choice of pubs and clubs

jimmytheman

hey lad -
was on the town for post Christmas drinks and wondered what happing our city - one 2 night clubs in a city of 60k people - namely Rubys and Oxygen - we need another Bowery or Roxy for sure -
and then Pubs - were are the all gone - Paul Flynns, Bowery Bar, Munster, City Arms, Rorkes, Bailey, O'Gradys yard, old stand - im sure theres more - its crazy! what happened to a good pub crawl and a laugh -
i so miss the Bridge & Roxy!!!

CantGetNoSleep

There are at least two other clubs, the Forum and the Loft

Regarding the pubs, all pubs are losing money lately, and you will have noticed a lot of them having to close their doors in recent years

A lot of them blame things such as off-licences and the smoking ban for this, the price of drink seems like a more likely cause to me

c - 13

Wheres the loft ?

Roanmore

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

There are at least two other clubs, the Forum and the Loft

Regarding the pubs, all pubs are losing money lately, and you will have noticed a lot of them having to close their doors in recent years

A lot of them blame things such as off-licences and the smoking ban for this, the price of drink seems like a more likely cause to me

A lot of pubs got huge offers for their liecenses' that they couldn't refuse. When the dust cleared they were still left with the building which was also worth a lot of money. it was a win win situation for them.

CantGetNoSleep

c - 13 wrote: »

Wheres the loft ?

Upstairs in electric avenue, never been there but I think its mostly a house / techno club, doubt you'd find the same crowd in there as in Rubys though, maybe not the best place to go if you're looking for a woman

c - 13

Oh right cheers, I'd always just assumed that it was a late bar is all. Never really thoguht of it as a club.

ChapOfDRyans

the bridge and the roxy somebody's showing there age all they forgot to mention is egans :D:D

Roen

Peppermint Grove......

Musicman2000

Put it this way lads, one man has the monopoly of clubs in Waterford, and they are complete dumps, Waterford dose need a new commerical club, but the problem is location, as most peope wont walk down the road, then the cost, most clubs are loosing money, then if it did open, be busy for a few weeks and all the sheep would be back to Rubys or Oxygen.

If a club was in a good location in Waterford and looked like something like Time in Nass. It might just do ok, but for the next few years it looks like Rubys and Oxygen

Adyx

There aren't enough people out in Waterford to justify another club. Its all very well saying its a city of 60 thousand people but what happens when on a saturday night only 1500 are going to a club? And you can say that Oxygen and Ruby's are crap so get a new club and stick 1500 people in there but where are you going to put it? It'd probably be crap anyway cause very few people have any imagination or the money to do it properly. For example the idiots that did Oxygen also did Time which is why they both have that stupid wood panelling and red lights all over the place.

Sully

Geoofs, Kaz Bar and EA is okay.

I prefer the pub enviroment, not a club type person!

Psychedelic

Adyx wrote: »

There aren't enough people out in Waterford to justify another club. Its all very well saying its a city of 60 thousand people but what happens when on a saturday night only 1500 are going to a club?

But it's not just Waterford City people that go out in Waterford. There's also towns like Tramore, Dunmore etc with 10K plus population.

And when Ten, The Bowery and The Forum (downstairs main room) were open and putting on dance nights people from Wexford, Kilkenny, Carlow and even Dublin were coming to Waterford every weekend. Ten and The Forum both held 1,000+ capacity and were nearly full most nights, some nights were complete sell outs when the big international acts played.

But now all those venues are gone for one reason or the other (gardai played their negative role here) and now all that's left are the cheese clubs that one man controls. A lot of people would be very against dance clubs but the fact is they drew in a load of people (and their money!) from all over and for a few years Waterford had the best night life on offer outside of Dublin.

ec18

gardai negative role....could you elaborate please?

Psychedelic

gardai negative role....could you elaborate please?

there was a thread about this here a few months back.

long story short, the local gardai were putting pressure on certain night club owners to stop putting on dance nights.

Adyx

Ten and The Bowery might have been busy for the big dance nights or whatever but thats not much good on a normal Saturday night when there's no one in. Clubs cost money to run even when they're not open and neither Ten nor Bowery were making enough money to stay open. It had nothing to do with the guards(at least regards Ten). And all those DJ's cost an absolute fortune. So you make nothing on the door and the bar sales are rubbish too coz you're only giving out water. The exact same thing happened in The Rhythm Room when we had Dj's like Marshall Jefferson there. Made no money despite being full. The point I was making is that while there might be a large catchment area, there actually isnt enough people out on a Saturday night to fill Rubys and Oxygen, (I don't know about the Forum) let alone another club.

merlante

It always cracks me up the way people say there are no clubs in Waterford because they only consider the clubs they go to.

