Before I went respectable and poor, I used to do market research, latterly mainly for the Gallaher tobacco company of Belfast. Among other things I did 'depth research' on pack designs.
It had an interesting side. Apart from the fact that the powers that were didn't give a damn about anything but being tobacco merchants the marketing people were extremely conservative in outlook, but I took my remit to include suggesting changes to pack designs.
Gallaher's up-and-coming brand at the time was B&H King Size, in a gold-coloured pack. I suggested in a paper that changing patterns on these packs would be an amusing idea and make the brand seem friendly. It was the psychedelic era of course.
I now smoke B&H which have a bit of taste, although in those days I hated filter tips and smoked untipped Player's. And the B&H brand today comes in gold packs with constantly changing patterns on them. I sometimes wonder whether someone in the conglomerate got the idea while looking through old marketing and research papers. I like to think so anyway.
Of course the design is spoilt by overbearing white notices saying how bad smoking is for you. So don't scold me for smoking, OK? I know it's bad for me but I'm an addict.
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I refuse to accept packs which have the bloke with his innards sticking out of his neck on them, and the other one with a picture of someone's gammy mouth.
The staff in my local tobacco emporium are well trained by now, they look at the back of the pack and discard the obscene ones before handing them over.
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There was something pleasing about the old soft packs which you had to tap to make a cigarette rise. Until you put them in your jeans pocket and forgot about them that was.
I used to like Gallia packs, yellow with a cockerel on the front I want to remember.
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Damn I miss smoking sometimes.
I used to love the soft packs, somewhat of a rarity in the UK but freely available in the US.
I never owned a pack long enough to crush them.
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Gauloise Disque Bleu used to come in a soft pack. They were a lovely smoke and my preferred poison, but I haven't seen them for sale for years.
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My dad smoked. I remember one of the cigarettes brands was filterless - John Player Special? Anyway, he died aged 43 when I was 9 from an asthma attack.
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>> My dad smoked. I remember one of the cigarettes brands was filterless - John Player
>> Special?
They were tipped, if it was players untipped it was probably Navy Cut.
>>Anyway, he died aged 43 when I was 9 from an asthma attack.
Yup navy cut would do that to you.
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"Gauloise Disque Bleu used to come in a soft pack. They were a lovely smoke and my preferred poison, but I haven't seen them for sale for years."
According to specialist fag shop in Nottingham they are no longer imported - even the Gauloise Blonde which Mrs W is partial to.
Mind you, she only used to buy them here if she ran out of the ones bought in Belgium - even after recent tax increases they are only £4.30 a pack of 20. (About £8 here)
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>> According to specialist fag shop in Nottingham they are no longer imported.
The once ubiquitous smell of Gauloise is vanishingly rare in France. Not sure if they even grow the baccy any more. Mrs B used to be partial to the hand rolled variety but gave up 23 years ago when daughter was on way.
Gauloise or Gitanes were the only things I could imagine myself smoking.
Proper tobacconists are very few and far between now. Used to love the smell outside Shervingtons in Holborn. They and Weingotts in Fleet St have both gone in recent years.
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>> There was something pleasing about the old soft packs which you had to tap to
>> make a cigarette rise. Until you put them in your jeans pocket and forgot about
>> them that was.
Which is why you tucked them up your shirt sleeve.
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Or if you had long hair you had a little leather pouch on your belt which held your fags and your Zippo.
I think I've managed to track down and destroy all the photos but one can never be absolutely certain...
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When I last smoked fags, about 1970, I loved L & M Short Filters. They were nicely toasted. I was in the City Centre then and there was a specialist about 100 yds away. I stopped when I transferred to the suburbs and went back onto my pipe, which I still smoke now and again in the workshop. Tobacco of preference is Holger Dansk Black & Bourbon. I can get it if I have a trip into the City.
I smoked cigars for many years. I went cold turkey about 2002 with my biker pal who smoked the same brand.....the small Cafe Cremes .... they were just getting too pricey over here, twice the price of duty free. Still miss having one on a coffee stop out on the road.
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Bring back Boars Head & Special Nosegay - dats what I say!
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The Boars head was a good boozer but I never dared go into the special nosegay.
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The first ten years of my life were spent living over the shop at a Post Office, newsagents etc where vast quantities of cigs were sold. I had my first cigs around the age of 7 or 8, and graduated onto Henri Wintermans before my teens.
I used to sell them in the playground at Junior School, but gave up smoking by the time I was 14. Beer & girls entered my life then, and I have never smoked since. If only I could say the same for alcohol. At least I never drink at home, unless in company.
