Sixteen at 16: The Dillon Empire Circa 1991

Underage drinking and top tunes from a halcyon teenage heyday.

These people probably aren’t underage drinkers, but I was in 1991. Photo by Fred Moon on Unsplash

I’m not generally one for biting on prompts. The Dillon Empire forges its own path through the mires of Medium. That said, this is the second I’ve responded to in as many days (this was the first). Try as a might, I could not resist the excellent Pierce McIntyre’s Sixteen at 16 prompt, in which one is invited to list sixteen music tracks of personal resonance from one’s sixteenth year.

Turning sixteen in the UK circa 1991 meant a number of privileges were now legally within my grasp. I could now officially have sex, smoke, and buy fireworks, though I couldn’t buy booze. The legal age for drinking was (and still is) eighteen in the UK. However, that didn’t stop me and many other sixteen-year-olds who joined Abingdon College that September from making lunchtime visits to the (many) pubs in that historic market town near Oxford. Nor did we ever have an issue getting served. There seemed to be a largely don’t ask-don’t tell attitude from landlords in those days.

Why am I blithering on about my underage drinking shenanigans? Mainly because one of these pubs — the Fitzharris Arms — had MTV playing constantly on screens in the background. I should explain for the benefit of younger readers that this was back in the Stone…