I’ve been coaxed into small bars whose interiors see few people during daylight hours, with the promise of new and interesting spirits and beers. Education is the reason I give myself for these forays into afternoon alcohol-dom. I work my way through some undiscovered liquids for a few hours, soaking up the information pouring from the host’s mouth, only to be later hit with the dreaded curse of an early evening hangover and the loss of the majority of the knowledge gleaned.

Yes, booze education is a Trojan horse. You welcome it into your face and it sits lighting up your brain with warm fuzzy feelings, punctuating the wonderful new things you’re being told. Then a horde of hangover shock-troops that have been secreted away are released, that lay waste to your body, your memory and your very being.

Only kidding. I love booze and booze related facts!

Cocktail competitions tend to be an industry only sort of thing but there have been a few liquor and beer presentations recently for folks who aren’t paid to like this stuff. They’ve been fairly well attended too, and people seem eager to learn about interesting boozes. The free samples may have some drawing power too.

It’s nice to see folks take an interest in what they drink and even venture as far as tasting new things. I know some just like to get pissed (and that’s a perfectly valid approach in my view) but it’s nice to find out something about the history and culture that surrounds well established products and brands or to find out what makes the new stuff unique or interesting. I think having a more rounded understanding of what going in your face can make you appreciate it in a much fuller way and it adds something important to the experience of drinking other than just the feeling of being pissed.

It’s great to be on the other side of the process too though. We host cocktail classes for people at Mojo and they’re a joy to do when you have a genuinely interested group of people. There’s something really satisfying about getting someone into a new cocktail or spirit, one that you know they’re going to come back to and enjoy again and again.

If you like these kinda things keep an eye out for any upcoming events on Mojo’s Facebook page or check out the site for cocktail master-classes.

See ya there!

It takes a certain kind of person (man or woman) to be a bartender. The onus is frequently put on females in this industry when we talk about talent needing nurturing. I can’t help but question why that is? Is it assumed that because there are less of us women in this chosen profession that we need some sort of support or we might run away completely overwhelmed by too much testosterone? The fact of the matter is this: if you need babying as a bartender I’m afraid you’re in the wrong job, regardless of gender.

It is true that there are more men than women in this industry, but does it matter? As long as the industry isn’t actively doing anything to put women off, then what’s the issue? I don’t see loads of women joining the industry and then leaving, I just don’t see as many women joining the industry. Maybe the stereotypical view of bartenders’ late-night boozing and promiscuous sex doesn’t have the same pull with young women as it does with young men. I would love it if more women decided tomorrow that they were going to become bartenders but perhaps, like the stigma that surrounds men becoming nurses, bartending is just not deemed feminine enough a profession by most women.

Plus, from my experience it simply isn’t true that females aren’t supported as much as males. There may well be bars that still only hire male bartenders, but that isn’t then a question of support but a matter of simple discrimination. Certainly I can think of a number of bars that fit into this category, but by lumping such prejudiced employers into the vast spectrum of the industry as a whole, we are detracting from the high percentage of employers that treat all their staff as equals.

The very word ‘nurture’ suggests some sort of crutch or a stepping stone to help us achieve what men are capable of. Well, thanks but no thanks. Working in Leeds I am surrounded by a lot of very successful women, they all have an incredible work ethic and have all been offered the same amount of training and support that there male counterparts have. These women are recognised within the Leeds bar scene as some of the best even if they are not appreciated on a nationwide scale.

As to why this is, there are certain ways that a bartender’s talent gets recognised: simply being excellent at your job is one; working in a well-renowned bar is another; and then we look at things like blogging and cocktail competitions. I have entered many competitions over the years and would recommend this to any bartender eager to get ahead. They have given me the opportunity to meet some wonderful and potentially influential people, and gave me some much-needed confidence when I was just starting out as a bartender. Competitions are very heavily male-dominated at the minute and it would be nice to see more women entering – but then again the need to compete is not a stereotypically female trait and maybe that’s the reason they don’t.

I would like to sum up with this: when I started working for MOJO five years ago I was one of there very first female members of staff in over 10 years of trading and now I manage a team of mainly men. I couldn’t have done that without the right amount of support, trust and belief from my employer, my colleagues and my peers.

I want the support and recognition I am due for doing what I love, and for doing it well, and I would hope that my success spurs on a whole generation of women bartenders. But the idea of being ‘nurtured’? Not so much.

