malloty

kooking forward to this one most out of all gigs on the tour as its been a couple of years since Ive had a hometown gig.... though any association to Girl Said No is purely circumstantial, Baxter definitly doesnt resemble GSN!!

Anyway looking forward to seeing some old faces on the night

MySpace.com - BAXTER - London, UK - Indie / Rock / Post punk - www.myspace.com/baxteruk

Baxter will be hitting Aberdeen as part of their 'Call Off The Search' tour on Saturday 12th April.

The band have been hailed as 'the new kings of the underground' in London by the NME and have recently been shortlisted as 'Best Indie Band Uk' at this years Indy Awards and are currently attracting a lot of interest in London and headlining venues as diverse as the iconic Astoria and the Marquee to celebrity hang outs such Chinawhites and Punk.

The band features ex Aberdeen fellow and former guitarist from Girl Said No .... but anyone that remembers that name can rest assured this is not cheesy girl fronted pop!

Check out www.myspace.com/baxteruk or www.baxteruk.com and get own to the gig and get involved.

Look forward to seeing you there.

sorry no offence just a personal opinion, i just dont have time for cover bands and i suppose i have never had any experience of doing a residency so i am probably not totally clued up... house band just makes me think of the dave letterman show for some reason!

I still stand by the point that band benefit more playin to people than to no one. i reckon any local based band could get a good sized crowd once a month even if they were only forcing there mates to come along. as we were talking about promotion i just think that with that in mind the venues benefit from bigger crowds as do the bands as if the bands make the bar money they will get better money next time as well as better gigs on better nights.

regards promoters they are only as good as the bands they put on. if they get the right touring band they will get the crowd. I think it is more about the line ups than the promotion, i am sure all venues have there top bands that they know will work hard and pull a crowd hence they get the best support slots over and over again. i guess the real skill is putting on the right bands together to ensure that the fanbase of each band cross polenates each other ensuring that lesser supported bands grow there fan base to make them a better asset to the venue. in this way promoters and bookers probably do a lot of good work for bands in terms of exposing them to a potential fanbase that will be warm and receptive to their sound.

i also take on Grame C point about lemon tree crowds which is exactly what i was saying it is about finding the venue that people will come to see you in

I dont think it matters a jot if all a bands fans come out every time....some fans will like one venue and some another' date=' if they play mid month when no one has any cash or at the end of the month when punters are flush it makes a difference.

When a band has a proven regular local following then its time to cut down the frequency and make each gig an event.[/quote']

all bands should be aiming to make every gig an event from the start .part of the learnin process is working out where you wil get your fanbase to go to to ensure you get a big crowd... for us it was the lemon tree, but we knew for a fact that our support wouldnt follow us to say Moshulu so we wouldnt play there... i am sure the converse is true for a lot of bands

wat is the point in playing wee gigs to one man and his dog. the only bands where playing heaps of gigs in a month work is the bands that do covers and doing a residency you might as well do that as you are just background music. you practice in rehearsal and nothing gives you more confidence than playing to big crowds and the opposite is also true in that playing to no one does nothing for the confidence or development.

i would imagine doing a residence you are playing to people who would be there anyway so the i would imagine the majority of the people there are not really following the band you may turn a few new fans but for the most part you could just have the jukebox.

within the one gig a month the exception should be any decent support slots that a local band can get as this always brings the band to a totally new audience as generally if the band has charted you get a heap of starf***ers at the gigs who would never normally go near a local bands gig.

as i am leaving these shores for the gold lined streets of london town i thought i would give me 10p worth on this subject so here goes...

there are some great points there and in a perfect world everyone would help each other and the music scene would be better though i think every venue owner would admit that their profits were more important than the strength of the scene which is right and the only way to support a business. as a former nightclub/ bar manager who booked a lot of acts (though back in the day it was over price/ arsehole /pilled up djs and cheesy soap stars) i know that these were extras from a predetermined budget but at the end of the day what mattered was numbers through the door and the GP on drinks that I was focusing on. If the acts or bands werent making money or adding to the profits then they were the first to go regardless of any idealogical thinking regarding creating ' a scene'.

as i say there have been some good points but maybe a couple of things i have come across which i thought were worth mentioning.

