Ronnie's Bar

What a fantastic bank holiday weekend it turned out to be.

tom — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:36:17 +0000

What a fantastic bank holiday weekend it turned out to be. The weather was a bit ropey to say the least on Friday and Saturday but the DJs made up for it to some extent. In some ways it was the warm up to Sunday, which was quite outstanding. The rain in the morning was quite atrocious but it brightened up into a glorious sunny day which was a bonus.

It was a two part day really. The afternoon and evening belonged to the live bands that were all excellent. A great crowd turned up to watch and the atmosphere was just wonderful. The whole thing was organised by Tom Hastings so he deserves all the plaudits and hopefully it raised a decent amount for Windyways, which it was all in aid of.

Hopefully these pictures capture some of the mood. We’ve also got a clip of headline act Carjack Mallone’s last number from Sunday, enjoy it.

The whole line up by the way was as follows:

Carjack Mallone, Black Tie White Noise, Collider, Christopher Birdsall, Birdsong, Matt Hiom

They are all worth a mention. They made it a great afternoon and evening of free entertainment at Ronnie’s and raised some money for a worthwhile cause.

After the bands Steeve Mac took over and the party atmosphere got into full swing. It was a great night and many didn’t want it to end.

Then on the Monday the Chinese Marbles brought the weekend to a spectacular close. They never fail to deliver – pure class.

So onto the next live music at Ronnie’s. We have The David International on Sunday 12^th September and on Sunday 26^th September we have another all day extravaganza. Songs For Heroes features a superb line up of local talent.

Rough Twist, Old Yellow, We Walk in Straight Lines, Steller, Glass Ankle, Beautiful Mess and Gemma Fox all playing live.

When you consider that this line up is completely different to the August bank Holiday one, and then take into account all the other great bands which have featured here at Ronnie’s in the last few weeks, and not forgetting the awesome Virginmarys, then you cannot be anything but amazed and proud of the great musical talent that exists in this town.

See you soon.

Ronnie

www.ronnies-bar.co.uk

The heart of entertainment in Macc

www.facebook.com/ronnies

PS Open Mic every Tuesday also highlights this. We have had some superb nights over the summer, with some great performances. So if you fancy giving it a go just turn up a book your spot. It’s at Ronnie’s every Tuesday night from 9pm.

Action from – Open Mic night at Ronnie’s

tom — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:53:17 +0000

Every Tuesday night Ronnie’s Bar gives you the chance to test your musical mettle in their weekly Open Mic night.

And if you don’t want to perform, just come along and enjoy the show!

Ronnie’s Blog – Why entertainment is the key.

tom — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:24:45 +0000

More on the folly of minimum pricing, why entertainment is the key and a fantastic bank holiday weekend of top quality free entertainment at Ronnie’s….

I notice the Manchester Evening News is reporting a great deal of support over council plans to outlaw cheap booze in Greater Manchester. Local politicians, health experts and even the Prime Minister have all had a say supporting the moves. The objective it appears is to stop cheap booze promotions by enforcing a minimum price per unit, and according to their logic this will eliminate binge drinking.

Whilst I can support the sentiments and the theory that by enforcing off and on licensed premises to sell alcohol at higher price people will drink less. There is absolutely no evidence to support the claim though. In fact evidence points to it having no effect at all. Scandinavia for instance has huge taxes on alcohol making it the most expensive alcohol per unit in Europe yet this has done nothing to reduce levels of alcoholism or dink related crime, so why should it work here? Well, quite simply it won’t.

Whilst raising prices may work in theory and appeal to rational thinking it simply doesn’t have any influence whatsoever with problem drinkers. And by problem drinkers I mean not just text book alcoholics but people who become violent and aggressive when tanked up, because they literally cause problems and will by hook or by crook get their fix. That is why price is irrelevant when it comes to combating binge drinking.

I have said before that taking on the supermarkets when it comes to their pricing policies is a futile gesture. They make big profits and have deep pockets so they can fight just about anybody on this issue, including the government. It would be a huge waste of tax payers money to take them on.

