Sorry for the delay in posting my response to your thoughtful and encouraging comments on the 100 Club crisis. The sheer volume of postings, PMs and Emails meant that I can't now reply individually as I'd wanted to but I've gone through the thread, picked out the most pertinent points and dealt with them, the best I can.
Though there are many outside influences that can't be controlled like the economy, British rail and the licensing authorities, there are more than enough positives about the club to outweigh these hindrances for enough people to make sure we hold great nights down the club once more and regularly.
I'm totally guilty of poor promotion in recent years and probably going back many years. We've rested on our laurels and it's got us through this far, but now I've got to up my game. I need to book the DJs well in advance, get the flyers out and about and sing the club's praises whenever I get the chance. Thanks for the offers of spreading the flyers; I'll get some out after the May one when I'll be up to speed. It is a historical musical phenomenon that I should be plugging, but more importantly is a night I love going to. It just needs an extra fifty or so people in to make each night great fun and memorable; not just the anniversaries.
Specifics
I am meeting with the club owner this week to try and implement some improvements. We will look at the licensing hours but that is tough with Westminster not having been very helpful recently. Hopefully we can get coffee sorted for the needy; self included. Dancefloor: after one jazz customer slipped one night and threatened to sue, they've been reticent about giving it as good a polish as they could so I'll see if I can get it better for our nights. There are a few other improvements only worth mentioning if he agrees.
The sound system has been good for about a year now, we have had problems in the past but I find it much improved. Where we do have problems and this is the case at a lot of clubs, is that DJs are getting deafer as they get older and invariably whack the volume up too high which just distorts. Turning up the monitor usually cures this and I need to be more diligent as do they. I think the criticisms of the system are probably from the past by people who happened to venture down on a particularly troublesome night.
No free CDs due to the day job, though I can see if Kolla can get sound files on the 6TS site so I could put up 30 secs of the latest discoveries as a taster. I'll try and get some of the exclusives listed there and on occasional flyers too.
I do need to get out and about DJing more and flying the flag. I just did Leeds last weekend and enjoyed that, though it's so time consuming and expensive, I wouldn't be able to do too many and none until after Cleethorpes.
I'll look into getting cheap hotel deals for those who can make a weekend of it, when I DJ I like to know I'm less than an hour away from a bed.
I have no intention of moving away from the 100 Club unless it burns down. 99% of our history is there and it's ideal for what I and I believe the majority of 6TS members want. When we had to move to Jacks a couple of years ago the first night was brilliant, everybody came along and had a fantastic time, then nobody came after that; go figure as they say in America!
Resident DJs: I am totally happy with though with Keith having weird shifts this year it's been a bit unbalanced which can be corrected with better planning. I do need to think harder about guest DJs and should be booking some big names well in advance as well as looking for new geezers and geezeresses who are stirring it up. This month I've got a couple of crackers in Karl Heard and Dave Greet who should really add to a potentially great vibe. I'd already got Andy Dyson booked for July and none other than Richard Searling has promised that later this year he will re-live his rare 60s revival spot of the early 90s (?) that saw one of the greatest nighters that there ever was. Irish Greg who did such a brilliant job at Crossfire recently is one of the guests for August. I'll hunt down more big DJs who haven't visited for a while and will look at the odd themed night too. Musically I try to get a balance of DJs to represent the whole Northern spectrum and hope they will all use their vast collections to bring along something for everyone and play to the crowd that comes in on the night.
I'll try and book a couple of evening bashes probably mainly oldies to cater for old members who only saunter out occasionally.
I'm not going to make it member only at the moment as I believe we can tighten up on the door and some of the occasional trouble makers would have been members anyway; though some would have not. I would restate though that if anyone is being an arse to let me know sooner rather than later so we can control or get rid of the problem. It's our job to handle it and we do if we are told.
Odds and sods
Make use of Facebook more. And do that text stalker thing.
Try and find an early morning caf for those who have to or want to linger (Adam T's Balan's in Old Compton Street sounds good; 5 mins from the club).
Tubes start running at 7 not 8 on a Sunday now so it's not too long if you can't get a nightbus.
Parking is fine, Westminster won't be changing it for a while, if ever. There's no congestion charge at all at the weekend.
A crisis means you've got problems, not that you're shutting up shop!
We need a new Jim Demetriou welcoming happy new faces to the club (I'm too grumpy); at the moment Trickster, Liam and Imogen are doing a great job and Ben Summers needs to apply it universally, not just to the laydeez.
We like old gits as well as fresh young things. Some of the former have often got more to give than the latter!
I think with all this activity we should get the gaff up and running again but I will see how it goes over the year and may have to cut back one or two a year so that there aren't any 4 week gaps. Worst case scenario would be one every two months but I'd prefer a bit more than that.
I'll be doing it bit by bit but once Cleethorpes is outta da way will really work on it.
Feel free to chuck in more comments and I'll take some on board and politely reject anything I don't think would help. If I've not addressed any issues already raised, please nudge me again' there's been a lot to get through.