1. (and this is my biggest gripe) too many bands play far too many gigs in a short period of time within aberdeen. i wont mention names but some bands seem to think they are hard working and when they play 3+ gigs in aberdeen n the space of a month. total waste of time for the bands and also to the venues. all venues should have it as a rule that bands cant arrange any other local gigs within a minumum of a month either side of their gig at a venue. this means that the band wil pull a bigger crowd, meaning the band wil have a better gig and the venue will get a better return.... not rocket science

2. bands should stop moaning about how the promoters dont help and how hard it is to put up posters and how it costs too much and how everyone is out to screw them and how other bands hace it easier because they are friends with so and so ...etc. the fact is if you put in the work you get a bigger following, you get bigger gigs, you start getting noticed and you start making money. due to the amount of venues and the regularity of gigs in aberdeen nowadays it is too easy for bands to get gigs and maybe there is a bit of complacency from some (generalising here so no offence meant). a lot of people didnt like the way i promoted my old band but the fact was that we worked hard to make sure we got noticed and to make sure we sold out our headline gigs. this meant we got to the stage where we got better deals from venues as well as decent gigs and thus made decent money. there is no substitute for hard work when it comes to promoting your band regardless of how good you are and it should be the bands responsibility to make sure their gigs are sold out not the venues . im sure any promoter or vene booker wil agree that they will pay a band more and offer more support to the bands that dont moan or make excuses but that actually make the effort and get the tickets sold

regards this site it is an excellent tool for finding out about things, i never really appreciated until a friend came over to stay with me. he is well into all the heavier stuff and found this site and the people who use it really helpful in finding out where to go, meeting people, discussing music, finding out about local bands and when they were playing. As i have no interest in the hardercore/metal scene this was the only place i could direct him so it certainly does serve a purpose.

i suppose the only negative about it is that regardless of what band s name is mentioned you can guarantee by the end of the thread at least one person will have something shitty to say about them.... but i guess thats aberdeen for you.

anyway thats my 10p worth though will say that in the 8 or so years i have been in aberdeen there are definitely a lot more bands with the potential to achieve something great

no...

just was a bit shocked had no idea you were scott macrae' date=' not your everyday kind of thing...good selling point though

people can turn up to see how you turned out.[/quote']

just realised what you were talking about when i looked into Hubl so apologies for taking offence.

obviously the benefit of being inbread is that i have six fingers on each hand which is great for solos as well as webbed feet for speed swimming but thats another story..

was just reading gsn's blurb' date=' is scott macrae really inbred...lol...or is that just a joke?

i take it that means his mum shagged like her brother or something ? [/quote']

No actually it was father and sister as mother and brother would just be wrong!!

i presume you started this thread as your first post on the site purely to try and wind me up so well done you!

Anyway wouldnt it be refreshing if you made yourself known rather than hide behind your wee thread ...

Name change and re-vamp? I seriously don't know how a band with such few gigs can play sold out lemon tree shows and support bands like OCS' date=' or am i just ignorant to their past?[/quote']

there will be no reincarnation of line up as i am heading to london to live.

regards your question you like a few others miss the point on the gigs thing. the reason we always sold out our lemon tree gigs is because that was the only gigs we did in Aberdeen. too many bands play 3/4 gigs a month in aberdeen then are happy when they only get 300 odd at a lemon tree gig whe that is only half full, whereas we always thought that there is no point playing there if you cant fill it!!

we worked out long ago that one headline gig every 6 months was enough in Aberdeen and concentrated the rest of our gigging trying to build up a following elsewhere.

Another reason being that we always made sure all tickets were sold before the doors opened as opposed to sticking up a few posters and hoping for the best.

because we always sold out our gigs and promoted them well we were offered a lot of high profiled supports as we were known to bring a crowd. ocs came about because th promoter asked the lemon tree what local band woudl bring the biggest following and they said us for example

not really rocket science but thats it!

Hmm' date=' "final gig"...after being close to signing to a major record deal and all that?

Suspicious...[/quote']

not really the said record deal ended up being bombed out by a some band member as when it came down to it they were not going to leave their jobs or aberdeen to really make a go of it. we tried to replace them but at short notice it wasnt possible so the chance was missed.

that was summer and since then we basically completed all our commtiments, the lemon tree being one and the rest down south.

last year we did heaps of high profile stuff, sold out a lot of gigs and sold heaps of cds which should have been the catalyst for furthering ourselves but without the commitment of all band members it was not possible so rather than get stuck in the trap of playing big gigs in aberdeen for fun we all decided it was best to quit while we were ahead as opposed to getting stuck in the rut, a thing that has happened to so many good aberdeen bands in the past.

the last gig will be on 18th march at the lemon tree and tickets are on sale. we are still to sort out support for the gig as all the bands who used to support us have now (rightfully) got their own headline slots at said venue themselves.

in fact if there are any good bands who want a wee break and to play at a sold out lemon tree let me know and if your music fits the bill we can sort it out. good promo for any band as we can get your website etc out to our mailing list of about 20000 and also a link from our website which still gets tens of thousands of hits per month.

anyway pm me if you are interested!

site is still live by the way www.girlsaidno.co.uk

That's by accident rather than design. This forum is supposed to be inclusive' date=' not exclusive and personally I think it's a better site for having bands like Girl Said No and Eskimo Blonde posting on it.

