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Wow. X.Cowboy.x.Core.X! And you can still see his pained, intense expression, which obviously derives from the painfully honest, finely-crafted lyrics he's giving to the world! Is there no end to the miracles that this new fashion trend/musical tour-de-force offers us?!

Claire Hamilton will be supporting The Deviada's (Emma Forman's new band) at the Malt Mill on Sunday, 20th February. Also playing are Stayover, Element 106 and Within These Walls. Doors open 8PM, and are free. Claire will be opening the gig at about 8.45PM. MP3s are available on the Media page of Claire's website. This gig is presented in assocation with Clear and Bright Records.

I like it. The only real improvement would be a slight increase in the text size. On ridiculously high-res settings, it becomes nigh-on unreadably small.

Claire Hamilton will be playing at the Globe Inn on West North Silver Street, Aberdeen, on Thursday (the 3rd)a map to the venue can be found here. The acts performing are Claire Hamilton and friends and Turning 13, who will be playing an acoustic set. Claire will be playing with the following line-up at the Globe: Claire HamiltonVocals, Guitar; George GilliesLead Guitar; GregorBass; FraserDrums; Duncan HartCello. The gig is free entry and doors open 9PM, but there will be a donation box; all proceeds of which will go to the hospice where Patricia Anne Hamilton died in 2004. Four MP3s of Claire's music can be found of the Media page of her website.

Claire Hamilton will be releasing a single within a few months time. It will contain two newly-recordedand likely newly-writtensongs, and will come on a three-inch CD with handmade case and sleeve, with a limited edition of probably 100, perhaps slightly more.

Indeed I do. At the time of my original post' date=' I didn't have my list with me. The line-up will be: [indent']Claire HamiltonVocals, Guitar; George GilliesLead Guitar; I hope you will be in attendence? possibly some of the members from band from uncle.

But surely if it's the "loss of a person"' date=' that would be something worrying? I don't advocate that everyone subscribe to a grab-bag of styles ideal when it comes to music, but I've had innumerable discussions with people along the lines of, [indent']"You should listen to this band. They're fantastic." "Are they [insert genre here]?" "No..." "Well then they can't be good/I won't like them/They must be shit then." I consider it to be a very, very sad state of affairs when someone instantly dismisses a band/artist because they don't fit into that person's genre-defined idea of good music. It's the equivalent of stating you couldn't possibly like a cake because it hasn't got pink icing on top, or that you would hate a certain food because it wasn't Italian. Having said that, I don't have a problem with people who take that stance, it just saddens me somewhat. I used to do much the same myself when I was sixteen, and I consider it part of the maturation process to be more open to differing ideas and the relative merits of thembe it in music, philosophy, politics or artwithout necessarily liking everything. Regardless of taste in music, everyone should come along to this gig; I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised by the talent on show, and should find something to suit their tastes.

You seem to have misunderstood my post: I wasn't arguing that consensus was in any way important' date=' rather that certain musicians/composers/songwriters are universally held up as "geniuses" because a consensus exists. Thus, consensus is an attempt to impose an absolute, objective judgement on a field of human endeavour that is entirely subjective. Whether the artist in question deserves said reputation, however, is entirely subjective from the viewpoint of any given individual. As I stated before, one man's trash is another man's treasure. This pattern is repeated throughout human society: fashion ("that shirt is so uncool"), morality, law, sexuality. As for the question of how many people own only one artist's records, if you look at it from a slightly different angle, you get a rather worrying answerhow many people own only one [i']style of music? The answer to that question is, rather worryingly, a very high percentage. The question is fundamentally the same, having only a very slight shift in emphasis away from a single artist and towards an artist's style/genre. But you're absolutely right at the end of your post: the gig is about coming along, letting people entertain you with their creativity and enjoying yourself.

This whole "who's gonna steal the show?" debate could rage endlessly, but it has no solution. Quality of music is an entirely subjective concept: in music, one man's trash is most definitely another man's treasure. As an example, I love Sunn O))) and NON, but my flatmates think they're "just fucking noise"but this percieved lack of quality on their parts renders them no less talented from my viewpoint. As it stands, I consider Claire to be the best singer/songwriter in Aberdeen, andhaving listened to all of Emma's tracks available on Karmadownload.com, which I enjoyed very muchI still consider Claire to hold that accolade. But, as I said, this is entirely subjective, and will remain so because it's impossible to gain an "objective" viewpoint on a subject so totally dependent on opinion. Music is only considered objectively brilliant by consensus: Mozart's symphonies may be as unenjoyable to some as the noise-music of Earth, and his status as a musical genius is only secured because a consensus stating thus is held by a large majority. As for Claire's demo, it was recorded some years ago, and the reverb on the vocals is an issue that I've raised with her on occasion. It transpires that it wasn't her ideathe reverb was added by the guy who recorded and mastered the songs, and, at the time, Claire was too inexperienced to realise that it wasn't needed. For proof of her considerable vocal talents, she's best seen live.

