From the Dover Express, 7 January 1999.

Smugglers kill pub couple's festive cheer.

A CALL by the drinks industry to bring UK excise duty in line with the rest of Europe has been backed by publicans in Dover.

The call follows figures released by the Brewers and Licensed Retailers' Association showing more than one million pints of beer were smuggled into Britain every day of 1998.

They are based on undercover surveillance of vans arriving from the Continent by ferry at Dover or at Cheriton via Eurotunnel.

The BLRA survey showed 75 percent of an estimated 1.5 million pints of beer which crossed the Channel in 1997 was smuggled for illegal resale.

The association expects 1998 will have seen an increase of four percent in the number of heavily laden vans leaving Calais, to more than 91,000 compared with 87,500 in 1997.

It happens because excise duty in Britain is 32p on each pint compared with 4p in France.

Jackie Bowles, chairman of the 25-member Dover and district branch of the Licensed Victuallers Association, said only harmonisation of excise duty in Europe would stop the huge imports of cheap beer.

She said: "The duty is so incredibly high here the only answer is to bring us together with the French. Either they come up or we go down."

Mrs Bowles said smaller pubs in the Dover area were especially under pressure but the problem was hitting the trade around the country.

Bigger, managed pubs were more able to absorb the unfair trade, said Mrs Bowles. She and her husband Bod have run the Louis Armstrong in Dover for 36 years.

This Christmas trade at the pub, a free house. was their worst ever.

Trade in many pubs has also been hit by changing life styles, such as people buying cans of beer in supermarkets, buying or hiring a video and staying home.

Faversham brewer Shepherd Neame's legal challenge against the Chancellor's 1997 penny-on-a-pint increase is scheduled for hearing on January 25.

The Court of Appeal will also consider the company's second challenge, against this year's 1p rise from January 1, 1999.

Stuart Neame, vice-chairman of Shepherd Neame, said: "In Kent we're in the front line of an increasingly nasty trade which has seen pubs and off-licences close and crime and intimidation flourish.

"It's bizarre on the eve of the 21st century this country is devoting more and more resources to stamp out smuggling, the classic crime of the 18th century."

From the Dover Mercury, 19 September 2002.

FOUR DECADES ON THE PULL

(That's pulling pints, dear, reader!)

IT is difficult to talk about the life of Jackie Bowles without mentioning the Louis Armstrong pub once or twice, so entwined are the two.

After celebrating 40 years as landlady, Jackie invited ARWEN TURNER into her home to share her memories.

POSTERS and instruments clutter the walls of the Louis Armstrong which has been a renowned live music venue for many years.

Landlady Jackie Bowles is sitting upstairs in her front room, surrounded by more personal mementos - photos of her family and bits of her past.

In reality though, the Louis Armstrong is Jackie's past, her present and probably her future.

Born just outside Oxford in November 1939, Jackie arrived in the world two months after the war started.

She lived with her parents in Finchley for nine years before they moved further south.

Her father ran a shirt factory in Folkestone Road, supplying shirts to Bond Street shops and the aristocracy.

"He used to sell to high class shops and all the lords and ladies who still had money to spend despite the war."

Jackie attended St Ursula's convent, leaving at 16 after becoming head girl.

From there she went to board at St Mary's convent in Folkestone to study for her A Levels. Teacher training at a college in London followed and she found a job in Cavendish Square.

In August 1962 Jackie married Bod Bowles and set up home in the flat next door to the pub that would come to dominate her life.

"Bod's mum ran the post office next door so we lived in the flat above that.

"Bod was working at the engineering works and I got a job teaching maths at my old school St Mary's and we were settling into married life when Bod dropped his bombshell."

Jackie came home from the school one night in September to find the pub, then called The Grapes, dark and deserted.

The previous tenants had gone bankrupt and Bod had decided that he and Jackie could do a much better job.

"When he suggested it I was gobsmacked.

"I'd only been married for a month, just started a new job and had no idea how to even pull a pint, let alone run a whole pub."

But take over they did.

"At that time they only gave tenancies to married couples so I had to be interviewed by the brewery as well, I had to go on a Saturday because I was working and they said it was fine and then told us we should open on the following Monday."

The first hurdle completed Jackie and Bod now had to get the pub up and running.

The building was almost derelict when they moved in and Jackie had to finish her first term at the school, and then she found out she was pregnant with her first child.

"There was no central heating, not much stock, and I was working and pregnant.

"To say it was difficult is probably an understatement!"

By the late 1960s the couple were firmly ensconced in the pub.

Daughter Jane was born in May 1963 was joined by Sarah in March 1965 and the pub had become famous the live music venue for Dover. Despite the hard times Jackie has more fond memories of the pub than she can recall in one afternoon.

