Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Bar with a welcome
ONE of the reasons for The Bank Bar’s success is that little has changed there in two decades.
That’s despite the world, and Dundee, being very different to when Paul and Susan Russell took over the Union Street pub in 1999.
“We’ve not changed the pub at all,” says Paul, 51, who is also a deputy team leader at Tayside Mountain Rescue.
“We’ve painted and decorated it but it’s stayed the same. We’ve never had a TV and never will – even though people ask for it.”
Tales from the past 20 years, include the night Mr Blobby ejected a drunk, what famous customers got up to and how diehard regulars appreciate staff.
Paul Russell is from Northenden, Manchester, and moved to take a degree in town planning at Dundee University.
While studying he worked as a barman at Fat Sams and became its bar manager when he graduated in 1992.
“It was amazing,” Paul recalls. “There were some really amazing people there and the music was excellent.
“They were very different times when nobody really cared and everyone was up for a party – it was that type of atmosphere.”
In 1994 Paul moved on to manage the now-closed Venue nightclub at Stack Leisure Park.
“That was an eye-opener,” he recalls. “It was one of the biggest nightclubs in Scotland at the time.
“It didn’t really work so they tried different promotions to get it going. At one stage it was £10 in and 10p a drink so you can imagine what it was like. ”
After it closed he had spells working for Grant Cunningham at the Brig O’ Tay in Newport and The Ice Arena at Camperdown Leisure Complex. At around this time he met Susan, who was working as a barmaid at The Bank Bar.
Susan, 52, grew up in Stobswell and used to work at Castlehill
News in Castle Street, owned by her parents Donald and Isobel Malcolm.
She was a regular at The Bank Bar, which was previously a Hogshead, even before working there, saying: “I liked the style of the place and the people who worked behind the bar.”
One day, just before her 30th birthday, the pub was short-staffed and she offered to fill in.
“I said I’d love to work there,” she says. “There was no interview – I started a few days later.”
Owner Jimmy Marr changed the name from Hogshead to The Bank
Barr after taking it over from Whitbread.
He offered the lease when Susan was working as a barmaid, and she and Paul took it over.
They ran the pub as it had been, but with the significant addition of live music.
Of those who first played 22 years ago, two still perform; cover bands Headroom and The Lawson Brothers (Barry and Nicky).
The pub has at least four regulars who have visited daily or at least three times a week since 1999.
One of these is
Tayport Tam, who tries to attend every music event. “He brings flowers for every member of staff,” says Paul. “He also brings in sweets.” Another is Norrie, who comes in the same three days every week.
“We’ve got a lot of really good customers who always pop in to say hello,” says Bank barmaid Michelle McGuigan, 45.
In more than two decades a sprinkling of famous faces have made appearances.
Travis performed to a packed Caird Hall but “no one recognised them” when they dropped in for food at The Bank, says Paul.
The View’s Kyle Falconer often plays at open mic evenings while dancer Wayne Sleep came in one year, when he was performing at Dundee Rep. “He left pretty quickly,” says Paul. “He came in and threw a bit of a tantrum