Falklands : Bacon's Back at the Trough
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 09.10.2004 (Article Archived on 23.10.2004)
The Trough, home of the Fighting Pig Band, has been closed now for a spot of refurbishment and an extension to the premises.
Photo (c) Fighting Pig Band - Pete King on the drums.
BACON’S BACK AT THE TROUGH
A Report for FIBS by Liz Elliot (LE) 07 October 2004
Pete King on the drums
The Trough, home of the Fighting Pig Band, has been closed now for a spot of refurbishment and an extension to the premises. We’ll be back to that in a moment but I’ve got Len McGill (LM) and Peter King (PK), two members of the band with me.
LE: First of all, perhaps you could remind us, when did the Trough first open its doors to the public?
PK: April 1994 we first opened the doors and it was actually a party. I think it was Claudette Anderson’s birthday.
LE: It’s been going really well ever since. Just going back a bit, who were the original band members then? For various reasons, there have been a couple of changes to the line-up.
PK: The same bunch we’ve got now. Len, Gerard and myself. But we started with Charles Keenleyside, who stayed for a few months and then – I guess there was something wrong with the music – he went to New Zealand. Then Ray Robson took over from Charles and played until 18 or 19 months ago when, unfortunately, he injured his finger in a Land Rover winch. So, he’s been off the music firm since then. We’ve had Tim Cotter playing.
LE: It seems to have been a pretty successful venture. Roughly, on average, how often does the Trough open? And, do you think a lot of the success is due to it being open on a regular basis?
LM: We open twice a month – normally the last weekend and the first weekend every month. I think that has helped the success because we are not over-exposing ourselves and the Trough is somewhere the people can look forward to going to. It’s a late night venue of which there are very few around the town.
LE: Now, you don’t only open for your own Trough Nights but you also have hired the building out in the past for private functions – weddings, birthdays, that sort of thing. How good has that been for the trough?
LM: It gets people through the doors and different clientele. We hire out to functions that are well managed. We don’t hire out to all and sundry. But, if people come along and have a good case – if they are having a wedding reception or a company meeting or Christmas party – something like that – then we are more than happy to let people rent our premises.
LE: You will still keep that policy once you re-open the doors.
LM: We envisage that, yes. But again, it must be a well-managed function. The main reason is that the band has a great deal of expensive equipment in the premises and we don’t want all and sundry falling all over it and making a mess.
LE: I totally understand that because some of the kit is worth an awful lot of money and don’t want to have to replace it as well. It isn’t always that easy.
LM: Absolutely.
LE: Perhaps you could tell us a bit about some of the nights you’ve had here in the trough. You must have had a few knees ups, really.
PK: It’s always been great fun, really. It’s a live music venue primarily and that’s our business. That’s what we do, that’s what we like doing and it seems that’s what the people who come here like getting into. We’ve had Bob Pearce down from the UK, Geoff Rich from Status Quo, Liz and Jock have played here, Alan Stroud, Martin Plato – they’ve all been great nights. We’re really enthused when we get other people in to play and it just helps to carry the spirit of the place.
LM: We were privileged to also have some of our older musicians – people that we look up to like Les Lee and the late Angus Jaffray and Owen McPhee, just to name a few. And, it gave us great pleasure to be able to invite them into our venue and have them play.
LE: Lets move on to the work you’ve been doing over the past few weeks. What made you decide to add an extension to the building? What reasoning was behind it?
LM: Something we realised early on was that the place tends to get really full. Whilst that’s great for an atmosphere, we thought that our customers deserved a little bit more space to enjoy themselves in. And, by putting an extension on, people can chose whether to be in the main auditorium and dance, or if they want something a little quieter, then they can go to the lounge area and listen to the music there or just socialise. So, it’s expanding service to our customers.
LE: How long has it taken to actually get this far, because you have been closed for some time now.
PK: The last gig was on the 15th of May and people went off on holidays and overseas and the builders came in. Any Job came in and started work. And, we are just coming to the end of that process now. It won’t actually be finished on Saturday when we open. But the substantial part of the work will be done. Other stuff is on the next boat, as they say.
LE: I suspect that this has been pretty costly, as refurbishments generally are. How have you managed to cover your costs? Is it mainly from money raised on Trough Nights?
