Harry's game still a real winner

Sep 28 2009 By Peter McCusker, The Journal

HARRY Costigan's love of music got him into the pub business and music and pubs still play leading roles in his life, as Peter McCusker discovers.

The Questionnaire

What car do you drive?
A Land Rover.

What’s your favourite restaurant?
Cafe 21 in Newcastle and Restaurant 11 in Moriara on the Costa Blanca.

Who or what makes you laugh?
Just about everything, from Laurel and Hardy to Have I Got News For You?

What’s your favourite book?
As a young child I read Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana Jnr. It was fantastic and I still remember it now. I am an avid lover of autobiographies and read as many as I can.

What’s your favourite film?
Hard to choose a favourite as I am a huge sci-fi and adventure film fan and Spielberg as a director is the master. However, Close Encounters of the Third Kind ranks extremely high.

What was the last album you bought?
As a former DJ I have a garageful. I love Motown and soul music but the last album I bought was for my wife; Michael Buble – It’s Time.

What’s your ideal job, other than your current one?
Managing a vineyard in Spain or hiring pedalos on a Spanish beach.

If you had a talking parrot, what’s the first thing you’d teach it to say?
Last orders please.

What’s your greatest fear?
Losing my enthusiasm and passion for the trade.

What’s the best piece of business advice you have ever received?
You’re only as good as your last profit-and-loss account.

Worst business advice?
Don’t question instructions from above.

What’s your poison?
Red wine with food, otherwise cask ale or Guinness.

What newspaper do you read, other than The Journal?
The Evening Chronicle, of course.

How much was your first pay packet and what was it for?
Two pounds, nine shillings and eight pence in August 1966 for a week’s work as a boy labourer.

How do you keep fit?
I am a member of Greens gym and I do try my hardest to get there – but excuses are far too easy to find.

What’s your most irritating habit?
NUFC.

What’s your biggest extravagance?
NUFC.

Which historical or fictional character do you most identify with/admire?
Admiral Horatio Nelson. He succeeded against all odds.

And which four famous people would you most like to dine with?
Steven Spielberg, Aretha Franklin, Sir Bobby Robson, Jeremy Clarkson.

How would you like to be remembered?
As someone who worked hard and played hard.