trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists

Subject: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: Jack Campin
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 08:47 AM

Two annoying trends:

- small high tables. Much harder to keep your instruments ready on them without a risk of them falling.

- tabletops with thick timber. The clamp on an instrument prop won't open wide enough to grip it.

Both seen at more than one pub in Edinburgh in the last few weeks, places that used to be more conveniently furnished.

I am going to have to start bringing a carpenter's G clamp to use as a pub prop if the current trend continues.

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: Johnny J
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 09:30 AM

Uncomfy stools or at the opposite end..over comfy armchairs which also take up too much room.

What's wrong with simple chairs?

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: Johnny J
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 09:32 AM

Of course, bars aren't designed for the benefit of musicians but such furniture isn't very good for diners either.

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: RTim
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 09:38 AM

What has become of the old Rose & Crown.............?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqCm1WfCE4E

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: GUEST,Some bloke
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 10:46 AM

Call me weird if you like but I find it important to ask before attaching clamps to a pub's furniture.

The buildings we call pubs are not the pubs of yesterday and to survive they have to ensure they cater for people who pay their wages. Folk club audiences certainly arent in that demographic. One in three is driving, one in two has a soft drink and I often see bottled water brought in by such people. The only time I ever see that is by folk audiences...

I'm grateful to those establishments that cater for such events but the days of pubs fighting over getting a folk club business and the hundreds of drinks per night have long gone. Most owners dont efen know what we are all missing.

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: GUEST,Dave Hunt
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 01:32 PM

Tim your YouTube link does not work ,,,Says - Unavailable

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: RTim
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 02:01 PM

Must be because difference between US and UK......??

Rose & Crown - Ian Robb

Oh [D]what has become of the [A7]old Rose and [D]crown
the ship the King's arms and the [Em]world Upside [A]Down?
For [D]oak, brass and leather and a [Em]pint of the [A7]best
[D]fade away like the [G]sun as it [Em]sinks in [A7]the [D]west.
{eoc}

Come gather round friends, and I'll tell you a tale
It's a story well known to all lovers of ale
The old English pub, once a man's second home
Has been decked out by bewers in plastic and chrome

And the old wooden bar where the pumps filled your class
Gives way to formica and tanks full of gas
The old landlord behind, once a man of good cheer
Just mumbles the price as he hands you your beer.

And where are the friends who would meet for a jar
Or a good game of darts in the old public bar?
The dartboard is gone, in its place is a thing
Where you pull on the handle, and lose all your tin.

But the worst of it all's what they've done to the beer
With shandies and lagers that will make you feel queer
For an arm and a leg, they will fill up your glass
With a half and half mixture of ollage and gas.

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 02:19 PM

I find it important to ask before attaching clamps to a pub's furniture

I don't. They are less likely to cause a problem than putting a glass down.

Trends like this make me want to design a clamp that you attach with a nailgun.

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: meself
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 03:27 PM

"Most owners dont efen know"

I hate to be a pedant - but shouldn't that be "don't eff'n know"?

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 03:55 PM

well don't go into these places! it only encourages them...bit like voting for the Tories really

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: Mo the caller
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 04:07 PM

Considering the price of soft drinks I don't think that we prefer them should be cause for complaint.

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 06:22 PM

It's diabolical what they are doing to modernize pubs..

where are we supposed to spit, bleed, and puke since they stopped covering the public bar floors with sawdust...!!!???

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 06:41 PM

Wobbly tables. Jaysus. Not only do they cause the sloppage of beer into my harmonicas, but they also cause the latter to slide far too easily on to the floor, especially when some jack-knived tit with a mandolin is going so berserk with his foot-tapping that he keeps kicking the table. Thank Christ for beer mats.

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 07:58 PM

All very well to say don't go into them, Jim, but they may be the same pub that you've been going to for the last 30 years, and have just had a "make-over", supposedly in the interests of those who use them on the other 6 nights per week when the folk club isn't there. I well remember one pub, which Jack C, will know well: came in one night and all the old chairs had been replaced with "bucket" wraparound seats - comfy enough to sit in, but useless for instrumental playing: so we moved to the "Function Room" and now sit around big tables on dining chairs - their tables are TOO THIN for a "pub prop" to bite, so everyone leaves guitars behind them in cases until called upon to play or sing.
Then our local has gone to the chunky ginormous tables and huge chairs, 2/3 of which at least have arms: the sheer size of these things immediately cuts down on how many musicians you can pack in......but again, the rest of the MONTH in this case is NOT session night, and yer man has to make a living out of selling nice meals and fine wines!