Claire will absolutely steal the show. But of course, I would say that. Not to say that makes it any less true, though.

Claire will be recording several tracks over the course of the year for her upcoming EP, which will be released sometime in the second half of the year on Clear and Bright Records. More tracks will be posted on Claire's website when it launches.

Local singer/songwriters Emma Forman, Claire Hamilton and the bands Born Solo and The Usuals (with one further act TBC) will be playing an all-acoustic night in the Tunnels (just down from Fopp's old store) on Sunday, 27th February. Doors open at 8PM, and tickets (on sale at the door) cost 3. Two of Claire's tracks can be downloaded in MP3 format from the following links: "Bruised Knuckles" (3.88MB) "There's Nothing Left"(4.77MB) All attendees will receive a free copy of Claire's four-track White Demofrom which the above two tracks are taken. Approximately 150 copies have already been distributed free around Aberdeen over the last few months. Those seeking more information on Claire can find a brief biography here. The gig marks the official launch of Claire's website and her first music video. This gig is presented by Good for Nothing? Promotions in association with Clear and Bright Records.

It would very much depend on your definition of "genius". If you mean Mozart-level geniusnamely' date=' real geniusthen I'd go out on (quite a safe) limb and say no-one; if you mean genius in a looser, less absolutely mind-blowingly fantastic levellike a kind of Massive Attack genius, or Trent Reznor/NIN-geniusthen I'm sure there would maybe be one or two people in Aberdeen like that. He may not be a genius, but much-missed former Wastelander Stripey is rather good at downbeat-esque electronics. And AKA The Fox probably aren't geniuses by anything like traditional standards, but if genius is the ability to create an amazing atmosphere at a gig and get everyone dancing, then I'd hail them the most genius-level musicians in Aberdeen.

Purely because' date=' as they were paid for their services, standard practise is that Wings: Unfold [i']don't put a link at the bottom of every page. It's like paying someone designing and decorating your housethey don't add their tag at the bottom of every wall. If they did it for free, then, yeah, maybe; otherwise, it really shouldn't be there. Whenever I did design for money, I restricted myself to the links page, if even that. I still think you should link directly to the EP. Edit: P.S. I'm not trying to cause an argument.

It's a pretty good site, but I have a suggestion and a question: (suggestion): Link directly to the EP in Fat Hippy's shop from the "Click here to purchase the CD" link, and have a more general link to Fat Hippy on your links page. It makes it much easier for anyone tempted to buy the EP because people behind keyboards have notoriously short attention spans (this one included); (question): Why is there a "Design: Wings Unfold" graphic at the bottom of every page? If you paid for the site, that shouldn't be therethe most your should have is a link on your links page. If you didn't pay them to design your site, then fair play. But from looking at Wings Unfold's site, I get the impression that you probably did pay for it. Otherwise, good work.

After months and months of intending to go see AKA The Fox play, I finally managed to end up at their Snafu gig on Thursday totally by accident. I wasn't disappointedthey're fantastic live. I'd had them recommended to me by a friend who has good music taste, but I wasn't really sure what to expect: they have a saxophonist, andwhilst I know trumpets are the woodwind of choiceI was worried that they'd be some silly-silly-ska-music type of outfit. Thankfully, they're not. The play a sort of Kasabianesque dance-rock, with very funky, elastic bass and some fantastically urgent drumming; the guitarist seems to be slightly weaker on her instrument, but does apply some wonderfully metallic shards of guitar to the proceedings. They also have some very good, jazz-inflected slower tracks, where the saxophone takes centre stage. I'm not usually this gushing (or unfocused) with my praise, but I strongly recommend that you go see them some time: they're very good. A question to members of AKA The Fox: Do you have any plans to put out a single/album/EP any time soon?

I would hardly call it stalking. I just happened to (briefly) be in orbit around one particular group that you tried to infiltrate in an attempt to gain "scene points", andas a result of the annoyance this caused one member in particular of that groupI was told at some length about your various "scenie" antics. As for "taking pop shots" at you to look cool, you are sadly mistaken on this countlooking "cool" on the Wasteland couldn't mean less to me; the whole concept of hip-via-web is totally alien to me. And, for the record, I find it extremely amsuing that you would see yourself fit to label tv tanned a loser. P.S. My information may be flawed. Though if this is the case, why didn't you highlight the innaccuracy when Dan Atom posted that quote in the first place?