A few weeks ago I was contacted by Gene Kirkland, a photographer by trade about a new project he was involved in. It’s his new “Rock & Roll By the Pint” series of glasses. At first, I thought “eh”, it’s just a glass. But then when he said he’d send me a couple, I thought I’d take a look. So I told him to send me something, I’d give it a shot.
Gene sent me a couple of glasses, both Dio glasses. He sells more than just the Dio glasses, there’s also ones for Slash as well. However, given I run a Sabbath site, the Dio glasses were of more interest to me. So they arrived, and I waited a few days till I was going to sit down and have a beer anyway. Was watching a Texas Rangers game a week ago or so, and decided to have a go. Normally I just drink my beer out of a bottle, but this time I went with Gene’s Dio pint glasses. Got ready and poured myself some Leffe Blonde. Here’s a few pictures of one of the glasses on my counter with the beer in them.
As I said above, normally I drink straight out of the bottle, but this time I used the glasses, and I was glad I did. Not that the glass changes the taste of the beer at all, but using the glass made it feel different somehow. It’s a weird hard to quantify thing, to be honest.
As for the glasses themselves…
- They had a nice, really SOLID feel. I didn’t feel like I was holding a cheapie piece of crap. I’ve had licensed merchandise before where – let’s be fair, the quality just isn’t there (haven’t we all?). That’s not the case here. When I was holding the glass, it felt solid. It was good weight glass, it wasn’t thin and cheaply made, that’s for sure.
- The artwork was quite nice, too. The picture of Ronnie was taken by Gene himself. Gene told me the picture was taken on the Heaven & Hell “The Devil You Know” tour (more specifically the Aug 10, 2009 gig in San Francisco, CA). It’s a pose we all know Ronnie for, so it’s pretty iconic, for sure. It includes the classic phrase “Long Live Rock & Roll”. The other side is the familiar Dio logo. That the artwork wasn’t just slapped on the glass is a plus. I’ve seen plenty of official merchandise where it’s just “person’s face”, or a logo on the glass and nothing more. There’s some art design behind this, it’s just just “Ronnie’s Face on a glass”. I like the circular sunburst kind of design behind Ronnie on here.
I have to say I enjoyed the glasses. Didn’t think I would (mostly because I’m a bottle and not a glass drinker) – but the high quality of the glass and the art made it feel like a quality piece of merchandise. If you’re someone who likes to drink their beer in a pint glass, I suggest taking a look. Since I originally got the glasses, I’ve used them a few more times, so perhaps these glasses may have converted me into a glass drinker, and not just a bottle drinker.
I posted a picture of these the night I got them on the Facebook group for this site. One of Tony Iommi’s producer guys, Mike Exeter had this to say about my pictures.. “Geezers brew in a Ronnie glass!!!! Excellent” Mike’s comment made me chuckle a bit there, as I didn’t consider that angle when I poured. :)
But seriously, if you drink beer, and are a Sabbath fan, check ’em out. If you’re gonna use a glass to drink your beer out of anyway, give this a shot. Good quality glass, nice artwork. Enjoyed it for sure. You can check ’em out over at Gene’s website for the glasses..
http://www.rocknrollbythepint.com
