Rowdy Pub’s Patrons Get Into the Act

It’s more like a yell-along than a sing-along Thursday nights at Pickwick’s.

Banging their beer glasses on the tables of the Woodland Hills pub, hordes of patrons keep a tipsy semblance of time to songs from the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, while screaming words of the choruses.

To prepare for the weekly bacchanal, Pickwick’s new owner, Craig Holman, recently vacuumed the sawdust off the wood floors and covered them with thick carpeting in hopes of reducing his glassware bill.

Holman, an Englishman whose primary source of income is his insurance agency, has also cracked down on overcrowding since he bought the place about a year ago. Now, a long line of would-be Mick Jaggers and Tiny Tims snakes down the block, waiting to pay a $3 cover charge for guitarist Gary Ballen to take them on a musical rock ‘n’ roller coaster back in time.

Ballen, 37, has tirelessly been playing the same old songs at the pub since he started the sing-along seven years ago.

“Strange as it is, I must have sung ‘Twist and Shout’ a million times, but I still dig it cuz the crowd digs it,” said Ballen, who has a full-time job managing rap groups. “The thing I like about it is I can stop playing, and the whole crowd will belt out the song.”

They don’t call them baby boomers for nothing.

One Thursday recently, the twenty-to-thirtysomething crowd that jammed the pub sang loud, albeit somewhat off-key, versions of such favorites as the Flintstones theme song and “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones.

“I’m a terrible singer, but that’s what’s great,” said Chris Atkinson, 25, of Calabasas. “You can grind it out, and with the whole crowd singing, no one can hear you.”

Ballen takes requests, but don’t ask for Barry Manilow because he won’t play any of his music. However, he occasionally plays an original ballad called “The Bumper Sticker Song.” The first verse goes like this:

If you can read this bumper sticker, you’re much too close

Truckers carry big loads

If you love Jesus, honk your horn

Slow down, I brake for unicorns

Many patrons are regulars who say they look forward to Thursday nights at the pub as a release from working and studying.

“You don’t get that snotty crowd like at dance clubs,” said Greg Hodgson, 24, a physical therapy student at CSUN. “It’s basically a fun, let-loose, Levi’s and T-shirt type of place.”

The pub really gets in a frenzy when Ballen strums the first chords of “Wipe Out,” a surf-rock instrumental first performed by the Surfaris in 1963. One patron, wearing buttons pinned to her neon green shirt that say “Responsibility Is a Bitch” and “I Like Boys,” even begins to shriek like an old-time Beatle fan.

Despite the new carpet, several beer mugs bounce off the tables and break when patrons use them as drumsticks. Other people beat time wildly on the darkly varnished benches.

At one time, the song was banned by the former owner because the crowd got so rowdy, Ballen says. Even now, owner Holman cringes when Ballen plays “Wipe Out,” but he hasn’t banned it because “it’s part of the legend of Thursday nights at Pickwick’s,” he said.

For people who like to hear themselves sing, the pub also has sing-alongs on Friday and Saturday nights that draw a more subdued crowd, Holman said.

Pickwick’s, 21010 Ventura Blvd. Sing-alongs Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Pub’s hours are Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., Sunday, 11 a.m. to midnight.