Lemonade

I'm reading Dreamcatcher by Stephen King (my 50th Stephen King book) and boy did I pick a bad one. What a piece of shit. Almost unreadable.

http://eduncovered.com/10-aberdeen-gig-venues-wont-remember-2014-07-08

Dr Drakes was my home from home. I lived 5 minutes from it and at that time was still young enough that I could stagger home pished at 1am and still be up for work at 8 the next morning without a bother on me. I played there a lot, hung out there a lot, must have seen hundreds of bands there. Losing Dr Drakes was a huge blow for the local music scene imo.

Brad Pitt was in it? And yeah agreed, the mid-credit sequence tied up the whole film AND had the biggest laugh. I agree with everything you've said here. Once the trailers are done, doors locked.

Guardians of the Galaxy - Don't get the hype with this one at all. I liked the characters and there were some funny lines but overall I found it really boring and difficult to follow. 2/5 Deadpool 2 - My favourite film since the last Deadpool. Pretty much every line is funny, the action is awesome and it's full of heart. Must-watch. Must stay and watch the scenes during the credits, which a bunch of people in the cinema walked out and missed. 5/5

Portishead, Massive Attack, Ian Holloway.

Is the Tunnels still a thing? Been to many an empty midweek gig there. People talk about the early 2000s music scene as being amazing, which it was, I was there and part of it, but although there were loads more bands and a lot more enthusiasm, the same problems existed then too. I played to half-empty Dr Drakes or Lava plenty of times in 2001/02.

Like I said I've only read a few. I'm going to try and get through a few more this year though. Sourcery was my favourite so far.

I've read a few. My wife is a mega fan and has read them all multiple times. She always recommended reading them chronologically but the thing with Discworld is there are a few different story strands going on, all with their own jumping-off point. See diagram. You can start with any of the orange ones. I started with the Rincewind Novels. The Colour Of Magic can be a tough read, it's dry and full of long descriptive passages that can be hard to read. They do get a lot easier after that one. My wife loves the Witches Novels and thinks they're the best arc, so maybe consider that but she says just read them chronologically for maximum enjoyment.

I use a thing at work called the DMAIC Methodology, which is top-level, grade-A bullshit, but there's a part of it called the Five Whys which is used to find root causes and solutions to problems and could almost apply here. So here's our problem in the left box. >The Music Scene is dead< Why? 1.People aren't going to gigs. Or 2. There aren't enough gigs. Why? 1.1 People don't know about the gigs. 1.2 Bands on the bill aren't good. 1.3 People don't want to go to gigs on Tuesdays. 1.4 People are bored of watching the same bands. Why? 1.1.1 Lazy promotion 1.1.2 Nowhere for them to practice 1.1.2 No-one told Dave he can't play the fucking drums. 1.1.3 Shows are lackluster and TV is a better option. 1.1.3 Love Island is on. 1.1.4 There aren't enough bands. Etc etc etc. All just examples obviously but eventually you're meant to come to your root cause(s) and can thus come up with solutions. Yeah I hate my job too. Out of curiosity, what is lacking at the moment? Is it lack of bands, lack of venues, lack of promoters? Or still just the age old problem of getting punters through the doors?

Guys, guys, hold on. I think you're all forgetting about Sandi fucking Thom.

I don't have much to contribute here, but Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material is essential, Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, The Clash's first album, Rancid - And Out Come The Wolves and the first three Ramones albums.

I remember cooking square sausage over a campfire down there using a rusty piece of corrugated metal from a fence then having serious, serious diahorrea the next day. Karma for wrecking the fence probably.

Not sure, but we did the same. We had a campie about halfway between Tiger Hill and the Philorth and we were forever burning the flags, rakes and anything else we could find that would go on the campfire. We dismantled and burned one of their fences once, then next time we went over and they'd flattened our campie with a bulldozer or something. Golf pricks.

I stopped at 15 as well because I didn't want to pay adult membership. I was always shite but it was a fun thing to go and do with my pals. I don't think there was a dress code at the two courses I played at but I remember an old guy shouting at me once for wearing jeans on the course. Like come on, is your life that shit that you have to go out of your way to come and shout at a 14 year old kid for wearing jeans on your precious golf course? We weren't allowed in the bar but there was a wee games room with a pool table and you'd get a pint of Coke for 50p. Good times. I almost got a hole in one once. Hit the pin. Absolute fluke. I could take that shot 100 times and I'd probably only even get it on the green like 4 or 5 times. Dicks Sports in the Broch (a real shop) used to sell found golf balls for cheap, and would buy them off you too. Most of mine come from there. I was a Maxfli or a Titleist guy.

That said I did just pay €33 to enter a 10k that's in a park 5 minutes from my house where I go running every weekend anyway.

If you were losing three golf balls a week it's probably for the best you took up music instead. I also used to play golf as a teenager, it's an expensive hobby. But most things are if you're trying to get serious about them. I've been doing a bit of running over the last year which is refreshingly easy on the wallet, at least to start with. €100 odd on a half decent pair of running shoes and you're good to go.

Just... what? It sounds like three different songs playing at once while a bunch of Emo kids pretend they're in a hip hop video.

It's what we do.

How does a door take £7? Two people paid in and one was £1 short?

Not shut off but we got asked to stop once in a local pub in our covers band because we were too loud. I think I was 17, I called the landlord a bitch or something through the microphone then went and stood outside in the rain in a sulk and refused to come back in. That showed them.

Yeah, playing to nobody can be a bit of a kick in the ego. I've never played to a completely empty venue, though I have played to 0 paying customers. I played bass in Sirius for a few gigs and we were booked along with another punk band, I think Point Of Origin, for a random gig in the top floor of that Irish bar on Justice Mill Lane who had decided to start putting local bands on. Another weeknight gig, our crowd was the other band and a few girlfriends, literally not £1 taken at the door. I think that was the first and last local band night there. I had food poisoning too and spent the whole gig trying not to shit myself. Despite that, it was actually a pretty fun gig. It was a nice room, a proper big stage and a little backstage room and everything. I don't know if they use it for gigs now or what. Presumably Irish bands if they do. Eye diddle eye.

We got offered the opening slot for this, supporting two touring bands I'd never heard of. The promoter gave us tickets to sell but it was a weeknight and they were like a tenner a pop and none of my mates fancied it, I guess it was the same for the other guys. Tbh we didn't really make much effort to sell tickets, assuming that the touring bands, a screamo band and a hardcore band would probably sell loads, and we just hadn't heard of them because we're all too old. Cut to gig day. We turn up for soundcheck. "How many tickets did you sell?" asks the promoter. Me- "Honesty, none. Sorry. We've a few said they might pay at the door. How many are sold altogether?" Promoter - "None." Me - "So we've sold 0 tickets?" Promoter - "That is correct." Cut to a couple hours later and we take to the stage in Moshulu to a crowd consisting of two people from my office, my girlfriend and our drummer's wife. Tell you something, Moshulu looks fucking big when you're playing to four people. We still got paid, somehow. I felt bad taking it.

There was a wee issue for a few days there but Neil got us up and running again (thanks Neil)

Pretty much what I thought. OK next quick question. What's the correct description of someone who likes spicy food? Spicy food-lover Spicy-food lover Spicy-food-lover Spicy food lover