Sorry to hear about Durham.

It may not be a rashly made choice but in the case of Farlington it has not had the desired effect.

The pub used to be EXACTLY what you describe and what Mr Smith wanted. It was a lively village pub where people went to talk. It had a range of clientele from farmers and farm workers, to managing directors who all went to drink (liberally) and chat. For a pub in the middle of nowhere it was surprisingly busy. People went because there would be the hubbub of conversation, a diversity of views and you could also get anything mended (!) or help on pretty much anything.

What has happened now?

In an attempt to replace some of the lost trade they are now trying to encourage (younger) people in to play pool and people to come in and eat. Apart from early friday evenings there are now fewer people who go in to talk - primarily because there is noone in there. On a monday or tuesday it is now down to selling about 18 pints in the evening. Last Wednesday the Area Manager went in at 10pm and I think there were two or three people in - she apparently does not know why the music has gone. (There was some thought that she might have gone to check if we were there which I think unlikely. At the same time, there were 20 of us singing and playing in our new local pub which grows weekly).

At Farlington (and more obviously at Nellies) we sang in a separate area so that people could still drink and converse. In fact there were always a group of people in the pub in the other bar when we were there - now there are pretty much none.

I believe there is a management liaison meeting tomorrow at Smiths where hopefully more will be made clear. More managers are leaving I hear and there is considerable bad feeling that the brewery is making it harder and harder for the managers to do things - functions are out as music is not ok, they can't do this, they can't do that - as it becomes harder to keep takings to previous years levels they put their bonuses in jeopardy etc They have been here before though. They stopped discos some time ago in certain places and killed a load of trade off. So little will probably change.