SINGAPORE — Singa the Courtesy Lion may have retired, but one '80s-themed bar and club in Tanjong Pagar is trying to bring back the valuable lessons that he taught.

Nineteen80, which opened last year, hopes to encourage drinkers to be more courteous on the dance floor with their own rendition of a national courtesy campaign.

Instead of Singa, however, the club has adopted Care Bears as their mascots. And as reward for good behaviour, the most courteous clubber each night will receive a drink on the house.

“Our space is quite intimate,” said co-founder Francesca Aurora Way, 28. “And how some people behave in the club after a few drinks, it’s not how they behave in the office or among friends at home.”

The bar’s courtesy campaign, which it launched on its Instagram account last December, features images such as a redesigned Care Bear accompanied with the message: “Groping is not okay. Verbal and physical abuse is not okay. Don’t be like Harass Bear."

Just seeing the characters there makes you smile, said co-founder Joshua Pillai, 37. He added that the bar will also put up posters and hand out stickers of these Care Bears to its patrons.

“The whole idea is to use images and pictures to put this message across,” he said. “Hopefully it sticks with them — pun intended.”

Added Ms Way: “On the weekends, especially when it gets very packed, if our staff finds an exemplary customer who made their day or their job a lot smoother, they will give them a drink on the house and a little thank-you note.”

Asked how the club would decide who the "Most Courteous Clubber" is each night, she said staff members would look out for a customer who shares the bar’s arcade machines, uses their “p’s and q’s” and shows all-round respect for others.

(Left) Ms Francesca Aurora Way, 28, and Mr Joshua Pillai, 37,  co-founders of a retro-themed arcade bar and discotheque. Photo: Daryl Choo/TODAY

The co-founders, who also do some disc jockeying at other clubs, said their DJ friends have been sharing their Instagram posts and would love for other clubs to hop on the campaign too.

“It’s just a nice reminder that we are all here for the aim to have fun,” Ms Way said.

‘BABY QUARRELS’

Nestled in a shophouse along Tanjong Pagar Road, parties on Nineteen80’s dance floor are a cosy and more intimate affair. As a result, queues snaking outside the door are a common sight.

Unpleasant encounters usually happen at the door, Ms Way said, recounting an incident where a man was so impatient to get in that he started to verbally abuse the bouncer.

On another occasion, a woman snuck into the club and instructed people inside to leave so that she and her friends, who were waiting outside, could come in.

“To be honest, there’s never been a major fight. Have I seen baby quarrels? Yes,” Mr Pillai said.

“But it’s not the kind of situation where there is a major brawl and glass is broken.”

When quarrels break out, staff will take the parties involved outside the bar. Only after they apologise to each other are they allowed back in.

However, the bar does not hesitate to take serious action towards sexual harassment and violence. It has so far banned one patron, a man, from its premises for pestering a female customer to get her number and even placing his arms around her shoulder after she repeatedly told him no.

When Mr Pillai confronted the man and took him outside, he started to get violent.

“So I said, ‘Look, you’re not going to come in. If you’re not going to respect people, especially women, then I’m sorry, you’re not coming in’. And we banned him for life,” said Mr Pillai.