Absolute nightmare. I loved that place, and The Lorelei always said it was our 'spiritual home'. I seem to remember being there on the first ever night (Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra I think?) and it was always pretty much the ultimate place for an Aberdeen band to play.
Obviously it had problems for years, I don't think it ever made money right from the start, but I don't see much point in arguing about whose fault that was. However I can't help thinking the end could have been handled much better. The fact that pretty much everyone considered closure to be practically inevitable at some point makes me wonder why the board have acted like it was a complete shock to them. As it is there are so many people affected by this needlessly. Surely they could have had the foresight to plan the closure in an organised manner, firstly giving staff a reasonable amount of notice and certainly not 3 weeks before Christmas. And the bookings could have been pared down until the final date, instead of leaving so many customers high and dry with apparently no hope of refunds. Promoters and bands are now out of pocket too, having spent a lot of time and money organising gigs that now have to be cancelled, refunded or re-organised, again with no notice. This includes my band, who had a great deal invested in our Christmas gig on the 15th - people flying in from all over the country and abroad, and a lot of work all down the pan. We will now be working as hard as we can to re-arrange, but it's stress we could really do without. I'm sure the Needles and others are thinking the same.
This closure is a disaster, but the real nightmare is the needlessly incompetent way it has been carried out.
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