One that is forever in her mind however is the night they changed the pub to its current name.

"We changed it in 1971 the year after Louis Armstrong died. There was another pub in Dover called The Grapes and jazz was such an important part of what we were about we thought Louis would be much more fitting. We had a great party for our re-opening night - lots of jazz musicians came and played well into the night." In 1980 Jackie and Bod bought the pub from Charringtons and it became a free house.

Being the outright owners also meant they could knock the two bars into one open space and create a raised stage for the musicians who now occupied the pub almost every night of the week.

"Tuesday was about the only day we didn't have music.

"We had folk during the week, rock on Friday nights and on Sundays we had the jazz groups to remind us of where it all started." Jackie has also become involved with local licensing groups and was an active campaigner against bootlegging.

Away from the pub, not that she gets much time away, Jackie loves gardening and has a passion for Thames barges and boats. "I try to have one night a week off but I don't always succeed. If I do I always go out, otherwise you just get called upon anyway.

"I go to the theatre occasionally and I love eating out."

In October 2000 Bod died after a long illness. It was hard when he was ill.

"Running a pub is a two person business really, and I was trying to do it on my own and look after him as well."

Luckily Jackie has the help of her two daughters and more recently grandson Luke to keep the pub going.

Music still echoes round the pub several nights a week and the customers keep on coming.

Jackie though may be coming to the end of an era. "It's in the back of my mind to sell, but I don't know if I can face the wrench.

"This pub is my life and leaving all that behind is a scary thought."

From the Dover Express, 9 April, 2009 Report by Rhys Griffiths

Ugly Ducking into beautiful homes

Let's party at the Louis

Musical reunions at birthday bash

PERFORMERS from Dover's long-established music scene will be reuniting for a special weekend next month.

Musicians and friends will be gathering at the Louis Armstrong pub in Maison Dieu Road on November 6 to kick off a weekend-long party to mark the 70th birthday of the town's longest-serving landlady on November 7.

Jackie Bowles and her late husband Bod's pub has been the hub of the Dover live music scene for decades.

Among the musicians getting involved in the party are Mick Morris and Jack Castle, who were part of cult progrock outfit Mirkwood back in the 1970s.

It will be a rare return to the town for Jack, who has been based in Pembrokeshire since the 1980s and describes himself as an honorary Welshman. He first played with Mick back in 1967 when he joined the band Take 5 and the Friday evening show will be the first time he has performed in his home town for more than 20 years.

Mick said: "The Louis is just such a special place for us all, and I know Jack is hoping that a lot of people who he has met and got to know over the years will come down.

"It has been a very important place for me and was a very important place for MirkWood when we started out. It is fair to say the Louis was our spiritual home.

"The pub has got a unique place in the history of live music in this area, and it's hard to know where Dover would be without it."

From the Dover Express, 13 August, 2009.60p

DRINK FESTIVAL

THE "Louis Armstrong" pub in Dover is holding a cider and beer festival on Friday, August, 28 through to Sunday, August 30.

For more information call 01304 204759.

From the Dover Express, Thursday, 23 August, 2012. 65p. Report by Phil Hayes

GRANDSON TO PLAY AT GIG IN MUSIC CLUB CHIEF'S MEMORY

POPULAR PRESENCE: A gig is being held in honour of former Express photographer and LA Music Academy founder Eddie Clapson

His band are among acts who will pay tribute to Eddie

THE GRANDSON of a former Express photographer is set to perform at a gig in honour of the popular local figure.

The LA Music Academy is putting on an all-day music extravaganza in tribute to founder Eddie Clapson, who died at the age of 71 after a short fight with lung cancer earlier this year.

Members of the academy - which helps young people kick-start their music careers - wanted to put on the gig to raise funds for the Pilgrim's Hospices, whose staff cared for Eddie in his final days.

Respects

Co-founder Mick Morris said: “A huge number of young people from the club have queued up to pay their respects to him.

“He was unbelievably popular with the youngsters. The kids saw him as an extra grandfather.

“Eddie was a wonderful chap who did a huge amount of good in the town over a long period."

To be honest the club can't do enough for him.”

Eddie was a good singer and was the lead vocalist in a group in the 1960s.

After a short spell as a postman in Dover Eddie was recruited by the Dover Express as a photographer.

Eventually he became the newspaper's chief snapper, taking hundreds of photographs of people and events in Dover, Deal and Sandwich.

As a child he suffered from polio, which left him with a slight limp, but that did not stop him playing a lot of sport.

He was noted as a boxer at one stage. He also managed a series of football teams.

In his retirement he formed the LA Music Academy with Mick Morris.

