Bank Holidays and More Bank Holidays!!!
- The Crow Crew
- May 21
- 6 min read
We seem to be hurtling through this year with more speed than a 3am raver in a field with a glow stick! Somehow, we have smashed through three bank holidays, four Winters, two Summers and a bit of Spring and we are now nearly half way through 2025!!! This weekend is yet another bank holiday and we fully intend to celebrate it in style... but we'll share more about that, (and the motherload of fantastic events that we have lined up this year), in just a bit!
It's been a while since our last update and things here at Crooked Crow HQ have been going pretty bloomin' well! The master plan is still to enter our new lease (which is still in the process of being signed for the next 5 years) with more regular events running throughout the week every month. Touch wood, the plan seems to be working as our midweek Candlelight Sessions, OSP original music nights, quizzes, drag cabaret's and comedy nights have been really popular.
Adding a new regular event is kind of like gardening (...stay with me on this!), sorting a placement that works so the event can thrive, nurturing it in its infancy, not overcrowding it and obviously... if you realise that once it's grown it looks crap and it's full of pricks, you rip it out and plant something else!!! Anyway, naff analogies aside, we have now introduced 3/4 of our Sunday events, half of our Wednesdays and 3/4 of our Thursdays, so while it seems a bit of a painstaking process, progress is being made, and hopefully by the end of June, we have regular events being held every Wednesday-Sunday every single week! Other plans include offering a work from home space during the weekdays (launching on Tuesday 10th June), plans for our festival this August are well underway and (finally), the upstairs games room will be revealed later this year.
You may have noticed that our website has had a fabulous new makeover. Owning a grassroots venue often means that you have to turn your hands to all sorts of jobs, whether they sit within your skill set or not! For example, anyone who has met me will know, my brutal honesty and zero tolerance do not lend themselves to being in a customer service role... Our 1 star "The proprietor called me a fascist due to my views on Donald Trump" review is evidence of that! Well, despite having extremely limited technical skills, I had managed to cobble together our original website and it looked (in my humble opinion), perfectly adequate! But I wanted to be able to include more information about our regular events as well as adding all of this year's event listings... which was problematic! Putting up numerous events and info but not having reams of text to read through, and having the upcoming events showing as a list, without it being pages long once months of events were added, meant that the site would need a revamp (and that I was massively out of my depth)!!! Luckily, my very clever friend Bev took pity on me and managed to completely overhaul our site, and it looks FANTASTIC! So stay tuned as we add to the regular events section, and will be listing all of the upcoming events for 2025 later this week!
We have made the decision to raise the cost of tickets bought on the door, so it becomes cheaper to buy tickets online in advance. This is fairly standard practice at most venues, but isn't something we'd ever considered. There has been an industry wide problem with advance ticket numbers and we have seen many fantastic gigs and festivals cancelled this year due to lack of advanced sales (we had to pull one of our events recently for the same reasons). Buying in advance where possible, means that we can ensure that we are not running at a loss, the performers can ensure that they will be able to deliver a good show, we can manage our staffing/stock etc etc. This year we have been running some shows that have only sold 30-50% tickets in advance, which then sell out on the door, but it feels like each of these nights are a huge gamble. Like most grassroots venues, we run on tight margins, all our costs go out in advance (staff, events, stock), then any revenue (ticket sales, beer sales etc) comes back to us after each event. So it would only take a few consecutive bad nights/weeks before we ran out of cash flow and were effectively out of business, thus why the advanced ticket sales are vital to us. So if you are able to buy in advance for our events, please do!!!
Anyway, without further ado, lets show you what exciting events we have coming up at The Crooked Crow Bar...
Friday 23rd May: DefTunes
Manchester based, Deftunes, are the only UK dedicated tribute to the legendary Deftones... And we have snapped them up ready to come and rock out on The CCB stage!!! This is going to be EPIC!!!
Tickets are £8 adv (£12 on the door) so get yours while you can!!
18+
Doors are 8pm (ignore the poster)! And band will start at the usual time of 9-9:30pm
DON'T MISS OUT!!!
SATURDAY 12-6PM: BYO VINYL
All genres welcome, friendly atmosphere, great decks and pa, no pre-booking needed, just pop down and give your favourite vinyl a spin.
SATURDAY 9PM: DELOREAN
They're back!!! Herts based rock band that absolutely blew us away when they last gigged at The CCB! It will be rock, it will be awesome, but dancing shoes will still be required!!! These guys only get out our way once a year, so do yourselves a favour and don't miss the best rock party in town!
Free entry. 18+
Sunday 25th May 12-8pm: Bank Holiday Mayhem!!!
12-4pm: Ska From The Bar
DJ's Double Deckers will be spinning the finest ska, soul, punk & rock & roll classic vinyl.
5-8pm: Thunderlips
Live 00s pop punk, emo and nu metal anthems!
PLUS we will be serving loaded Mexican Nachos at the bar (vegan & gf options available).
Free Entry. 18+
WED 28th MAY: CASTLE COMEDY NIGHT
A classic mixed bill of comedy featuring TV names and rising stars.
SOL BERNSTEIN - The World's Oldest Living Jewish Comedian and UK circuit legend! Sol invites us to listen to his tales of the high life with the biggest names in showbiz, musings on how the world has changed, and being just an ordinary Jew with world-beating wit, unbounded talent and death-defying chutzpah. Winner: Spirit of The Fringe 2004
MATTHEW McALOONE - A BBC Comedy Award finalist, Northern Irish storyteller Matthew McAloone is known for his confident stage presence and his sharp writing. He performs regularly at some of the biggest comedy clubs in the UK, including The Comedy Store, The Stand and The Glee Club. He was host of Theo Von’s Shepherds Bush O2 Empire show and has toured South Africa and Europe.
MARK BITTLESTONE - is convinced that he’s the only gay man doing comedy in the world so please be respectful and don’t tell him otherwise! A London-based stand-up comedian with over 200,000 followers and 100 million views online!
PAUL REVILL hosts the show
FRIDAY 30th MAY: PURE D&B
Calling all of you Drum & Bass lovers! Join us for a night of pure DnB DJ's live from 8pm-00am.
Tickets are just £5 adv !!!
SATURDAY 31st May: ELASTIC CATS
Dust off those dancing shoes as the guys from The Elastic Cats are back at The CCB and they will be ready to get the party started with indie/rock belters from 9pm!
Free Entry. 18+
THURSDAY 5th JUNE: OSP INTRODUCING
WHAT: OSP Introducing
(The best original music)
WHEN: Thursday 1st June, 8pm
WHERE: The Crooked Crow Bar, Leighton Buzzard, LU7 1DH
Original Sound Promotions Presents...
3x fantastic original Grunge bands:
STRAY FOX | AFTER HOURS | TECHNIQUE
This is your chance to support the original music scene, independent bands & a grassroots venue, all in one EPIC night of live music!!!
18+
Entry just £5 otd (door monies split between bands)
Dig out your diaries and keep an eye on our website as all events for 2025 will be listed by the end of next week!!!
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