RED ZOO @ “The Piny”
RED ZOO played the Pineapple Inn, aka “The Piny” Blackburn Rd, Bolton. last night.
First impressions, nice tidy average sized place, friendly landlord Baz.
Unloading – the pub is on a big junction with traffic lights right outside, consequently the safety railings run well past the entrance, so it’s a short distance from the motor to the door. I just bumped the motor up on the kerb and had the missus stand on guard whilst I toted the gear in. However there is plenty of room at the gable end of the pub, if you reverse your vehicle onto there it is a little easier and you cause no obstruction to other traffic.
Access to the Piny is through two doors, they have no hooks on to keep them open whilst going in and out, you need some kind of wedge.
Playing area, current set up is in front of the dart boards, a little disconcerting at first, wondering how customer feedback may actually be delivered!! But we had no need to worry.
The layout is not dissimilar to Dee n Dave’s place the Hindley, other than the pillar in the Piny is bigger, and caused some obstruction, along with the positioning of the pool table,
The crowd couldn’t see all the band from any one position. (not such a bad thing I hear some of you say) Baz did tell me he intends re-arranging the room, moving the pool table thus making more room. This will be a huge improvement.
We worried that the acoustics wouldn’t be so good due to how the two rooms in the pub are partitioned. But again we worried needlessly, and it sounded quite good.
The punters, I got the impression that the Piny is on a circuit, people coming and going, though it was nice to see a lot of people return… some dancers some singing along some doing both, a friendly atmosphere,
After some initial concerns about how we might sound etc, we got it sorted. We all commented on how good a time we had and look forward to going back next year. Thanks to Baz for having us and thanks to ‘Rocket Sam the band booking man’ for booking us.
A good venue.