This weekend sees Gary, from The Turbinia, chalk up 20 years as owner / landlord and everyone is invited to the party.

“It’s incredible to think over 20 years ago I bought a derelict building with the crazy idea I could turn it around and bring back some of its former glory. To say it was a wreck was an understatement, but with the help of friends we had it ready to open in 5 weeks. The first couple of years were difficult, trying to get people to ignore the reputation it previously had, but gradually we started winning them over. As the years went by we tried different ways of attracting new people, the most successful being our weekly Saturday rock nights which quickly grew and before long we were attracting massive bands that graced the stages of some great venues and festivals. Other entertainment includes Friday night Open-Mic which gives local artistes a chance to showcase their talent on stage in front of an appreciative crowd. Starting a monthly comedy night we had no idea that we would be attracting major stars of TV, Stage & Screen, people like multi-award winning actor, Dave Johns who played Daniel Blake, in the film of the same name, Carl Hutchinson who had just finished a sold out arena tour with Chris Ramsey when he gigged here & we’ll never forget the fantastic evening we had with ‘Lost Voice Guy’.

Over the years I had a lot of experience of cask ale, so it made sense to install a couple of hand-pulls, it went so well we quickly expanded to 5 pumps and decided to start doing twice yearly Beer Festivals that get bigger and better every year. After a few years we were recognised by ‘Camra’ a national group of beer lovers, who awarded us with a place in the country’s largest pub publication, The Good Beer Guide. It was a proud moment back in 2017 when we became the first Aycliffe pub to ever be included. We are judged on quality of drinks & service, by people who are passionate about beer, so it’s a great achievement that we have been included every year since. ‘Camra’ members have also voted The Tub, ‘Pub Of The Season’ on 3 occasions now, beating some of County Durham’s best pubs to the title.

There is no resting on our laurels, we have a couple of ideas that will see The Tub evolve to the next level, these are still in the planning stage, so watch this space!

As a real community pub, we will continue with our charity work that has seen us donate tens of thousands to local charities.

Finally, back to the aforementioned party, when we started our band nights we wanted the first one to blow everyone away, so we found the top North-East band at the time, ‘The Force’, so, who better to help us celebrate this landmark. Since they were last here, this band have supported some world-class bands, including:- Status Quo, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Steve Vai, Skin, Saxon, Magnum, The Little Angels, Nazareth, FM, Nils Lofgren, and Izzy Stradlin. A ‘Kerrang’ national poll previously voted The Force one of the country’s Top Ten unsigned bands.

So get yourselves down The Tub for an awesome night of entertainment and help us celebrate the 20th anniversary”.