#iworkedhere The Cannon, Guildford 1986

My third and (I think) final pub gig was here at the bottom of Portsmouth Road, less than a mile from where I now live - I walk past it (or behind it) pretty much every day.

In 1986, the landlord was a guy called George, who later moved to The Drummond on Woodbridge Road. He was a cannonball of a man and looked like he had a hair trigger, you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him, but he had a wicked sense of humour and Sid James laugh. It's one of those "on the way home" pubs - just as I walk past every day, many others do on the way back from the station especially. So the regulars were mostly office workers with a smattering of railwaymen.

One of the rail guys wanted to take me under his wing and tell me all about how the world works. Someone once said to me of him (I wish I could remember his name but it could have been Dave, "don't listen to Dave, he just gets it all out of books." As if book-learning wasn't a proper thing, didn't lead to proper knowledge. Anyway Dave told me lots of interesting facts (that he might have got from anywhere). These days there are probably still Daves propping up the bar dispensing advice to young barmen, and everyone says "Don't listen to him, he just gets it all off the internet."

While I was there, I dislocated my shoulder doing a stage-fighting class (I fell wrongly, put my arm out instead of folding it in, and OUCH!) - so I spent a few nights at the Cannon with my arm in a sling, trying to pull pints one handed.

The signs outside now show that they have something special every day of the week (Monday night is Pie Night!) - we had jazz on Sunday lunchtime, but I think that was it.

I went in there the other day for an Internet of Things meetup. It was weird, the layout's changed a bit and they've got new loos, but basically the same pub. And I had the feeling of belonging - that I was part of the family here and could easily just get up and start pulling pints again.