Yes, folks, on Saturday 23rd October 2010 the very first Candlelight Club took place. The venue was half the size of the one we mostly use these days and I remember when we first lit all the candles and turned out the lights we had no idea if you'd even be able to see in there. We had DJing from MC Fruity and burlesque from Vicky Butterfly (it wasn't until the second event that we started having live bands each time). Instead of a dinner menu we simply made sandwiches for everyone—by the Christmas event two months later our food and drink guru Will Sprunt was curing his own ham, and the next month he made cupcakes with absinthe icing for an event themed around La Clandestine and Butterfly absinthes. We were amazed how quickly it took off—within four events we had moved into the larger space and by spring 2011 we were doing events on three Saturdays out of every four. Huge thanks to everyone who came to those parties and gave us confidence to go for it.

We didn't mark our birthday for the first few years, as we didn't really think of it as something that would last so long. We had an anniversary ball in 2013 (featuring Vicky Butterfly once again, but this time in a 500-capacity hall with a huge stage), but it wasn’t until 2015 that we started a tradition of proper birthday parties. Obviously we were hoping to have a big knees-up to mark the big ONE-OH, but thanks to COVID that will have to wait. In the meantime here are selection of memories from our previous birthday bashes.