A Night at the Pembrokeshire Speakeasy

by · November 18, 2025

A night of 1920s/1930s  vintage glamour, complete with live music of the time, is being staged at the Cow Shed near St Davids on Saturday 6 December.

The event – with attendees encouraged to wear period dress – is the brainchild of local hairdresser and styling expert Nigel Barnes of Reinvention.

Before Nigel moved to Pembrokeshire 10 years ago, he had a career in London as a  hair and makeup artist for the music, fashion and film industries. His clients back in the day included Sting, Peter Gabriel and Paul McCartney as well as leading fashion houses and beauty companies L’Oreal, Schwartzkopf and Wella. He was also director of renowned models agency Models 1’s creative division .

His big night at the Cow Shed is being billed as Ma Bessie’s Speakeasy – featuring Ma Bessie and her Pigfoot Band, who were a big hit at this year’s Aberjazz festival.

Like me, he saw them at Theatr Gwaun – a sitdown venue where he sensed that a lot of people just wanted to get up and dance. That gave him the idea of presenting the band in a dancefloor setting.

But that is only part of the story… as well as music and dance, there will be welcome cocktails, canapés served all evening, and a roulette wheel with a professional croupier.

“I thought it would be nice to use a bit of my creative brain,” Nigel smiles. “And with this event, we are going to take you back in time.”

There may be a Prohibition era vibe to the proceedings, but it seems there will be no prohibition at all on having fun.

Nigel says you can go from Pembrokeshire to London and see shows with the sort of high production values that he feels are so important; but the cost of tickets, food, transport and accommodation can add up to a small fortune.

Bearing that in mind, the £50-a-head tickets for his Speakeasy event may be seen as a bargain. Half of them are already sold and Nigel is confident the rest will be taken up. And, with the night already looking like a big success, he already has plans for the next one.

Ma Bessie’s Speakeasy, Cow Shed, Crug Glas SA62 6XX, 6 December, 7.30pm until late.

Booking: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ma-bessies-speakeasy-tickets-1767198852339

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Nigel Summerley

Nigel Summerley retired from The Oldie magazine to return to freelance journalism. He previously held executive staff jobs at the London Evening Standard, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Express before freelancing for 20 years for newspapers including The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Guardian and the ‘i’ paper, plus a wide range of magazines. He continues to write about music, travel and health, to freelance for the Financial Times and The Oldie magazine, and to edit selected books. He blogs at www.nigel-summerley.blogspot.com.

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