The Market Vaults.

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
The old staff are no longer there, one is now at the bird and I think a few customers have followed him.
 

Entropy

Well-Known Forumite
The new staff there seem keen which is great, no issues there at all....Popped across to the Bird to see how Jon was getting on, the place was pretty busy too.
 

Entropy

Well-Known Forumite
Same supplier of the chuck steak mince.....what they do with it is open to interpretation.....the few I've had are ok though.
 

Colossal

Phallus
Hey forumites. Long time no posts from me. Decided to speak up on this though, following a Saturday night experience at The Market Vaults. Florence and I and another chap (whom I don’t think is registered here, but let’s call him The Golden Cod) have been in the Vaults many Saturday nights this year, largely because of the live music, occasionally joined by Gramaisc, tek-monkey and others. Under the previous management, you were pretty much guaranteed to be able to see live music of a decent standard every Saturday, huge thanks to OJK for some great nights. However, this week Florence and the Cod and I decided to try a few other places instead, with a view to finding a new go-to place for Saturday nights because of the way things are going at the Vaults, with this new addition prominently positioned in the pub an indication:



Presumably representative of the new management’s taste in music, and consistent with Gramaisc’s remarks earlier in the thread regarding what he had to listen to while consuming a burger (dire Willenhall Corsa stuff, or as I’ve been known to refer to it: thuggish noise pollution).

Anyway, the three of us went to the Bird first (where there were ex-Vaults customers everywhere you looked), followed by the newly reopened Bear, and then The Shrewsbury Arms. All were okay, but of course the missing ingredient that makes a Saturday night was live music. So, beer having done what it does, we reached the regrettable decision of checking out the Vaults. I wish we hadn’t.

“Live music” was provided by a pair of blokes who were wearing (and pretending to play) guitars while doing what was basically karaoke. Luckily I’d drank enough beer that I don’t remember it in vivid detail, but I remember enough to know that it was pitiful. However, this didn’t stop JDs Burger Company from stating on their Facebook page that it was an “amazing band” that “rocked the party”.

Passing it off as live music, when in fact it’s grown men doing what you might find a ten-year-old doing in front of the bedroom mirror? Surely better to have no music at all than insult us with this garbage? I know not everyone can be Rodney Branigan, but at least let’s have actual musicians rather than pretenders.

After this, definitely leaving it a while before setting foot in the Vaults again. It seems to me Slater’s are making an effort to put on proper music every Saturday, and might be worth checking out.
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
TBH I seem to be at redrum nowadays for music, although I understand that the musical tastes may not be to everyone's, err, taste! Wednesday is a ska band, free entry I believe.

EDIT: https://www.facebook.com/ant.doughty/posts/10217082147476686

EDIT2: Although in the last month I've seen punk, metal and more importantly Finnish metal with hair like those guys that did the final countdown in the early 90s :D
 

OJK

Well-Known Forumite
Hey forumites. Long time no posts from me. Decided to speak up on this though, following a Saturday night experience at The Market Vaults. Florence and I and another chap (whom I don’t think is registered here, but let’s call him The Golden Cod) have been in the Vaults many Saturday nights this year, largely because of the live music, occasionally joined by Gramaisc, tek-monkey and others. Under the previous management, you were pretty much guaranteed to be able to see live music of a decent standard every Saturday, huge thanks to OJK for some great nights. However, this week Florence and the Cod and I decided to try a few other places instead, with a view to finding a new go-to place for Saturday nights because of the way things are going at the Vaults, with this new addition prominently positioned in the pub an indication:



Presumably representative of the new management’s taste in music, and consistent with Gramaisc’s remarks earlier in the thread regarding what he had to listen to while consuming a burger (dire Willenhall Corsa stuff, or as I’ve been known to refer to it: thuggish noise pollution).

Anyway, the three of us went to the Bird first (where there were ex-Vaults customers everywhere you looked), followed by the newly reopened Bear, and then The Shrewsbury Arms. All were okay, but of course the missing ingredient that makes a Saturday night was live music. So, beer having done what it does, we reached the regrettable decision of checking out the Vaults. I wish we hadn’t.

“Live music” was provided by a pair of blokes who were wearing (and pretending to play) guitars while doing what was basically karaoke. Luckily I’d drank enough beer that I don’t remember it in vivid detail, but I remember enough to know that it was pitiful. However, this didn’t stop JDs Burger Company from stating on their Facebook page that it was an “amazing band” that “rocked the party”.

Passing it off as live music, when in fact it’s grown men doing what you might find a ten-year-old doing in front of the bedroom mirror? Surely better to have no music at all than insult us with this garbage? I know not everyone can be Rodney Branigan, but at least let’s have actual musicians rather than pretenders.

After this, definitely leaving it a while before setting foot in the Vaults again. It seems to me Slater’s are making an effort to put on proper music every Saturday, and might be worth checking out.
So I take it you didn’t make ‘Speed dating night’ on Sunday then???

If anyone attended this event please speak up!
 

Tilly

Well-Known Forumite
So I take it you didn’t make ‘Speed dating night’ on Sunday then???

If anyone attended this event please speak up!


I prefer down to a crawl dating

Seems more relevant in these times
 

Entropy

Well-Known Forumite
There is definately something not right with the vaults....

Ventured into there on Friday afternoon for a bite to eat (thought I'd try it again) and a few refreshing beverages...The Guiness was just about ok, burger wasn't too bad but the over all feel in there was dead...

There was a flurry of lads from the surrounding council building that seem to know the proprieter quite well. I can see what they are tring to do with the place and put their own stamp on the Vaults, but I get the distinct feeling that they have forgotten the roots of the pub and the great musical history there.

If only if he was to go over the past bookings and reprise them, they place would not be 2/3rds empty on a saturday night......
 

Colossal

Phallus
Entropy, my feeling is that the new chap is maybe trying to do things on the cheap. I presume it’s less costly to book fakers, rather than real musicians. Absolutely no kidding, we got in there and I’m at the bar and I can hear Basket Case by Green Day, and it was definitely Basket Case by Green Day exactly as it sounds on the album complete with Billie Joe’s vocals, but with the addition of some bloke singing badly over the top of it. I go around the corner, and there are two guys pretending that they’re playing guitars. Utterly pathetic. They get to the end of the song, Florence and the Cod and I all look at each other and we’re all thinking the same thing - “We’re not clapping” - no words needed to be said. We moved out of the back room and into the front part of the pub to finish our pints.

Speaking of doing things on the cheap, it seemed to me that he was paying only one barperson to work Saturday night (yes, a Saturday night!). Even with many of the regulars having forsaken the place, it was taking a while to get served.

I too would be interested to know how the speed dating went. What a hideous idea.

To think that less than two months ago it was inarguably Stafford’s coolest pub by a very, very wide margin. And just look at it now...
 

Goldilox

How do I edit this?
Just a reminder that the Open Mic night continues every Thursday at the Vaults. It's always lovely when forumites come down & say hello :)


fiddle small.jpg
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
Popped in for a pint this lunchtime. Nobody in, staff too busy chatting up a girl to be bothered to serve, no atmosphere. Took our money elsewhere.
 

Entropy

Well-Known Forumite
Had a similar experience a few weeks back. The girl behind the bar was ok, but the manager there had very little interest to show anyone in the bar.

Except for his buddies in from the council.....
 

OJK

Well-Known Forumite
Had a similar experience a few weeks back. The girl behind the bar was ok, but the manager there had very little interest to show anyone in the bar.

Except for his buddies in from the council.....
:lorks:
 
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