betamax

Are Open Colon Racket even eligable for this award? Last Id heard they were based in London not Aberdeen.

Ace! What time will The Killers be there?

You never know....

I was at the LCD Soundsystem and the Streets Snafu aftershows. Mike Skinner was in there queueing up like a regular punter at the bar and the LCD sat with us lot and made us feel artistically inadequate.

So aye. Maybe Brandon will surprise us!

I wont be there this time like. Couldnae get tix for the gig cos of the masses.

Also ye, out of all the places we were in the UK sunderland was by far the worst city we'd visited, but the gig was pretty good!

Hope you were all wearing helmets and donned your breathing apparatus. I trust you didnt drink the water either.

Anyone going to Sunderland should be payed Danger Money

The Cluny in Newcastle is awesome, similar layout to room 1 of the Tunnels. I've really liked Newcastle both times I've played there, first time was at the Head of Steam which was alright, but stupidly hot.

Geordies are nice audiences too.

Id give Sunderland a miss. Imagine Tillydrone but 10 times bigger with higher unemployment and more crime. It also smells. You can actually smell it from Newcastle.

Newcastle is fine and so is the Boro. But both lack many venues for anything other than ''big name'' acts at least (certainly compared to Aberdeen for example).The promoters are quite picky given neither town has a regular default live music following. If you dont mind travelling 300 miles to potentially only play to 30 to 50 people then its ok.

Leeds is better for gigs and a better selection of venues and has more chance of you getting a crowd and/or sharing the bill with better a known act..... although if you are openly Scottish you are likely to get your heads kicked in on the way out for Pizza.

There's nothing wrong with bands getting their fingers out their arses and looking in areas where they want to play, finding the local promoters/venues and asking for gigs now is there? At least that's the way it used to be done, as i'm sure you well know.

Nout wrong with that at all. But very hard work and inevitably unrewarding in a lot of cases. Ideally though you would get onboard with a booking agency before embarking on any grand touring plans however to actually make it worthwhile. DIY touring kills most bands.

But going back to the original point you are against, any new way of making it easy for industry people to access new material from bands is good..... go on admit it....its good!

Work smarter not harder. (I nicked that)

Definately.

My problem - and I think a lot of people's problems - with myspace stem from the fact that the site is incredibly poorly designed, you can't get logged on easily, it's slow, it constantly crashes and a lot of band's music players simply decide not to work at random points. Not to mention to face you get stuck with a bloody mp3 at the end of it all - though I understand why they sue MP3's.

I detest using myspace for band related stuff and prefer keeping in personal contact with promoters, sending people cd's, discussing things over the phone etc etc.

Personally, I recoil at the thought of having to search myspace for bands. I mean, its good that bands are linked with other bands etc etc but its just so badly designed. Id much rather go to an actual website that actually worked that having to revisit myspace in some sort of hope that its in a good mood that day.

I agree with you. I just cant see any of the promoters or industy people we know, spending ages on Myspace searching for random bands in the hope they discover something worth following up, when in fact they are already well informed, know exactly what they want and already have the contacts and info sources they need in terms of whats hot and whats not. The fact that they also have lives to live is a reason that trawling Myspace and reading a zillion promo packs is unlikely to be top of their ''to do'' lists.

Pop Justice - Various

does exactly what it sez on the cover

Blah, blah, blah.

Sarcasm aside, i don't buy this as any form of 'handy' marketing tool and bands are more than capable of contacting promoters themselves. Promoters aren't elusive, most are easily tracked down.

Your experience of promoters looks a bit limited.

There are promoters who may be looking for exactly a certain type of band but dont actually want to be stalked by bands and then bombarded with a thousand promo packs with myspace adresses written on them. Never mind then having to trawl Myspace. Anything that streamlines band selection by promoters is a good thing imo, having worked on both sides of the band/promoter fence. Good for bands too. Myspace is more or less saturated with useless cack now anyway. Any decent (or busy) promoter is unlikely to have the time on his hands to give it much attention.

why the fuck would you want to pay for another one!!!

erm, more exposure....

just add 30 quid to your next gig fee

problem solved, new promotional angle achieved

Congratulations on missing the point.