His grandson Jake's band, Deep Water Horizon, are among a long list of acts performing at the gig in honour of Eddie. It will be held at the "Louis Armstrong" pub in Maison Dieu Road from 2.30pm on Bank Holiday Monday, August 27.

From the Dover Express, Thursday, 30 August, 2012. 65p. Report by Phil Hayes

HUNDREDS REMEMBER 'GENUINE GUY' EDDIE

TRIBUTE: Hundreds honour Eddie Clapson. Pictured centre is landlady Jackie Bowles (seated) next to Eddie's widow Sandra

Photo by Phil Medgett GIPM20120827C-001_C

THE widow of a former Dover Express photographer led tributes to her late husband at a gig held in his honour and attended by hundreds this week.

Eddie Clapson, who worked for the paper for 17 years, died of cancer at the age of 71 in February. During his retirement he had set up the LA music academy for youngsters.

Budding

These budding musicians - some as young as 12 and all deeply affected by Eddie's passing - turned out in their droves to perform at the "Louis Armstrong" pub on a hot Bank Holiday Monday and help raise money for the Pilgrim's Hospices.

On an emotional day for the Clapson family, which featured a performance by Eddie's grandson Jake, his widow Sandra said: “Today has brought back so many memories.

“We are still trying to come to terms with it. It happened so quickly. They said he had months to live, but it was only six weeks.

“I think this club has done an amazing job. Eddie would have been chuffed to bits. He did it for the kids. He would have been just so proud of them all.”

LA Music volunteer Alan Loader, who lives round the corner from where Eddie used to live in River, said: “We talk about Eddie as if he is still here with us. He was like the engine room of the academy.

“Whenever Eddie was around he just lit the place up. He had an effect on an awful lot of people.

“All the youngsters took his death very badly.”

The owner of the Louis Armstrong, Jackie Bowles, 72, currently recovering from a fractured spine, also took time to pay tribute to Eddie.

The landlady of nearly 50 years at the Maison Dieu Road pub said: “The musicians have done a wonderful job. Eddie would have been over the moon.

“He was one of the most genuine guys I've ever met. I'd like to think we've done him proud.”

While the youngsters showed off their skills inside the pub, some old friends took the chance to catch up in the beer garden, as the party ran from 2pm until after 11pm.

The atmosphere was summed up by reveller Andy Dryden, of London Road. He said: “I've been very impressed with the young talent. I haven't seen an unhappy face here today.”

From the Dover Express, Thursday, 20 September, 2012. 65p. Report by Phil Hayes and Terry Sutton

JACKIE MAKES IT A HALF... CENTURY BEHIND THE BAR

TIME, PLEASE, TO CELEBRATE: Jackie Bowles toasted 50 years of pulling pints at the Louis Armstrong at the weekend.

Epic jam session marks landlady's 50 years at the Louis

JACKIE Bowles remembers when two shillings and threepence could buy you a pint of mild and bitter at her pub.

The "Louis Armstrong" landlady celebrated 50 years at the Maison Dieu Road establishment last weekend as regulars and old friends jammed from Friday through to Sunday night.

Mrs Bowles, 72, said: “I've gone from being the youngest landlady in town to the oldest.

“Everyone was saying last night, ‘You'll be here for another 50 years'. I've no plans to pack up at the moment.”

Musician

The widow of musician Bod Bowles, who died of organ failure in 2000, took over the pub with her husband in 1962 when it was known as The "Grapes."

Bod persuaded the brewers to change the name to "Louis Armstrong" in memory of the famous trumpeter because so many customers gathered there to listen to the music.

One of the visitors on Sunday was Bill Barnacle, who used to be a member of Bod Bowles Jazz Band. Bill said: “Jackie has continued the tradition of jazz nights at the Louis every Sunday night.

“Scores of musicians have played there, going back to the days when members of the Staffordshire Regiment, then based in Dover, attracted jazz lovers.”

Mrs Bowles, who lives at the Louis with her daughter Jane and grandson Luke, said her husband would have loved to see so many friends and fellow musicians at the pub's 50th anniversary.

“He was in my thoughts a lot over the weekend,” she said.

The former maths teacher was pleased to see her pub packed over the weekend, something she says is becoming all too rare.

“When we have something special on it's good but on weekdays it's really poor,” she said. “Prices have gone up, you can't smoke indoors and you can't drive. I can understand why people stay away.”

Mrs Bowles is currently recovering from a fractured back. The mother-of-two and grandmother-of-three suffers from osteoporosis.

“I can cough and break a bone,” she said.

Asked whether she has given up cigarettes as a result, Mrs Bowles said: “No. I'm too old to worry about smoking problems.”