Thinking about Paddy’s Day and the Easter weekend has got me musing on the massive amount of drinking some people are going to get down to over the next month or two. Folks are going to be ruining themselves in an alarming fashion and it seems that this is par for the course for a great number of drinkers on our fair isles. I am of course talking about Britain’s favourite pass time, binge drinking.

It seems that we Brits have a singular attitude to booze. Most other countries don’t seem to have the same pissed-up town centre troubles we have on a regular basis. Of course, there are countries that consume just as much booze as us but where they get a bottle of wine or beer with lunch, we save it up all week for those wonderful Saturday nights of shattered windows, fights and throwing up your own pelvis.

I think that this difference has something to do with the divide we have between boozing and eating here at home. In Europe especially, food is something that’s always there if you’re drinking, whereas we tend to stock up on mountains of food beforehand or crawl into a takeaway after a session to force down delicious fried goods that we insist will do something to combat the alien death-ray of a hangover that’s waiting for us in the morning.

At MOJO we sell some badass crisps, olives and nuts that go down really well, but a
few times in the past we’ve tried to introduce some actual substantial food, like what real people eat. When I first started at Mojo we had a small tapas style, finger food menu that was awesome. It’s a little known fact that bartenders survive solely on bar snacks so while we were doing this real food I noticed that the green tint my skin has due to years  of massive olive consumption had begun to fade. Then, alas, we realised that not many people were actually buying the food so we cut the menu back to our snack selection and my sickly pallor returned.

I’m sure we’ll try introducing something again because I think that bars like MOJO doing food is a step in the right direction for changing our collective attitude to drinking. If a bar is known for big, full on party nights and people see that they can eat there, it just might stop them for nailing multiple Jägers on an empty stomach. Plus it would mean that my diet could become a tiny bit more varied. So everyone wins.

As has happened on most of my travels, I’ve been exploring the drinking culture of this amazing Caribbean island. It’s got its fair share of history and social upheaval but, in my mind, that just adds to the rich tapestry surrounding the booze.

Rum and beer are the main things here, with most bars stocking a couple of beers and only the spirits needed to make classic rum cocktails and little else. Everything here is much more relaxed and stripped down than anywhere else I’ve been.

All beers are lagers and because a few popular classic cocktails can trace an early heritage back here, the cocktails tend to be much less complex than back home. While British and American bartenders have been perfecting recipes and methods, Cuban bartenders have carried on doing things the way they’ve been doing them for decades.

Mojitos are thrown together simply and quickly and most of the other drinks are tossed into a blender with ice, then doled out. If your Spanish is good enough, you can order a mojito the way we’re used to them – leaves picked from the stalk, lime wedges dropped in and crushed ice rather than cubes, but the bartender will look at you like you’ve asked for a beer in a shoe (it’s a little known fact that leather shoes add some much needed depth to less full flavoured beers).

It’s great to be able to see how far these cocktails have come in the decades since they were first popularised and equally as good to experience them in their more relaxed incarnations. Obviously as the UK’s Best Bar and Best Goodtime Bar we are still mixing well.

Having said that, it’s gonna be freekin’ awesome to get a Manhattan in me when we get home.

As the musical tectonic plates shift and everyone gets their music from different sources, it gets harder to find the truly unifying songs that have the whole bar wailing together in exhalent song. From this list only ‘If You Wanna’ by The Vaccines of the music out this year has had the whole place pogoing. We have found these tracks by drunken Shazam, Radio, Adverts, recommendations or by Accident.

As last year this is a list of tunes that have made it on to our playlists over this last 12 months. They may not be ‘new’ but they have become our standards in 2011. Last year it was a list from Manchester only. For this year’s list I have asked the people who do the music most in both Leeds and Liverpool to send me a bunch of tunes as well. By dint of being mentioned on all 3 lists I can reveal that the unofficial Mojo tune of the year is…….

The Hollies – Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)

……This was brought in by Richie West on Shazam and he has no idea from where or when!

Keep listening and drinking (in the bars and at www.radiomojo.co.uk) and may we wish you all, a Happy Christmas and a wonderful new year.

