Quote:
Originally Posted by daveofficer
nah, it's not sticking to principles. it's being a petulant child. i refuse to travel to see mogwai as there is no logical reason for a band based in glasgow of that size not to come and play in aberdeen. that's sticking to principles(though i am sorely tempted each time and will no doubt give in sooner rather than later). i agree that people talking and shouting through gigs is shit but it's just a risk bands have to take. are we really expected to believe that everytime mogwai play glasgow, edinburgh or even london that they have the entire audience held in a silent awestruck trance broken up by reverential applause between every song? don't mogwai play on an image of being no nonsense glasgow boys with a lack of pretension not a bunch of prima donnas who throw a huff because they can't get the right colour m&m's backstage.
still, it's mogwai's choice at the end of the day(or their booking agent). braithwaites appeared up here with arab strap and seemed to enjoy it fine enough so there is hope yet. i don't know if the story is true or not really, if it is then everything i said stands but hopefully it's just urban myth and they will play up here one day.
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Hi Dave, i came across this by accident and thought i should explain what happened here. When we last played in Aberdeen at The Lemon Tree it was a pretty dispiriting experience. It was pretty obvious from the second we started that very few people in the crowd were particularly interested in hearing us and most were having loud conversations (including those in the front row) which made it very hard for us to hear what we were doing. We are not that precious about how audiences react when we play as is suggested above but this night was probably in the top 3 worst concerts we have ever played and this was largely due to the crowd (the security were terrible too which just added to the general crapness of the night). To explain why we haven't been back is simple, when we finish a record and plan our tours we decide what countries we are going to and then remember which ones we enjoyed playing and then move on with organizing the dates. Since the last time we played Aberdeen was far from fun (though i'm sure lots of people wouldn't think that our gigs are that fun anyway) we have not played there since. Aberdeen isn't the only place that we have missed out due to bad shows, we skipped Boston and the entire nation of Sweden for pretty long times for identical reasons and have since been back. I've always had a good time in Aberdeen except when playing and would like to come back with the band sometime Maybe if the next time a quiet band comes to Aberdeen and the audience are behaving atrociously you should ask the person next to you to be quiet and all of this might be prevented. I hope this reply isn't deemed too"petulant", i try to be nice.
all the best
Stuart Braithwaite
ps The m&m's were also the wrong colour incidentally.