Firstly let me explain what a D.P. is. Quite simply D.P. stands for Dave Pose.

 

 Ok, maybe there are some out there who have a different explanation but here is mine:

 

 Over the years we have been to many places, some good, some bad, but strangely enough we have always managed to have a good time. There's nothing worse than planning a night out and finding that it doesn't live up to you're expectations and everyone going home wishing they hadn't bothered.

 

 To spice up our nights we took it in turns to visit different bars and try to satisfy all our tastes in either music or company. Sometimes a trip to a place other than our usual 'haunts' could reveal interesting results which we never would have known if we had not tried.

 

 Our usual group consisting of Dave, Chris, Andy, Jon, Dave and Mark amongst others, traveled all around usually relying on the train or a 'volenteer' to drive us there and back. As you can guess, nominated drivers are hard to find but somehow we all managed to take our turns, no more so than Dave who probably enjoyed watching the strange situations we managed to get ourselves into from a sober point of view, but one thing is for certain, we all watched and looked out for each other, always checking to see no-one LOST IT too much. During these nights, many of them in Bolton, we would follow the crowds, usually having one drink per bar, and taking turns to buy 'rounds' on rotation.

 

 Over the years the popularity of music has changed as so have the fashions. At the moment there seems to be an 80's style theme going around and its hard not to find yourself in one of the many 'themed' bars. Also there is a big change in what you can wear to get in and although I'm glad that your average 'football shirt' type is discouraged from many places, at least they have given up on the 'you're not comin' in here wearing jeans mate!' type attitude of years ago.

 

 On our travels we always managed to end up in some sort of '70's' bar, much to Chris' relief, or should I say insistence, but fairs' fair we also ended up in some sort of 'Teckno' bar as well. 'Teckno' refers to, at least, in the eyes of Jon, any music that has no singing, has repetitive beats and pumping bass and a BPM exceeding his own heart rate. I can still hear the comments from Jon 'where's the F**kin' words?' and 'here we go, beats & clicks, beats & clicks!' ringing in my ears!

 

 To try and please us all, we took turns choosing which bars we went to. Chris obviously would chose '70's Disco' Jon would chose a 'Posey' bar were everyone could check out what everyone else was wearing, I would chose a bar with a good dancefloor and loads of 'Dance' music to boot and Dave would get the R & B or the 'Anywhere but Disco' type bars.

 

 As Chris has already pointed out, to make the night a little more interesting we would swap rolls for the duration of the 'round' and we would all have to be someone else from the group, taking turns yet again, to make each other squirm in discomfort, much to the amusement of others.

 

 If we happened upon a 'Disco' you could guarantee that at some point in the night Chris would suddenly, without provocation, bounce into the middle of the dance floor and start 'Cossack Dancing' and this was always a good time to swap rolls, as Dave used to hate it!

 

 Jon went through a phase of 'Bear Hugging' any girl he was lucky enough to be chatting with and alas, I have to admit, I just can't help doing 'The Moonwalk' after several pints, which as you can imagine lead to some very strange looks! I also seem to remember Chris ending up at the doctor's with some bruised ribs.... said it was Jon.... and his antics on a saturday night..... nuff said!

 

 Dave would always frown at the thought of having to dance 'Disco' style and would be often found stood at the edge of the dancefloor, arms folded, checking the time and shaking his head at the 'BAD' music.

 

 I've searched and searched through many a photo taken on our 'lads nights' out' and ironically I can't seem find any of Dave doing the elusive D.P. it's as if it never really happened at all, although I know for a fact that it did. It's just that every time we saw him like this and asked him if he was OK and begged for a few more minutes in the pub, he smiled and joined in with us, even though he really wasn't OK at all,  just to make US feel better. He would never let his own discomfort bring anybody down, especially if he saw we were having such a good time.

 

 Strangely enough I think some of the best nights that I have had has been at places I wouldn't normally go to, doing things that I wouldn't normally do and that was true of Dave too. The key here is, as the song says 'It ain't what you do it's the way that you do it!' and it's our choice of company what matters rather than where or what we are doing.

 

 I suppose we also exaggerated our dislike of some things and enjoyment of others just to wind each other up, because thats' half the fun. Believe me, Dave would get his own back ten fold as we all knew he would... remember the 'rock hugging saga?'

 

 But this is my point: I think that this is what sums Dave up more than anything. He would join in with us no matter what we were doing whether he liked it or not, just because he knew we liked doing it.

 

 Dave was happy to see that we were happy and I can think of no better friendship than that!

So I think that everyone should do the D.P. but there are some proviso's.

 

 1: You must be amongst friends or doing what you are doing for their benefit.

 

 2: You must stand, arms folded, you must appear frustrated and dismayed. Shaking of the head is optional and so is tutting.

 

 3: You must (and this is the most important thing of all) be thinking about Dave as you stand there.

 

 4: Get someone to take a picture of this 'rare' moment and send it in to us so we can add it to our collection.

 

 Times, dates and places would be nice.