Zoe Williams (18 October) says spend more time in pubs if you don’t want them to close. Zoe, I would like to spend more time in the pub in Headingley that’s been my local since 1973. But since the recent “refurbishment” they’ve removed all the stained glass from the windows and the music is played 10 times louder to keep old fogeys like me out of the Original Oak!
Dr Khosro S Jahdi
Headingley, Leeds
• In the 1916 photos of the British West Indies Regiment that I have seen, although the soldiers are armed (Letters, 20 October), it is surely not without significance that their rifles are the long Lee Enfield type – Boer war vintage. All other British troops at this date were equipped with the short magazine Lee Enfield rifle – more modern, reliable and more suitable for trench warfare.
Peter Betts
Liverpool
• What fun to see echoes of the interview with Neil Tennant (‘Sometimes I think, where’s the art, the poetry?’, G2, 22 October) in the headline “West End swirls” in the big picture in the same day’s letters spread. It creates an image of the Guardian office dancing along to the beat!
Nan Waterfall
Marlesford, Suffolk
• Recent letters about female guitarists (Letters, 22 October) should be set alongside the August 2005 correspondence about female bass players. The legendary session musician Carol Kaye (now 83 years old) straddles both categories.
Toby Wood
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
• It’s all very well citing lead and rhythm guitarists, but for others it’s all about the bass as played by musicians such as Suzi Quatro and Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth.
Derrick Cameron
Stoke-on-Trent
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