A couple of weeks ago Radio Control and MuBar hosted a great gig- both as a favour to friends and also because we were excited about the possibility of holding local gigs there in the future- as the previous venue has stopped doing gigs.
It turned out mostly a success with positive comments coming from both the crowd that and came from town and students.
However, there was one thing that really let it down, and has dampened my enthusiasm towards having future gigs at MuBar.
Would you turn up to a restaurant and bring your own sandwich?
Judging by the amount of people who brought their own alcohol to the bar that night I wouldn't be surprised.
I collected more "byo" alcohol that one night than I did during the whole course of O-week. No exaggeration.
This was extremely disappointing- especially as everyone I knew who came up from town- including those of who are not particularly well-off purchased your alcohol at the bar.
Those of you who didn't let everyone down- as what I have learnt over the past four years of being in the scene is that if you support others- they in turn will support you. Or at least that's what I thought.

Perhaps you think that we are an evil business that is trying to get our hands on your cash?
Well yes, we are a business, but we are only looking to break even. Which you would have noticed if you'd bothered buying your drinks as our prices are extremely affordable.
Secondly, as Bar Manager, that business pays my wages- and if Mubar goes down, so do I.
Not to mention the interesting legal predicament I would have been in should the police inspectors have turned up, resulting in me aquiring a nasty fine, the loss of my Managers license- and ultimately- my job.


I find it interesting that even though the previous music venue stopped gigs due to not making any money from them a small number of people proceed to shoot themselves in the foot by possibly causing the same thing to happen all over again somewhere else. Possibly the only place in town, I might add, that was happy to consider hosting gigs for local bands.

In conclusion, those of you who came up from town and supported the gig, thankyou.
It is a shame that the actions of a few may have ruined it for all of us.

Shanna Olsen-Reeder
Bar Manager
MuBar

Drinks were cheap as at Mu-bar too...
It's good to support the venues who put on the gigs.

Confiscate the booze and give it to the bands!

fuck yeh!

Yup that is a great idea!

If you're going to a pub and taking your own booze and not buying it at the venue its fairly obvious that you value getting wasted more than the music... and if thats the case maybe you're better off staying at home.

I take it taht there is some sort of cover charge if a band is playing right? so if that is the case, and you have someone collecting money and stamping hands, then you need to do a quick security like check to make sure no one is bringing in their BYO. It is a shame though that shit like this happens, it is hard to control sometimes granted, but you probably have security on, so make them start acting like the nazis they probably want to be, and make them partly responsible for making sure no one sneaks in this BYO grog..... simple really.....

Yeah the bag check is a great idea... put all the collected booze in a box and then give it to the bands/gig volunteers for the afterparty!!

Ummm na, fuck bag checks, just confiscate the bags and had over a receipt, as many people have shit in their bags that ain't for public viewing...you might say , well drop it off home etc first, but you've just lost 5-10% (at least) of the crowd. Fuck if I go home, am cut as and have alittle something else in the bag, Where is the insentive to leave unless its a out of town band and/or local I don't have on CD? It sounds harsh but in that frame of mind its true.....


I can see the 'well you don't care about the music' blah blah attitude my coments will attract....FUCK UP music is one thing...day off/night out is another. If one conflicts apon the other you pick which one is more important at the time, and when fucked up, if I have a hard choice like that, you can bet on the piss winning out.


Make Bags banned or hold on to them. If my piss got confiscated I ain't gonna want to watch the band who is about to drink it....I shouldn't have taken the turps with me,granted but christ, I would start a fucking riot.


Simple shit.

NO BAGS OR CONFISCATE BAGS.

Well, you can't take a backpacks/satchels into any other bars i.e ones that don't have shows, and likewise for big gigs... you can expect to be padded down as well!

Yeah, i am with you on this one snuff. I think the venue needs to take a little responsibility in making sure BYO is not bought into their premises, especially if it compromises their liquor licence... they need to take responsibilty for their own actions......

Yeah so as long as the venue makes it known that they will;

- Tip out;
- Confiscate; or
- Refuse Entry.

To anyone attempting to smuggle their own booze into the venue, and this is clearly pointed out to people upon entry, you've got no one but your ur own dumb ass to cry too when your ranfurlys get taxed.

yeah its a hard one.
the whole checking bags thing is a good idea, but a lot of people are sensitive to that shit and you dont wanna be doing it all the time esp when you only have 2 bar staff. I understand about the other stuff you may not want other peeps to see too.
I'd rather not know if people had that stuff in the bar myself and then i can honestly claim ignorance if anything happens. And it's not like im gonna take it off them if I find it in their bag!

I think basically the way its gonna go is that anyone who gets caught with byo piss can get out and not come back end of story.
Sends a pretty clear message that we're serious about this kind of thing happening.

its just when people are dumbasess about it, my barman confiscated one girls piss and she came and asked me for it back a bit later. I said "are you going home" and shes like "nah I just want it back so I can drink it," obviously she thought I must have been thick as pig shit or something. Well, did she get a surprise....

WTF!?!?!?

Unbelievable!

Yeah, well I guess aside from taking their booze and kicking them out what can you really do? Ban repeat offenders?

lol Ranfurlys..... I drank about 30 of those fuckin things one night when they were about a dollar a dozen..... lol the bottles were smaller than the average 330 mL from what I can remember......

yeah baby yeah... I just cloned a new family of genes ..... might have to buy a 30 pack of bub light

Time to burst the bubble.
This is what happens at gigs in the swamp. Everyone hides outside with their piss and drinks so much before the show they can't get served at the bar or don't even make it out of the house! I really noticed this after I moved to wellys. It'd be, like cool, going to play a gig in palmy I'll get to talk to blah and blah, but when I do see them they're so fuckin drunk from drinking at home before the gig or to busy popping outside to have another beer that I can't talk to them.
It's simple really, if you want a bar to have bands and support the local music scene you have to support it by drinking it's piss, you can't keep on using bars as a place to go when your fucked-up to stand and sway and watch yer mates band. If the bar can't pay the bills then it's hardly going to keep having bands.
I'm not blaming any one person or group of people, I saw this develop after the Stomach took on it's no drinks regs. Fair enough, I had no problem with it then and I don't have a problem with it now. But drinking outside the carpark has developed into drinking outside ther bar, and we all know that bars aren't council funded, don't we?
And the other thing is that piss is cheaper in palmy than in welly. If I wasn't driving all time when I come to palmy I'd be supporting the bar by giving myself a fuckin huge hangover!
But, back on topic, you pricks should support this Mu bar thing, We all need somewhere to play in palmy!