A MUSICIAN says he does not regret selling his house to fund his alternative music venue despite crashing out of business last week.
Eddie and Denise Wood opened Asylum, in Viaduct Road, in April last year, in a bid to bring live music back to Chelmsford.
But the club closed last weekend - with a sell-out audience assembling to watch punk rock ukulele band The Pukes - after the couple realised cash flow problems meant they would be unable to carry on.
"It's been a striking couple of days," said Eddie, 52, also a singer in his own band Stormchild.
"We've come to the end of our financial backing and we've no more money to put into it, and as many customers know, my critical illness is making it a lot worse.
"I just feel that we have put as much as we physically could into this business and it's taken quite a toll on us."
The pair opened last year with a four-band live show in front of 160 revellers.
The grand opening followed the closure of music venue Hooga in Victoria Road three months before, and the once popular Army and Navy pub which closed 11 years previous.
The two offered "almost all" the bands to play free-of-charge and say they never took a penny out of the business.
In their first year the couple were also due to break even.
However over the last six months Eddie's struggle coping with Parkinson's disease has worsened, on top of financial difficulties, and Denise took over much of the management.
"When you get stressed it makes the shakes worse which doesn't make it easy when you are struggling to meet deadlines and make bookings to November – we've had to cancel bands from around the world," said Eddie.
"If you Google live music in Chelmsford we are number one – we've had a fantastic presence online."
Eddie, who now rents his home with his wife, says he does not regret selling the house to fund the business.
"I don't think I would do anything differently," he said.
"We started with a different idea, we wanted to create a platform for musicians who didn't have a platform anywhere else in Chelmsford, bands that were t readily financially viable or didn't attract a big crowd, that's where we were aiming."
Hundreds of supporters have expressed their sadness at the closure of the club on the venue's Facebook page.
"We have been massively supported in Chelmsford and we've had a massive response to the news of the closure and we are very grateful for that," he said.
The news also follows the closure of the Triangle Club, which also sits off from Duke Street, which signed off with a 90s themed night on Saturday.
The Essex County Council-funded venue was open for more than 20 years and the decision had prompted a 100-plus signature petition in protest, but to no avail.
