MY CLUBBING DAYS AREN'T OVER YET | WHY I FANCY TAKING A PUNT ON CIDER | THE CAPITAL GAINS TAX ANOMALY

摘要

I have retained to my old stamping ground after 35 years: I have gone back into the nightclub business. I started in Oxford in 1980 at a dive called Scamps where we hosted one-night events, and relied on Tainted Love and Don't You Want Me to keep the students grooving. It gave me a taste for the entrepreneurial life. Now I have re-entered the fray by becoming chairman of a business called Eclectic Bars, which operates around 20 venues across the country. The industry has changed a lot. It has shrunk in the face of competition from pubs with later opening hours, the smoking ban, and a sharp decline in the amount of alcohol being drunk by young people. According to the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, the number of nightclubs in the UK has fallen from 3,144 in 2005 to 1,733 this year.