The thing about drinking (alcohol, that is) is that it’s a social activity. Drinking water is a different thing – that’s more a sustenance/staying alive requirement. But the sensation of drinking to lower inhibitions and trigger conversation is generally best done around other people.
I’m not around other people in a social capacity anywhere near as much as I used to be. As a result, I have very little purpose to drink alcohol. As a result of that result, my tolerance for alcohol consumption has diminished even further than the “kinda lightweight” level I was already at. Now, not only does it take very little to alter my state of mind, it also takes very little to induce a pounding head, dry throat and render my digestive system irreparable for a day and a half afterwards.
The enjoyment I perhaps once got from drinking has really just been replaced with concern and worry over how many painkillers I’ll need to take the following day, how many hours I’ll need to spend sitting bare-bottomed over a toilet bowl and how many times I’ll have to run to the bathroom before people start to notice. Thankfully, as mentioned, drinking is really only a social event and my social activities are few and far between these days.
It’s unfortunate that I don’t socialise as much any more, though. A part of me wishes I had better opportunities to be around like-minded people as we enjoy consuming excessive amounts of liver poison together. Another part of me doesn’t particularly want to give up my alone time. I wasn’t really sure where I was going with this, but I think the long and short of it is that, although I enjoy social company on the rare occasions I get to partake, I’m not sure I really want to find much of that enjoyment by drinking.
I’m not giving up drink and I’m not giving up people, but I think it’s best for me to cut down on one in the face of lacking the other. Unfortunately, by reducing my intake of inhibition-lowerer, my natural penchant for anxiety and shyness within social environments may well flourish. That’ll probably then lead me to – unwillingly – reduce my intake of social connection, but I suppose that might just be the sacrifice I have to make if I don’t want to spend the rest of my life listening to my guts groaning at me.
It’s difficult to gauge how much of an impact Viola Beach would’ve had on the national – or even international – music scene had they not been tragically killed earlier in the year. This was an up and coming band very few people had heard of on a wide scale, until their on-tour road accident became national news. Ever since then, their recorded material has made its way into the public consciousness as a posthumous tribute to what once was and what potentially could’ve been.
The problem is we can’t know the outcome had they survived to this day. Would they have made it big time? Would they have been this popular? Would they have had a strong future in the music industry? Sorry to get all existential on you, it’s a nice set of music they’ve left us with, but I can’t help but wonder if it would’ve reached us or been as well received had circumstances been different. Anyway, enough dreary pondering. Listen to the bloody thing, would you?
Viola Beach – Boys That Sing
Jamie Walsh 
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