De Burgos Bar and Club

Sugarfree

Was anyone ever in this place? its in a basement on Augustine Street. Never seems to be open when i'm passing it by.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055579157
It was closed because of fire exit restrictions or something like that.

getthem

I think it can be rented for birthdays etc.... Was a serious shame when this closed up allright!

ben.schlomo

Ya it used to be a great spot for birthdays and the like back in the day.

biko

Brilliant place, so sad it's gone.

joeKel73

Yeah used to be great there on Saturday nights. Nothing has come close since.

SinewaveSurfer

It's smelled like poo in there for the past few years, down the back near the jacks. Some kind of leak in their sewage.

Wouldn't surprise me if that's why they closed but I have no idea.

Shame it closed, besides the sewage stench it was a kool venue

Head The Wall

SinewaveSurfer wrote: »

It's smelled like poo in there for the past few years, down the back near the jacks. Some kind of leak in their sewage.

Wouldn't surprise me if that's why they closed but I have no idea.

Shame it closed, besides the sewage stench it was a kool venue

Had a great night there a few years ago with Cagedbaby and Funktion One

tonyhiggins

Nope, it was the fire stuff. Noise was also a major issue due to a lift shaft that was at the back of the venue that went up into the apartment block above. The smell was from the old channels etc underneath the building, medieval stuff apparently, when the tide was out in a certain way the smell would start. Pretty hard to do anything about it, luckily it was rare!!

muppetkiller

It does still open on occasional weekends ...shhhhhhhh

lookinbusy

wasn't it also used as a Garda social or something ?

drum!

Was a pretty cool venue but it always smelled like arsehole which always put me off it. It was a cool place for gigs!

Had some great nights in there

Fionn MacCool

lookinbusy wrote: »

wasn't it also used as a Garda social or something ?

The only time I really talked to anyone about this they told me it was always full of Gardai, was enough to put me off.

whatlliwear

muppetkiller wrote: »

It does still open on occasional weekends ...shhhhhhhh

Tell me more!!!;)

drum!

Was it now owned or part-owned by the Guards?

thesandeman

Yep. Its owned by the Garda Social Club.

biko

There used to be a big AGS logo on the wall, next to the piano.

haroldinho

Anyone know who you might contact to go about booking it for a birthday?

drum!

Pop into Millstreet sure

haroldinho

Ha, d'ya think the lads in there might know a good dj too?!

drum!

I reckon so, sure half the guards are mad pillheads and love their techno.

bildo

You can still hire the place, there is a contact number on the door.
From what I have heard and from experiences of friends of mine I wouldn't go near the place. Have heard some pretty shocking stories of massive unprofessionalism from the owners, who are either gards or former gards.

bazjnr

bildo wrote: »

You can still hire the place, there is a contact number on the door.
From what I have heard and from experiences of friends of mine I wouldn't go near the place. Have heard some pretty shocking stories of massive unprofessionalism from the owners, who are either gards or former gards.

Can you elaborate?

drum!

Ran a gig in there once, left us waiting outside with a rake of gear because they would have to pay someone to be in there 2 hours before they would usually open to let us in. They would only open up a bit earlier if we paid their staff member to open up. Really unreasonable, arseholey behaviour in my book.

bildo

bazjnr wrote: »

Can you elaborate?

A few friends of mine had organised nights there, at their expense and a great amount of time only to have them cancel at the very last minute giving bull**** reasons. This is a huge deal for a promoter as it means no income this month.
Also I have been told it is not unheard of for the owners to parade around the venue in full Garda uniform intidating people.

I have not dealt with them myself, these are only reports from friends of mine though I consider them reliable.

Fionn MacCool

Gardai in being arséholes shocker, even in their time off :rolleyes:

conti

bildo wrote: »

Also I have been told it is not unheard of for the owners to parade around the venue in full Garda uniform intimidating people.

^ I couldn't stop laughing at the absurdity of that. Did the same source tell you they were swinging batons too? :rolleyes:

I worked there for 4 years up until it was closed, it's a long winded story but to try and summarise;

It was top floor residents of the building above (yep, top floor, never a peep from any floor between the venue and the 5th floor). They were an old couple who's son was living there for years. He moved away and they started using it at weekends, that's when the complaints started. Turns out they were selling the place and wanted to up the value by not having a club downstairs, specifically one with a smoking area that you have to walk past to get to your apartment. That's why the smoking area had to be moved to the front making life difficult for everyone involved and making the front steps a serious hazard.

The old couple started snooping on the place and tried there best to get it shut down. They're the ones who called the fire safety officers who started making demands to widen doors other such crazy stuff like making 60 people the maximum capacity of the place.

