So, have you watched it?
You know?
Fifty Shades of Grey.
You can't walk or look anywhere without its mention.
Every website is reviewing it or promoting it.
Every corporate worth its salt (or VERY MUCH NOT worth its salt) is bandwagonning onto it.
But this is all three years old.
Yeah, it's a bit more blatant now its a film. There's also a bit more freedom know it's so well known.
You see, when the books first came out, they were popular. And so people bandwagonned onto them. You had 'suspiciously similar' books out - Sylvia Day released "bared to you" which featured a black and white stiletto; Jodie Ellen Malpas released a trilogy of books which - if you were hard of sight - could easily have looked and probably read the same as the Fifty Shades trilogy. And then there are the parodies - which never last long. Fifty Sheds managed to string it out long enough to fill a book. Just.
But the genre-building/swamping/cash-cowing has never been (if you'll excuse the pun) novel. It's long happened. Remember the years of gritty child-abuse "mis-lit" books slightly parodied by the lovely Sue Townsend in her last Adrian Mole book with the suggestion that mum Pauline might publish "A Child Called Shit".
But this is irrelevant.
Did you know about the film?
The "Record Breaking" film that was writing it's own headlines (because it actually was).
Chances are yes. And chances are you knew about it without any of the multi-millions of pounds they have spent on advertising.
And that, really, is my question.
As the biggest selling book in a long time; and the most hyped-about movie in a long time; why spend anything advertising? Once people know the date that it is out, they WILL go and see it. It was going to get its nearly $250million opening weekend with $0 spent. Why bother?
And the same happened with the Harry Potters. Books and films and DVDs. Anyone that cared already knew. Non-paid, entertainment news sites did all the promotion that was needed.
And I ask from the perspective of someone who could otherwise be a disinterested bystander. Afterall, I only see the adverts as I pass the bus-stop with it plastered in the hording, as the bus with it advertised on the side passes the billboard with it also on. Surely all I should get of it is bored?
Well maybe. Maybe I actually don't mind all these lascivious women funding me.
You see, despite the fact that the movie would easily have made what it has already made with no advertising; what it's extraordinarily unnecessarily excessive promotional budget has done, is line the coffers of people who rely on advertising.
Maybe not the streetside advertisers, who will put up whatever if it pays anything; but the websites. The websites who are otherwise free to visit; but who get paid on banner size; on screen coverage, on page views and viewtimes.
But the people in-house at the distributors; the studios etc. They are the ones who have to pay out for each and every streetside advertisement. OR they could channel that money into - say - their independent film studios. Either publicise a little more widely some of the indie, art-house films to see them make a profit; or fund a few more. Afterall that's what the blockbusters should be about - nurturing and developing the up -and-coming talent; whether by employing them on those blockbusters, or by using those blockbusters to finance them.
But back to advertising spend. We've seen websites become more desperate for advertising spend for two key reasons: more websites; and fewer click-throughs. So online advertisers have become - not innovative, but desperate.
One that really annoyed me the other day was the ITV page. No sooner had I landed on the page than the top half of the page disappeared to a money comparison website. That's half the page disappearing, literally as I'm about to click. And this is on a fully HD display. And this is every time, not specific to that advertiser.
I think my problem with advertising is that it is going down two route: one of excessive and unnecessary - justifying a massive advertising budget because of a sitting audience - or the other route of absolute and pure desperation, irregardless of how much it pisses off your audience or frustrates their experience.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
The End of the (Gay) Affair
So, Nottingham has lost the Lord Roberts as a gay bar. At least temporarily.
The managers, having found it unprofitable, have left.
It's another indicator not just as to the gay scene, but as to pubs in general.
Ok, so as to the gay scene-
Reasons the gay (specifically) scene is dying
I'm a bit mixed on this, I can see both sides of the story.
Side one - we don't need a gay scene. In the days of acceptance and equality, we don't need a gay scene. We don't want to exclude. We want bars that accept everyone, whatever. I want to be able to walk into a bar that I enjoy being in, make eye contact with a guy and that be it. I'm much more likely to find someone I'm socially compatible with by finding them in my favourite style of bar rather than simply sexually compatible. We don't want bars excluding us on the basis we are gay - we shouldn't accept gay bars rejecting people on the basis they are straight. We should have bars that discriminate purely on 'type' - whether that type being on whether you drink craft beer/gin/vodka type; or whether that type being on whether you enjoy jazz/blues/rock/pop/dance music; or whether you want food or nibbles or not; whether you want to stand, sit, sit comfortably, read, play games or get live music.
