A Snug Club vinyl night
The Unknown.
Bring a record nobody's heard. The room scores it.
Records, not performers. You bring one, you book a slot and the staff put your side on, and the people in the room vote.
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. Leave an email and you hear the day it does.
Tell me when night one's onHow 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 a short intro.
Step 3: The people in the room vote on what they heard. The best score of the night takes the crown.
The scoring
How the room scores it
Out of ten, one tap each, while the record is still playing. A great record everybody knows loses to a great one nobody does.
The whole scale →10: Never heard it. Brilliant.
The reason this website exists. You have no idea who they are, you want it immediately, and you are already pretending you knew.
5: The middle of the road.
Either a good record everybody knows, or an unknown one that is merely alright. The scale cannot tell the difference and, honestly, neither can you.
2: Popular band. Tired record.
Played at every wedding since 2004. You can watch the bar staff age in real time.
Season Zero · London
The table, and last week's winner
The table
The table starts on night one.
Last week's winning record
No crown yet — night one decides the first.
For pubs
Want The Unknown at your pub?
A record night that brings its own crowd to your quietest night. It's free, and we pay you £5 for every new member's first pint.
- Your pub's own page, and a pin on the map
- Host Snug Club vinyl nights
- List your gigs, quizzes and karaoke
- Advertise promotions and happy hours
- Rent your space out for workshops
- Bands apply to you for the slots you open
What it costs
Independents, free houses and community-owned pubs
Free — 100 places, then £5 once. Nothing monthly, ever.
Pub-company houses
£10 once and £2 a month from day one, 100 places.
What we pay you
£5 for every new member's first pint, at the drink you choose. Nothing comes out of your till, and the member discount is yours to give or not.
Every pub is checked before its page goes live.
For bands
Sign your band up
Your own band page, your gig dates and your links, where pubs looking for bands find you by town, fee and what you sound like.
Every band gets six months free — there are no places to run out of. After that it is £3.50 a month, and you can cancel any time.
Sign your band upWhat you get
Free for six months, then £3.50 a month
- Your own discovery band page
- Add your song and promote it
- Book slots in pubs looking for bands
- Sell your own music, we take nothing
- Detailed analytics dashboard
- Advertise into new towns
- Your gigs in the weekly flyer
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 six 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
£25/yr
£5 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
*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 £25 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 £25 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 six months pushes it back — a founding member's pint lands nine months after signing up. 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 six months pushes it back by six months. You choose the pub when you spend it, from those signed up to The Snug Club; that pub chooses which drink it covers and we pay them £5. No pub is signed up yet.
Who we support
20% of the shop goes to Music Venue Trust.
20% of everything the shop sells, and 10% of every £25 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.