Fire regulations spelled the end for Brian Conway's music venue, but a CD set will keep this slice of Cork's history alive, writes Brian O'Connell
It's an eerie feeling walking around the dressing rooms of a muted Lobby Bar in Cork. The wallpaper compromises tattered concert posters of the likes of Nanci Griffith and the Hothouse Flowers, while a Rick Danko poster adorns the ceiling with the message: "To all at the Lobby, my friends, thank you."
Inside the makeshift offices, Lobby owner and so-called nice guy of the Irish music industry Pat Conway is trying his best to figure out how to store the estimated 4,000 CDs piled against the walls. Not to mention the tapes, left-over merchandise, sound equipment and abandoned instruments. All the while, the phone doesn't stop. An acoustic duo from Carlow is looking for a support slot, while a blues outfit from Kentucky has a spare Friday in August.
Outside, the auctioneers have finished nailing a large "sold" sign to the front of the building. I scan the skies for lightning and Rory Gallagher clouds. The end is near. There is to be no second act for one of Ireland's most renowned music venues.
When Pat Conway first took ownership of the Lobby Bar in the late 1980s, the music scene in Cork was varied and vibrant, yet there was nowhere in the city that music aficionados could go to see - or more to the point, hear - live music.
"There were plenty places to see free music at the time," says Pat, "including the Phoenix two doors up the road, which was one of the busiest traditional bars in the city. When that faded we took the lead from it and started to do a folk night every Wednesday and it branched out from there. In the past 10 years we had a lot of traditional music and broadened to everything from roots to traditional and onto blues and acoustic rock. In later years, just when it started to get popular again, we had people like Mundy, The Frames and Damien Rice, some of whom started their careers in places like this."
The Conway family have always had their hands in the performing arts. Pat's brother Denis is a well-regarded actor, while his mother is the staple of many a community choir in Cork. Pat himself is that rare species, someone who doesn't have a note in his head, and fully accepts it. The enthusiasm has always been there, though.
"I was always interested in different or original music growing up, but there wasn't that much choice in Ireland in the 1960s. I would go to see Horslips or Rory Gallagher or The Bothy Band, whereas other people would go to see showbands.
"I think the Horslips shows stuck with me. You could see them playing in dancehalls where there might have been Big Tom one night and then Horslips the next, which was a bit weird."
When it came to acquiring the Lobby premises, Pat applied his individualism and uncompromising attitude to the bar's music policy, insisting also on treating musicians with respect and equity.
"We set out day one to make it different to walking into a session in a bar. We made it quite clear that it was a listening venue, and so if people were talking during a gig we would have asked them to leave and we stuck to that policy from day one. I think it paid off because at the end of the day people who were coming into the shows were coming in to listen."
With maximum capacity set at about 100 people, financial reward was never the main motivation for either owner or musicians. In the Lobby, it was all about honing your craft before taking the next step, and then coming back to say thanks.
"In the early years, it was always tough. The nature of what we were doing - taking unknown people and trying to build something with them - is difficult to sustain economically. Having said that, a lot of the people who started here stayed with me and I promoted them in bigger venues in town, which helped carry the cost of what we were doing in the Lobby. Once someone got too big for here we took them to Sir Henry's or The Half Moon or Everyman and then, finally, the Opera House."
The policy in the Lobby was to adopt a resident act and introduce it to the audience over a prolonged period of time. Many of them were relative unknowns, with little or no following. Yet gradually, the policy paid off.
"We put certain acts on every week. One of the first was Princes Street, who a residency for about a year. They were jamming the place within two weeks and quickly moved on to bigger venues. Next we had Sinéad Lohan for about a year and a half. Once Declan Sinnott starting coming to her gigs, and then playing with her, her career took off. In later years, though, with so many people looking for gigs we couldn't have resident acts. Towards the end we were getting booked six months in advance."
The end, when it came, was both unexpected and untimely. Two years ago, Cork 2005 approached the Lobby and discussed the possibility of recording a year-long series of gigs - a snapshot of the Cork music scene to form part of a lasting legacy of Cork's cultural year. Months before the project was due to begin, though, bureaucracy killed the beat.
"What happened was that in advance of Cork 2005, the fire officer and the guards decided that anywhere putting on live music had to have a music and singing licence. The particular act dates back to 1902, but they decided in 2004 that places doing music should have this licence. We applied, and the fire officer came in and closed the premises. We were told that the building needed an enclosed staircase, which, given that this is a listed building, simply wasn't possible. The upstairs is only 10ft off the ground and surrounded by windows. I also thought it strange and ironic that it happened in the run-up to 2005, given that the Lobby has always been where it is, and so has the fire station and guard station (both directly across the road). In the end we were left with no option but to sell it on."
Before taking the decision to sell, the Lobby managed to secure a brief reprieve, and set about recording many of the Lobby regulars who have performed at the venue down through the years. The material is to be released later this month, in a three-CD collection, entitled Lobby Live, encompassing everything from singer-songwriters to blues, trad and reggae.
It's a fitting tribute to one man's unwavering passion and self-belief and will constitute an important musical archive from one of the countries most consistent music rooms. As Christy Moore remarked recently, "The Lobby may be gone, but the memory lives on".
Lobby Live will be released on Apr 30. For more information, see www.lobby.ie