AS Oxfordshire continues to thrive in tier two, a new social club selling vinyl records and craft beer has opened.

Kevin Douch, along with his wife Gemma Hefferon-Douch, and longtime friends Leigh Shorter and Ffin Colley, decided to open the Big Scary Monsters Social Club before the pandemic but admits most of the planning happened during the first lockdown.

Big Scary Monsters was primarily a record label releasing music from alternative bands for 20 years, but it will now have a social club that is part bar, part music shop.

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Due to tier two restrictions meaning that only one household can meet inside for an alcoholic drink if it is served with a ‘substantial meal,’ the group decided to put the opening of the sit-in bar on hold.

Currently, the social club is open just for shoppers and browsers.

Mr Douch said: “The opening went well. It was finally nice to have the doors open and let people in.

“We had two weeks of a click and collect service at the end of lockdown, and that felt as though we were stepping in the right direction.

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“We met a lot of the community, which was nice, but they were wedged in the doorway.

“The tier two restrictions have delayed that plan slightly.

“We might start offering food at some point, and that has always been a plan for next year, to have food in the evenings.

“If we start doing this though, it won’t be until January.”

It was pretty busy yesterday. We had a nice mix of people who had dropped in before, and others flicking through records, buying Christmas presents, everything you would expect at this time of year.”

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The group did not consider delaying the opening of the social club until after the lockdown.

Mr Douch added: “We had the idea before Covid, but most of it has been planned during the pandemic.

“We got the place in July, so from day one, we have been working around all of that, with making sure there is enough space, hand sanitizing station, things like that.

“The tier two thing actually might be a blessing in disguise, a way of easing our way into the business.

“We launched our website to do click and collect a lot earlier than planned, and the same with the food, we were not going to do this for a while but not we probably we will. We have adapted in a positive way.”