Hustle time
Equestrian Blinkers
So, we went to see our bank at the time & told them our ideas about moving. We'd banked with them from the earliest Trent days so we didn't think there would be any problem. Like they say on the box today, as that auld nag hops about - 'You're not alone...'
TV persona.
But they couldn’t see past their fat cat bonuses & wouldn’t front the money for us. They were proper dicks about it as well & didn’t even make a trip out to see the new building.
Work persona.
We knew we were far more switched on than them & that our ideas & the musical culture we represented, plus our determination, experience & drive, made a strong business case. We knew what we could build & losing wasn’t an option. We were well miffed &
(to their complete & utter amazement)
we promptly sacked them & looked elsewhere...
Dumped persona.
Never forget that your Bank works for you, it’s not meant to be the other way around.
Humorously, those very same blinkered geldings, tried to lure our account back ten years later in 2011 when we were well established.
Can you guess what we said..?
An instructive poster we prepared for our little phoney.
The Martin Campbell Factor
After facing up to the (crippling) fear of ending up with nothing, we puckered up & off we went hustling...
We re-mortgaged anything that moved & tickled up the Brewery boys again. Crucially, we then secured the backing of a properly inspirational & forward thinking manager called Martin, at our brand new bank.
Once you face up to it, tough it out & get that ass moving.
He visited the derelict building & listened carefully to everything we said. He then fronted a large chunk of the finance, based solely on his judgement, our track record & the strength of our ideas.
We were now entering a whole new world of financial borrowing, on a scale that we could never have even dreamed of.
Big Yellow Taxi got 'til it's gone flyer - from the final days of the Old Club
It was at this point that we sold the Marlborourgh Crescent building to the hungry developers & sunk all the money into the new building.
Every single penny counted, so we stuck a clause in the sale agreement, that they had to allow us to still occupy the old site for one more year. That way we could still keep WHQ Club open, play records, make more desperately needed money & retain continuity.
The idea was that year would also give us time we needed, to do all the conversion work on the new Carliol Square building.
Guess what..? Yup, you guessed it – This was where the real problems began…
Location, location, location.
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