21 Howard Street, Glasgow.
The Count Down Bar.
This image was taken in 1979 shortly before demolition.
Thanks to James Green a Glasgow photographer in Glasgow 1979.
Mars Bar advert 1978.
Mars Bar advert 1978.
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After Mars threatened to take the pub to court for copying the name of one of the companies most famous chocolate snacks MARS BARS the pub had to change the name.
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In the NEWS 1979…
Pub Thief “Saved” By His Boss…
Melvin Mitchell has a chance of staying out of jail because he had a boss in a million. Today a court heard how gambling-mad Mitchell, a 27-year-old pub manager, found himself £5000 in debt and in trouble with loan sharks.
In desperation he helped himself to £3641 takings he should have put in the bank night safe, then he vanished.
But Glasgow Sheriff Court heard how Mitchell’s boss, James Byrne, had given him the chance of a lifetime to make good. When Mitchell was caught and then freed on bail, Mr Byrne gave him a job in the bar of a hotel in which he also has an interest.
Instead of demanding his cash back he allowed Mitchell to pay off all his other debts. Mr James Friel, defending, said Mr Byrne was now putting Mitchell back into the same pub from which he embezzled the money, starting on Monday.
He will pay Mitchell £70 a week, but will keep £20 until the stolen money is repaid. Mitchell admitted embezzling the money from the Mars Public House, now the Countdown, in Howard Street in the centre of Glasgow.
FIRST OFFENCE
Sheriff Peter McNeill, who was told Mitchell was a first offender, deferred sentence for three weeks for a back-ground report and continued bail.
Mr Brian Logan, prosecuting, said Mitchell had been working at the Mars Bar for about five months before the offence which happened between October 22 and November 4 last year.
Mr Friel said in normal circumstances Mitchell should go to jail, but asked the Sheriff to give him a chance of freedom in view of Mr Byrne’s attitude.
Advert from 1979.
Update 09/01/2014…
In the 1960s the Snaffle Bit changed its name to the Steering Wheel according to an email I got from Jimmy. Other names the pub has been known as : Count Down, Oyster Bar next door, Mars Bar.
Do you remember the pub as this name if so please get in touch.
I still think about the Mars Bar. It was my student bar, get drunk or just hang out. It was a great time to grow up. Glasgow was edgy before the coffee shop take over. It was dirty, the music was good, punk and new wave. Mars should have paid them for using the name.
Yes it sure was an amazing experience, l bar tended there for two years when the Simple Minds played there,
Gillian do you have an images of when Simple Minds played The Mars Bar or any stories you could tell. Would love to hear. Email me please…
Thanks Stuart.
Do you remember a band called PF Release? They played the Mars Bar for loads of Saturday afternoons.
I saw Berlin Blondes and The Venigmas in the Mars Bar, great times.
We had a band and played there a couple of times. Did it get renamed the Countdown?
Mars the chocolate company sued because of the name. We had to change it to Countdown to keep it open it was ridiculous at the time.