Lots of this bull$hit carried on for weeks, but word of mouth was ruining the place, numbers got smaller every week and people were constantly asking what the story was and saying they heard the place was closing etc.

The place is owned collectively by the guards/fire department, emergency services in general. The cops were rarely in the place bar a couple of regulars who were members of the committee who were completely sound, they knew everything that went on there, nobody got hassled by them, in most cases when Gigantic or whatever was one, they were gone by 12 o'clock. I think CP's is actually the social spot you'll find most off-duty guards in.

Every so often they'd use the place for a retirement party or a relatives birthday. This happened maybe once a month at most, other than that the place was there to run gigs/clubs in, all the committee wanted in return was first dibs on booking the place when they needed it - seemed pretty fair to me! Also, the place is licensed as a private club, running gigs in there wasn't allowed, everything that went on in there had to be disguised as a private party. Inevitably, the upstairs job-wreckers caught wind of this and used it as part of their argument.

It's a pity the place was closed down for such trivial reasons, about 10 members of staff lost their jobs and Gigantic were left looking for a new venue. I used to love working there, the Stress gigs were deadly but unfortunately severely under-attended, they put on some savage bands and very little people came to see them (And so I Watch You From Afar played to about 10 people there!)

There you have it, I had to intervene before the Chinese whispers got out of hand, I'm probably too late for that though!

Fionn MacCool

Good post, thanks for the insight

SoulTrader

Went there regularly between 2004 and 2007. Somewhere in the midst of all that, Gigantic started using it. Got even better when they got involved. Was a fantastic spot. One of the things I missed most about leaving Galway.

Utopia Parkway

conti wrote: »

^ I couldn't stop laughing at the absurdity of that. Did the same source tell you they were swinging batons too? :rolleyes:

I worked there for 4 years up until it was closed, it's a long winded story but to try and summarise;

It was top floor residents of the building above (yep, top floor, never a peep from any floor between the venue and the 5th floor). They were an old couple who's son was living there for years. He moved away and they started using it at weekends, that's when the complaints started. Turns out they were selling the place and wanted to up the value by not having a club downstairs, specifically one with a smoking area that you have to walk past to get to your apartment. That's why the smoking area had to be moved to the front making life difficult for everyone involved and making the front steps a serious hazard.

The old couple started snooping on the place and tried there best to get it shut down. They're the ones who called the fire safety officers who started making demands to widen doors other such crazy stuff like making 60 people the maximum capacity of the place.

Lots of this bull$hit carried on for weeks, but word of mouth was ruining the place, numbers got smaller every week and people were constantly asking what the story was and saying they heard the place was closing etc.

The place is owned collectively by the guards/fire department, emergency services in general. The cops were rarely in the place bar a couple of regulars who were members of the committee who were completely sound, they knew everything that went on there, nobody got hassled by them, in most cases when Gigantic or whatever was one, they were gone by 12 o'clock. I think CP's is actually the social spot you'll find most off-duty guards in.

Every so often they'd use the place for a retirement party or a relatives birthday. This happened maybe once a month at most, other than that the place was there to run gigs/clubs in, all the committee wanted in return was first dibs on booking the place when they needed it - seemed pretty fair to me! Also, the place is licensed as a private club, running gigs in there wasn't allowed, everything that went on in there had to be disguised as a private party. Inevitably, the upstairs job-wreckers caught wind of this and used it as part of their argument.

It's a pity the place was closed down for such trivial reasons, about 10 members of staff lost their jobs and Gigantic were left looking for a new venue. I used to love working there, the Stress gigs were deadly but unfortunately severely under-attended, they put on some savage bands and very little people came to see them (And so I Watch You From Afar played to about 10 people there!)

There you have it, I had to intervene before the Chinese whispers got out of hand, I'm probably too late for that though!

That's pretty much what I heard alright. Pity as Gigantic used to be brilliant down there.

citycentre

Thanks for the explanation Conti - it really is amazing the utter bulls**t that people spout on here about things they know nothing about. Gardai in uniform in De Burgos? FFS.

It really was an amazing venue, really unique and always had a great mix of people. Had my best nights ever in there especially when Gigantic was going but also for various Arts Festival clubs and birthday parties and the like and the staff and management were always fantastic going right back to the days of Anne Marie and then Simon and his crew. Its badly missed.

Such a shame that a couple of cranks managed to shut the place down. If you choose to live in a City Centre you should expect to deal with noise, smoking areas and the rest of what makes a place actually have life about it. Unfortunately the people in question had "connections" and so got what they wanted in the end. Always the way...

whatlliwear

Yep I completely agree. Some of the best nights I have had out were in De Burgos, especially at Gigantic. Aw I miss it