Blackpool Named as Britain’s Drunkest Town
Blackpool revellers in action
A new geographic survey of alcohol misuse in the UK has revealed that Blackpool has the ‘highest alcohol-specific mortality rate for men in Britain’.
The fading Northern England holiday resort also has the second highest alcohol-specific mortality rate for women, the Guardian reported this week, as well as the highest rate of liver deaths.
Chatting about Blackpool’s nightlife scene, local police chief Inspector Tim Newton spoke of ‘hundreds and hundreds’ of ‘hammered’ drunks prowling round Blackpool’s bars, clubs and windswept streets every weekend and admitted he nowadays finds the town ‘scary’.
“A lot of the lads have lost respect for anything they see as authority, and they don’t seem to have a problem with having a fight,” he explained, “They will take anyone on when they’re full of drink.” (Guardian: http://bit.ly/13rE5VQ )
Chris Lowe from the Pet Shop Boys chatted to Skrufff some years ago about growing up in Blackpool and recalled a happy childhood enjoying the town’s touristic attractions.
“I was born there and grew up near the Pleasure Beach (Blackpool’s rollercoaster theme park). The Pleasure Beach was literally at the end of my road so it was great to hear the noise of the rollercoaster,” he recalled.
“The good thing about growing up in Blackpool was that you spent all your time hanging round amusement arcades. I also used to go to a club called Man Fridays which had plastic palm trees, during the disco era, and I did odd jobs as a glass collector.”
He admitted however, that even then the town’s dark side was rarely far from the surface.
“Blackpool certainly can be quite a violent place,” said Chris, “I remember seeing a horrible fight once on Central Pier, when this lad was getting his head kicked in by about a dozen other lads, it was such a horrible sight.”
Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff
