Is it just me, or did Summer seem to last all of five minutes this year?! Having had at least 3 Winters, no Spring and yet another Winter, even my pallid, Casper-esque complexion began longing to be crispy, red and befreckled in some late sunshine. Don't get me wrong, there were a couple of weeks where it was too hot for my trusty jeans and boots, and plenty of days where the humidity made my hair look like somebody had blow-dried a Pomeranian to my scalp, but overall the weather just felt a bit lacklustre. Then just when the Summer finally seemed to make an appearance... boom! It was Autumn! And even Autumn seems to have had a bit of an identity crisis, last week: harvest moon's and cardigan wearing frivolities and this week I've needed to don a snorkel just to be able get to work!
Anyway, that's enough moaning about the weather! Let's get down to business...
The summer months aren't always the easiest time for the events industry. While the pubs can see a bit of a surge in trade, venues often take a bit of a kicking! I think it's because while people are in holiday mode, they might well pop for an impromptu beer, but booking a night out seems excessive if they're off on holiday the next week etc. Plus we are suddenly in competition with festivals, beer gardens, BBQ's, family outings and other events. That said, we had some fantastic gigs throughout the last couple of months, many of which were sold out (Now That's What I Call Drag, An Audience With Richard Jobson, The Smiths Utd, Nerdvana to name but a few) and whilst we weren't expecting a bumper July-August, overall, trade wasn't too shabby at all!
I have explained before about our situation here at The CCB and the decision hanging in the balance of whether I continue into a new lease at the venue. I had our accounts and plans reviewed by experts, who seemed optimistic about our future, and we crunched some numbers and confirmed we ideally needed to secure a 20% increase if things were to get easier. Well, long story short, at the end of my last update, I had declared that I was going to give things my best shot, and aim to go ahead with a new 10 year lease on the building... Whether that decision turns out to be good or bad is yet to be decided! The good news is having embarked on this new solo leg of the journey a couple of months back, I have been rather brutal with cutting the costs and have actually managed to massively reduce our target. Changes have been (and continue to be) slow, as it is incredibly difficult to implement things when you are already up and running and often host 5 events a week! However, things are changing. We have already streamlined the stock, changed the lights, changed various contracts from card machines to bin collections, and we still have loads of things ready to launch by the end of this year: oodles of events, our 1st floor pop-up escape room, work from home daytimes, festivals and more. Until all the changes are all imbedded, I'm sadly going to have to continue these 70+ hour working weeks, so there's every chance that the miniscule amount of tolerance I currently possess may soon be skipping off into the sunset, arm in arm with what's left of my sanity and youth (although to be fair, that arguably already sodded off years ago). Last week when I finished work, two separate Domino's drivers very kindly offered me assistance getting to my car. For context, my car was just a few feet away and I wasn't carrying anything, just was clearly looking like I was 102 and walking like I had lost my horse! But all moaning aside, things are getting better, the future is looking bright and in general, I am pretty happy (well as happy as a fossilised, phantom horse riding, belligerent, music loving, bar owner can be)!
One of the things we decided to introduce at The CCB, is annual fundraising weeks. We are planning to hold 2 every year (one in January and one in September). This will help us catch up from the holiday seasons, as well as giving us the opportunity to showcase various bigger events that we think you will love, from Musicals, Panto's, Festivals, costume parties, big games nights and more. This week was set to be our 1st ever BIG WEEK! We were in two minds whether to launch this year, as I currently have limited time to spend on the events and promotions (see epic rant above) and we had already committed to running a McMillan coffee morning that Saturday, however, never being one to shy away from a challenge, we thought we'd go for it!!!
We have started small (but mighty) this year: a Pirate Night, with fancy dress encouraged, plenty of rum available and a fantastic live sea shanty band ready to entertain! Tickets are £5 advance (available from our website)! As well as our fundraiser, we have a full schedule of events lined up this week...
WED: Castle Comedy Night, ft stand up from Bob Mills!!!
THUR: Bar Night
FRI: Pirate Night (with live sea shanties from Sloop Groggy Dogs)
SAT: 11-1 Coffee Morning (all proceeds for this will go to McMillan Cancer Research)
SAT 1pm-6pm: BYO Vinyl
SAT 8-9pm: Happy Hour
SAT 9pm: El Bronson
SUN 12-4pm: Ska From The Bar
We have decided to postpone our Crowbar in Wonderland Puppet Show, that was originally due to be performed this Sunday at 6pm. The new rescheduled date, along with details of all October/November/December events, will be announced later this week, so watch this space!!!
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