Side two - we need a gay scene. In the same way as we need those bars that cater for cocktails or craft beers; that specialise in live music or dance music; we want bars that cater for gays. We need our 'safe space' - our little area where if we hit on a guy we either know that he's gay; or that he is comfortable with the fact that he could be hit on by a gay guy. Yes, we're not going to demand that only gays go there; or that gays go only there, but it should exist.
I spend more time in non-gay bars. I've met more people recently in non-gay bars. Let's face it, I'm as likely to find someone that I get on with on the basis that they like live music and hang around those bars with me; as I am with the idea that they are gay and are therefore going to hang around a gay bar.
But there seem to have been a lot of closures. I say that, but on thinking about it there haven't been that many. People exaggerate or distort it as they see fit. Lies, damned lies, statistics and perspectives.
Let's see, in the 15 years (yeah, that was a wow for me) that I have been on the Nottingham gay scene we have lost:
Lost Weekend: kinda the club that was or wasn't. It couldn't make up its mind. It definitely had one gay night - Hotdog - and if the others weren't gay they were definitely friendly. I think. And that may have been its downfall - the uncertainty. As soon as NG1 opened as a definitely gay bar it had nothing.
The Big Forresters: there are two Forresters - the Forresters Arms, and the New Forresters. We lost the Forresters Arms. It turned local. That's not a smear. That's almost a good thing.
The Mill - a haven for almost every gay in the city at that time. It kinda did everything - it had games and seating downstairs; a dancefloor upstairs. It took my gaybar virginity, and will always hold a special place in my heart. But the opening of NG1 alongside the rejuvenation of the Admiral Duncan saw it lose both its early evening and its late evening crowns.
The Admiral Duncan / AD2 / @D2 : this has been one one of those long, slow, zombie-type deaths. Even to this day we're not entirely sure whether it is buried or not. When NG1 opened, the Admiral Duncan shut. I know - I was there. It was my first ever night on the gay scene with my friend Laura. She took me to the Mill, then we tried the Admiral Duncan but found it shut but NG1 open for its first night. At least, that's how the haziness of my night so many years ago remembers. But it only shut for a full refurb - well, as full a refurb as it was ever going to get. As THE feeder bar to NG1, @D2 should have done so much better; however, Propaganda opened. Somehow @D2 didn't manage to keep up, and ended up targetting a very niche, lesbian hip-hop scene. I haven't passed its way in many, many months, so it could be doing well. I doubt it. The 'full refurb' never quite seemed to work-out though. The dancefloor was right up against the window causing noise problems; with difficulty getting to the bar; there was a kind of a dead area at the back that could never decide if it wanted to be a chill area or gambling machine area; and that was next to the toilets which never ever quite seemed to get finished.
Jaceys/Pink/Queen of Clubs : this is one that never had identity since NG1 opened. Before then it was THE CLUB (alongside perhaps the Mill). But then NG1 opened with space and music. I have to admit to never having been there whilst it was Jaceys. But as Pink and as Queen of Clubs it massively struggled with identity. They seemed to want to challenge every single gay institution - the pubs on the basis of early drinking; the late bars on the basis of a clubby atmosphere without the charge; and the clubs on the same basis. The problem was that by trying to meet every need, it alienated every one of them. By trying to be late-bar / clubby, it blasted out its noise which meant that at 9pm there was nowhere to sit in the quiet. And as the music system was unified across the rooms, and as the through-bar meant there was no isolated rooms, it meant they couldn't have the tiny first room or the back room having different music. It was essentially just a club. And an awkwardly overpriced, loudly noisily empty one at that.
Central/Niche : again kinda lost its way. As Central it used to be fun. It suffered massively from the opening of Propaganda, as that pulled a lot of gay South, however as with @D2 it sort of didn't know what it wanted to be. And that was a shame. It played really good music, but not good enough or early enough that you wanted to dance to, which meant that the bar/sitting area was busy; whilst the dancefloor (with tables around the edge, wedding reception style) was dead. The combination of a gaping, almost cavernous dancefloor; with a strong walk to Propaganda meant this place would have to fight to survive. And it didn't. It's now a karaoke bar.