Taking the money part aside, having the bands put together a good Press pack themselves was a good way of getting them used to it and learning how to present themselves properly in those terms. If you've already got one why would you want to pay for another, surely in the broad terms used in the pre-tabled EPK that this company uses any monkey with a moderate idea of how to construct a website would be able to knock up a similar page themselves with a link to a separate music site. Which would ultimately be of better use than handing something shite to them and saying that'll be x$'s please.

That's what i meant about hindering grassroots. The whole point of these things is to make bands think for themselves and learn to market themselves properly be that through the performance side of music or the media side of music.

And limiting applications to bands who are only willing to use this method of applications is a bit shit really. What's wrong with bands working for themselves?

Money wasn't an issue.

Press packs? usually filed in bins. The only ones Ive seen are cringe material. Waste of time. Like suicide notes really. Bands if anything need to learn to use initive rather than follow some dreary mass protocol - As well as primarily concentrating on getting good at music.

Any new system that gets the right material to the ears of the right people very quickly is a good move.

*cough* yes.

We've never been told that we've been on the go too long. Fuck knows where that justification came from. We basically got told that we'd played it too many times on the trot and to give it a break - which I agreed with. We're applying this year, I'm unsure if we're still not allowed to play. I suppose time will tell.

How much is it to submit something on the site?

....considering we have completely decimated the original and any subsequent line up / abandoned all of our instruments and replaced them with machines / written a new set of songs in a completely different style to anything we've ever done before / changed our name (again) / sound nothing like any band either of us have been part of / gone for a totally different image etc

....will hopefully contribute to the application credentials required for GN and anything else along the same lines

but the real reasoning is to not bore the shit out of ourselves or audiences or (hopefully)

also known as: progress/fun

PS For clarification, our band in its previous formats only ever played ONE official Go North showcase gig. Blagging a few unofficials in the same week was just inititive/cheek

Its a great opportunity and everyone doing new music should have a crack at it.

The nu application thing seems cool like. Better than shoving a cd in the post.

The Good The Bad and The Queen

fabbo!

The Cross Party Memebers Commitee on Contemporary Music is the initial bunch that are sitting around the table looking at developing a Scottish Music Industry Association (the working group I mentioned is the next tier). There has been some forward movement throughout the meetings and there is to be another 'national summit' on February 27th, in the central belt. This is where the 'politicians' take the lead and suggest that 'they' are now recognsing the need to value fully the music industry and its cultural and economic importance to Scotland. The SMIA's goal is to put together a stratgey for developing the music industry based on acknowledging the needs and views of all stakeholders: musicians, venues, managers, promoters etc nationwide.

sounds like communism to me

Go North was great for Aberdeen and will be great for Inverness no doubt.

Any year we participitated, we met nice people and some handy contacts and did pretty well from it. Any year of non parcipitation it was still a good laugh/piss up and a chance to catch some impressive bands that would not normally be up for playing an outpost like Aberdeen. Ok the selection process always involved controversy but it always will so long as some local-favorite bands are rejected. It will definately be missed by a load of people despite the moaners.

Whens Triptych this year?

will we be bombarded with the next generation of 'rooted in a time' fans?

Indeed, I suspect there are hoards of Blink 182 and McFly tribute bands rehearsing at this very moment

The circle of shit

Like the Circle of Life out of Lion King but more realistic

normally we go for a 4-5-1 formation, but can change things around at half time if we go in a goal down

LCD Soundsystem - Lemon Tree

Peaches - Glasgow ABC

CSS - Moshulu

the noxious attitudes exhibited by people .....collectively mirror the sick reality of whats in the minds of the horrible, ignorant people that inhabit this part of the country, and the fact that the moderators allow that kind of bullshit to go on is just pathetic.

The moderators here could actually make some effort to stop people doing the kind of thing ..... but obviously they don't give a shit about promoting positive attitudes.

Sorry but this made laugh

Tell me its a super ironic wind up that is soooo funny its actually not funny

Can honestly say Snafu will never be degenerating to the level of some other clubs in town. This is because I have a pretty big say in whether it does or not!

