The Hound Dog: Derby jazz bar announces immediate closure with ‘very heavy heart’

The Hound Dog, one of the city’s leading jazz bars, is to close with immediate effect.

The bar opened on Friar Gate in November 2023.

Since then it has become a beloved part of the independent music scene.

During its nine-months-long tenure, The Hound Dog attracted artists including trailblazing blues musician Thomas Heppell and critically acclaimed, Mercury Award nominee Jon Coley.

The bar shared an emotional 624-word statement on social media, thanking musicians, and performers, and appealing for patience as the company works through its financial situation.

Full statement by The Hound Dog Derby

To our wonderful guests and supporters, as well as to everyone who hadn't yet attended the venue but wanted to.

We know that there has been much speculation as to what is happening with The Hound Dog.

For reasons I cannot go into, we couldn't make any announcement until today.

That being said, it is with a VERY heavy heart that we must announce the closure of The Hound Dog.

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When we opened, we set out to be another great asset to the city of Derby. Bringing you great live music and putting on fabulous events.

Whilst we did exactly that, unfortunately, like so many other struggling venues up and down the country, the income has not been enough to sustain it.

Whilst most new businesses suffer a loss in the first year which is why we stayed open and kept pushing, unfortunately The Hound Dog suffered financial losses so great particularly over the last couple of months, that the decision was to close with immediate effect.

We realise that many of you will be deeply saddened by this, especially our beautiful regulars who we would see almost every week, but we can only apologise and say that we did our best to promote, market and give you the best nights possible.

It’s important also to mention the hard work and dedication of the wonderful team we have had with us from the beginning,

Our cocktail master Mitch, beautiful receptionist Ilke, the most incredible front of house legend Jacob, incredible barman Joe, the OG Zoe, myself Hannah and owner Paul.

We will really miss coming to work as we had a wonderful chemistry and not least because we loved welcoming you and serving you.

We wish Mitch, Ilke, Jacob, Joe and Zoe the best for the future.

This was not an easy decision to make, but after months of trying new ways to bring in people and revenue, we simply could not continue.

All we can say is that we did our best and it was wonderful hosting you and all we ask, is that you continue going to live shows and spread the word on how important it is to support live music venues.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all the incredible musicians who have given us the most memorable nights of incredible musicianship. You have all been out of this world!

PUBLIC APOLOGY

There are now several bands that are very behind in their payments. Your invoices are slowly but SURELY being worked through. I (Hannah) have been in touch with most of you and I know how angry and frustrated you are. Again, I can only apologise on behalf of the business and reassure you that you WILL be paid for the wonderful music you have provided us with.

I can tell you that the list is going down steadily and there aren't that many left at all, but please accept our acknowledgement that to wait so long for payment is unacceptable. We therefore would like to publicly apologise to those who waited as long as they did and those still waiting.

I can only assure you that you WILL be paid!

We wish everybody the best in all their future endeavours and would like to thank everyone again for being apart of The Hound Dog for the time that it lasted.

I would kindly ask that anyone who is disappointed or angry, to think about the people who no longer have jobs and are heartbroken by the closing of the venue, before leaving comments below.

You are still more than welcome to email [email protected] where any discrepancies will be responded to quickly by myself.

Peace and love x The Hound Dog team