Buffet Car Attendants The MMs Bar Recording

• Buffet Car Attendants – sample one
• Buffet Car Attendants – sample two
• Buffet Car Attendants – sample three

• 1. sample one
• 2. sample two
• 3. sample three

Oh that Jonny Trunk, he is a hoot. His latest quirky offering is this unusual but hilarious collection of buffet car announcements recorded over a period of three months on the Leicester to London train.

Spelt “MMs” and pronounced the “Em’s Bar”, this small hive of buffet activity used to live in Coach F on the Midland Mainline trains (hence the “MM”) running between Leicester and London. At the beginning of each train journey, the staff at the MMs Bar would announce that it was, or in some cases was not, open for business. Business meant hot food, light snacks and a dazzling array of hot drinks.

Making the journey weekly between 2006 and 2007 was Sandra Cross. An artist working on an ongoing project exploring food, she recorded the MMs bar announcements whenever she got on the train. There was no consistency as to when the announcements would start, sometimes at the beginning of a journey, sometimes they pipe up several minutes after the train had started. You’ll hear that recordings have a wide fluctuation in quality based on a wide variety of voice, tone and delivery. Simply shunted together like old rail yard stock, these basic recordings represent a strangely engaging set of monologues all based on the same exciting menus and occasional “safety information”.

Sadly the MMs bar is no more, and has been replaced by the far less attractive trolley system. Apparently the bar is still there, but the shutters remain permanently shut.

Ruddy hilarious and strangely hypnotic!