JOHN MAHON Music promoter and publican
When you took over the Bernard Shaw in Portobello, it was a bit of an old man's boozer. How did the locals take to it?
It was a local pub for local people, and it had been around for a 100 years with generations of the same families drinking in it. I'd never stepped foot in there before and the only stories I'd heard were mainly from taxi drivers that ranged from the hilarious to the terrifying; there seemed to be a lot of action there. It had been closed for a couple of months by the time we took it over, so the crowd had dissipated and had gone elsewhere, but then when we reopened we tried to work out how best to handle the old crowd coming back.
What did you come up with?
We decided we would just let everyone in and let them judge for themselves. Eventually they were like, "We can see what you're doing here and it's just not for us anymore".
Are you concerned that your new venue, the Twisted Pepper, is going to be a bit out of the way on Abbey Street as there aren't really any bars like it in the area?
With the Twisted Pepper, it's kind of, "if you build it, they will come". It's a music venue, and the music and other events will drive the bulk of the crowd there. A lot of people are saying it's going to be tough so far away from the Dublin hub near Camden Street, but I don't think so. I hope I'm not proven wrong - I believe if you put on quality, people will find it.
What about the economy then?
When the country's rich, what do people do? They go out and drink. When the country's poor, what do people do? They go out and drink. So one way or another, hopefully we'll come out okay.
It looks like the Twisted Pepper is still a building site at the moment, but your doors are almost open?
We don't go for grand and glamorous openings - it's not necessary. It's best to let the venue speak for itself and develop as a kind of work in progress. With the Bernard Shaw, I had so many huge life lessons, I know more about plumbing, electrics, drainage, beers, gas and people than I'd ever imagined. You have no choice but to roll up your sleeves and learn as you go; you have to put your hand down a drain when you can't afford a plumber or it doesn't get done.
Your website seems to be a big operation, it's almost a venture in itself?
It has always been a huge part of what we do. It's on its fifth or sixth version now and has 10,000 subscribed members. When we started out, the internet was used as a means of communication. We used text messages early on and realised the value of being able to keep in direct contact with a crowd. The website also helped in the early days, when we were working out of computer labs at college, to have a brand that appeared to be bigger than we actually were at the time.
What kind of thing would you find on the website now?
It is similar to an online publication, but it is music and arts-centric. Right now, there are three dedicated people working on the website, trying to pull in advertising and generate content. There are profiles of local artists and photographers, musician interviews from abroad and we also have Bodytonic TV.
How did you manage to open a pub in your 20s, with your friends, and not drink away the business?
When we first started and we suddenly had a bar in front of us with no one telling us not to stick our heads under the taps, we had some fun. But all of a sudden you're exhausted from waking up on the bar with the takings stuck to your face and you realise the messing has to stop, or you won't have a business at the end of the day.
www.bodytonicmusic.com
Interview:Yousef Eldin