To the best of my knowledge there are, Muldoons/Oxygen, Ruby's, Electric Avenue, Harvey's, The Forum, The Bowery (if it's still open) and someone mentioned the Loft, which I know nothing about. We could do with a few more smaller clubs.

merlante

Adyx wrote: »

The point I was making is that while there might be a large catchment area, there actually isnt enough people out on a Saturday night to fill Rubys and Oxygen, (I don't know about the Forum) let alone another club.

That's because people won't get up off their arses for any old crap.

Psychedelic

Adyx wrote: »

Ten and The Bowery might have been busy for the big dance nights or whatever but thats not much good on a normal Saturday night when there's no one in. Clubs cost money to run even when they're not open and neither Ten nor Bowery were making enough money to stay open. It had nothing to do with the guards(at least regards Ten).

Well the Bowery would've been open during the day all week as a pub and had gigs on at the weekend so should've been making money. But it got bought by City Council anyway so it doesn't matter. The law played their part with regard to dance nights, it was discussed in another thread so i'm not going to get into it again, if you've ever been to the Forum on a dance night you'll understand the impact they have. You are probably right about Ten, it was only ever open on the weekends and not making a big enough profit for the owners.

Adyx wrote: »

And all those DJ's cost an absolute fortune. So you make nothing on the door and the bar sales are rubbish too coz you're only giving out water.

Yes the dj's can be expensive but the ticket prices reflect this; for any big name dj it was always at least €20+ a ticket. Multiply that by 1,000 and you have €20k. Granted there are promotional costs, expenses, rates on the venue etc. but i'm sure there was profit being made. And I don't buy that thing about selling nothing but water, that's an overstatement. There might not be as much drink sold as other clubs but there's definitely large amounts of drink sold.

Sully

Psychedelic wrote: »

there was a thread about this here a few months back.

long story short, the local gardai were putting pressure on certain night club owners to stop putting on dance nights.

And you have proof of this?

Psychedelic

Well, going on what a few club promoters (not the venue owners) said here and on other message boards, apparently the local law wrote letters to venue owners requesting/threatening them not to have any dance nights. Basically it was a case of "if you run a dance night we'll be hassling ye every chance we get" kind of thing, from what i remember.

So no I don't have hard proof myself but i don't see any reason why promoters would lie about this, unless it was a case of misinterpretation/exaggeration on their part. The law got the Metroland closed down years ago so i don't see why they wouldn't do it again.

ec18

what were the reasons they didn't want dance nights held?

JohnC.

Psychedelic wrote: »

Well, going on what a few club promoters (not the venue owners) said here and on other message boards, apparently the local law wrote letters to venue owners requesting/threatening them not to have any dance nights. Basically it was a case of "if you run a dance night we'll be hassling ye every chance we get" kind of thing, from what i remember.

I find it hard to believe they put anything like that in writing.

jimmytheman

i went to forum on ocasion for dance nights - plain cloths cops taking guys into a side room and checking for drugs - same towards the end of ten club ---- tough to get people in when they are being searched!!!!!
as for the loft - got offered drugs 3 times last sat night --- easier to get drugs than get a drink!!!!!!!
we ddi a tour over xmas - 4 of us --- was weird in Kazbar everyone seemed to leave before 12 to go to rubys --- and kazbar is a lete bar - no cover charge - cheaper drinks
we then went to Revolution - another late bar - 30 - 40 people in a huge venue - bar man told me they are full till 12 - then everyone goes to Rubys - pays a tenner in (more over xmas) and an extra euro for most drinks ----
its a mad city ---- but the choice of venue is there --- mostly on John st!!!!

Adyx

Psychedelic wrote: »

Yes the dj's can be expensive but the ticket prices reflect this; for any big name dj it was always at least €20+ a ticket. Multiply that by 1,000 and you have €20k.

When Marshall Jefferson DJ'd in The Rhythm Room he was around GB£21,000 if I remember correctly. We made nothing on the door. I spent most of the night giving out pints of water so the bar did fcuk all as well. Its not as bad as that now alright (Groove Armada in Ten was the biggest night they ever had) but you have to realise that you have to take in a ridiculous amount of money to make it worthwhile.

The Bowery Bar may have been open seven nights a week but there was never anyone in there and the last time I was at a gig in there (Pearl Jam vs Nirvana) there was mostly silly emo kids who spent nothing at the bar.

I can't say for certain about the Forum but Ten closing had nothing to do with the Guards. All the remaining DJ nights booked for Ten were moved to Oxygen when it closed and there was no hassle with guards. Why would there be? It was an easy way for them to pick up dealers.

Sully

Psychedelic wrote: »

Well, going on what a few club promoters (not the venue owners) said here and on other message boards,

No they didnt? I cant find anything to back that statement up. A couple of people posted claiming it to be true, but a large majority of people said it was rubbish.