Tame Impala – Half Full Glass Of Wine

White Denim – Back at the Farm

Shake, Shake, Shake

Metronomy –   The Look

The Bay

Tune-Yards –   Bizness

My Morning Jacket – Holding On To Black Metal

Small Faces – Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake

The Black Keys – Next Girl

Johnny Cash – I’ve Been Everywhere

Talking Heads – Girlfriend is Better

Nothing But Flowers

The Rolling Stones – Pass the Wine (Sophia Loren)

-  Slave

The James Gang – Walk Away

Funk 49

Django Django – Storm

Led Zeppelin – D’Yer Maker

Paul Simon – Late In the Evening

Credence Clearwater Revival – Pagan Baby

Ben Harper – Get It like You Like It

George Harrison – Got My Mind Set On You

Wah Wah

Genesis – I Know What I Like

Ken Boothe – Is It Because I’m Black

The Vaccines – If You Wanna

Corb Lund – Hair in My Eyes Like A Highland Steer

Grinderman – Palaces Of Montezuma

Sister Nancy – Bam Bam

Toots & The Maytals – Take me Home, Country Roads

Symarip – Skinhead Moonstomp

LCD Soundsystem – North American Scum

Two Door Cinema Club  – What You Know

Prince – 7

The Who – I’m Free

The Horrors – Still Life

Band Of Skulls – Patterns

I Know What I Am

Pete Townsend – Let My Love Open The Door

Tom Tom Club – Genius Of Love

ELO – Evil Woman

The Heavy – How You Like Me Now

Black Crowes – Another Roadside Tragedy

Cursed Diamond

Broken Bells – The Ghost Inside

Eddie Bo – Check Your Bucket

Band Of Horses – Is There A Ghost.

Having seen Mark Knopfler at this very venue a few years ago, I knew better than to expect an out-of-your-seat singalong affair. Mark Knopfler doesn’t do Greatest Hits tours. In fact, he has gone on record as saying he didn’t like all the fame and fortune associated with the material he’s most famous for, hits like Money For Nothing and Walk Of Life. So instead we sat back with a pint and prepared to watch in awe as ‘The Knopf’ and his band (numbering seven ridiculously talented multi-instrumentalists) gave a lesson in musical excellence. The fact that it was 4 songs into his “support act” set before I actually recognised a tune speaks volumes about just how good this bunch of balding, middle-aged musicians are. We were dumbstruck as they continued to switch between instruments (some of which we had never even seen before!) and played songs that can only be described as epic! Upon telling us that he was out of time, and that the “main man” would be waiting, they struck up the opening chords to Brothers In Arms, sending a collective chill down the spine of everyone in the Arena. To finish proceedings on a high he then plucked his way into So Far Away. And that was that, Mark Knopfler, brilliant as ever.

And so on to Bob Dylan. Brought on to stage by an over excitable announcer, sounding somewhat like he was introducing a heavyweight prize fighter, with a very brief account of Mr Dylan’s life, including a cheeky reference to him spending the majority of the 70’s and 80’s in a narcotic haze, and finishing with “The Poet Laureate of Rock ‘n’ Roll!!!” out onto the stage burst Bob Dylan and his band. Dressed in his trademark wide brimmed hat and bootlace tie he took up position behind the organ, shaking his hips and thrashing the keys in a fashion that defied his 70 years. That unmistakable rasping voice, even more growly than ever, barking his way through Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat, Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right and Things Have Changed. The up-tempo set kept even the most ancient of fans on their feet! The lady sat next to me must have been mid to late 60’s and she was there with her mother (true story)! Barely using his guitar, Dylan instead chose to captivate from behind the keys and occasionally standing centre stage with the microphone, intermittently blasting out incredible harmonica solos. What a performance! But then he’s probably had more practice than most! Running through more hits, like Tangled Up In Blue, Simple Twist Of Fate and a rousing version of Thunder On The Mountain, we were hooked. In what felt like 5 minutes, Bob Dylan and his (amazing) band had zipped through twelve songs and they were gone. The baying crowd, most way past their bedtime, whistled, clapped, whooped and cried out for more. And we weren’t disappointed. Like A Rolling Stone and All Along The Watchtower capped off an impressive display from a man well into his 71^st year.

And so I can cross off another name from the list of ageing rock stars I need to see before I die. Or, indeed, before they do.

I’d like to direct this month’s piece, however, to a much rarer group of customer than our usual funsters. I call them ‘part-time drinkers’. Now, I don’t mean people who aren’t constantly pissed (because I’m told by my GP that it’s good to lay off the booze every few hours… or something like that). No, I mean people who don’t often spend time in city centre bars. They usually go to their local pub or out to a restaurant but once in a while, a few times a year, (often on bank holidays) they venture into the city for one big night out. And they seem to be very confused by what they find.