It’s not just the supermarkets that promote on price. It appears that the big chain bar operators are equally price conscious. I recently had an area representative of one of the chains turn up at Ronnie’s and ask about our prices. I happily showed him because:

there isn’t a great deal of cross over between the products we sell so therefore the exercise is a waste of time, e.g. they sell Smirnoff Red as standard we sell premium Smirnoff Black as our standard vodka; they sell Gordon’s as standard we sell premium Tanqueray as our standard gin, and we don’t sell alcopops or Aftershock or any other chemically coloured shite and they do.
I can justify our prices in comparison to their place or anywhere else for that matter because we only sell premium products and deliver premium entertainment for free, whether that’s our unrivalled brilliant DJs, quality original live music, Open Mic, excellent mixologists or simply our late licence seven days a week
I don’t really care what price other bars sell at as I am only interested in providing the best value and standards for my guests

Incidentally when it came to the draught products, our Beck’s was the same price as theirs, our Stella is 5p cheaper than theirs and our Guinness 20p cheaper, so make of that what you will. (They didn’t sell draught Peroni, Hoegarden or Boddies).

But my point is price is irrelevant to combating alcohol abuse. And as long as the media and government continue to highlight cheap booze the focus will always be on price not value. Its education to on the effects of alcohol on both health and behaviour that needs to improve to combat alcohol abuse not trying to legally impose price rises to control matters.

I do believe that operators of bars and pubs owe it to their customers not sell cheaply and to provide great reasons for decent people to visit their premises and charge accordingly. If they continue on the flight to cheap they will go out of business.

In conclusion I have nothing to fear if minimum pricing is enforced as it will not affect the way I trade. Ronnie’s already operates at the premium end of the market and charges accordingly. We do however offer a great range of free entertainment as standard to go with our superb drinks.

And talking of free entertainment what a fantastic bank holiday weekend we have lined up for you:

Tonight it’s Steeve Mac’s Soultastic kicking off the weekend in style until 3am

Friday it’s Bert & Brighty’s rare disco grooves until 3am

Saturday it’s Steeve Mac’s One Stop Beyond Pt1 until 3am

Sunday it’s not just Garry The Hat’s gig of the week (thanks for the great plug in this week’s paper Garry) it literally is the free gig of the week. Six acts – Matt Hiom, Birdsong, Christopher Birdsall, Collider, Black Tie White Noise with Carjack Mallone headlining. It’s a charity do in aid of Windyways but it is free to get in but please donate something, they do great and very worthwhile work at Windyways. Visit www.windyway.org/ for full details of just what they do. The gigs start at 2pm and run through to 10pm. There’s also hot food available too. A taster of Carjack Mallone performing is on our website at http://www.ronnies-bar.co.uk/this-weeks-live-music-at-ronnies/

Then later on Sunday, Steeve Mac is back for One Stop Beyond Pt2 until 3am.

And to finish off the bank holiday in style on Bank Holiday Monday the utterly fantastic Chinese Marbles will be strutting their stuff, strumming their things and tooting their horns from 7pm. They are magnificent and if you haven’t seen them before you must, and if as I suspect most of you have seen them before, you simply must see them again. And we have a clip of them http://www.ronnies-bar.co.uk/this-weeks-live-music-at-ronnies/ to prove the point.

Free entertainment doesn’t get much better than this. Feel free to dip into some if not all of it. I look forward to seeing you.

Ronnie

Thursday 26^th August 2010

www.ronnies-bar.co.uk

The heart of entertainment in Macc

This Week’s live Music at Ronnie’s

tom — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:10:56 +0000

We have some great live music coming up over the Bank Holiday weekend here at Ronnie’s Bar.

Here’s just a glimpse of some of the bands on offer this weekend.