Boutique? I can't remember the name of this bar; it was short-lived. Not even a year. It set itself up by the former owners of @D2 in a bar which had previously been shut down by the police/council because of a murder. It sort-of knew what it wanted to be - a stop-off bar for people moving from Propaganda to NG1. Problem is that it didn't establish itself as this. It tried to establish itself as a destination in its own right. Which it could never be, as it was such a small bar. It was badly laid out, though almost all of that was because of the building structure. It lasted a year because of the same reasons @D2 lasted a year whilst they were in control : high flash, low cash (coming back in to the business).
Foundation; Fuel : these were uncomfortable additions to the gay scene which no-one wanted. We didn't want the scene to be owned by one party; worse still did we want it to be all in one building with no need to access outside air whilst transitioning through a damp (yes, it was nasty smelly damp) underground tunnel to get to a terribly tiny "Club" Fuel (with a loft bar that never got used) and an even smaller 'boutique' bar Foundation. The owners of Propaganda did what they could to convince us all that the Lace Market was THE place to be; despite the Lace Market NEVER having been the place to be for gay people before. They did this by opening Propaganda; then Foundation and then Fuel - the club. Foundation felt very much as though it was a room that they couldn't think what else to do with. It was "boutique" in as much as it was tiny and they had used zebra print, which - even 5 years ago (this is written 2015) was well out of date. It would have been better as a coat room.
NG1: this hasn't closed; but de-gayed itself. It removed references to being a gay club from its website and promotional materials a few years ago; and has started actively targeting clubbers who either couldn't get into other clubs; or as an afterclub (NG1 was one of the few clubs to get a very late licence until 6am before the council changed its policy on allowing late licences). It is still quite popular with the gays, well at least until 3am when the straight club opposite kicks out.
The Newmarket - this is alive - at the moment. It's actually doing rather well, and is the prime candidate to benefit the demise of the Lord Robers. It offers the earlier-evening, starting-out reasonably bar - the music not blaring, bright enough to actually see what you're doing and is open during the day for the regulars to have a sit-down. But it hasn't always been. This is another phoenix. It's gone and come back a few times, either shutting for financial reasons or because it simply wasn't earning enough to keep it gay and so they let in the straight pound.
Now, these are some of the more recent; the gay scene is a dynamic scene in as much as it is constantly changing. All scenes do, regardless of sexuality - but I'll come on to that.
In actual fact, it would be very negative to describe the gay scene as shrinking rapidly; Nottingham has managed to sustain a reasonable balance - pubs shut because others opened. The Mill closed because @D2 reopened; Niche and @D2 closed because Propaganda opened.The new kid on the block stealing the thunder, until the next one opens.
But this is not just Nottingham. Manchester has lost a number of bars and clubs including its most famous club Essential disappearing amongst others. Newcastle disappoints me each and every time I return as its scene becomes ever more lacklustre - indeed, there are a number of bars there that simply can't last out much longer. And London has been threatened with the loss of the Yard, the Joiners Arms and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern; and again, this comes after the closures of Fire and the consolidation of Heaven with G-A-Y.
The fact that Nottingham has managed to sustain a gay scene at all should be a matter of pride. With a handful of bars including late bars-cum-clubs it has a scene only slightly smaller than Birmingham (again, another scene that has suffered a contraction) which has a much larger population. Comparably-sized Leicester has only around 3 or 4 bars - no club - and so scattered apart that a night out is an excursion. Derby's gay scene has (to my knowledge) closed entirely.
And this is all in the context of a different social culture. As I started out with in Point One - other, non-gay bars are much more accepting of gay couples. No longer is the gay bar the safe haven, the only place where you could go and feel truly relaxed. Indeed, in the world of Gaydar and Grindr it isn't even the only place where you have to go to find someone.
And this brings me on to my second point
Pubs in general have changed
Drinking culture - or, more aptly - social culture has changed. We're not the Saturday Night and Sunday Morning-ers any more; popping into the spit-and-sawdust local on the street corner every night on the way home from the factory. We're not the New Labour late ninties superclubs where everything was about being LADS and getting drunk. Admittedly we aren't the continental al fresco cafe culture that was expected by the ushering in of 24-hour drinking, but we're actually not far off.