The vast array of booze and brews in your city centre bar are to the part-time drinker as headlights are to a rabbit. They enter the bar in good spirits, chatting and laughing. Then they catch sight of the well stocked back-bar or the dozens of taps. Their conversation stops suddenly. The group huddles tightly together a few feet from the bar, ignoring the bartender’s greeting, whispering to one another…
“What do they do here?”
“What are you having?”
“What the hell is that stuff?”

I’d like to take this moment to shout to you huddled masses “Don’t be afraid! You can direct your questions to me! I’m here to help you!”

We bartenders want to make sure you guys get a drink you’ll like. Just a quick chat and we can give you some concoction or other that’ll hit the spot. Don’t see your usual poison? Well, we can recommend something similar. As much as we want our bars to make a profit, we’re not going to use fancy bartender mind tricks to force you to buy the most expensive whiskey in the house. In fact, if you’re very nice, we, your generous hosts, might let you try something before you’ve even handed over any of your hard earned cash.

So please, next time you’re in a weird bar in a strange city, don’t be scared to ask that freak of a bartender for some help.

I say this because I was taught from a young age that you can judge someone’s character by the way they treat service staff. Let’s say there’s someone at work who’s so nice, you go out together, and then they’re rude to every waiter and bartender in every place you go. You’d assume they’re probably not really a very nice person; that all the pleasantries towards co-workers are an act and that deep down they’re a rotter. By the same token, most movie characters are pricks because they just walk up to a bar, bark an order and expect the drink to appear while their back is turned. That’s the full extent of their interaction with the person working. No waiting their turn, no please or thank you, not even any eye contact. Just an order, after which the drink plucked from the ether, and produced almost instantly.

This seems really strange to me because of how jarring it can be. We can have a hero who is a shining beacon of hope, bravery and compassion and they’re being an ignorant arse to someone just because that person is in a uniform or behind a bar. I get that the writer doesn’t want to waste screen time with a wait at the bar or a polite back and forth with the bartender, but that’s no need to make your hero rude. Just a “please”, that’s all I ask Mr Writer…please?

I know this seems like a small thing but it gets frustrating when people emulate this behaviour. Someone who doesn’t go out to cocktail bars that often sees our hero curtly demand his drink and they think that’s just how it’s done. And as an added bonus there’s the annoyance of the customer when their martini takes slightly longer to make than the nanosecond promised by our hero’s lightning fast booze dispensing automatons.

I don’t expect you to die Mr Bond, just say please.

The temptation, for me, will be to spout venom about every little thing that annoys me in the industry, so I promise to try my best to stay positive and constructive (at least for one month).

I’ve been asked by a few people how I feel about a new bar opening down the road, whether we worry about the competition or if there’s any animosity towards the guys for leaving to start a new bar so close. My response to these questions have been “super excited”, “no” and “no” respectively.

One of the things I love about this kind of work is the sense of community and friendship you get between bars and bartenders. We’ve all got the same gripes but we all love what we do, and what we do is hang out in bars… all the time. And now we have one more!

I only have brief, traumatic experiences of jobs other than bartending, but I’m pretty safe in assuming that two competing offices won’t lend each other toner or paper if one runs out, and a florist won’t lend flowers to one down the road if they sell out. Bars, however, are more than happy to dole out ice to a competitor two doors up or lend out a bottle of whisky until delivery day. This is because, in most areas, bartenders drink in each others places, become friends and you help out your mates. A more pragmatic view is that a bar without ice is a shoddy bar, and a shoddy bar on our street makes us all look bad. So it’s in all our best interests to help each other out.

The main reason everyone’s so happy about Lee and Andy opening their place is simply that they’re great guys and it’s gonna be a great bar. Plus, I don’t have to work with those pricks anymore.

The age of digitalism has well and truly arrived. Is it even possible for a bar to sell out? To become so overly commercial that all sense of quality and integrity are subsided in a sea of desperate offers and event updates. Does ‘word of mouth’ even exist anymore? Discovering a place simply by clicking ‘like’, rather than being led to a friends favourite watering hole somewhere off the beaten track kinda takes some of the magic away. Then there are some bars that go to great lengths to remain elusive and having a venue where you can only gain access if you have a golden ticket and wear the right coloured hat could be considered too much secrecy. I’ll leave you to decide where the balance should be.

If you do have a spare minute though you should join my new social network, it’s called FACE SPLICE. You literally copy your face and email it to others so that they can wear it. Imagine an army of ‘me’ marching down on the government just like in V for Vendetta, demanding compulsory tipping for those in the service industry, glorious.