The Relaunch of Tippy and The Local Bar

Tip first came to Koh Phangan twenty years ago, at first he didn’t plan to stay but fell in love with the island as many people do.

“I was living in Haad Rin and it was a real community. We would go out partying, it was all on vinyl back then. My first set was in backyard, you only got a set anywhere if you had your own records.

I remember Backyard being a pub! We used to go there every night”.

Scuba diving was one of the reasons I came back, I did my first Full Moon party, met John Thorne then left to dive elsewhere. I ended up coming back to Phangan as John and I were offered jobs as dive masters and that is when I started living here permanently”.

Tell us about The Local Bar...
It has been a bar for the past ten years at least, it used to be girlie bar at one point. It has always been an expat bar and passed down or hands between expat locals.

We took it on and kept it as ‘Cocktails and Dreams’ for the first six months, this is our third year. After six months we changed it to The Local Bar so it felt like my own, then we started having ideas. We took it down and rebuilt it, it was supposed to just be a renovation, but one thing led to another as we found termites for example.

We completed in December 2014 and before we knew it we were running business as usual without any opening party. Everything is new, there’s a brand new pool table, nice clean toilets and a bar.

What is the inspiration behind it?
I wanted to do something, an idea that people can’t just copy like a lot of Thailand does. Vinyl is one thing we can do that’s different as you can’t copy twenty five years worth of experience over night.

It is different to everyone else and allows me to do what I enjoy doing, vinyl is the way forward.

With Vinyl it is a completely different night with different methods, the beauty of vinyl is so diverse, you can put Run DMC on top of Leftfield and for me it is more real, you can’t cheat.
It used to be hard to get sets on Koh Phangan, you had to travel with your record bag. Unfortunately when I stopped playing out that is when they started paying people, there was a flood in the market. I was still playing at home and thought I should now bring it to the bar.

You make and have a menu of Indian food at The Local, which is delicious by the way! Where did this come from?
I’m from Birmingham in the UK where there is a big Indian and Pakistani community so living there means that it’s part of the staple diet! All our friends were Pakistani so that is where my food comes from.

I taught myself, I have always lived on my own and cooked for myself so it is just a matter of practise. It started as bar snacks, everything in The Local Bar is something I like so it was natural to bring the food in.
People were saying that my curries were ‘so nice you should bring them into the bar’ and so I did!
The back area was going to be a restaurant but now it’s the Dj place as people didn’t want the formal sitting, they prefered lounging on the sofas but still with a table to eat so it was a matter of finding its way.

So tell us about the Vinyl Warriors and The Boiler Room night...
Vinyl Warriors is originally the name that Aaron Fevah came up with for Songkran, the set up is only vinyl.
Before I brought the decks down from my house I asked about twenty five Djs if they were interested in playing vinyl and pretty much every single one of them said yes and mentioned about their days of vinyl from ‘back in the day’. But only a few turned up, it was a good standard of turnout with seven of us at first meeting regularly, purely for the love of vinyl. The name just stuck and if you turn up, commit and play then you can be part of the team.

The Boiler Room comes from these Saturday nights. 
We want to get a guest Dj as the headliner and have our cctv so we can show out in the front bar on screen so people can see what is going on out the back with the vinyl mixing.
Then we had the idea of live streaming on the internet. It is the idea that every Dj that comes to Koh Phangan will want to come and get their set on Boiler Room Phangan at The Local Bar.

What regular nights do you have at the moment?
On Saturday nights we do Vinyl Warriors where we get together to play and do Boiler Room if someone wants to guest on it. Otherwise we go back to back with the vinyl.
I want to bring it away from the two hour set scenario and because it is vinyl anything can mix, you can be like ‘ah I love this tune, let me play this’, It is more free and a jam for Dj’s. You can bring any ideas and be more experimental.

Tuesdays John Ranby does seven inch vinyl, rare groove, soul and ragga. We are also doing a scratch workshop for people who want to learn. Dj chupis works with us to help these workshops and is also doing the seven inch.
Tuesdays are nothing to do with dance, there is lots of 80’s lovers rock, it is more like a wedding Dj and about the selection the Dj puts on.

So where do you see The Local Bar in a couple of years?
I want it to be a hub, I just want the niche with vinyl here on Koh Phangan. If anyone wants to be involved with the vinyl then they know to come to The Local.

We are one of the only bars with decks and we want people to know this but know that they can come play. Plus we will still do the food, every time we are open the food is available.

When is the big relaunch / opening party?
Saturday October 24th, four days before Full Moon so it should be good! We already have lots of people on board like Dave King and Graham Gold.

I will be doing free curry, like I do every saturday for everyone involved, I make a big batch for people who are supporting me!

What are you up to in your free time?
My mum said follow your dreams, so that’s what I am doing.
I am finding myself as a single man again.

I sit around and play decks, sit in my man cave and do man things.

Giving up drinking alcohol has helped me find the decks again, and find my focus.
John Ranby and I have organised a crate with 3000 vinyl records from our childhood and once that comes we have everything covered. Between three of us we have records from 1988 to the present day.

What is your life philosophy?
Do your own thing, scene but not herd.
Be part of the scene but not in the herd.