Why?
Well, some of it comes down to the recession; some of it down to a change in culture. The cycle has rebounded back so that boozing to get drunk is frowned upon. It is a cycle, and will change again - probably once the current, more prudish twenty-somethings have kids who see their parents as prudish and rebel against them. Possibly once the recession has ended and people have more disposable income.
People are going out less; going out differently. Whereas with affluence you could perhaps go out every Friday night and spend £50; now people are going out perhaps once a month but making more of an evening of it - a proper meal, drinking wine rather than beer in a 'nice' pub rather than the spit-and-sawdust types.
We hear CAMRA bemoaning about the closure of pubs - at one stage it was 40 a week or so it was said; but there was a massive over-provision of pubs. On my walk home I used to pass well in excess of a dozen; this is now three - again, as people would have gone down the local, they now make the monthly night out a trip into town or perhaps a country get-away.
And as supply far exceeded demand, so the consumer became key. You couldn't be a tied pub any more - people simply did not want a choice of two lagers, one weak and one strong; or two wines by the glass, one red, one white. They demanded a full wine list; craft beers; proper food, not microwave stuff; live music. I was out on Saturday night - one bar we went to had a choice of over 30 different beers on tap or out of the bottle. The next offered four different types of home-made Scotch egg and the same number of pork pies that you could snack on - admittedly, the snacks costing £4 these days rather than your 50p packet of crisps. None of the decor in any of the bars was any older than 3 years. If people are spending money, they are doing it in nicer places. Gone are the days of the badly managed pub - with profits on beer actually quite slim (hence the proliferation of proper foodie pubs doing a roast at a cost of no less than £13) you actually do have to be a businessman about running a bar, with your own Unique Selling Point.
And if they aren't spending money?
They are drinking at home. Whether this is Generation X pre-loading at home or in halls before heading out for the late bars - often not actually going out until after midnight - or whether it is those a little older who have treated themselves to a nice bottle of wine so as not to have to head out amongst the noisy 'yoof' element (who are ironically also drinking at home). The pub on the corner has converted into a corner shop or a mini supermarket. It is less socially acceptable to be seen out perhaps a little tiddly between the hours of 7 and 11 at night these days. Again - the squeeze on income, combined with the social anxiety around public drunkeness; combined further with far wider home-entertainment provision has pushed and pulled people back into the home.
And this is all without taking into account declines in the number any type of licences being issued for bars, often with conditions attached; it ignores the clamp-down in monitoring and the increased visibility of policing; and the decline in number of people drinking in general as public health messages change behaviour.
So is this a further nail in the coffin of Nottingham's gay scene?
I suspect not. The Lord Roberts had previously been a very popular bar - just badly run, and had been for a while. A number of previous managers had not endeared themselves to the customers, very much taking the attitude that the customers were a hostage clientele - they had nowhere else to go. There were a number of incidents of the landlords using unholy language to describe some of the customers (though this was by no means isolated to the Lord Roberts). With the other changes afoot, the customers ended up voting with their feet.
And any new innovations were undertaken very half-assed. The pub quiz was revived briefly, but as the prize of a tenner was not being sufficient to cover a round for most teams it didn't last long. Nor did the games night - a (quite possibly fixed) game of Play Your Cards Right could (but didn't) win you a pint if you could stand to be around the drag queen at full, microphoned volume for long enough. They started doing food but it was half-assed food - sandwiches and chips with the occasional micromeal. They were doing a roast on a Sunday for a while, but no-one wanted to eat there. I went in a couple of weeks ago and there were glasses all over the tables - apparently to make the place look busy. By far the most entertainment of the evening was provided by the landlord's dog which had the run of the place. It was clear that even the half-ass of the landlord had finally been deflated. But, shut it down for a few weeks; give it a lick of paint - maybe even replace that handdryer - and I'm pretty sure people will come back.
After all, it will be the new kid on the block again for a while.
The managers, having found it unprofitable, have left.
It's another indicator not just as to the gay scene, but as to pubs in general.
Ok, so as to the gay scene-
Reasons the gay (specifically) scene is dying
I'm a bit mixed on this, I can see both sides of the story.
