»

[catnamedvirtue]

upstairs of the old kings highway on the green is areet and is available for private functions. dunno about cost etc tho.

[Tam o' Shantie]

We booked portals on the understanding that it would be free, printed 1000 flyers saying £2 entry (at a cost of £65) then got phoned last week told that there is a £75 'non refundable deposit' required before they can 'confirm' the booking. After clarifying that the 'non refundable deposit' is actually just a fee, we tried to explain that we had already priced our entry low on the understanding that there would be no cost to hire, and that we'd now have to get 75 people through the door to avoid losing money.

I tried to negotiate suggesting a lesser fee in light of us being fucked around, but with a share of any profit made, but they wouldn't budge an inch. I will reserve any further judgement until the night is over.

Already spoke to old king's highway about Kool Thwaxmas II though and they seem like the ideal choice for it, and all of our future events. Dead central, no fee to hire (just a hundred quid deposit which is ACTUALLY a deposit...refunded assuming no damage to venue), PA & turntables set up (just bring your own carts apparently). The only issue is that they didn't want to give a straight comment on their policy for charging at the door, but I think they might be interested in financing promotion costs as an alternative. We don't have any real desire to make a lot of money on these nights, we just want to cover our flyer/poster costs, and hopefully a bit of cash to buy ourselves some drinks with.

[Tam o' Shantie]

OK, I said i'd reserve judgement on Portals until after the evening, and I'm sort of glad I did.

The 'non refundable deposit' turned out to be sort of a deposit, after all. They take 75 quid, and give you 10% of the bar takings back. So, if they take 750 quid at the bar, it's free to book. Our night ended up having about 35-40 people present with just over a week of flyering, and £370 was taken at the bar. The venue does NOT have its own PA system, regardless of what they might say. There are three power amplifiers & 4 ancient disco light units that look like speakers when they're stacked up against the well. Once we had 60 odd quid from entry fee paying customers, and £37 back from our deposit, and having paid for a PA the night before, we ended up losing not so much money and having a great time. If we had known about the potential hiring fee though, we would have just done black and white photocopied flyers and shaved 50 quid off the outgoing. We will consider this place again as at the end of the day, the bar upstairs is nice and the people who run it are pretty decent, once they figure out what their own hiring policies are.

Now, it's time for a new rant. I went in to see the Old King's Highway a couple of weeks ago, and met the owner's daughter. She listened to what I had to say, and said that she'd be interested in having us book a night there. She said that she would need to speak to her father, however, because she wasn't sure that she'd be happy about us booking it on 'mad friday' having only had 30 people or so at some of our previous parties. She said she'd ask her dad and phone me back that night.

She didn't phone back, so 2 weeks later I went back in and met her father, the owner, who said that he hadn't heard anything about this. I discussed it with him, and he seemed really decent - expressed mild concern about numbers, but also said that with a month and a half to promote it, we'd hopefully be able to get some more faces through the door. He said that he wasn't sure why his daughter hadn't gone ahead with it, so he'd ask her and get her to phone me back at 4pm when she got in. I phoned the bar at half past 5, wondering if there had been any discussion, and the daughter told me something like "Yeah, sorry I'm just in the door - my dad's just not happy about the numbers". I told her that I'd spoken to him in person that day and that he had seemed pretty up for it. She hesitated, said she'd ask him and phone back, and proceeded not to phone me back. I was in town again the next day so I nipped by at lunch and spoke to the owner AGAIN. He seemed surprised that she had not phoned me back, and we chatted some more about doing the night. He took me upstairs, showed me the place, said he'd try and do some cheap drink deals for us on the night, and said that they were trying to establish the room upstairs again as a venue, having had a bit too much competition recently from the Belmont Street bars. He said he would make sure the daughter phoned me back when she got in at 4. I phoned them at half 5 having not heard anything, the daughter tells me yet again that her dad's not happy. I asked for an explanation as to why he had all but confirmed the night with me in person (putting my details into his diary etc) if he wasn't happy. She said she'd discuss it with him right away and phone me back. She didn't. I phoned back the next evening and she said "Sorry, we're not interested with those numbers. I could get 40 people in there just be holding a kareoke night". I said in that case was it any more hassle for us to do a night there instead? She said. "Yes, because I get more money this way". How does that work? I said fair enough and asked if we could hold it a week earlier, so as not to ruin her 'mad friday' cash cow, and she said they wouldn't be interested in doing anything with us during the month of December.

So, once again I'm at a total loss as to why all of these places have this bizarre attitude. If a bar takes £370 at the door, has to pay a bartender to work for 5 hours at £5 an hour, and let's just say £25 of electricity (for total argument's sake. how you could run this up i'm not really sure, but it's a nice even number and lighting/PA and everything must use up a fair amount of juice). Doesn't that leave you with £320 of 'free money'? Sure, they have to pay for the booze, but the bar's already stocked so it's not really part of this calculation. The owner himself said that things had been quiet recently and that they wanted to get a new crowd in. Am I missing something here...?

[Tam o' Shantie]

So, does anyone know if there is another place in town which like the Old King's Highway has its own turntables & mixer & PA system?

[Steven Milne]

you guys could do some back room slots at moshulu sometime?

[Steven Milne]

woops, that was meant to be a PM.

if you wanted to have a laugh and do a slot anytime give me a shout and you can do a slot with me in the front room too if you want - it gets lonely there on your own sometimes, some people to dj with would be affa nice.

[calumunderkills]

Originally Posted by Steven Milne

you guys could do some back room slots at moshulu sometime?

Milner and his back room antics are legendary

[Tam o' Shantie]

Originally Posted by Steven Milne

woops, that was meant to be a PM.

if you wanted to have a laugh and do a slot anytime give me a shout and you can do a slot with me in the front room too if you want - it gets lonely there on your own sometimes, some people to dj with would be affa nice.

thanks man and we probably will do this sort of thing. at the moment though we're really wanting to start establishing the parties themselves, which is kind of hard when we have to flip to a new venue every time. will give you a shout soon about doing a 'guest slot' or sumthin

[idol_wild]

I'm looking to start a monthly club night with live music and then DJs after, but there are just no venues in Aberdeen I can think of that will accomodate me on a Saturday or Friday night. It's pretty saddening.

If only The Tunnels restored some faith in such events.

Sigh.

[Stichman]

Originally Posted by idol_wild

I'm looking to start a monthly club night with live music and then DJs after, but there are just no venues in Aberdeen I can think of that will accomodate me on a Saturday or Friday night. It's pretty saddening.

If only The Tunnels restored some faith in such events.

Sigh.

Gutted. An Idolwild-led clubnight would be a clubnight indeed.