I first came across him in the mid-1970s, he was still "on the ships" then and would reappear every few months, entertaining/terrorising the occupants of The Gate and The Prince of Wales for a couple of weeks. It was one of these visits, probably in the winter of 1975/6, which led to him being known to us as The Norwegian. In fact, I never knew, or even considered, his real name until a few years ago, when I spotted him on one of the Stafford Past pages.
He, unsurprisingly, had no memory of the actual event itself, but, for many years after, people would be alerted to his next return by "The Norwegian is back!".
The incident occurred when a poor, innocent, unsuspecting lorry driver was having a quiet pint in the corner of The Prince, prior to returning to his cab for the night. It being winter, he had a woolly hat on. Bob, having limbered up in The Gate, burst in, grabbed his hat and put it on, going round the whole pub, demanding to be told that he looked like a Norwegian.