Hi everyone, it saddens us to let you know that we are planning for New years Eve to be the last ever night at the Jailhouse. We have had a lot of fun and welcomed some of the biggest acts in the world, but it is with much regret that we have decided to draw a line under the last 7 years. The Jailhouse has always fluctuated between being either completely rammed or completely dead, and more & more frequently it has been the latter. It would have been far easier and more profitable for us to put on the same thing every week & court a regular audience who didnt need a flier to know what they were coming to, but with our live music nights, big name DJs and Burlesque events we have always strived to provide an eclectic and diverse mix and maintain our musical integrity. We wanted to provide Hereford with an alternative to watching the same old DJ play the top 40 in a slightly different order than they did the week before. The Jailhouse has never really made any money and as a lot of you know, we are not a huge corporation; it is just two of us and in the 7 years we have had the place we have both had to commit to many outside jobs and ventures just to pay our mortgages. Of late we have had to do this more & more & it has often left us without the time to give The Jaily the love and attention she deserves. We were happy to do it out of love of the music & dedication to the scene, Its just that sadly the scene doesnt seem to be there anymore. The Jaily has always been the Marmite of Hereford clubs; we’ve catered for what we describe as the 10% minority of our beloved Shire who like to be entertained by something different on a night out; to enjoy an artist or see one of their musical heroes. Some people got it, a lot didnt. The majority of Herefordians could never grasp that a place that has a banging Drum and Bass rave on one night could have a funk and soul night or a live music night the day after and have a completely different vibe and clientele. Some of the music styles we catered for were always going to bring a nefarious element to the club and it was partly due to our mismanagement of that element that led to our very public license review 2 years ago which alienated even more of Hereford as we had to implement strict licence changes & an even stricter door management that was enforced on us for a 6 month period. It managed to alienate the majority of our customers, killing almost all of our travelling crowd (who wants to travel 45 mins to a club to be turned away? Or given a full cavity search?) It also made it very difficult to gain a new audience. Being forced to do this was frustrating & more upsetting than you could know but we struggled on with our head above water, trying new stuff & still generally having an awesome time. By its very nature it has always been easy to point the finger at the Jaily & call it the bad guy, but it became increasingly demoralising and hypocritical to be singled out as the villain on the Hereford nightlife stage despite having one of the lowest records of violent disorder out of any late night venue in town. Yes, there would always be a element of people trying to bring illegal substances into the venue, but that would always be a pitfall of any dance/alternative music club and as we all know any venue in town pretending they are whiter then white is kidding themselves (& after seeing what happened to us who can blame them for pretending to be anything else?) but as long as we were busy however we could laugh off any facebook keyboard warriors. We are pretty thick skinned and have a healthy sense of humour (have you seen our toilets?) The loyalty of those steadfast regulars and few new faces who stuck with us through this experience was inspiring, if anything the thing we feel the saddest about is shutting down their favourite club, because we know they will be just as upset as we are. This has been the most difficult decision we have ever had to make & we are genuinely gutted to be ending it like this. Our social lives & hobbies are all entwined with the Jaily; it encapsulated our whole lives for the last 7 years and moulded us into the joyless old men you see before you today. Having said that whos to say we won’t be doing events here & there around the Shire at some point in the future or maybe somewhere down the line even getting another venue, who knows? Weve been promoting events - whether at the Crystal Rooms or Jaily - for 16 years now so it would be a shame to stop altogether. We started the jailhouse as there was no alternative venue in Hereford and we only managed to keep it going for as long as we did because open minded Herefordians supported it, and its you guys we owe the most to. We’d like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone from the customers, the promoters and the djs and to our awesome staff, we love you all and over the years you guys have become our second family. It’s very hard for us to do this but we really have no more to give. For the rest of you that never came or came once to a night of music you didnt like or understand and never returned to try out one of the hundreds of different events we did, our advice is, if you want more live music nights, attend the ones youve got, if you want more DJ nights support the ones out there. If theres nothing going on for the style of music you love go out and make something happen! If you are one of the many who dont have a style of music, have never attended the Jailhouse because you listen too closely to rumours or your primary experience clubbing is merely a chance to puff your self up and get slaughtered/pull someone/get in a fight then if you should probably stop reading (in fact you probably have already). But until we say our final farewells on NYE weve got some great events on, so come out have a dance and lets give The Jaily the fitting send off she deserves - full of party people who have loved her. If anybody has any ideas for a promotion or a private party before then let us know, most of our weekends are pretty much booked up but we are as open to ideas & collaborations as we have always been. Much love, Lee and Murf P.S. On a final note here is a list of some of the artists we have been proud to bring to you over the years: MISS DYNAMITE / THE GZA WU TANG CLAN / CHASE & STATUS / PENDULUM / SIGMA / WILKINSON / DJ FRESH / NERO / JACK BEATS / LISA LASHES / KISSY SELLOUT / JAGUAR SKILLS / ANDY C / SHY FX / FRICTION / KRAFTY KUTS / A SKILLS / THE WOMBATS / TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB / FRANK TURNER / YOUNG KNIVES / MJ COLE / GOLDIE LOOKING CHAIN / DJ MARKY / NETSKY / LETHAL BIZZLE / P MONEY / DEVILMAN /NICKY BLACKMARKET / BENNY PAGE / ED SOLO / THE SCRATCH PERVERTS / HARRY SHOTTA / HAZARD / NOISIA / HIGH RANKIN / BENGA / TODDLA T / CASPER / RUSKO / RED LIGHT / CALYX & TEEBEE / HADOUKEN / STANTON WARRIORS / FOUR OWLS / DIRTY DIKE / BLACK SUN EMPIRE / SPOR / DEEKLINE / JESS GLYNEE / DRUMSOUND + BASSLINE SMITH / HIXXY / SY / STORM / DARREN STYLES / HYPE/ THE RATPACK / FREESTYLERS / JUDGE JULES / HOT CHIP / SCRATCH PERVERTS / LONDON ELECTRICITY / APHRODITE / THE CORESPONDENTS / MARK MORRISS / FOREIGN BEGGARS/ CRAIG CHARLES plus many more, we hope you guys had as much fun as we did x
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 12:25:09 +0000
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