We have a really good door policy' date=' but unless people are agro when they come to the door, you have to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and not judge on appearance. Fair enough if you walk up to the door wearing a tinky trackie and looking like a junkie, there's no way on earth you're getting into Snafu. Being realistic, a mix of various types of people and alcohol can sometimes be a bad combination, but I can say from experience, Snafu is one of the most trouble-free clubs in Aberdeen. Sometimes you get one of those nights when a couple of folk are in the mood for aggro, and it's just unlucky it can all kick off on the same night. We threw a lot of people out that night. You might argue if they never got in, they couldn't have started the trouble, but again, we give the benefit of the doubt.

I can't personally vouch that 380 people I don't know are going to behave themselves when drinking. I can vouch that if anyone is out of order, they're getting binned straight away. You could always have a word in the ear of security and they could decide what action to take with the likes of said skinheads. Obviously this would be discreet with no comeback on yourself.

We charged up until 2.30am, and the guestlist was suprisingly small that night, so everyone payed their cash. It was supposed to be 12/10 on the door, but out of the two that were coming, one of them was going to miss their connecting flight from Germany because of the UK airport shenanigans, so we kept it at 6.50.[/quote']

Good to hear cos I know thats how you guys operate, its obvious from the majority of nights of Snafu that you know exactly what you want. Glad to hear a few of the ''unruly types'' saw the exit door like. Im used to going along expecting an excellent product of a night out and was just a bit freaked at some punters antics, that didnt exactly add to the general coolness of the evening. I shall re-iterate again it was still a very excellent night overall despite a few WTF moments.

Its also very true that a fairly wide ''mix'' of people types an booze can trigger some odd behaviour also, as you say. I do recall a few folk saying that on the night, even before Id noticed.

No doubt at all that Snafu is easily the best club around by a long way IMO.

erm .yes you are! i went along about midnight' date=' paid 6 on the door, thought it was rubbish and left about 40 mins later, didnt really give it a chance I suppose - so yeah if somethings THAT bad.too busy,the people arent to your taste, then you can leave. think your post is pretty offensive. whats cuntsville ?[/quote']

Nothing snobby about not wanting to hang around in a club where theres screaming, spewing girls and lads purely looking for aggro.....just common sense. I would have gone to Liquid if thats the type of night I was looking for. Whats offensive about that?

Im sure I said it was an excellent nite. As soon as it went tits up we left.

Snafu is normally excellent. Thats the point Im making. If it degenerates to the same level as most of the towns clubs it will be a shame.

Tickets were 6.50 in advance but it was supposed to be a tenner on the door. I think however after 12.30 it became free on the door as the place fulled up with some right random f_cking neds and @rseholes, who would never have payed money to get in surely?!

Im not being a snob here, Snafu is great bolthole away from cuntsville but cuntsville got in on saturday it seems

Dodgy door policy IMO....place got way too busy and the cool atmosphere went downhill post 1am due to no one being able to move / people staring each other out / people getting pissed off cos they couldnt move or get served at the bar / pissed women going woo ah woo ah and then lying on the floor screaming/crying......etc

Atmosphere on the dancefloor was good but later on the rest of the clud started to resemble Drummonds on a cheap lager promotion night.

I almost got in a fight after two tatooed skin heads thought it would be a good idea to ''push me around'' while I was carrying drinks from the bar...still I never spilt any and rose above the provocation despite being rather fuelled up myself.

Inspired DJ set (despite technical glitches) from COS though and an excellent night up to when the rabble arrived.

wowee!

roll on Friday!

I only watch Live Football, and Dexters Laboratory. So I need Sky, and prefer paying them than the Governmant for the rubbish BBC channels. Could easily live without it, Id just have to go to actual live games instead and substitute Dexters Lab with more band rehearsals which are very similar to said cartoon. Dexters sister having an identical personality to one of our band.

All other programs are shit I agree. Its fake. Actors are not real people. The news is all made up, and Holby City isnt a real place. I checked on a map.

If Ren and Stimpy came back on Id probably watch that.

Peaches - Impeach my Bush

Notorious B.I.G. - Duets

Muse - Black Holes and Revelations

Flaming Lips - At War with The Mystics