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[unbroken]

sometimes i find it hard justifying paying shit loads of money for a gig. Mark Eitzel for example, it cost £16 to get in, there were no posters ANYWHERE aside from in 'the trees' foyer, meaning there was NO ONE there. I only found out about the gig as I was randomly looking through the brochure the day before.

That shouldn't happen, no matter what comeback you are going to try and have, that just should not happen.

Luckily the gig was great, so I didn't mind parting with that much money.


I do agree with you, the lemon tree did not cater for everyones music taste, it did cater for an older crowd, but what promotion was done to get older people there? Surely if they are fairly unsuccessful at getting a younger crowd in the building, it must be even harder to get older folk in?

People can only do so much, it hasn't supported the local scene for a very long time now, so no wonder lots of people turned their back on it.

[idol_wild]

Originally Posted by Metarie

But I do think that the punters are partly to blame. If you stopped getting the brochure delivered, then use the website or phone them up to renew the subscription. It's easy to say that they dub their own grave, but how many of you actually made an effort to try and help it?

Erm...the Lemon Tree was a business. Trying to make a profit. Those are the basics, right? Therefore the Lemon Tree needed to promote and sell its product to customers in order to yield this profit, right?

If this is the case, we, the customers, have no obligation at all to "make an effort to help it". The Lemon Tree has to sell the product to us. I always felt there was an insular approach to the way the Lemon Tree marketed and promoted its products, and frankly, you have just highlighted this completely.

[unbroken]

exactly.

[RF Scott]

Probably not the best time to bring this up, but...

Why, if you were paying at the door, did the £1.50 booking fee get magically transformed into an 'event fee,' on top of the admission charge? Surely that's the event fee?! Always a bit annoying to find out a show is £1.50 more than you thought. Sure, it's less than the price of a drink, but if you've budgeted for the night, and the money that tips your budget over goes to a mysterious 'event fee,' it's more than a bit annoying.

[Shaki]

It's a shame. I feel sad today. I was looking forward to headlining the Lemon Tree one day in a sort of "Aberdeen welcomes home local hero" type gig. I feel kinda the same as I did the day they announced that Top of the Pops would be no more..........as if........all my dreams....are.......slipping away.......

Who's going to put on Stiff Little Fingers every March?!

[Duckula2]

What an absolute shock. Haven't been to see any bands there recently but I've seen so many great acts in the past there - Frank Black, Spiritualized, Delgados, Low and loads more. Sad times.

[666]

I too need to express regret in the Lemon Tree closure.

Just like most people here, I was never a regular attendant, but the venue pretty much was the text book definition of "diversity".

Talking about other Aberdeen venues, would it be correct to say Cafe Drummonds is doing rather well as far as the local music scene and smaller bands are concerned? There's at least one day a week where youngsters mass to see loads of local bands. I hope The Tunnels is never going to face the same fate as The Lemon Tree.
How is The Tunnels doing just now anyway, anyone know?

I think it may be important for the public (ie. us) to know how venues are doing so that we can act appropriately if need be.

Could it be that there is no problem with the amount of quality (local and national/international) bands we are getting, but with the actual number of people attending maybe?
There have been a few gigs as of late that could have benefited with more attendance....Robots In Disguise (Moshulu) and The Hot Puppies (The Tunnels) form example. Does that have to do with the bands or the promoters? Or a combination of both? Maybe neither?

And lastly, I wouldn't complain about seeing The Needles at Exodus if it's a feasible solution.

[stepmaster5000]

I cant believe everyone's being so negative and petty.

[unbroken]

why whats so shocking about it? its aberdeen music....

[jester1470]

For my money the biggest problem with the Lemon Tree was getting the info out there, IIRC they didnt send anbything to the GC Guide (though i could be wrong) and it was very fruistratibng when you would get the magazine sent to you, but discovered that by the time you got the magazine 2/3rds of it had gone anyway. They were terrible at one point for sending out magazines that were at least a month out of date - of course like others its been a few years since i received anything at all.

As a venue I always liked it, though I echo what people said about drinks prices etc. I hope that the council could possibly reconsider and open up a similar thing in the same location as they need a space for much of the art stuff that was there and the chances are much of that stuff will always make a loss, so it should almost be accepted if they weant that kind of thing to run it should be acceopted it will lose, and then maybe they could concentrate on the music thing as a more profitable business.