Carjack Mallone – SUNDAY

The Chinese Marbles – MONDAY

This Week’s Football at Ronnie’s

tom — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:53:59 +0000

This week’s football @ Ronnie’s

Well we had quite a few playing our Predicta Game in the bar last week but nobody got an exact score correct. I felt a bit sorry for the guy who had predicted Chelsea to beat Wigan 5-0, but Chelsea popped up with a sixth goal in virtually the last kick of the game. I have never been so pleased to see Chelsea score.

For the record I didn’t predict any right results either

And what of Monday, City demolished Liverpool with the highest win over them for 70 years. A great team performance so more of that please (well from my perspective anyway).

So on to this week’s games and my predictions.

Saturday 28^th August

12.45 Fat Sam’s Blackburn v Arsene’s Arsenal (1-1)

15.00 Chelsea v Stoke (only 4-0) or Spurs v Wigan (2-0) or

Blackpool v Fulham (2-2)

17.30 United v West Ham (4-1)

Sunday 29^th August

13.30 Bolton v Birmingham (2-1)

15.00 Sunderland v City (0-2)

Don’t forget you can win free beer watching all of these games at Ronnie’s if you guess the right result (before each game starts of course). The betting slips are behind the bar and are free with your first purchase.

See www.ronnies-bar.co.uk/football/ for regular updates of the games we are showing.

See you soon and good luck.

Ronnie

www.ronnies-bar.co.uk

The heart of entertainment in Macc

PS I’m trying to find which channel the City game is on tonight. Once again it seems the UK terrestrial channels are ignoring them. But if I find it we’ll show it!

Ronnie’s Club Card

tom — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:03:14 +0000

I would personally like to invite you to join an exclusive club at Ronnie’s. The Ronnie’s Club Card offers special exclusive privileges that will enhance the Ronnie’s experience. It’s free to join and cardholder benefits include:

Priority service at peak times from the Club Members Bar

Reserved seating*
Advance notice and invitation to all Ronnie’s events and promotions
Half price entry NYE
Ronnie’s Monthly Newsletter
- Includes vouchers, special offers, articles and opinion
Birthday – we give you cards and presents
- Personalised card
- Priority room hire*
- Free birthday cocktail
25% off cocktail of the week (before 10pm any night of the week)

And the first 100 card holders will all get a free drink when they come to collect their cards from the bar. Start by applying online at www.ronnies-bar.co.uk/ronnies-club-card and we’ll send you the details of what to do next by return email

I look forward to seeing you soon.

Ronnie

www.ronnies-bar.co.uk

The heart of entertainment in Macc

* Subject to advanced booking and availability

Ronnie’s Bank Holiday

tom — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:37:39 +0000

Another great Bank Holiday filled with live music at Ronnie’s Bar.

Thursday – Soultastic

Friday – DJ Bert and Brighty

Saturday – DJ Steeve Mac

Sunday – All Day music festival

Monday – Live Music from the Chinese Marbles.

Magic Otters at Ronnies.

tom — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:43:35 +0000

Exclusive video of the fantastic Magic Otters in their live performance at Ronnie’s Bar.

PART TWO

Check back soon for more live video from Ronnie’s.

Live Football at Ronnie’s

tom — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:42:59 +0000

Live Premiership Football is back at Ronnie’s Bar.

The Premiership games you can watch at Ronnie’s this weekend along with Ronnie’s predictions:

Saturday 21^st August

15:00 Stoke v Spurs (1-1) or Arsenal v Blackpool (3-1)

17:15 Wigan v Chelsea (1-4)

Sunday 22^nd August

13:00 Newcastle v Villa (2-1)

16:00 Fulham v United (1-2)

Monday 23^rd August

20:00 City v Liverpool (2-0)

And you can read Ronnie’s Football blog HERE

Charity Event at Ronnies

tom — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:01:48 +0000

Ronnie’s Bar is hosting a charity event on Sunday August 29th at 2.00pm in the courtyard in aid of a great local cause, the Windyway Trust.

With some of the best live music on offer in Macclesfield, it promises to be another entertaining event here at Ronnie’s.