History Page
THE ONLY NIGHTCLUB TO UPDATE STORIES
AND REVIEWS EVERYDAY ! ( scroll down to specific date )
|
THIS CHAPTER WILL REMAIN UP BECAUSE OF SO MANY REQUESTS AND TO REMIND ME OF MOTIVATION WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN. SCROLL DOWN FOR CURRENT BLOGS I continued the philosophy.....work hard ..........treat everyone with respect....and help promote the BANDS as much as possible......these are the basic ingredients. Work hard : Wheels ( my wife ) gets upset at me. She accuses me of one thing , " you only care about THE NAIL". She is right. If parties come around or social gatherings , I always say lets go and at the last second, I would have to work on bands , websites , or ideas. She would get upset and I would eventually go out , but I must drive her insane. I have a sleep disorder. It's called sleep apnea. I sleep no more than 4 hours in a row. I use it to my advantage. When I get up in the middle of the night I would start working on NAIL promotions , websites , and business. I eat, sleep, and think THE NAIL. If I had to guess why I am so passionate about being a semi " successful " club. It's probably because certain people were against us. They said it was a foolish idea and a saturated business. We would be throwing money away. I had to prove them wrong. Not for their opinions , but for myself. One person does stick out .........Wheels and I were over a " friends " house. We'll call him " J ". Having a couple of beers with some " friends ", we decided to tell everyone we bought The Nail. J's brother-in-law, " T " , said " it is the worst business to get in and you will fail eventually" ( and this was a person that was successful and I respected back than). I will never ever ever forget that. Here we were ....proud owners of an established 60 year old nightclub that Wheels and I have been patronizing for 2 decades and now told we had no chance of making it.....not even a fake congratulations. He was the first of several to try to shoot our hopes down. Every time someone projects negativity towards our bar..........I WORK EVEN HARDER THAN BEFORE................................................ RUDY of Notre Dame would shit his pants. We bought the club in January of 1997 and as of today , we have the longest tenure of ownership of any owner dating back to its opening day as " Humph's Bar " in 1948. This is a huge monumental enormous gigantic accomplishment since all employees bailed on us eventually when times got tough. My claim to Un-fame......" In our first 2 years of ownership , we lost enough money to buy a house in Havertown." I had 4 jobs and Wheels had 3 to keep The Nail afloat. Our so called friends/employees did not know this. Wheels and I struggled for over 4 years working 60-65 hour work weeks.......you try it and see how long you last. We did it because we believed in the bar and ourselves. Yes we lost friends but true friends and family stuck with us. Little did we know the previous owner Mitch had Daddy buy him the bar as a college gift. So the books looked outstanding without a MORTGAGE. We found out his numbers were all to be all lies, even by settlement. My famous antennas told me many times something was up , but we ended up driving the hard road. The quick story of the last owner and how we purchased The Nail. Wheels and I are sitting next to him at the bar one night. I say , " Hey Mitch , if you ever want to sell The Nail , Wheels and I would be interested. " He replies , " No , no , no , no , no I would never sell it. " He gets up and walks towards the front door. About midway he stops and comes right back to us. He says , " Are you serious ? , we can meet tomorrow at Villanova Diner if you want ". Holy shit did my antennas go up , but they were clouded by my overwhelming feeling that I could own the infamous Nail one day. Anyway , back to the main story of employees and bailing friends. One old school employee left us because he wanted to get " out of the business ". The next week he got a job at a rival bar......not so old school there. These were the high hurdles Wheels and I had to endure.....day in and day out........by ourselves. It was time to rebuild. Treating people with respect : Its simple, treat people with some dignity , make some humor about myself ( usually about my penis size or sex life) and remove all angry people.........everybody should be treated the same. Doing jokes about myself I think makes people feel a little better about themselves and they say " you know what , I am not the only one that has money , health , or relationship problems. Removing angry people: Major priority here......nothing worse than sitting next to a drunken idiot proclaiming all life's answers while he works at Burger King deep frying onion rings. A Havertown policeman once quoted to me...." we never get any calls at The Rusty Nail ". I wonder how many bars can say that ? It seems every weekend there are fights or altercations at other clubs. This is our home and that's how we treat people. Bands: When we started, I asked what can we do for the bands " promotionally " wise ? The same old answer ," we did it all and nothing will help". At the time, we were in 11 newspapers, no radio, no websites, and a generic monthly calendar. So , one weekend, Wheels and I went up to our mountain house ( that I built with my own hands ) with "phonebooks" from all over the counties. We made a list of