One of Bolton town centre's most popular bars is set to relocate to a venue more than triple the size. Definitely Maybe is currently based at an underground unit in Mawdsley Street but is set to move just 140 metres (153 yards) to the former Blind Tiger venue in Nelson Square.
The Oasis-themed live music venue and bar has been a roaring success since opening in February 2020 and is regularly full on weekends. As well as opening sister bar The Green Room for an earlier crowd, Bolton's own Gallagher brothers Paul and Mark have now signed a deal for the old Blind Tiger building, which was most recently an American-style bar and grill called 51Fifty, to grow their capacity from 130 to 400.
Paul Gallagher told the Manchester Evening News that the new bar will hopefully be ready in time for the start of the World Cup in November. "I'm going to be a very busy boy for the next few months," he laughed.
"It's a very big job because we don't just want it to be a carbon copy and we want that wow factor. We want people to walk in and think 'yes they've done it'."
The three-storey venue was much-loved by the town's rock and indie music crowd until Blind Tiger's sudden closure in 2018 and in the years since, a number of different bars and clubs have opened and closed in relatively quick succession. Paul is hoping that the existing popularity of Definitely Maybe will give the platform a better chance of success.
"There's definitely a nostalgic feel and we've had a lot of comments from people saying how much they loved it when it was Blind Tiger, he said. "There's definitely a cross over from the Blind Tiger crowd to our crowd and we just hope we can do it justice or even go one better.
"It allows us to attract bigger bands as well with the capacity because with the current bar downstairs it doesn't always feel as if the performers get the size of crowd that they deserve. We want to put in a new stage for solo performers as well. We'll keep the old stage from Blind Tiger but we also want a stage suspended off the middle floor over the bar so everyone can see them perform but we're still working out whether we can do that.
"We've got a few ideas for the upstairs as well that we're still thrashing out. One is for a darts area with a similar feel to Flight Club in Manchester, then we'll have a VIP section for functions and birthday parties."
"We'll still serve food as well and we just want it to be an all-round cool place for people to hang out and have fun. I really think Nelson Square has the potential to be the place to go in Bolton."
Definitely Maybe will remain open at its Mawdsley Street site until the new venue is ready. For more information, visit the Definitely Maybe Bar Facebook page.
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