About Charlie´s Bar
Charlie's Bar Lanzarote, which has been in existence for almost 25 years now, is the most famous of bars on Lanzarote. It is well known as a live music venue featuring 4 or 5-piece bands playing Irish, Rock and Country classics every night of the week all year long.
Charlie Chapman, who opened Charlie´s Bar in 1986, retired from pub ownership after a fantastic run over that period of time. He made the Bar the "institution" that it is today.
Charlie´s Bar was purchased by Barry Murphy hailing from Cork, in September 2006. Barry himself was playing music in various bars in Lanzarote on and off over the 3 years before his acquisition.
A Note from Barry
I would just like to take this opportunity to thank and welcome all the old and new customers of Charlie´s.
When I bought the Bar in September 2006 I realised that there were 3 main priorities to be addressed before I would open the doors. The first was to have the right musicians playing who were of a standard in music and character which would do the Bar justice, given its history. The second was to make sure that we had the right, friendly, hard-working staff. The third was that the above created a fantastic atmosphere and a professional, but relaxed, working environment.
I wasn´t willing to re-open the doors of Charlie´s until I felt all the above were in place.
There was also a lot of renovation work to be carried out. Most of the work was outwardly unnoticeable, i.e. re-wiring, new sound system, etc. There was very little changed physically to the look of the bar itself.
When we got to November 2006, the musicians were found after a serious amount of searching and travelling. We had good staff ready, and the renovation work was going well. Before this point, I wasn´t sure whether to wait until May 2007 to re-open the doors of Charlie´s. Then, everything looked good to re-open 10 days before Christmas and with a serious push, and with the help of Jerry Meredith (who was then the proprietor of the fantastic Craic n´Ceól Bar in the Old Town of Puerto del Carmen, which has now been acquired by ourselves ), we opened the doors at 9pm on 15 December 2006.
Now, as I write this in August 2007 and look back over the last almost 9 months, I ask myself would I have changed the way we progressed in that time? I´m glad we opened in December 2006 for the simple reason of ironing out the smaller teething problems that would naturally arise in a venture like this. I now feel, and have felt in the last few months, that Charlie´s and the team of people working and playing there, are exactly where I would want them all to be. Already we meet people who have been on holiday 2 or 3 times since we opened, who are continuously coming back to Charlie´s. I would also like to thank all of the locals and ex-pats who are regulars at Charlie´s.
Looking to the future, we are organising some great bands from Ireland to play a few gigs at Charlie´s in the spring and autumn of 2008. But more about that later!
From my own point of view, it has been a fantastic trip, mostly because of all the new people and friends that I have met, both customers and colleagues - so many people from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, Spain, Holland, Poland, Germany, the Scandinavian countries and, of course, last but not least, the Canarian Spanish people!
I hope that all of us who sail on this voyage at Charlie´s Bar have done justice to the "institution" that it is, and has been, for the past 20 years. I am happy enough and humble enough to let the customers decide that for themselves - they have the ultimate vote...
We hope that you all have a great night out any night you are at Charlie´s Bar. Take it easy.
Stay in by the walls and mind the buses!!!
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