Hey Bert

Product Information

I’m very controlled with alcohol – I have to be. I have certain days I let my hair down like everyone else, but I’m very controlled and I think there’s a lot of people who aren’t and struggle, it’s really sad. I think if you haven’t got that the industry isn’t right for you. I found it more tiresome to sit at a computer than to be running around doing a 14 hours shift on my feet. I moved into restaurants to raise beer money, then I found it left me feeling buzzed.

Hey Bert is a clarion call to open our eyes a little bit wider, of poetry’s capacity to find new ways of looking at our own lives. Poems that speak intensely of the everyday, of nostalgia, friendship and love, the body, the sacred, all seen through Pastore’s unique, eccentric filter of spirit animals, pop-culture, dreams and astrology.

Now I try to to be plant-based and not drink alcohol Monday to Friday, especially if I’m at home. I find if you don’t do that you just put on loads of weight and you’re an absolute mess, so you have to be strict on yourself. I studied Computer Game Design at university, then went to work at Activision – the big gaming company makes Call of Duty – and got my name on the credits for a James Bond film, then left after everyone got made redundant. At one of my previous restaurants I’d start at 9am and finish 2am and I’d have 20 minutes in the day to use the toilet, eat, text a loved one and let my mum know I’m still alive.

Over the rest of the afternoon: Meet with restaurants and put together proposed wine lists for clients. One of my current project involves working for Keythorpe Hall in Leicester, where I tailor the wine each individual guest has for a personalised experience – no two menus are the same. They’ve called me a ‘wine concierge’.I kept pushing and pushing, until about two or three years ago when I got very tired because I burnt myself out, so that’s when I started consulting. I was so bored sat in front of a computer all day. I can’t do that, I need to be in my feet and interacting with people and travelling, otherwise I will literally fall asleep – and I did do that a lot at my desk.