Life has a smoother feel than it did in my raw and raucous twenties (and thirties if I'm honest) and I feel myself heading towards a level of contentment - I take pleasure in my family and have interests outside of getting drunk and eating sausage sandwiches with a hangover.
So you're thinking "What the hell is the old man on about? Sounds Awful!!" Yes alright I'm feeling ever so slightly old this morning.....As you'll see from the headline TGI Fridays is 25 and I was 17 when it launched and in those days there was only one of them (I think) in Covent Garden and it was pretty cool.
The obsession with Americana of all decades from the 50's was in full swing back then - 'Back to the Future' had just come out alongside such Brat Pack classics as 'The Breakfast Club', 'Footloose' and 'St. Elmos Fire'. Other great late lamented 'American style' West End joints were in their pomp too (Peppermint Park, Video Cafe anyone?)
TGI's fitted in perfectly to that time - drinking Budweiser out of bottles, going there for friends birthdays, generally 'hanging out' - watching the bartenders flip their glasses back and forth. This became somewhat of a trend in popular bar culture culminating in the flaming magnificence that was Tom Cruise in Cocktail 3 years later.
Then as time passed and we all grew up a little and as 1988 raised it's smiley face ,TGI's relevance kind of faded for us - you'd go there to eat every so often and each time it was slightly less enjoyable than before and then at some point, I don't know when TGI's started springing up everywhere - even on retail parks next to Argos and Homebase - this was the final nail for me and my contemporaries.
Well not quite - I had children and that really was the final nail - I actually took my kids to a TGI's on a retail park and endured the balloons, crayons and frankly disappointing food (which all seems to be cooked in Jack Daniels if I remember the menu correctly). I haven't ben to TGI's for some years - it has faded from my life.
And then this!! It's actually a pretty good little film following the attempt of TGI's cocktail bar people to break the World Record for twirling glasses or something like that.
I don't know though, it just doesn't have the relevance and interest these days - I cant see this generations teenagers and even early twenties being wowed by a spinning cocktail shaker - it just seems 'out of time'
> Oliver Russell | Joint Managing Director >> The Big Shot | 10 Fitzroy Square, London, W1T 5HP
>>> Email: oliver.russell@thebigshot.co.uk
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