One of the new owners of a popular York café says he wants to bring country music to the city. He sat down with The Press to discuss his ambitious plans.
Ian Reid and his wife Rebecca took over FortyFive Vinyl café in Micklegate last November.
Since then they’ve been busy getting to grips with the industry.
Hospitality is a first for Ian.
He retired from a career in the corporate credit card industry after turning 60 and was looking for something to keep him busy.
The same year he and Rebecca toured the USA for his birthday.
Ian, now 61, says one of the stops was Nashville which birthed his love of country music.
“We fell in love with the genre,” he explains, adding he grew up listening to punk music. “We fell in love with the story telling aspect.”
York café is modelled off iconic Nashville venue
The inspiration behind the York café comes directly from that trip to the states.
Ian says the site in Micklegate is modelled off The Bluebird Café – three-thousand miles away in Nashville – which hosted huge names like Taylor Swift and Kathy Mattea when they were starting out.
“That’s the model we wanted to do,” he adds.
Like the Bluebird, Ian hosts regular gigs at his café which holds around 50 people.
Live music is what drew him to the business, he says, after living in York for ten years and feeling there was a lack of country gigs.
Ian’s aim is for the venue to be a “small and intimate” place for acts to make a name for themselves.
“We’re not trying to do what everyone else does,” he says. “We don’t want to do cover bands. We haven’t got an open mic night. Other people do that really well.”
Photographs of musicians cover the café’s walls and a jukebox sits in the corner which customers are free to use.
On sale are new and used vinyl records and there are books to thumb through.
“People come in and like what we have done,” Ian says. Some of the photographs are by him and pieces of memorabilia – including signed guitars – are from his personal collection.
He explains that the café has kept the regular customer base its previous owners Dom White and Dan Kentley built and attracted new ones.
“The guys before did a great job. We have just built on what they created.”
Ian has kept the menu the same as it was under the previous owners.
The fan-favourite grilled cheese sandwiches remain and he has no plans to change them.
'We have been amazed at the age range of people that come in'
Ian says the most surprising thing about the café has been the age range of its customers.
“We have been amazed at the age range of people that come in. From students to people who can remember when the Beatles played in York,” he explains, nodding to a poster on the wall from the Fab Four’s gig at the Rialto theatre in Fishergate from 1963.
Ian plans to host more gigs this year.
Next month he even plans to live stream a country performance in the café from Atlanta.
And he hopes to find a venue in the states that will return the favour and stream a performance from York.
FortyFive Vinyl café is open seven days a week 10am to 5pm. Keep up with the café on Instagram (@fortyfiveuk).
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