The Oasis bar run by Bolton’s own Gallagher brothers

Every week we love to shine the spotlight on some of the best local venues that the borough has to offer, in our Pub of the Week feature.

This week, we spoke with 44-year-old Paul Gallagher, who runs the Definitely Maybe bar on Nelson Square alongside his 39-year-old brother Mark.

The bar is Oasis-themed serving up cocktails and food with a side shuffleboard, darts and live music – something close to Paul’s heart, as a guitar player himself.

We spoke to Paul, who’s Breightmet born-and-bred and a lifelong Wanderers fan, about his love of Oasis, dynamic pricing, and the most popular drink he serves.

Oasis are back together – how are you feeling?

“I mean, it’s just a gift from God for us, it’s something we’ve waited for, for 15 years. I never thought it’d happen, to be honest.

“We hear the noise all the time – little rumours and little things that Noel says, little things that Liam says, but I think it’s all been on Noel really. I think he’s the one we’ve been waiting for.

“Liam would have done it probably five years ago, 10 years ago, but Noel makes the decisions doesn’t he?”

You and your brother Mark both have the surname Gallagher… when did you first get in to Oasis?

“Me personally? When they first came out, to be honest. I was around in ’94 when they released ‘Definitely Maybe’ and it was probably not long after that I became a superfan.

“Ever since, I was there in the early days – I think I was like 15 when I first watched them, my first gig was at Maine Road, I made it into the front pen jumping about like a fool to ‘Swamp Song’ and the absolute original classic ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol,’ and watching Liam and Noel fall out on stage while ‘Whatever’ was playing, playing Champagne Supernova on repeat in my bedroom much to the annoyance of my mum and dad.

“My little brother was always there listening, wondering what was going on, and he became a fan too – not as big, but he’s always been there as well.

“He’s actually five years younger than me as well, the same as Noel and Liam, which is quite a coincidence.

“There’s lots of coincidences – I’m the older one I do all the work, like Noel, and Mark he’s five years younger and rocks up every now and again and sings a few Oasis songs, so yeah – lots of similarities.”

Have you got tickets to see the band?

“No, I haven’t. To be honest, the ticket process has been a real frustrating event for many, and I’m right there with them.

“I tried for Heaton Park, I had a few people trying for me as well, I tried for the first night at Cardiff, because I’d really like to see them walk on stage together for the first time.

“I think they’ll do a few warm-up gigs, so it’ll be nice to try to get into one of them, but that will be very difficult.

“The first night is in Cardiff and that’d be nice to see – but no I didn’t get tickets, much like a lot of the world it seems.”

When did you set up the bar?

 “It’s been in the pipeline for a while, we just never actually pulled the trigger on it, but we actually set it up three weeks before Covid. We were due to open and Boris Johnson shut us down after three weeks.

“We’ve had a bit of a rough ride, but we don’t like to talk about it to be honest, we try to remain positive.

“We got through it – cost us a fortune, but we got through it – and we moved venues to our new venue on Nelson Square about two years ago, so that’s been going well.”

Do you serve food at the bar?

“We do, yeah. We’re only open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the moment – we serve food, it’s quite a basic menu, pizzas and loaded fries, things like that, chicken wings.”

Do you have an outdoor space at the bar?

“We don’t, no. It’s all indoors.”

What’s the most popular drink you serve?

“Cocktails – we have Oasis-themed cocktails: the Pina Columbia, the She’s Electric, and Strawberry Lemonade, which is one of our most popular, which is taken from Oasis’s ‘Talk Tonight’.

“We sell a lot of Baby Guinness, like everybody does nowadays, but it doesn’t really tie in with the theme does it?”

Do you have an entertainment line-up?

“We have lots of solo and duets, we have lots of them playing – we have live music every weekend, every Friday, every Saturday, there’s live music usually until one o’clock in the morning, half one.

“We have a band stage downstairs, and we have another stage upstairs, which is above the main bar, so you can play on that – solo acts can play on that top stage to both upstairs and downstairs.

“We have lots of live music, we are ultimately a live music venue. We have up and coming, we have kids playing down there earlier on in the afternoon, up and coming bands – but mostly it’s sing-along, covers, solo acts, duets, we have a saxophone guy who plays down there regularly, we have lots of different things going on.”

What are the biggest challenges you face in the industry at the moment and how do you overcome them?

“Well the biggest was Covid, but like I said before, we tried to stay positive through that and we got through it, and now it’s a part of history isn’t it.

“Bills – energy bills, the cost of living crisis, that’s the biggest hurdle, because people haven’t got the money that they used to have.

“Habits are changing as well, it’s a bit of a perfect storm for the industry, it’s tough to survive in this industry – there’s no free dinners anymore.

“People don’t have as much money in their pocket because they’ve got bills to pay at home.”

What’s the best thing about running the bar?

“The live music is the best thing – and seeing customers return, seeing customers with smiles on their faces.

“A night out is escapism for 99 per cent of people. I know some venues you just go in and it’s full of drunks, but ours is not one of them venues.

“Ours is full of working people, professional people – working-class people, all escaping from their week of work and having a night out, having a dance, and having a sing-song.

"We love being from Bolton, are very proud of the town and want to be here when it sees better days."

What’s the worst thing about running a bar?

“Seeing your brother day-in, day-out – seeing your brother’s ugly mug day-in, day-out.

“He’ll love me for saying that. I do love him though, he’s a good lad.”

Do you have any plans to bring in dynamic pricing – which saw Oasis tickets soar to more than £300 each on Ticketmaster’s website?

“That would be nice, wouldn’t it? We would never do anything like that.

“I think it’s disgraceful. I’m not sure how much influence the lads have had on it. I think it’s an American thing that’s come over here and to be honest I think there should be a tough response to it from people, because I think it’s a test of us, and whether we will suck it up and get on with it, or whether we’ll fight it.

“I think we should fight it with everything we’ve got, I think politicians should get involved and it should be stamped out, because we don’t really want that do we?

“Do we really want to be ringing up for tickets and not knowing how much they’re going to cost when we get through? It’s not on.

“I just thing of the young ‘uns who haven’t got much money but desperately want to go and see somebody like Taylor Swift or Oasis or whoever and they just can’t afford it, it’s just a bit sad.

“I know artists have got to make money and they don’t make as much money from selling records nowadays, I understand that – but how much money do you want?

“I think it’s very unfair on people who just want to go and see the people that they love, and I think what should happen is somebody like Noel Gallagher, somebody like Liam Gallagher, who’s got so much influence should come out and speak up against it because we don’t want that in this country surely? Leave that to the Americans.”