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Dec 17 - 02:26 AM

The truest and only relevant things stated on this thread:

1 - bars aren't designed for the benefit of musicians;
2 - don't go into these places!;
3 - yer man has to make a living out of selling nice meals and fine wines!

Nobody in their right mind is going to model their business that is normally open for business 365 days of the year for a group of people who use the place on 12, 25 or 50 times in the course of a year. Particularly when the following observation of that group is taken into account:

"......to survive they have to ensure they cater for people who pay their wages. Folk club audiences certainly aren't in that demographic. One in three is driving, one in two has a soft drink and I often see bottled water brought in by such people. The only time I ever see that is by folk audiences..."

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 08 Dec 17 - 03:03 AM

Guest, some bloke:Call me weird if you like but I find it important to ask before attaching clamps to a pub's furniture.

Pub prop weclamps are made from soft rubber. The only part that's not is the actual clamp screw, which never comes into contact with any part of the table.

Re makeovers :the silliest I've seen was a local pub with nearly two centuries of character and patina which was completely gutted and refurnished. The new bar, tables, walls and furnishings were then comprehensively artificially distressed to try and make them look "old"! WTF?

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: Mr Red
Date: 08 Dec 17 - 04:50 AM

, one in two has a soft drink

More profit in liquids that don't need as much maintenance, sell by date and such.

And as a lister of venues - I can assure you the trend is for pubs to unceremoniously dump their Folk Clubs and sessions, or bump them the minute there is a wedding/birthday booking. Quite a few have to meet in a Village Hall or private house.

When you see the number of pubs closing, it is not hard to see what is going on. Landlords/managers will try anything to stay solvent. And they are experts (?) at running pubs, not folkies.

A notable exception, and wildly successful, is the landlord of the Fleece in Bretforton (nr Evesham). Nigel is a Morris man, and the pub is 400 years old (600 as a buliding) owned by the National Trust. 3/4 folk sessions a month and Nigel puts on concerts in the Barn, he branched out into running the bar at Warwick and Bromyard folk festivals. Because he was hiring a marquee so often he bought the tent company, and probably as a pension pot, he bought the Cardinals Hat in Worcester which, no surprise, has a folk night. And he is a thoroughly nice guy, which is part of the reason for his success IMNSHO.

The pub has furniture that may be 100 or more years old, and marks round the fires to ward off witches coming down the chimney. I ain't never seen a witch, there so they must work.

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: GUEST,Richard Robinson
Date: 08 Dec 17 - 08:39 AM

Chairs with arms that get in the way of your elbows - whether trendy or not (the chairs. The trendiness of instrumentalists' elbows is a separate issue).

My current session (the Golden Lion, Lancaster, Sunday evening) is in a very small room, containing a large sofa and 3 soft armchairs. We tend to end up with people perched on the arms of the sofa, on the window-ledge, on stools, while the supposed seating remains empty. Which is silly but, as pointed out above, isn't going to bother the pub much because we're not a major source of income.

And then, offtopically, the presence of empty comfortable chairs encourages a secondary issue - spectators. "Ooh, Folk Music, how nice"; being a v. small room, they then feel obliged to interact with us ...

Subject: RE: trendy pub furniture vs instrumentalists
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 09 Dec 17 - 05:41 PM

Slight thread drift, but since it's been mentioned - people bringing in their own bottled water or soft drinks - it ain't on, unless perhaps you are buying a drink from the bar too, and just taking a wee gulp of water to improve your singing voice between songs.
There was one famous occasion at a certain festival where the barman ordered "everyone out" as they'd all been treating the licensed venue as if it was BYOB, and bringing in their own food to a place that sold food.
But on the other hand - the price of soft drinks - my usual will be a pint of lime and soda. The cheapest I get it (pub price) is 20p - "Just for the lime - soda water from the mixer tap is free" - then other places: not even city centre/posh pubs charge up to £3.60. for the same - how CAN they justify that? Now that sort of extortion would tempt you to BYOB!