Metarie

It really was excellent.... bar the whole PA going BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM twice.

Nice wee venue too.

Although the weather was awful.

Yeah, seemed to be some sound issues with the support too (who were shockingly bad) but the atmosphere was one of the best I've ever experienced. Apart from whoever starting throwing shoes at Simon Neil...

Acoustic version of Folding Stars was beautiful

My vote goes for Fiona Keenan for 'best of the rest'.

You can't have Black Atom as most missed! Sorry guys, but they've still got a gig to play and I'm sure they've had longer breaks between gigs than now and when the awards will take place

Problem with the Fudge Awards is that you end up trying to appeal to a vast range of people and tastes. You can't please everyone so why not try and have a few bands collaborate? Or bands doing covers of local acts? Little Kicks doing Deadloss, Thrashist Regime doing Amy Sawyers, something like that.

Never even heard of her.

You'd recognise her. I tried to find a photo but I don't know how suitable they'd be seeing as she's rather naked in most of them. But all those burlesque dancers or 'alt' pin ups on Suicide Girls who have black hair and a blunt fringe took their look from her. She was involved in photoshoots which brought fetish themed photography (spanking, bondage, foot fetish) into the spotlight. Pretty much paved the way for all manner of rudeness!

from IMBD:

Legendary pin-up Bettie Page died on Thursday. She was 85.

Page suffered a heart attack last week in Los Angeles and never regained consciousness. She had been hospitalised for three weeks with pneumonia before the heart attack, according to her agent Mark Roesler.

Roesler said in a statement: "With deep personal sadness I must announce that my dear friend and client Bettie Page passed away at 6.41pm Pst this evening in a Los Angeles hospital.

"She died peacefully but had never regained consciousness after suffering a heart attack nine days ago."

Page's trademark curvy figure and raven hair made her a fixture in men's magazines in the 1950s, and the icon found a cult following that lasted long after her modelling days.

The star also landed parts in dozens of silent fetish films in which she often played a dominatrix, but the aspiring actress only had one small speaking role in the 1953 movie Striporama.

American actress Gretchen Mol played Page in the 2005 biopic of her eventful life, The Notorious Bettie Page.

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, who hand-picked Page to be the Playmate of the Month in January 1955, has paid tribute to the star, saying: "I think that she was a remarkable lady, an iconic figure in pop culture who influenced sexuality, taste in fashion, someone who had a tremendous impact on our society. She was a very dear person."

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Say what you want about the hoards of wannabes who have cropped up over the last few years, she set the bar when it came to pin up girls and it's still hard to find a model who could beat her when she was in her prime. Damned shame

Of course a Scottish republican state in Scotland should provide social security to those who need social security.

Ideally of course, a competent state would not prevent people from turning up to university to complete their studies and then go on to work in their chosen profession.

Is that you then? You need social security do you, or are you just too damned proud to accept a job which you do purely for the money. By all accounts you are perfectly able bodied and capable to do any number of jobs, even if they are just menial and minimum wage. You're a waste of resources and I have a real problem with your attitude that you contribute nothing at all to society or the economy and yet you think that you have the right to rubbish this country over and over again.

And we all know the story about your Uni career and you need to get over it. Suck it up and move on.

The fact that you refer to yourself as a 'local hero' just shows how out of touch you are. What have you ever done which could be considered heroic?

I wasn't there but I wish I had been! Get him back so I can see flaming instruments!

Amazing gig, completely flawless (I didn't see the the support ). Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, Sugababes AND Prince? I feel quite spoilt now

Because Dunfermline is the new, old capital of Scotland. OBV.

The Pitbauchlie is a swish establishment, don't know how much they'd skin you for a room though. As for post-gig drinking, try Monty's on Guildhall Street. A friendly bunch.

Or why not try Legends on Halbeath Road...

Are they pub or club type places?

ah, we're driving you see. Although going to Glasgow would have been a good plan. Is there actually anywhere to go after the gig in Dunfermline? I think it could turn into an early night which would be quite disappointing.

Ok, I'll ask...what happened?

we shall, but inbetween there will be drinking and much merriment, hence the need for somewhere to sleep.

Ok, so off to see them on the 13th and having trouble finding hotels and maybe a place to go afterwards. Anyone have any recommendations?

It's not that she's scary, but she's not the kind of singer who is going to be pressured into anything. She might well cash in on her image and use it to her advantage when it comes to promoting albums and so on, but she's not trying to be a pin up for anyone.

Good for her, I think she's a gorgeous woman and a great musician

How on earth can Axl's voice be knackered? What the hell has he been doing for the past 17 years?!

I've not heard it yet but I agree that it was never going to be brilliant. You leave it that long to release and album and it's bound to be a disappointment. If you didn't like GnR back in the day then of course you're not going to like it, it's like listening to St Anger to get into Metallica. GnR are like Motley Crue, people love them or hate them but when they're on form they do cockrock very well. In my opinion anyway.