LM: It’s been a combination of that and Standard Chartered Bank for loaning us a certain amount of money to carry out the project.
LE: Earlier you did mention your celebrity guests that you have had. Do you have any more plans to bring down more guests at any stage?
PK: I guess there’s always plans but it depends really on what other folks are up to and how much we can afford to pay because we normally put in some money from Trough earnings over the time they are here. And, also we have had some support from the Shackleton Fund. In the past, which has really helped a lot. Most times we either break even or make a loss on such things. So, with the refurbishment programme running, we are not flushed with cash to actually spend on visiting guests. There are a few people in the pipeline that could come down in the future.
LE: The big question – when is the Trough re-opening?
PK: This Saturday the ninth.
LE: What time:
LM: Doors open at 1100. The band will be up and running by midnight and everyone is welcome. We want you to come and have a look at us, see what we are doing. The place isn’t complete. I am sure that down the line somewhere, when we’ve got it complete in a couple months’ time, we will have a big official opening then. Saturday is for people to see what we’ve done and see a work in progress.
LE: The main area is exactly as it was previously.
LM: That’s right. We’ve cleaned the carpets and given it a lick of paint here and there. The carpeting will be replaced in about 2 months’ time when we finish the floor coverings in the new piece.
PK: The only real change to the old trough, if you like, is the fact that the East entrance door is no more. It’s just a hole in the wall.
LE: I did notice as I came in the door, I was tripping over all the space. As you go through what was the door originally, you’ve got a big long room on the right-hand side. What plans have you got for this?
PK: I think we put on the planning application it was going to be a quiet room. Reports coming back from the Planning and Building Committee said that there was no such thing at the trough. They might be right but it is a quieter room. It’s created a bit more space for folks to move into and lounge about if they don’t want to be where people are dancing.
LE: There’s a series of little doors to the left as we come out of the door that used to be. What is this first door on my left?
LM: This is the storage cupboard for cleaning supplies and the material which is, at the moment, stashed around the back of the stage and stuff like that.
LE: Then we come to another door that backs on to what used to be the Ladies Toilets.
LM: This is the new Gents loo. And there’s two W. C. s and there will be a urinal trough.
LE: What’s going to happen to the little men’s room that was?
LM: It’s going to remain there but it’s going to be closed to the public once we bring the new toilets online and it will become the Sound Engineer’s room, therefore releasing the bar area that he now uses. When the licensing law changes, and gets itself into the 21st century, we will be able to sell beer and wine and carry on in a civilised manner.
LE: There’s another room here, not quite as large as the one you called your quiet room. What are you using this one for?
PK: It’s already becoming a bit of a junk room but the original design was for an office and a junk room. If we have bits of kit that needs replacing, we have run out of space for it so spare bits of amplifiers and drums and that sort of stuff. I guess we will empty our houses of that sort of stuff and bring it up here. It’s surprising what you accumulate in 10 years.
LE: Just a reminder – how do people get into the Trough? Anything change there?
LM: Not really. Customers approach the Trough from the east end. There is still a gravelled area for taxis and stuff. And there’s a nice concrete step there and a nice set of sturdy steps to walk up complete with handrails. The door is still situated on the east end of the building. They will then walk into this passageway, which runs the full length of this extension.
LE: What about costs to get into the trough. Are they going to stay the same, Pete?
PK: For the immediate future, yes. When we get the new bit finished, and up and running, we do intend to put the price up to £4.00. It’s been £3.00 for 10 years now. And, we’ve come to the point where we can’t actually fund developments from that kind of income. So, we will adjust the price in a couple of months’ time.
LE: Who has been involved with the refurbishments and the building work?
LM: Any Job have done us proud. They worked right through the winter in some cold, windy days. They got the extension out of Pete’s and my head and on to the end of the Trough. Obviously, the Falkland Islands Company, from whom we purchased most of the materials. And, of course, all our customers who have given us the encouragement to go and do it.
PK: And, Paul Chapman, who came up tonight to get us plastered! We are grateful because he’s in the middle of building his own house.
LE: Good luck with the trough. I hope it all goes really well for you and I just might not miss out.
(100X Transcription Service)
Note: You can visit the Fighting Pig Band’s website at http://www.fightingpigband.com.
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