Canon John Minns. John brought his very own personal style to our Carols and requested that the money collected went to his special fund for Norwich Young Carers. He would start proceedings with a rendition of ‘On the Ball City’ before the more serious stuff. Recently our pianist for several years was a shy young chap called “Gabriel”! In 1998 sadly John became ill and Sue John’s stepped in and did a brilliant job adding some glamour and in 2019 our marvellous pianist Malcome Goodson managed both conductor and pianist! All through the years it would not have been possible to produce this event with out Charles Bartram. Charles an old friend & member of the Big Smile Banjo Band would bring his impressive song sheets and hook them to the ceiling for all to join in the half time musical hall type singalong including Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman etc., And so this year for the first time that I can remember in my life in the pub trade the pub is closed and there’s no Carols night.

I for one will be at home playing all the home movies and videos of these wonderful events. God Bless . Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Healthy 2021.

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