Rockin' in Fochabers
Dave Broomembraces a rock ’n’ roll lifestyle in Speyside’s hippest town
Things were going well. The VIP room was suitably dim â indeed it seemed to be suffused with that strange orange light last seen in the freak-out sections of 1960s films.
I was holding, pinkie raised, a glass of Chivas Manhattan (25ml Chivas Regal 12-year-old, 12.5ml each of dry and sweet vermouth, a dash of Grand Marnier, ice, flamed orange zest), prepared astoundingly quickly by my new friend Danny Undhammar.
A scene which, you may well think, is not that unusual for a professional barfly such as myself. Show me the way to the next VIP bar, as Jim Morrison might have slurred. But life, as you may have gathered from my previous ramblings, is never straightforward. In fact, itâs downright
weird. This wasnât your normal guest-list-only zone. These Chivas Manhattans were being drunk upstairs in the Fochabers Institute.
Maybe, I thought, as the second slid down, the ad campaign has finally paid off. Perhaps Fochabers has leapfrogged over Keith (the friendly town), Dufftown and Elgin and become the hippest place in Speyside, a town which can rival Glasgow and Edinburgh in bar culture.
The campaign, I should tell you, was the first time I had ever heard of Fochabers. In the 1970s, the local tourist board tried to lure people to the town with a series of ads and brochures featuring an owl and the catchy slogan: âTo Whit To Whoo, Tae Fochabers Wiâ You!â
Which I think youâll agree is a tag line you will never now forget. I can only presume that âGet Tae Fochaber.....
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By Dave Broom
Section : A dram with Dave Broom
Page number : 12
