By this point your intrepid reporter was flagging. The Paradise was the busiest pub we’d been in since the Elgin, several hours before, and clearly there were people who had been there all day, solely to watch the event (it was the only place we didn’t get a seat). The television was a decent size and the volume was loud, but not Elgin loud. There also appeared to be some sort of post-gay pride party going on upstairs and the music (heard whilst visiting the toilet) was an awful lot better than the dreck served up to us downstairs. WHO stumbling through the CSI greatest hits followed by <gritted teeth>pink floyd</gritted teeth> (sorry Marcello, loved the piece but I won’t be converted I fear). The pub seemed friendly enough, I had a bit of a natter with a random bloke, but it wasn’t my round and by this stage of the evening I was on the lemonade, so I can’t even comment on the beer.
Unfortunately I felt the need to leave as Wish You Were Here started in case I upset any of the other punters in the pub (also, we were in West London and I wanted to be the right side of Kings Cross before Hyde Park kicked out). My abiding memory of the pub though was some bloke (I don’t want to be stereotypical here, but the word “trustifarian” springs to mind) shouting at everyone to shush because they were showing a repeat of the Nelson Mandela speech from earlier in the day…
PUB 8 RATING: 7 (i’m sure it’s perfectly tolerable most of the time, it’s hardly their fault about pink floyd)