The Snug Club presents
The beginning of…
The Unknown.
Bring a record nobody's heard.
The room scores it.
A club for good pubs and people with too many records. Free to play.
Every visit counts
Support the pub
Or stay in and watch a documentary about pubs closing.
That'll help. Nearly two a day shut in Britain this year, and not one of them was saved by somebody meaning to pop in more often. Buy the round. Do the quiz. Bring a record nobody has heard of.
Find one near you →What the Snug Club is
A members' club for proper pubs, and for people who would rather be in one than read about another one closing. We put on nights worth leaving the house for, in pubs that want a fuller room on a quiet weeknight, starting with The Unknown, our record night. It's free to join.
What it offers
- Free
Nights out
The Unknown, gigs, quizzes, karaoke and trade days at proper pubs, on one calendar and one map. Book a slot at The Unknown with a free account.
- £2.50 a month
Membership
A joining pint, the forums, 10% off at the pubs taking part and a weekly flyer. Founders pay £20 a year and get the pint on day one.
- 20% to charity
The shop
Shirts, totes and slipmats. 20% of everything the shop sells goes to Music Venue Trust.
- Your own crowd
Private hire
The Unknown for a birthday, a work do or a Christmas party, with the room scoring the records.
Run a pub, or play in a band? There's a section for each of you further down.
Pubs
Season Zero · London
We're choosing our founding pub. Could it be yours?
Season Zero is eight weeks at one pub in London: one night a week, six slots a night, and a final in week eight that crowns the Legend of the Unknown.
The first fixture goes up here the day the pub signs, and not before. Free to play when it does: booking a slot takes a free account.
Put your pub forward →Next fixture
Not fixed yet
No pub and no date until the founding pub signs. Join free and you hear the day it does.
Players
How a night works
Three steps. No DJ, no requests.
Step 1: You bring a record. Pick a side nobody in the room is likely to know.
Step 2: You book a thirty-minute slot, and the staff put your side on. The half hour covers the changeover and an optional short intro.
Step 3: The people in the room vote on what they heard. The best score of the night takes the crown.
Out of ten, one tap each, while the record is still playing. A great record everybody knows loses to a great one nobody does.
Pubs
Want The Unknown at your pub?
A record night that brings its own crowd to your quietest night. It's free, and the regulars bring the records.
One login lists everything else you put on as well: gigs, quizzes, karaoke and trade days. Every pub is checked before its page goes live.
Bands
Get played in pubs you've never heard of.
Your own band page and your gig dates, where pubs looking for a band can find you. What it costs and what you get are on The Bands.
Snug membership
Everything on the free plan stays free. Cancel whenever.
Free
£0
No card, no expiry
- Browse pubs, gigs and quizzes
- Browse karaoke and The Bands
- Vote at vinyl nights
- Book a vinyl night slot
- A place on the table
- No forum access — Member and up
Member
£2.50/mo
First 100 join free for three months
- Everything in Free
- Your joining pint, three months after you start paying†
- The forums — read and post
- 10% off at the pubs taking part*
- Weekly flyer
- Sell records at trade days
Founder
only£20/yr
Original price £25 a year
£10 a year less than Member · 400 places
- Everything in Member
- That same joining pint, on day one
- An enamel pin and a starter kit
- Your name on the founders page
- Your number, permanently — even if you stop
- 10% of it goes to Music Venue Trust
- This price for as long as you stay
The small print: the joining pint, the discounts and the charity
*10% off is each pub's own offer. A landlord decides whether to give it, and it applies only at the pubs that do. 20% of everything the shop sells, and 10% of every Founder membership, goes to Music Venue Trust, registered charity 1159846 — taken off the top, before any costs come out. Nothing comes out of the £2.50 Member subscription or the £3.50 Musician one. Founder memberships give a tenth rather than a fifth, because that £20 already carries a year of Member, an enamel pin, a starter kit and, in the first year, the joining pint.
†The three months run from your first payment, not from the day you join, so a founding free three months pushes the pint back by three months. A Founder pays on day one and waits for nothing.
The joining pint: one per membership, ever — Member and Founder alike, and not repeated in later years. Founders can redeem from day one; everybody else 3 full months after their first payment, so a founding free three months pushes it back by three months. You choose the pub when you spend it, from those signed up to The Snug Club; that pub chooses which drink it covers. No pub is signed up yet.
Plans, not promises
What's next
We'll put a date on each one when we have one.
Season Zero
Eight weeks at our founding pub in London, and a final in week eight.
The pub down the road
More pubs, one at a time, starting in London.
QR nights
The Unknown for private parties and work dos, scored on everybody's phone.
The apps
A member app and a landlord app, once the website has earned them.
Who we support
20% of the shop goes to Music Venue Trust.
20% of everything the shop sells, and 10% of every Founder membership, goes to Music Venue Trust, registered charity 1159846 — taken off the top, before any costs come out. Nothing comes out of the £2.50 Member subscription or the £3.50 Musician one.