Side one - we don't need a gay scene. In the days of acceptance and equality, we don't need a gay scene. We don't want to exclude. We want bars that accept everyone, whatever. I want to be able to walk into a bar that I enjoy being in, make eye contact with a guy and that be it. I'm much more likely to find someone I'm socially compatible with by finding them in my favourite style of bar rather than simply sexually compatible. We don't want bars excluding us on the basis we are gay - we shouldn't accept gay bars rejecting people on the basis they are straight. We should have bars that discriminate purely on 'type' - whether that type being on whether you drink craft beer/gin/vodka type; or whether that type being on whether you enjoy jazz/blues/rock/pop/dance music; or whether you want food or nibbles or not; whether you want to stand, sit, sit comfortably, read, play games or get live music.
Side two - we need a gay scene. In the same way as we need those bars that cater for cocktails or craft beers; that specialise in live music or dance music; we want bars that cater for gays. We need our 'safe space' - our little area where if we hit on a guy we either know that he's gay; or that he is comfortable with the fact that he could be hit on by a gay guy. Yes, we're not going to demand that only gays go there; or that gays go only there, but it should exist.
I spend more time in non-gay bars. I've met more people recently in non-gay bars. Let's face it, I'm as likely to find someone that I get on with on the basis that they like live music and hang around those bars with me; as I am with the idea that they are gay and are therefore going to hang around a gay bar.
But there seem to have been a lot of closures. I say that, but on thinking about it there haven't been that many. People exaggerate or distort it as they see fit. Lies, damned lies, statistics and perspectives.
Let's see, in the 15 years (yeah, that was a wow for me) that I have been on the Nottingham gay scene we have lost:
Lost Weekend: kinda the club that was or wasn't. It couldn't make up its mind. It definitely had one gay night - Hotdog - and if the others weren't gay they were definitely friendly. I think. And that may have been its downfall - the uncertainty. As soon as NG1 opened as a definitely gay bar it had nothing.
The Big Forresters: there are two Forresters - the Forresters Arms, and the New Forresters. We lost the Forresters Arms. It turned local. That's not a smear. That's almost a good thing.
The Mill - a haven for almost every gay in the city at that time. It kinda did everything - it had games and seating downstairs; a dancefloor upstairs. It took my gaybar virginity, and will always hold a special place in my heart. But the opening of NG1 alongside the rejuvenation of the Admiral Duncan saw it lose both its early evening and its late evening crowns.
The Admiral Duncan / AD2 / @D2 : this has been one one of those long, slow, zombie-type deaths. Even to this day we're not entirely sure whether it is buried or not. When NG1 opened, the Admiral Duncan shut. I know - I was there. It was my first ever night on the gay scene with my friend Laura. She took me to the Mill, then we tried the Admiral Duncan but found it shut but NG1 open for its first night. At least, that's how the haziness of my night so many years ago remembers. But it only shut for a full refurb - well, as full a refurb as it was ever going to get. As THE feeder bar to NG1, @D2 should have done so much better; however, Propaganda opened. Somehow @D2 didn't manage to keep up, and ended up targetting a very niche, lesbian hip-hop scene. I haven't passed its way in many, many months, so it could be doing well. I doubt it. The 'full refurb' never quite seemed to work-out though. The dancefloor was right up against the window causing noise problems; with difficulty getting to the bar; there was a kind of a dead area at the back that could never decide if it wanted to be a chill area or gambling machine area; and that was next to the toilets which never ever quite seemed to get finished.
Jaceys/Pink/Queen of Clubs : this is one that never had identity since NG1 opened. Before then it was THE CLUB (alongside perhaps the Mill). But then NG1 opened with space and music. I have to admit to never having been there whilst it was Jaceys. But as Pink and as Queen of Clubs it massively struggled with identity. They seemed to want to challenge every single gay institution - the pubs on the basis of early drinking; the late bars on the basis of a clubby atmosphere without the charge; and the clubs on the same basis. The problem was that by trying to meet every need, it alienated every one of them. By trying to be late-bar / clubby, it blasted out its noise which meant that at 9pm there was nowhere to sit in the quiet. And as the music system was unified across the rooms, and as the through-bar meant there was no isolated rooms, it meant they couldn't have the tiny first room or the back room having different music. It was essentially just a club. And an awkwardly overpriced, loudly noisily empty one at that.
