It's been a dark couple of weeks at Jay Roberts HQ, sadly due to a few misguided individuals who love to wag their tongues without knowing the whole truth - don't get me wrong, I’m used to the media having their fun but they print to the masses whereas this was down to a few passing acquaintances spreading rumours for the sake of causing trouble.

To set the record straight, The Circus made a decision to change their music policy as a whole, my night was originally an experiment to provide something different than the usual chart/r&b/bouncy house that sadly fills the other bars and clubs in Darwen which was working. I can’t release too much private information here, you’d have to speak to them for clarification, however, as a result of a drop in numbers over the entire trading nights and the town itself getting quieter and throw in two bank holidays next to each other … well, you can see where I’m leading, my night was first for review and while I’m fairly flexible as to what I’ll play, I wasn’t prepared to do a full on eighties night and so agreed to step down. The current format is an experiment for a few months so you never know what will happen.

I have no problem with change – it’s a natural part of the industry and I’m a big supporter of the idea of adapting to changing customer needs so long as there are themes or boundaries.

There have been several rumours going around town and while many visitors to this site are from across the UK as a whole, many are from Darwen as well and this is an attempt to clear up the twisting of the truth that the Darwen Rumour Mill just loves to do.

Was I fired? Definitely not. I was asked to step down which I freely agreed to do. I could have phased the night out over a few weeks, however, I’d been in Majorca and so it felt like the appropriate time to move on.

Simon Barnes (venue operator) and I have, and always will be very good friends - this change is purely a business decision. If anything, this has given me the opportunity to move on and has motivated me to hire a PR firm to take this whole shebang back into the main public domain.