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Work began in earnest, many paid and volunteer workers helped to ready the club for the opening, including DanielMacKay who prompted me to start writing this story. There were many obstacles to overcome as work proceeded, the electrician was told that more power could not be fed into the club for some reason ( I think NS Power said that they were waiting for the wiring on the poles was to be put underground ( lame exscuse as The Office Club had more power before we leased the building space)). We ended up putting a fan on the main panel to keep it cool all the time as we were at the very limit of power consumption for the panel (especially when the glasswasher was turned on).
Another problem was the distance from the very back wall was further than the allowed distance to a fire escape, this was solved by a long (fire rated) hall with fire doors on each end being put up along the back of the dance floor (this also decreased our occupancy space). Plumbing at the bar in the main room which was too low to the ground was resolved by raising the bar up 2 steps on a platform. A wheelchair accessible runway was also installed to the back bar area. Washrooms also had to be made larger and were chair accessible as well. I still giggle to this day about the new ceramic tile floor in the women's washroom. We were running out of time to get the occupancy permit and I had run out of grout for the tiles and it was 4am. After giving it some thought and tripping over a box of drywall premix compound, I found the solution " looked OK to me !! "
The DJ Booth which was a lot of my design and was my baby to build. All glassed in with a semi round counter top so reaching was not an issue, I was supposed to have a shared DJ job with Bob B.. ...... Bob had his own ideas of how the booth should be built and I found him on several occasions giving instructions to the carpenters on the site that I had not approved. Eventually I approached Fred Bishop with my demand of HIM OR ME!!.
A stainless steel dancefloor to one side of the booth ( the largest in the Maritimes at the time), the lightshow reworked from The Turret less the light chaser which was not back yet.
A new name was needed for the new club as I guess the Turret Club name no longer worked because of the lack of a TURRET and there were some people who felt that they wanted to forget that it even existed. A competition was put forth to the members and community at large for a new name. There was a cash prize given ( if I remember correctly ) and potential names started pouring in, some were too Toronto and some too Montreal and some too far fetched to even consider. The name that was finally settled (Rumours Club ) on was submitted by Bob B. , I never liked the name and I never really liked the one that I submitted ( can't remember what ) but I thought the name " Rumours " only enhanced what already was a part of the bar community, so we lived with the name.
To our horror one morning, it was discovered that most of the sound system had been stolen from the building. There was no noticeable breakin and only a few people had keys. There was an old stairway up through the back that I had walled in but found that to be undisturbed. The search was eventually abandoned and police reports given, but no trace was ever found. New speakers, amplifiers and turntables added to the expence of the new club.
An accountant had been hired to put the books in order from years of lack there of. This man who did not look like your average accountant kept asking questions about theft and if I knew anyone that was stealing or asking other staff members the same questions. His constant prodding made us suspicious. Turns out he was an undercover cop. There is more to this story but I was on the outside of it looking in and any theories or stories I have heard about the investigation are only speculation on my part. Eventually the books were taken care of by the company that we had hired and all worked out in the end. I heard that the accounting company ended up writing our fees off because they apparently did not know about the undercover operation.
Rumours Club had a cold and dark feeling , it was not a comfortable place to work in. The windows were baorded over as to not allow passers by to see in, I don't know if if this was GAE's decision or the Liquor Board not wanting anyone to see men with men or women with women dancing together or "God Forbid " KISSING ! "". Music that had been rerun and reused from The Turret Club was becoming stale and patrons were letting me know of their displeasure. It seemed that the management at the time was either not interested or had no money for the purchase of new music so I started buying what I could find at the time out of my own pocket. This was a hard period to get new music anyway because the music industry had stopped putting out a lot of " DISCO " for the coming onslaught of the new " DANCE MUSIC ". Finally on his return from a trip to Montreal one day, Paul Hanson (GAE Exuctive Member) handed me a bag with about 10 new titles in it. You have to remember that this is Halifax and in Halifax we have more in common with Toronto ( lifestyle wise ) and Montreal music for the most part did not have a large impact, Montreal had its own sound and it took many years before it became a part of the mainstream of Halifax music scene (if at all), so a large portion of the singles that Paul handed to me made it nowhere.
The staff seemed to be getting on each others back, argueing between staff members after a while seemed to be increasing by the day. Fred Berringer was always at me for something someone had told him and I was after someone else for something someone told me. Fred and I had a contracting business at this point in time and it was taking a toll there as well. After time we came to find out that the someone who was telling each of us about something the other person did was the same person " Fred Bishop (manager)". All his wrangling to get the staff to argue with one another and maybe quit, backfired in his face (I don't think he realized how resilient a Lesbian or GayMan really is). Fred Bishop's term as manager was soon terminated because he thought he could get away with pulling the wool over too many peoples eyes at the same time.