...and still flying the flag of alt.rock
The Moorings was (arguably - because someone will probably argue) Aberdeen's original alternative rock bar/venue, catering for those with a slightly heavier taste in music. Times, tastes, and what is meant by 'heavier' have all changed, but we're still here.
The old place has survived four jukeboxes, three refits and two changes of caretaker.
It's lived through the beatles, heavy metal, glam, prog, disco, punk, NWOBHM, new romantics, new wave, hair metal, thrash, death, grunge, emo... I lose track at this point... It even survived for a few dull years without any live music.
All over the world other places have been born, lived, and died within that time frame including my personal favorite the amazing and illustrious CBGB's. Scary isn't it!
Here on our far flung patch of turf in the past 15 years decent and credible alt.rock ventures like The Venue, Caeser's Palace, The Palace/Fusion/Ritzy/Bonkers/Palace, The Satelite Bar, Doctor Drakes, even the Aberdeen Union, and others I can't recall have all sadly been wiped from the map. More recently even Moshulu appears to have been partially retargeted at a more lucrative market.
On a brighter note, during the same period we've seen the birth of The Tunnels.
But there have been some ghastly and lonely periods where only The Moorings stood in the way of a temporary alt.rock oblivion.
So what is the point to this little rant?
I very much hope that both The Tunnels and The Moorings are both still around up until 2049 and beyond (by which time my job will almost certainly have been readvertised at least once). But whether they are is up to each and all of you alt.rock fans out there...
...just contemplate that next time you consider wasting £100 drinking overpriced pish in T** P******** B** or B** B** or L***** or M* C******* or A******* S******* or S*** B** or E***** or T***** K**** or T** J****** M***, just because the clueless sheep you call friends feel compelled to obey the will of the corporate establishment.
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ALTERNATIVE ROCK VENUES. We're that little light of uniqueness shining in a dark world of conformity and replication.
LVX
Flash (current caretaker and self-appointed protector)
The Moorings Bar 2002-?
PS - In the meantime the Stewart Milne bulldozers may only pass over my dead body