Central/Niche : again kinda lost its way. As Central it used to be fun. It suffered massively from the opening of Propaganda, as that pulled a lot of gay South, however as with @D2 it sort of didn't know what it wanted to be. And that was a shame. It played really good music, but not good enough or early enough that you wanted to dance to, which meant that the bar/sitting area was busy; whilst the dancefloor (with tables around the edge, wedding reception style) was dead. The combination of a gaping, almost cavernous dancefloor; with a strong walk to Propaganda meant this place would have to fight to survive. And it didn't. It's now a karaoke bar.
Boutique? I can't remember the name of this bar; it was short-lived. Not even a year. It set itself up by the former owners of @D2 in a bar which had previously been shut down by the police/council because of a murder. It sort-of knew what it wanted to be - a stop-off bar for people moving from Propaganda to NG1. Problem is that it didn't establish itself as this. It tried to establish itself as a destination in its own right. Which it could never be, as it was such a small bar. It was badly laid out, though almost all of that was because of the building structure. It lasted a year because of the same reasons @D2 lasted a year whilst they were in control : high flash, low cash (coming back in to the business).
Foundation; Fuel : these were uncomfortable additions to the gay scene which no-one wanted. We didn't want the scene to be owned by one party; worse still did we want it to be all in one building with no need to access outside air whilst transitioning through a damp (yes, it was nasty smelly damp) underground tunnel to get to a terribly tiny "Club" Fuel (with a loft bar that never got used) and an even smaller 'boutique' bar Foundation. The owners of Propaganda did what they could to convince us all that the Lace Market was THE place to be; despite the Lace Market NEVER having been the place to be for gay people before. They did this by opening Propaganda; then Foundation and then Fuel - the club. Foundation felt very much as though it was a room that they couldn't think what else to do with. It was "boutique" in as much as it was tiny and they had used zebra print, which - even 5 years ago (this is written 2015) was well out of date. It would have been better as a coat room.
NG1: this hasn't closed; but de-gayed itself. It removed references to being a gay club from its website and promotional materials a few years ago; and has started actively targeting clubbers who either couldn't get into other clubs; or as an afterclub (NG1 was one of the few clubs to get a very late licence until 6am before the council changed its policy on allowing late licences). It is still quite popular with the gays, well at least until 3am when the straight club opposite kicks out.
The Newmarket - this is alive - at the moment. It's actually doing rather well, and is the prime candidate to benefit the demise of the Lord Robers. It offers the earlier-evening, starting-out reasonably bar - the music not blaring, bright enough to actually see what you're doing and is open during the day for the regulars to have a sit-down. But it hasn't always been. This is another phoenix. It's gone and come back a few times, either shutting for financial reasons or because it simply wasn't earning enough to keep it gay and so they let in the straight pound.
Now, these are some of the more recent; the gay scene is a dynamic scene in as much as it is constantly changing. All scenes do, regardless of sexuality - but I'll come on to that.
In actual fact, it would be very negative to describe the gay scene as shrinking rapidly; Nottingham has managed to sustain a reasonable balance - pubs shut because others opened. The Mill closed because @D2 reopened; Niche and @D2 closed because Propaganda opened.The new kid on the block stealing the thunder, until the next one opens.
But this is not just Nottingham. Manchester has lost a number of bars and clubs including its most famous club Essential disappearing amongst others. Newcastle disappoints me each and every time I return as its scene becomes ever more lacklustre - indeed, there are a number of bars there that simply can't last out much longer. And London has been threatened with the loss of the Yard, the Joiners Arms and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern; and again, this comes after the closures of Fire and the consolidation of Heaven with G-A-Y.
The fact that Nottingham has managed to sustain a gay scene at all should be a matter of pride. With a handful of bars including late bars-cum-clubs it has a scene only slightly smaller than Birmingham (again, another scene that has suffered a contraction) which has a much larger population. Comparably-sized Leicester has only around 3 or 4 bars - no club - and so scattered apart that a night out is an excursion. Derby's gay scene has (to my knowledge) closed entirely.
And this is all in the context of a different social culture. As I started out with in Point One - other, non-gay bars are much more accepting of gay couples. No longer is the gay bar the safe haven, the only place where you could go and feel truly relaxed. Indeed, in the world of Gaydar and Grindr it isn't even the only place where you have to go to find someone.