Sorry for the delay in posting my response to your thoughtful and encouraging comments on the 100 Club crisis. The sheer volume of postings, PMs and Emails meant that I can't now reply individually as I'd wanted to but I've gone through the thread, picked out the most pertinent points and dealt with them, the best I can.
Though there are many outside influences that can't be controlled like the economy, British rail and the licensing authorities, there are more than enough positives about the club to outweigh these hindrances for enough people to make sure we hold great nights down the club once more and regularly.
I'm totally guilty of poor promotion in recent years and probably going back many years. We've rested on our laurels and it's got us through this far, but now I've got to up my game. I need to book the DJs well in advance, get the flyers out and about and sing the club's praises whenever I get the chance. Thanks for the offers of spreading the flyers; I'll get some out after the May one when I'll be up to speed. It is a historical musical phenomenon that I should be plugging, but more importantly is a night I love going to. It just needs an extra fifty or so people in to make each night great fun and memorable; not just the anniversaries.
Specifics
I am meeting with the club owner this week to try and implement some improvements. We will look at the licensing hours but that is tough with Westminster not having been very helpful recently. Hopefully we can get coffee sorted for the needy; self included. Dancefloor: after one jazz customer slipped one night and threatened to sue, they've been reticent about giving it as good a polish as they could so I'll see if I can get it better for our nights. There are a few other improvements only worth mentioning if he agrees.
The sound system has been good for about a year now, we have had problems in the past but I find it much improved. Where we do have problems and this is the case at a lot of clubs, is that DJs are getting deafer as they get older and invariably whack the volume up too high which just distorts. Turning up the monitor usually cures this and I need to be more diligent as do they. I think the criticisms of the system are probably from the past by people who happened to venture down on a particularly troublesome night.
No free CDs due to the day job, though I can see if Kolla can get sound files on the 6TS site so I could put up 30 secs of the latest discoveries as a taster. I'll try and get some of the exclusives listed there and on occasional flyers too.
I do need to get out and about DJing more and flying the flag. I just did Leeds last weekend and enjoyed that, though it's so time consuming and expensive, I wouldn't be able to do too many and none until after Cleethorpes.
I'll look into getting cheap hotel deals for those who can make a weekend of it, when I DJ I like to know I'm less than an hour away from a bed.
I have no intention of moving away from the 100 Club unless it burns down. 99% of our history is there and it's ideal for what I and I believe the majority of 6TS members want. When we had to move to Jacks a couple of years ago the first night was brilliant, everybody came along and had a fantastic time, then nobody came after that; go figure as they say in America!
Resident DJs: I am totally happy with though with Keith having weird shifts this year it's been a bit unbalanced which can be corrected with better planning. I do need to think harder about guest DJs and should be booking some big names well in advance as well as looking for new geezers and geezeresses who are stirring it up. This month I've got a couple of crackers in Karl Heard and Dave Greet who should really add to a potentially great vibe. I'd already got Andy Dyson booked for July and none other than Richard Searling has promised that later this year he will re-live his rare 60s revival spot of the early 90s (?) that saw one of the greatest nighters that there ever was. Irish Greg who did such a brilliant job at Crossfire recently is one of the guests for August. I'll hunt down more big DJs who haven't visited for a while and will look at the odd themed night too. Musically I try to get a balance of DJs to represent the whole Northern spectrum and hope they will all use their vast collections to bring along something for everyone and play to the crowd that comes in on the night.
I'll try and book a couple of evening bashes probably mainly oldies to cater for old members who only saunter out occasionally.
I'm not going to make it member only at the moment as I believe we can tighten up on the door and some of the occasional trouble makers would have been members anyway; though some would have not. I would restate though that if anyone is being an arse to let me know sooner rather than later so we can control or get rid of the problem. It's our job to handle it and we do if we are told.
Odds and sods
Make use of Facebook more. And do that text stalker thing.
Try and find an early morning caf for those who have to or want to linger (Adam T's Balan's in Old Compton Street sounds good; 5 mins from the club).
Tubes start running at 7 not 8 on a Sunday now so it's not too long if you can't get a nightbus.
Parking is fine, Westminster won't be changing it for a while, if ever. There's no congestion charge at all at the weekend.
A crisis means you've got problems, not that you're shutting up shop!
We need a new Jim Demetriou welcoming happy new faces to the club (I'm too grumpy); at the moment Trickster, Liam and Imogen are doing a great job and Ben Summers needs to apply it universally, not just to the laydeez.
We like old gits as well as fresh young things. Some of the former have often got more to give than the latter!
I think with all this activity we should get the gaff up and running again but I will see how it goes over the year and may have to cut back one or two a year so that there aren't any 4 week gaps. Worst case scenario would be one every two months but I'd prefer a bit more than that.
I'll be doing it bit by bit but once Cleethorpes is outta da way will really work on it.
Feel free to chuck in more comments and I'll take some on board and politely reject anything I don't think would help. If I've not addressed any issues already raised, please nudge me again' there's been a lot to get through.
Cheers
Ady