Can we get back on topic please? The sampler contains many bands who aren't called Girl Said No

I'm going to pick up a copy today when I head into town. Will give my thoughts later on.[/quote']

good shout the point should be that the sampler is a great vehicle for a lot of bands and hopefully with the national press being received it will open a few doors for some of the bands featured - if one band gets something from it then it is a big success. As the bands played for free and accept nothing for the sales and due to the fact that Tom has paid for all recording, marketing etc it really is a quality achievement by a lot of different folk and should be supported by all.

obviously there are people who will always find something bad to say about anything but regular viewers of the site will know who these people are and thus the people who post these remarks become parodies of themselves and lose any of the credibility they crave.

Everyone should go out and grab a copy of the sampler as if it does well it could open up oppurtunities to more bands to play on future cds and thus get their music out to a wider audience... 3 not much to help support the local music scene and possibly increase oppurtunities for yourselves and others in the future

Of course its not AUBL's fault this site isnt run by them' date=' but to a degree you're right, this site isnt as welcoming and is possibly more genre sepcific than previously. There is, however the point that in any well attended website like this one there will be disagreements and constructive criticism is something every band needs to take. As for how do an unsigned band play bigger venues, ask MMw, you dont get much bigger than the SECC. Capacity wise, the Lemon Treeis IIRC the 4th biggest 'specific' venue after The AECC, The Music Hall, and of course Moshulu.

Must get a copy of this sampler, hear the locals

Cheers

Stuart[/quote']

fair play to them again to get the bigger venues its all about getting good contacts to get good support slots.

regards the venues i agree though i would say that the lemon tree versus moshulu is an 'either or' in terms of there is not much between the size of venues. i think the fire capacity is about 700 at moshulu (could be wrong, only know this as was one of the management team back in the Berlins/Zuu days) with the lemon tree about 600 all in.

i think you would base the choice of venue on the crowd that you attract. we can comfortably sell out the lemon tree well in advance of our gigs there as the people that come to see us like the venue and are probably not the folk that go out and see a lot of bands. i would imagine if we were playing moshulu we would find it a lot harder to sell out, not due to difference in the size of venue more to do with the venue itself (not a slagging just mean in terms of music played/clientel etc would probably not appeal to our crowd and they would probably not frequent there often if at all). the best example of that is that a lot of people on this site go to Moshulu... so they can get away from music like ours!!

as we pride ourselves on selling out all our headline gigs in Aberdeen (which are pretty much exlusively 6 monthly at the lemon tree now) it wouldnt be in our interests to move from a lemon tree gig where there is a bit of a buzz in terms of it being sold out well in advance of the gig - which keeps the venue happy and ensures we get ever improving deals on door splits etc. the alternative would probably be playing to a half full Moshulu in the knowledge that the only reason it wouldnt be sold out is location rather than anything else

the step up from playing Moshulu/lemon tree to the other venues is pretty dramatic without being a support band, obviously AECC pretty much unatainable and the logistics of arranging a gig at the music hall mean that it is not the easiest (in terms of booking own security etc). the benefit of the lemon tree and moshulu is that the logistical side is pretty much taken care of and all a band needs to concentrate on is selling all the tickets and putting on a good show etc

we played the AECC a few months ago as part of the Live 8 thing

you may be right about the photo in retrospect not our greatest moment and i will get the spellcheck sorted!

Regards your opinion on our music fair enough. the fact that there was 20 bands on the cd highlights the diversity of the scene, i dont think you will ever find us on stage with a lot of the bands on the cd but it is still a pretty decent collection of bands and hopefully it will get people into other bands on the cd who they may not have been exposed to before. Stand out tracks for me were definitely Eddison and Hot Mangu's tracks and although our recording is pretty live and not our best recording we are pretty happy with being one of the bands highlighted in The Daily Record review.

on another note cheers to everyone who bought tickets for our gig at the lemon tree on friday making it another sell out, get there early and catch The Front and Redd Up who are both quality

just got email from nemis and seen that there is a musicians union roadshow at the lemon tree tonight, been to one before and it was really useful, have attached the advert below -

The Musicians Union hosts a series of four informal free-to-attend evening roadshows and networking events around Scotland later this

month (September).