Fucking awesome gig. I've not been able to wipe the smile from my face for the last 4 hours. Two thumbs very, very up

Instore gigs are normally around 4pm or so, if they've got a soundcheck before the gig it might be earlier. There'll probably be a poster instore.

I'm just off Crown Street and I reckon the BT building has shafted my hope of getting decent reception. I was fairly happy with it until a while ago when they introduced Ch4+1 and that took the place of Film 4 so now I've just got duplicates channels.

To be fair though, the only channels I don't have that I'd watch are Dave and film 4, so I'm not missing much.

The menu looks yummy... But it's 5 for a main course, not 2 courses. So if people did have 2 courses they'd be making some more money. And if we're speaking about ladies who lunch there's possibly a bottle of wine thrown in.

In Glasgow you can get 3 courses for 3. I've never actually tried such delights, I think it might be interesting, these are proper old man's pubs, so you just never know!

That's true, most restaurants make their cash out of booze.

It's a nice place to drink in summer, it's off the main road so you can feel quite relaxed sitting outside but it's always seemed a bit dark and crowded inside for my liking.

Musa's Cullen Skink has set the bar for me, it's amazing, so thick it's more like a stew than a soup.

Well yeah, that's kind of what I was insinuating. The place seems to divide people, half the folk I know you have been love it, the others hate it. I've never eaten there myself so can't comment.

You'd be hard pressed to make much of a profit when you're charging 5 for a 2 course lunch though. If you look on the website they have the menus up we're not talking a bowl of pasta, there's all kinds of funcy ingrediants going on.

Credit Munch?

The food may be fine but is that not a bit behind the times otherwise? Firms were getting-in with their oh-so funny plays on the credit crunch a good few months back.

Anyway, I'm not likely to be darkening Cafe 52's door again for other reasons.

Did you work there? I know a bunch of folk who have worked there over the years and say the owner is a tosser.

Doesn't bode well though, does it? I don't think other restaurants are feeling the pinch so much that they have to lower prices so dramatically. If anything the costs should be going up to allow for delivery fees and general added expenses.

No no, orgasms make girls sleepy too...if your ladyfriend is still awake for a while after I think you guys might want to have a wee chat about if it's really working for her

I've been thinking about this light therapy malarky for a while, I get SAD and winter is pretty miserable for me anyway, but I've often got to be at work for 6.30. Getting ready for work when the stars are still out is rubbish. I'm not sure if I'd be woken up by a light going on though, I sleep through my alarm enough as it is.

While it may be possible to pack in more than 1 person per 50cm2 it's not really workable, so in most cases the fire capacity is the max capacity unless you're trying to get into the Guinness Book of Records! Most people would be experiencing moderate discomfort as a venue approached it's fire capacity.

Until recently our capacity was 178 but that has recently increased as we are in the process of altering the room and the layout of the seating. Once that work is complete we'll need to do the calculations again, but I'd estimate that it will end up around 190-200, say 195 as a guess.

If we play by the same *COUGH* marketing rules/formula as certain other venues then we'd be claiming 325.

Jesus, the Moorings gets warm enough on a normal night let alone if there were 325 folk crammed in there. Seems pretty suspect, worth investigating.

The Go! Team was a cracking night, but dancing was a bit of a mission.

I love HMV for having cheap books. I got A Million Little Pieces by James Fray the other day for 4 or something. Not a bad book, it did seem a wee bit fantasical for a memoir, but then I've never been in rehab so what do I know?

I think I shall keep to the theme of excess and re-read Fear and Loathing and Naked Lunch next.

I think the half a square meter per person thing has been stretched beyond belief in some venues. The Go! Team gig at Moshulu was hellishly crowded, getting from one side of the room to another was a nightmare. Is comfort taken into account when calculating capacity?

What would The Moorings' 'official' capacity be? And what do you reckon you can get in there?

I seem to remember some punter getting arsey at The Lemon Tree a few years ago because he'd heard our capacity was around 650 and there were only 600 tickets on sale (I think it was Alabama 3 or something, it sold out and was complete madness). Trying to explain to him that it was for fire safety reasons and we also had to count the staff, band and crew in the overall total was pointless.

I've never been in a band myself, but I would think that the best way to go about starting one would be to chat to folk, get friends who are into the same stuff and are musical to get involved. A lot of bands in Aberdeen are simply recycled line ups of old ones (whether it works or not depends entirely on the band) so get chatting to folk at gigs or on here and find a common interest. Starting a band with people who answer an ad would be like trying to make friends with someone just because they...answered an ad. You can't assume that because someone wants to be in a band that you're going to get on.