Apricot Sidecar cocktail

Before I was a journalist, I was a musician of sorts – a job that mainly involved lugging my amp around London in the rain and playing to half-empty rooms that smelled of stale beer. Then, one day in 2007, the band I was in got a call from the White Stripes: they wanted us to support them on tour. We played Vienna, Rome, Milan, Paris and London. The Sidecar cocktail will always remind me of Paris. It was a June night, and swelteringly hot. There were snails on the rider. And at one point there was definitely more than one person in the backstage shower. We careened through our set and then watched, from the side of the stage, as a sea of fists punched the air to “Seven Nation Army”.

Afterwards, high on adrenaline and Jameson whiskey, we sped off in convoy to the Hemingway Bar at The Ritz. Jack White ordered the bar’s signature, a Sidecar, made with cognac from 1865. It cost the best part of a grand. “This is for all the musicians who played tonight,” he said, holding the drink aloft. “Everyone, take a sip.” As it passed among us, the room fell silent for a moment.

How did it taste? I’m afraid I can’t remember – by that stage my tastebuds were shot. But it’s a memory I’ll treasure forever. Even if we did miss our ferry home the next day. This is my twist on the classic Sidecar, made with a little extra dash of stone-fruit liqueur.