And this brings me on to my second point
Pubs in general have changed
Drinking culture - or, more aptly - social culture has changed. We're not the Saturday Night and Sunday Morning-ers any more; popping into the spit-and-sawdust local on the street corner every night on the way home from the factory. We're not the New Labour late ninties superclubs where everything was about being LADS and getting drunk. Admittedly we aren't the continental al fresco cafe culture that was expected by the ushering in of 24-hour drinking, but we're actually not far off.
Why?
Well, some of it comes down to the recession; some of it down to a change in culture. The cycle has rebounded back so that boozing to get drunk is frowned upon. It is a cycle, and will change again - probably once the current, more prudish twenty-somethings have kids who see their parents as prudish and rebel against them. Possibly once the recession has ended and people have more disposable income.
People are going out less; going out differently. Whereas with affluence you could perhaps go out every Friday night and spend £50; now people are going out perhaps once a month but making more of an evening of it - a proper meal, drinking wine rather than beer in a 'nice' pub rather than the spit-and-sawdust types.
We hear CAMRA bemoaning about the closure of pubs - at one stage it was 40 a week or so it was said; but there was a massive over-provision of pubs. On my walk home I used to pass well in excess of a dozen; this is now three - again, as people would have gone down the local, they now make the monthly night out a trip into town or perhaps a country get-away.
And as supply far exceeded demand, so the consumer became key. You couldn't be a tied pub any more - people simply did not want a choice of two lagers, one weak and one strong; or two wines by the glass, one red, one white. They demanded a full wine list; craft beers; proper food, not microwave stuff; live music. I was out on Saturday night - one bar we went to had a choice of over 30 different beers on tap or out of the bottle. The next offered four different types of home-made Scotch egg and the same number of pork pies that you could snack on - admittedly, the snacks costing £4 these days rather than your 50p packet of crisps. None of the decor in any of the bars was any older than 3 years. If people are spending money, they are doing it in nicer places. Gone are the days of the badly managed pub - with profits on beer actually quite slim (hence the proliferation of proper foodie pubs doing a roast at a cost of no less than £13) you actually do have to be a businessman about running a bar, with your own Unique Selling Point.
And if they aren't spending money?
They are drinking at home. Whether this is Generation X pre-loading at home or in halls before heading out for the late bars - often not actually going out until after midnight - or whether it is those a little older who have treated themselves to a nice bottle of wine so as not to have to head out amongst the noisy 'yoof' element (who are ironically also drinking at home). The pub on the corner has converted into a corner shop or a mini supermarket. It is less socially acceptable to be seen out perhaps a little tiddly between the hours of 7 and 11 at night these days. Again - the squeeze on income, combined with the social anxiety around public drunkeness; combined further with far wider home-entertainment provision has pushed and pulled people back into the home.
And this is all without taking into account declines in the number any type of licences being issued for bars, often with conditions attached; it ignores the clamp-down in monitoring and the increased visibility of policing; and the decline in number of people drinking in general as public health messages change behaviour.
So is this a further nail in the coffin of Nottingham's gay scene?
I suspect not. The Lord Roberts had previously been a very popular bar - just badly run, and had been for a while. A number of previous managers had not endeared themselves to the customers, very much taking the attitude that the customers were a hostage clientele - they had nowhere else to go. There were a number of incidents of the landlords using unholy language to describe some of the customers (though this was by no means isolated to the Lord Roberts). With the other changes afoot, the customers ended up voting with their feet.
And any new innovations were undertaken very half-assed. The pub quiz was revived briefly, but as the prize of a tenner was not being sufficient to cover a round for most teams it didn't last long. Nor did the games night - a (quite possibly fixed) game of Play Your Cards Right could (but didn't) win you a pint if you could stand to be around the drag queen at full, microphoned volume for long enough. They started doing food but it was half-assed food - sandwiches and chips with the occasional micromeal. They were doing a roast on a Sunday for a while, but no-one wanted to eat there. I went in a couple of weeks ago and there were glasses all over the tables - apparently to make the place look busy. By far the most entertainment of the evening was provided by the landlord's dog which had the run of the place. It was clear that even the half-ass of the landlord had finally been deflated. But, shut it down for a few weeks; give it a lick of paint - maybe even replace that handdryer - and I'm pretty sure people will come back.
After all, it will be the new kid on the block again for a while.
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