all the newspapers and internet companies. I continue to make the list grow. Now, we are in 56 newspapers and affiliates.........radio promos..........our websites (www.thenail1.com....and www.myspace.com/therustynail together average over 500 " hits " a day....that's unbelievable for such a small nightclub).......modern calendars on time.......new illuminated outdoor sign............35 internet companies ...........mailing list............our own radio show , and it goes on. We have quadrupled the band intake in 13 years. We let bands network with each other by having 4 bands a night on the weekends. I remember a phone call I took in 1999. The person said, " we played THE NAIL a couple a months ago, we brought alot of people, and would like another gig ". I said to him, " you mean no one has called you since than ? " Right there and than I took over the booking. I call all bands every Monday ( or Tuesday sometimes ) before and after they play here ( no other owner does this). Treat bands with respect...they are the backbone of THE NAIL . They are the ones working hard to bring people in, practicing, promoting and such....so, why the hell wouldn't I help them? I have not missed a scheduled Wednesday night audition in 13 years.( no other owner does this). I refuse to be the owner that drinks Jack Daniels all drunk behind the bar with a disgusted face saying " they did not bring a 100 people....... they're done". I give out my home phone number to prevent frustrating phone tag and usually have 20-30 minute conversations with each individual band on the first phone call (no other owner does this) . I know if I was in a band, I would like a direct link to the owner and have a respectable conversation. I put myself in the shoes of the band and tell them how much we appreciate them. I write reviews about the bands 12 hours after they play here on a Wednesday night.( no other owner does this ). We lend out our PA system to bands playing at "other " clubs for FREE ( what the hell other owner does this ? ). Several times with my van and easy pass. We throw a huge "Wheelstock " party at our private vacation home that Wheels and I built ( 4 years to build ).........for 13 years it was completely free .... it was $20 for the last two years..... 330 people showed up last year ( damn hurricane ).....400 the year before ! Once again, a 4 day party and the NAIL supplies breakfast , lunch , dinner , beer , liquor , bands , and showers for everyone for 4 days ( show me one f'n owner that does this !!). We took off since 2006. Will this end because of the incredible amount of time , effort , wear & tear on our home , & neighbors being super pissed at us...........hmmmmm. We are the only club to have a full list of " band links " on our website ( no other club does this ). Our website is updated everyday under the " history " link , not one day ever missed....this includes weekends, holidays , vacations! I talk about my life as if it were a soap opera........and in this business it usually is......mostly for entertainment though ( 13 years doing that !) ( no other club owner does this ). I could go on and on and on.......no one comes close. I do all this because we do not have the luxury of the " walk in " crowd. We need the bands to work a little harder for us .....that's why I work 10 times harder than any other club owner. We have our own radio show. We help more than any other club out there !! All bands get plugs on our radio show. All bands do live interviews to promote all their shows and express their music and songs.......thousands and thousands of listeners. Everyone helps a little......we help more. We hope you join our little family.........simply known as THE NAIL. " LIVE AT THE NAIL " RADIO SHOW !!! We welcome these Radio Stations that promote our show HOLA 1600 am WXVU 89.1 fm KUR 88.3 fm WEXP 530 am WWUV 90.7 fm WVUM 90.1 fm KUR 1670 am WWXU 91.1 fm WWCY 89.5 fm WIN 88.9 fm ( WIN 89 ) WWEC 88.1 fm WWNW 88.9 fm WVUD 91.3 fm Berks Cable ( Ch 24 ) WPKN 89.5 fm WPKM 88.7 fm WDWN 89.1 fm Hometown Utilicom ( Ch 41 ) WPTC 88.1 fm WCUC 91.7 fm WSRN 91.5 fm WDCV 88.3 fm WXLV 90.3 fm WRRG 88.9 fm 930 AM (The Cockroach) WRHS 89.7 fm WVUD 91.3 fm WIXQ 91.7 FM WIXQ.COM BLACK CIRCUS RADIO ( DEAD CELL RECORDS ) SHORTCAST.COM WSJR ( INTERNET ) WYBF 89.1 FM WWW.THENAIL1.COM ( click on " radio show " on the left index on our home page. LISTEN AT ANYTIME ) http://www.myspace.com/therustynail ( LISTEN AT ANYTIME ) Always go to band links for specific times ( bottom of page ) WEBCASTED BY REAL AUDIO ** Do you have a contact with a college radio station ? Any help to air our FREE show would be greatly appreciated. We are here to help the local bands of our communities. Our format is simple. We interview bands. The bands express their opinions and songs through their music.......with alittle fun too. ** This would increase our relationship with your band and The Nail nightclub.** PERFORMED LIVE EVERY SUNDAY NIGHT AT 8 PM ** ALL BANDS GET PROMOTED ** HEADLINERS GET LIVE INTERVIEWS , CD EXPOSURE , ETC.. ** NO OTHER CLUB DOES THIS !! We made our point ............work hard , respect , and promote. All businesses.....whether in a band or selling corn on the cob ........everyone should have this mentality and attitude. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** BAND CONTACT AT mailto:thenail1@comcast.net ***
|
|
All content © Copyright 2001 WHEELS INC. |