Serious Lee is a recurring blog post on Cock and Bull TV featuring the musings of our long-time friend and contributor Lee Daly. This week, Lee pours his heart out in a letter to Dublin institution Copper Face Jack’s.

Hey Coppers,

This letter may come as a surprise to you. There is a threat to your dominance. Sure, sure, you currently sit astride the Dublin nightclub scene like a latter day colossus, enjoying the patronage of a broad range of the city’s inhabitants.

Some (read; me) might claim to be slumming it by visiting, doing so with a sense of irony and a well placed quip about nurses. But we both know the colour of their money ain’t no different to anyone else’s, and that it passes into the cloakroom and behind the bar at the same pace as those who fit the more accepted archtypes of your clientele.

It’s now immaterial whether our nurses, teachers and guards actually drink within your walls, such is your legend. And as I alluded to, you may become a victim of your own success. Just like Kleenex, Band Aid or Sellotape, your name is so strong that others will be seeking to use it for their own ends. Across the road, there are already plans afoot for a “Coppers-style” club to take the place of the recently closed Tripod and Crawdaddy.

And it is for this reason I write. I’m experiencing feelings of guilt over the many times I’ve found myself walking down your famous steps and handing over my hard earned cash. I should have little to be ashamed of, as I did so alongside some good friends of mine and did have a good time on many occasions. But with the closure of a real music venue, I can’t help but think of all the times I went with the flow set against the times I ruled out gigs which cost the same.

Now I’m no fool; live music venues by and large exist to make a profit, just like nightclubs. It’s also not so desirable that most of the spaces for gigs in the city sell alcohol, excluding people under 18 and meaning those who do get in often have to put with some moronic behaviour that has little to do with the gig.

But live music has the power to elevate people up from the doldrums of the working week in a way the Saw Doctors can’t, as we have saw last week with the procession of nostalgia on the great gigs which people saw in Pod, Tripod, Crawdaddy and around the corner in the Lower Deck.

In so far as the different parts of the same industry exist, it would probably be best if I supported the ones that give me the experiences I really want. I’m not so vain as to think my patronage will make much of a difference either way as the city will still have some great live music venues come what may. At best I’ll avoid my own feelings of guilt through supporting artists whose music I enjoy rather than those whom I am not all that bothered about.

It’s over between us Coppers. In the future, I’ll make my excuses and duck out when someone raises the possibility of a visit.

I know I’ve just ended a relationship you probably weren’t even aware existed, given how many visitors you have, as well as the fact you are actually a building and not an actual person but I hope you can find it somewhere within your imaginary heart (in my minds eye, located beside the all too real men’s room on the top floor) to forgive me.

Sincerely,

L. Daly

You can follow Lee on Twitter @LeeDalyIre