BOSSES at one of south Essex’s longest-standing nightclubs have branched out to launch a clothing range in a bid to keep the tills ringing and pay the bills.

Rayleigh’s alternative club the Pinktoothbrush is selling t-shirts and hoodies with the club’s logo and the team is working on other designs.

And sales have been very encouraging with the club’s loyal fan base backing their favourite venue, which has opted to stay shut despite legally being allowed to re-open.

Stu Whiffen, club promoter said: “When Covid-19 happened and we couldn’t open we had to rethink about how we can work.

“We started our online club nights and we’re doing four a week and we’ve had 60,000 streams online too.

“We’ve had little support or guidance from the Government and until we can give our brush experience it’s a case of what else can we do.

“We’re working with Leigh firm Save Our Souls and we’ve already sold hundreds of items with the club logo.

“We’re also working on designs for mugs, masks and bags too. We are working on designs with tickets from bands who played at the club including Depeche Mode, Culture Club, Radiohead, Blur and many more.

“The support has been instant and means a lot. The club industry is very difficult to survive at the best of times and we’ve kept going but nobody could foresee the pandemic.”

The club opened in 1979 named Crocs, as it was home to two live crocodiles that were on display in a cage.

It was renamed the Pink Toothbrush in 1983 after a Max Bygraves’ song called You’re a Pink Toothbrush for no apparent reason.

Mr Whiffen said: “We’ve had to work out how to ride out this pandemic the best we can and considered having tables on the dance floor but we don’t feel we can give the brush experience at the moment. The t-shirts are on sale for £18 and the hoodies are priced at £35. To buy the clothes see sosclothing.co.uk.