just emailed them this:
Hi, it is with great dismay i read an article in your paper today about a band called mid life crisis who play covers of popular rock songs and are in need of a singer. While i appreciate their predicament surely the space you gave to this band would have been better used to promote the young bands in Aberdeen who actually put time and energy into creating their own music and to whom it is more than just a bit of fun and a hobby.
Aberdeen is incredibly lucky in that it has a large and varied local music scene disproportionate to the size of it's population. With the increased interest in Scottish pop music in general just now due to the success of bands like Franz Ferdinand and Snow Patrol surely now is the time for the Press and Journal and Evening Express to fully get behind the local bands in Aberdeen(not just the covers bands) and give them the support they deserve. Bands such as Eric Euan(recently voted best band in aberdeen at a local music awards night), Politik, Dedalus, My Minds Weapon, The X-certs, Contra, Lift, Red Man Walking, Sidca, Masamune, and so on all deserve regular coverage in your papers because they put everything they have into creating music and trying to make a career out of it not just a hobby. If you can send a reporter to a highland league game which attracts a hundred people then surely you can send them to watch local bands who attract similar crowds?
Another point i'd like to address was the continued absence of any coverage of the GoNorth music festival in your paper. This is a yearly music showcase festival which attracts bands from all over Scotland and Europe as well as bringing record industry people up from all over the UK. The festival is usually centered on Belmont Street and is advertised and promoted well in advance yet receives no coverage or acknowledgment in the P & J or the Evening Express despite being supported by the UK music industry as a whole.
I appreciate there was a feature recently on Fat Hippy Records but they are not just an unusual case in Aberdeen, they are the norm. Currently there are a number of young people who are trying to establish record labels in the North East and all could use the support of a newspaper that was prepared to finally acknowledge what's been happening in Aberdeen for over ten years now, a music scene to be proud of, a music scene that is just as healthy as Glasgow or Manchester's and a music scene that is ours and needs your support.
Thanks
David Officer
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