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Some interesting 'stuff' here about snout: www.davenapier.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/wills/wdhowill.htm
Reminds me of my friend Danny Pitcher (I used to think it was Picture) back in Bermondsey when I was 10 or 11.
Danny had got hold of (probably filched 'em) some Passing Cloud snout; I'd never heard of them before.
I used to smoke (roll ups) Special Nosegay at one time. I'm sure I tried Boar's Head too, but that's checking out as a pipe dream.
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I must have been about fourteen when I started to smoke tobacco.At sea used pinch the old man's Senior Service sigs.Everybody around me used to smoke favourite where Stuyvesant filters.
Then roll ups Samson halfzwaar.Had a go once at Van Nelle zwaar (Black Tobacco) To strong how anybody could smoke that stuff is beyond me.
My wife's dad used to love the Sigars I brought back when I went across.Willem 2.
Finished the habit at twenty seven.Not easy to stop smoking and very easy to start.
Both my granddads where pipe smokers and chewing tobacco. UK tobacco is very expensive smuggling was and still is strong ongoing.
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I went on a hitch hiking holiday when I was 17...I was deeply impressed with French ciggies. Bought a packet when I got home. Smoked some of them. Not touched any since. Not quite the same.
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I smoked Capstan Full Strength for a while. They tasted good but made me feel so ill that I switched to Player's.
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>> My wife's dad used to love the Sigars I brought back when I went across.Willem 2.
I used to smoke Schimmelpenninck panatellas. You could smoke in the tube in those days but I noticed people didn't like one smoking stogies, so I stopped being anti-social and gave up.
As you say Dutchie, it's hard to tear yourself away from an addiction. Chewing tobacco is OK though apart from all the brown spit.
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No doubt AC witnessed the vivid red sputum from betel nut chewers in SE Asia? Assuming it was used in Ceylon. Not sure but think betel nut was a sort of anaesthetic?
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>> No doubt AC witnessed the vivid red sputum from betel nut chewers in SE Asia?
Yes. The streets of Colombo were red with the stuff. Aged 8, I thought it was blood and that nearly everyone had advanced TB, which made my father laugh.
Don't remember ever trying betel, although one can get it in London. It probably has the same numbing effect as the leaves and twigs of the qat or khat chewed by Arabs especially in Yemen. You can get that in London too if you know where to look and I've tried it a couple of times. It's a mild narcotic, not worth the trouble in my book.
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>> The Boars head was a good boozer .........
...neatly joining two threads, not in Reading (Friar Street) it wasn't.
(Known locally as The w****'s Bed - a pseudonym that I'm sure has been used for other locations).
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I started on Senior Service at a bob for 20, while doing a bit of sea time with the Andrew on a training carrier.
(I was a Royal Marine)
WE tended to drink horse's necks in the gunroom, brandy at thruppence, ginger ale a tanner.
Mess bills deeply scrutinised by the Mess President. All duty free at sea, of course.
Woe to those over boozing!
That was in the days before the sailor's tots were discontinued and as part of our general sea experience we attended the dishing out of pusser's rum one forenoon. Incredible smell in the rum store.
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We used to use the Boar's Head in Friar Street a lot. Up until about the mid / late 80s it was rough, but reasonably pleasant and ok. Then from about the mid / late 80s idiots who preferred to fight rather than drink occupied the place and bulldozing became the best solution.
Reading has always had more than its fair share of mindless and violent idiots.
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....in the mid-'70s, it was a "cattle market". ;-)
I remember drinking Southern Comfort in there, God Forbid!
(Bulldozing might be the best solution for much of central Reading, nowadays).
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What was the name of the pub around in the old market place at the end of Friar Street? Now *that* was a cattle market. Used to go there in between the Boar's Head and The George.
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>> ...Coopers Arms?
Yes. Was still going when I rocked up in Reading 20 years ago. It's now closed and has been empty for many years, which is odd given its location and the building itself. Was called The Rat & Parrot for a while, which is miserable. I hate those amusing, fake pub names. Happily the trend seems to have passed.
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>> the B&H brand today comes in gold packs with constantly changing patterns on them.
Tsk. I got some today and the pack is plain gold without any pattern, just the threats of early death. The cigarettes aren't old and dry so recently produced. They need me as a consultant since they have obviously run out of ideas, but they can whistle for it. I've retired and gone respectable.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 29 Nov 15 at 18:07
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Snout pack design - Robin O'Reliant