The thread in question can be read here:

If there are other posts or topics I missed, please let me know.

The law got the Metroland closed down years ago so i don't see why they wouldn't do it again.

From what I can see, I fully support the law shutting it down:
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=52952306&postcount=47

Psychedelic

Sully wrote: »

No they didnt? I cant find anything to back that statement up. A couple of people posted claiming it to be true, but a large majority of people said it was rubbish.

The thread in question can be read here:

If there are other posts or topics I missed, please let me know.

From what I can see, I fully support the law shutting it down:
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=52952306&postcount=47

yeah i just checked the thread, seems it was only a friend of a promoter who made the initial claims in that thread. i think it was on another forum so where it was claimed by a promoter. probably a mixture of some elements of truth and some typical rumours in the story.

what were the reasons they didn't want dance nights held?

drugs

I find it hard to believe they put anything like that in writing

yeah thinking about it now, they would have been stupid to put anything in writing.

i went to forum on ocasion for dance nights - plain cloths cops taking guys into a side room and checking for drugs - same towards the end of ten club ---- tough to get people in when they are being searched!!!!!

true, they treated customers like **** in the forum. not sure about ten, as i missed the last few gigs there.

Tragamin2k2

dresscode in oxygen is stripey hoodey, tracksuits and nike airs

Adyx

Tragamin2k2 wrote: »

dresscode in oxygen is stripey hoodey, tracksuits and nike airs

There Has never been anyone in there wearing a tracksuit! And whats your point? Just coz a scumbag dresses up to get into Ruby's doesn't make him any less of a scumbag.

jimmytheman

very true - there are scumbags everywhere these days - well dressed etc ----but whats the Rubys logic with " no hoodies "policy - and if ur wearing one u cant even leave it in cloak room

---

method or madness????? what next --- no red jackets on friday nights and no black ones on saturday???

CantGetNoSleep

jimmytheman wrote: »

very true - there are scumbags everywhere these days - well dressed etc ----but whats the Rubys logic with " no hoodies "policy - and if ur wearing one u cant even leave it in cloak room

---

method or madness????? what next --- no red jackets on friday nights and no black ones on saturday???

Yeah thats a bit ridicoulous, even if your coat has a hoody on a rainy night they won't let you in

ec18

is it no hoods or not hoodies?....no hoods is just crazy......glad i avoid that place like the plague

Adyx

Ruby's are a bit up their own arse. Have you seen their website - "Jewel in the crown of The Tweedy Group"

Musicman2000

I was out in town recently, I couldn’t get over some of the prices, It was Easter Sunday bank holiday weekend, as I have being living in the UK for a few months, people are getting screwed over here in clubs.

First port of call the Sunday night was, Geoff’s, not a bad spot, fairly busy, then we had a look in ruby’s, I felt old in there, There must be a lot of Fake I.D going in Waterford, how the club hasn’t being done for under age I don’t know.

I don’t know if it was me but I couldn’t get over the price of a pint in there, then we took a trip down to Harvey’s. Another complete and utter rip off, and clubs here are complaining they are loosing customers, I wonder why that is, screwing people on the price of drink.

Only good thing about Harvey’s was the smoking area, didn’t stay there to long one of my friends wanted to go to Dignity, Was never in there, and was never really in a gay bar. Was a bit on the nervous side walking up there.

But I have to say I was proved very wrong, atmosphere and music were excellent, in there, really good spot, only thing I would say it was a bit to packed, and the drink was still pricey side.

ec18

Was out Easter Saturday Night went to Downes's for a few then to the forum. Downes's was great with pretty good drink prices (3 pints < 12euro) Went up to forum then tenner in and got a free cd of the Easter sessions. Atmosphere was good and they played a great set. Drink was a bit pricey 5.50 for a pint and 8 for a jd and coke. Still good night and better than most I've had down in the john street area :P

michellie

ec18 wrote: »

is it no hoods or not hoodies?....no hoods is just crazy......glad i avoid that place like the plague

me too, havent been in there in about 2 years. The last time i was in there we walked in and literally walked right back out, some load of children in there and pathetic music...maybe its better nowbut i dont wanna risk it!

michellie

Musicman2000 wrote: »

I was out in town recently, I couldn’t get over some of the prices, It was Easter Sunday bank holiday weekend, as I have being living in the UK for a few months, people are getting screwed over here in clubs.

so true...myself and my boyfriend were in manchester in Jan and the difference in the price was rediculus...your talkin a full bottle of wine(and thats nice stuff,not crap) in a nightclub for £5....you'd pay €5-6 a glass here:mad:

Musicman2000

Put it to you this way, work in a club on Monday nights in Birmingham, it’s a student night, but they charge £10 pounds on the door and they only serve bottles, basically free drink for the night. Don’t think they allow this in Ireland. Just a major difference.Ten euros would barely get you 2 pints in a club in Ireland

michellie

Musicman2000 wrote: »

