Suede’s about to reach the rather mature age of three – how are you planning on celebrating? What additional treats can punters expect over the weekend?
Our third birthday weekender will involve live music from the uber-talented loop pedal maestro The Petebox in a very special, intimate hometown gig on Saturday we have more live music supplied by one of our favourite local artists, Elliot Hollins. We'll also be giving away cocktails, pizza and slices from our Teenage Mutant Ninja cake at 7pm, so don’t be late! We end the weekend with our usual movie night on Sunday evening, however, we have saved one of our all time favourite films for our birthday weekend - Drive will be playing on our big screen. And before the movie starts, you can enter our quiz with questions loosely based around the film with amazing prizes including £25 Fopp vouchers.
How did you go about selecting the bands for the weekend?
We have been big fans of The Petebox and his beatbox, loop pedal, guitar and vocal skills for many years, and have been trying to book him for ages. He needs to be seen live to fully appreciate his talent. And Elliot is one half of the jet setting duo Rat on the Roof who have performed for us several times over the years and as well as being super talented artists they are super nice guys.
You’ve had some pretty big names do sets in the venue and have been known to throw the odd after-party for gigs at other venues in town. Do you sweeten the deal with a bit of pizza?
Always.
The aforementioned pizza can’t go without further mention – can you let us in on any secrets on how you get the base so darned perfect? Can you still eat pizza after being around it every day for three years?
We both still eat a lot of pizza - I can't ever see that changing. Our base is an Italian family secret that has been protected for over thirty years, add to this our Italian pizzaiolo chefs with over forty years experience between them and it's no wonder our hand-stretched sough dough pizza is the best in the city. Don’t take our word for it, come and try it for yourself.
Alongside the pizza, bar and music, you also like to have movie nights – who picks all the films?
We basically use the movie night as an opportunity to play our favourite movies, often from our childhoods. From time to time we let our staff chip in.
There’s a big gaming aspect too – what are your personal favourites to play? Tell us a bit about the giant GameBoy…
We love retro video games, and you can often find us in the bar going head to head on mario kart or street fighter. The huge gameboy emulator was hand-built by James’ brother who is a genius with wood. We decided to commission it because... why not? It turned out amazing and looks great.
There’s a definite eighties and nineties feel to Suede, from the film and club nights to the décor. Was that always in your mind when you first thought about opening?
Suede has been created with a lot of passion and hard work and although we didn’t neccesarily set out to create a retro haven, it sort of just happened. It's a true labour of love and because we were kids in the eighties and nineties that nostalgic element has come through in our décor and artwork.
The aesthetic is such a big part of the venue, is Jonathan Upton - aka Hedboy - always on hand to get busy on the walls, and who are the other illustrators you work with?
Jonathan is a good friend and an amazing artist, he designed our Turtles and the artwork around our Gameboy, which looks rad. We've also worked with several local designers and artists inlcuding SmallKid, Jefe, Kaption Ben, Adaption Graphics, Luke Bamford and many more to help bring our creative visions to life. Nottingham has some amazing talent and our bar seems to attract them - which is fine with us. We love the fact our bar is seen as a creative hub.
A favourite at LeftLion is your door plates that say “Push It” and “Push It Real Good” and the skateboard bench outside – do you come up with all the design ideas?
We come up with pretty much everything you see, the bar is a creative outlet for us and we have a million ideas and will always continue to develop and produce these visions. Our next interior creation involves neon and we cannot wait to show you all, our bench was created by our friend Mike who spent ages sourcing the used decks for us. That bench has featured in more selfies than the Sierra instagram filter!
If you could rub a lamp and get a genie to get you one retro item to proudly display in the bar, what would it be?
A Delorean suspended from the celiing
Last but not least - any big plans for the coming year?
So many, inlcuding lots more live music, amazing movies, a new menu, lots more cocktails, even more seating on our Hockley heat trap, organised bike rides, and finally, a second venue. Watch this space...
The Petebox will be playing on Friday 22 April 2016, and the Third Birthday Party with music from Elliot Hollins is on Saturday 23 April 2016. See Facebook for details.
Suede Bar website
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