Basil Newby responds to concerns as Blackpool's iconic Funny Girls enters administration
The founder of Blackpool’s iconic venue Funny Girls has responded to concerns over the venue entering administration despite it’s imminent sale.is looking forward it having a bright new era under new owners – and has explained that the parent company under his ownership going into administration is only a technicality.
It has been revealed Ellis Noble Leisure – the parent company for the popular drag venue under Mr Newby’s ownership - has entered in administration.
It comes shortly after The Gazette exclusively revealed Mr Newby had agreed a deal with an undisclosed new owner following his decision to retire.
Mr Newby said he is is looking forward to Funny Girls having a bright new era under new owners and described the parent company under his ownership going into administration as a technicality.
At the same time, Mr Newby said he has been assured that the 60 jobs at the venue in Dickson Road look to be safe, with the new owners having already met the 30 staff and 30 freelance workers – mainly performers – with the indication that all will be kept on.
Basil said: "It's business as usual now and I am confident it will be seamlessly into the future.
"The buyers with whom we have agreed the sale want to run Funny Girls under a company of their own and the existing parent company has gone into administration to allow that to happen once the deal is complete.
"They have met the existing staff and I understand they want to keep all of them on."
Mr Newby said: “The aim is that the deal will go through in a couple of weeks.
"It was so important to find just the right people to take over a business which means so much to me and I feel we have. I’m sure Funny Girls will continue for many years to come.”
Basil Newby founded Funny Girls in 1994 and has been a key figure in the town's nightlife for more than four decades, having opened the Flamingo Club, Blackpool's first gay club, in 1979, and he was appointed an MBE in 2014.
Funny Girls previously went into administration in 2018 when Mr Newby was under treatment for cancer and Thwaites Brewery took over the operation but the parent company resumed when he was fit to return.