Put it to you this way, work in a club on Monday nights in Birmingham, it’s a student night, but they charge £10 pounds on the door and they only serve bottles, basically free drink for the night. Don’t think they allow this in Ireland. Just a major difference.Ten euros would barely get you 2 pints in a club in Ireland

imagine the chaos if there was free drink all night long !?!:eek: when i was in chicago we used to go to pubs and clubs where they sold $1pitchers ($2 in some places)...it was nuts:D

Sully

Musicman2000 wrote: »

Put it to you this way, work in a club on Monday nights in Birmingham, it’s a student night, but they charge £10 pounds on the door and they only serve bottles, basically free drink for the night. Don’t think they allow this in Ireland. Just a major difference.Ten euros would barely get you 2 pints in a club in Ireland

Thought that kinda thing was banned across Europe along with the "Happy Hour" crack?!

Musicman2000

Yeah a lot of countrys it is allright, how they are getting away with it I dont know, but it gets the punters in. and then world war 3 on the streets at end of the night:)

Beeker

Has to be the Forum for a night club all the rest are sh*t. The Forum plays great music!

aws

Bit off topic , but said id mention it as the price of drink being discussed too. I was in the Seanti pub in kilmacow last sat night, all bottles €2.50 ie. Bud, miller etc. Had more than a few at the price. Then the " customer loyalty scheme" kicked in from 9 - 10, all drinks €2.50, pints, large bottles , spirits etc . The place was jointed. Just goes to show they can still make a few quid at the price. More pubs should take note.

alpha2zulu

I dont know if i'm showing my age(early 20's) or what but on my last trip into one of the clubs in Town who i'll keep nameless, on a Saturday night,honestly it felt like it was like a teenies disco in there.
Whether its a unofficial policy to let any dodgy i.d. in because they have money to spend in a recession, or something else but the whole thing just dident feel right. I know theres always been underagers in pubs etc but it just seemed rediculous.
Not a chance that at least 20-30percent were 18+ and the music...

Sully

alpha2zulu wrote: »

I dont know if i'm showing my age(early 20's) or what but on my last trip into one of the clubs in Town who i'll keep nameless, on a Saturday night,honestly it felt like it was like a teenies disco in there.
Whether its a unofficial policy to let any dodgy i.d. in because they have money to spend in a recession, or something else but the whole thing just dident feel right. I know theres always been underagers in pubs etc but it just seemed rediculous.
Not a chance that at least 20-30percent were 18+ and the music...

I think I know the club in question. Iv actually stopped people in there and said "Answer me honestly, what age are you?". Of course they lied and said 18.

Its scary the amount of teens in there that MUST be under 18!

alpha2zulu

I think I know the club in question. Iv actually stopped people in there and said "Answer me honestly, what age are you?". Of course they lied and said 18.

Its scary the amount of teens in there that MUST be under 18!

Hey Sully, there is light at the end of the tunnel, Muldoons,proper tunes (in my opinion) for us 80's kids and its not a creche:D

araisaris

dunno about that full of 18 yos last sat nite!!

anplaya

araisaris wrote: »

dunno about that full of 18 yos last sat nite!!

and the pints in there have to be the worst served in town,****ing disgusting

KevIRL

Sully wrote: »

I think I know the club in question. Iv actually stopped people in there and said "Answer me honestly, what age are you?". Of course they lied and said 18.

LOL Sully do you actually make a habit of going around nightclubs checking if people are the correct age?

(from last year...)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=57732177&postcount=3

Waterford will be kept safe from underage kids in clubs as long as Sully is Moderating the City. :pac::pac:

nkay1985

KevIRL wrote: »

LOL Sully do you actually make a habit of going around nightclubs checking if people are the correct age?

(from last year...)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=57732177&postcount=3

Waterford will be kept safe from underage kids in clubs as long as Sully is Moderating the City. :pac::pac:

Brilliant :pac::pac::pac:

Why is the club remaining nameless by the way? It's only somebody expressing their opinion that some people in there were under 18.

Sully

KevIRL wrote: »

LOL Sully do you actually make a habit of going around nightclubs checking if people are the correct age?

(from last year...)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=57732177&postcount=3

Waterford will be kept safe from underage kids in clubs as long as Sully is Moderating the City. :pac::pac:

lol that was the same time/event/club. I very rarely go out to clubs, i usually prefer pubs or house events!

Nicely spotted though!

Sully

nkay1985 wrote: »

Why is the club remaining nameless by the way? It's only somebody expressing their opinion that some people in there were under 18.

Ill ask the legal mods to take a look and decide, usually the recommended approach is to avoid naming names.