Would a rum and Coke have been considered an expensive drink in 1990s working-class Britain?

> The character in the song is a student (presumably drinking in the bar) at quite an exclusive art college in London. The song was written in the days when university was free, so this art college being "exclusive" is irrelevant to the financial status of the narrator. > We're not talking about people so poor they don't know what a malt whisky is or for whom alcohol itself is an extravagance We are. This is a person for whom "rum and coca cola" is a treat. He isn't the type of person who would be an aficionado of single malt whisky and would most likely have never tried it. > The narrator is clearly a person of some level of privilege. The narrator is someone who invites us to consider a life with "no money", lying in bed at night watching "roaches climb the wall". This is not a life of privilege. > It would have been utterly unremarkable for someone to order an OVD & coke or a vodka & coke or similar, in the rough as nails pubs on the council estates around where I grew up in the 90s. That's irrelevant, firstly because we are talking about rum, not "OVD" whatever that is. Secondly, just because someone is in a council estate pub, doesn't mean they are in poverty. > And you were hardly talking significantly more expensive than a pint. Slightly, if not negligibly. In the early 90s, a pint of lager in a student union bar would have been around £1.20, perhaps less. A rum and coca cola would have been £3 at least, bar any special offers. This is a significant difference for someone with limited means.