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due to more venues opening etc bands are playing a helluva lot more now

i reckon this a bad thing, partly cause they are jaking promoters and venues but also because bands who play every week are playing the same set everytime,

complacency is a horrible thing and i have noticed with a few local bands recently that things are getting stale and are going through the motions

aka the fox playing four (aberdeen) gigs in one week last month is just ludicrous
turning 13 play a helluva lot too, and playing the same set too
(im not saying these acts are stale, just mentioning the fact that they are ripping promoters off by halving their potential crowd )

surely people will get bored of seeing X play at Y venue every two weeks??

or is it that there is not enough bands to fill the venues??

[Dizzy Storm]

hmmm...welll...

from Drakes point of view, i guess on one hand we are completely guilty of 'using' (oh you know what i mean!) bands too much in a short space of time, yes live music 7 nights a week is a bit much even in our eyes...but it is the only way we can survive at the moment - no live music usually means no punters for us - so on the other hand we NEED the local bands to play as support for some of the great touring/out of town acts we have coming through....and if bands turned me down more then my job would be harder than it is now!!!

its a catch 22 situation....sometimes i have to use bands that only played at us in the past 2 weeks or so mainly because i think they would be most suited to the bill and might even get a gig swap out of it...i( hate mis-matched bills!)...but then the turnouts are poor which is the downside. but i also think that the novelty always wears off when a new band has done a few gigs...unless your mates are hardcore followers/gig goers people will stop coming once they've heard you 3/4 times...

and im sure stuart will reiterate this is not a go at Turning 13 as he them really dont you stuart?! hey Eric Euan - how many gigs do they play?!

shaz

yeah, totally not a go at anyone, i like t13

yeah eric euan are guilty on that one too, but more venues/more gigs/ means this, just hope that aberdeen can cope with it!

its a tough job i suppose, it would be cool to get more aberdeen bands on the go with a bit more diversity, dave and chris officers band sounds pretty cool,

i think the drakes music policy doesnt really favour drab indie pish like drummonds does, and there seems to be a load of drab indie honkers in aberdeen, min

i think dundee kinda suffers the same way in that most of the gigs have the same bands, and they dont really have a shiteload of gigs going on

[Chris]

Originally Posted by stuartmaxwell

its a tough job i suppose, it would be cool to get more aberdeen bands on the go with a bit more diversity, dave and chris officers band sounds pretty cool,

Argh, patience! We haven't even got a line-up yet. Don't want to feel under pressure already...

i believe Turning 13 ae playing at the opening night for A.S.S.?

[Dizzy Storm]

Originally Posted by Chris

Argh, patience! We haven't even got a line-up yet. Don't want to feel under pressure already...

and this is the problem with new bands...people like me pounce on them at the first sniff! not really.....!

but new bands emerge, their first gig is rammed then it all goes downhill from then....from a venues point of view!

Eric Euan are now not the big crowd pullers they once were....shawn????

[flossie suvara]

Compared to 10 years ago (when I were a lad...) it is ridiculously easy to get a gig in Aberdeen these days. With the Lorelei, out of our first 5 gigs, 2 were at private parties (the Mill Inn and Oh Henry's of all places), 1 was at the old RGU union (sloe club, which I had frequented regularly for 4 years, so managed to blag us a slot on a charity gig lineup) and 2 were at what is now Estaminet, but which in those days was know as Kit Carsons (before even Smart Alex) - The manager of Smart Alex insisted on hearing a demo tape before agreeing to let us play.

Nowadays, it would seem that one could almost start a band with nothing but a name and a loose genre, get a gig and THEN think about getting other members, writing songs and practicing.

There is, to me, a fine line between a healthy music scene, with lots going on and heaps of bands playing heaps of venues, and oversaturation, leading to venues not putting on so many bands. I certainly admire Dr Drakes for managing to put on live music 7 nights a week.

I've mentioned it in other posts, but playing outside Aberdeen is the way forward - even for those bands whose members are not old enough to drive. There must be lots of small towns between say here and Inverness or Dundee who have one or two bands who would be interested in playing Aberdeen - gig swapping/sharing instruments/providing accomodation on a reciprocal basis would allow these bands to play in Aberdeen, and Aberdeen bands to play elsewhere, without having to worry about transporting amps/drumkits etc. Train/bus would be a viable option.

And another plus point - playing in smaller towns outside Aberdeen (such as Keith, Nairn, Forres, Insch, etc) - you usually notice a sizeable drop in the price of a pint...

Regards

Flossie

[Hogisbald]

I think we (element) play about once every 3-4 weeks with a few exceptions here and there.

[Camie]

Yeh I agree I dont understand why bands would play so often. I reckon once or twice every month is the healthy ammount for a local band.

[*Craig_HexPen*]

it was about this time last year that we were playing drakes about once a week