Visiting Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Inverness and Ayr the events will kick off at 7pm feature informal presentations from the Musicians Unions Dave Arcari, Stuart Fleming of the Performing Right Society (PRS) and Duncan McCrone from the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS).

The presentations will give an outline of the services provided by these key music industry organisations and how they can help artists

and businesses wanting to get a good start in the music business.

There will be plenty opportunity to ask questions and the chance to hang around for a beer and a chat.

Both members and non-members of the organisations are welcome at the events which are aimed at anyone interested or starting out in the music business whether a performer, writer or providing a music-related service.

No pre-registration is necessary and entry is free just turn up at 7pm at any of the following events:

Monday 19 September Cabaret Voltaire, Blair Street, Edinburgh

Tuesday 20 September The Lemon Tree, West North Street, Aberdeen

Wednesday 21 September Hootananny (upstairs), Church Street, Inverness

Thursday 22 September The Market Inn (upstairs), Castlehill Road, Ayr

For further info contact Dave Arcari at the Musicians Union on 0141 248 3723

Aye' date=' we couldn't get a rehearsal in until not long before the gig, and Richey fucked his voice a bit then.

And malloty, the reason we're not the greatest live act ever yet is that it was only our 4th show together - my 4th ever and Richey's 5th ever. And personally I'd say I'm doing pretty good so far considering I've only been playing bass for 2 months.

We'll take your advice and start hyping ourselves up to ridiculous proportions though.[/quote']

credit where credit is due - for two months playing that was a quality performance and have seen a lot worse from people who have been playing from years - good work fella!

are there many good producers in aberdeen? im not too keen on captain toms and heard that mark at exile was pretty good? thankyou summer x.

we just recorded at floortom out in Clola by peterhead. Steve curtis is a brilliant producer who had a lot of input into our stuff and was excellent for string arrangements etc as well as having an excellent bank of effects and samples. also he is a drummer himself and gets a tremendous drum sound which is often the problem when you record at local studios. check out his website - www.floortom.com

should mention that if it is metal / heavier music probably not the place for you but if you are recording more commercial music it is definitely quality

So did anyone actually come and see us? If so what did you think? We felt it was a bit of a weird gig' date=' made weirder by the fact we can't quite put our finger on why it felt weird.

Me fucking up a 7 minute song within the first few drumbeats didn't exactly help like!

I daresay finding the lead for my bass amp suddenly wasn't working just before soundcheck didn't help matters either (whoever it was that decided it was okay to just borrow it - thanks for that. Really.)[/quote']

came down to the gig to see what could learn from you as you have been keen to pass on constructive criticism over the past few weeks, and also your bandmate already name dropped us twice on this thread so i thought i would give you an honest personal opinion on your set.

have to say i was very surprised that you guys were not the greatest live act i have ever seen with a large following based on the knowledge you have been keen to pass on to me. regards the gig being weird it is probably for 2 reasons

1. it is always hard playing to someone elses crowd and thus people are talking through your set

b. i presume you had monitor problems as through most songs you seemed to have problemes staying in time and thus a lot of the time were playing off the beat

you probably want to get a drummer as the problem with drum machines is no matter what you do it still sounds kind of flat and thus lacks a bit of feeling and also no dynamics in verse to choruses etc.

anyway no offence meant just some 'constructive criticism' for you. on a positive note you certainly dont sound like any other 'pub band in the country' though not sure if that is a good thing.

thought Arrowspeed were quality and the same for Stereo Glo so good night all in all

best of luck to you, maybe a bit more time working on self promotion to get a following and getting profficient rather than sitting sniping at others could be a good shout

a voice of reason

a voice of reason.

i have now come to terms with the fact i cant win this argument and any attempts to get the last word in will fail miserably so i conceed.

its been fun and has been a quality distraction from work.

respect to all

cheers

Aaahhhhhh... they're also playing with us on friday. Didn't realise they used to be Lift.

quality will head down to see big don and the boys

the cellers

hot mangu

the wildcards

and a wee thought for the now departed Lift who were quality and probably one of the best bands we have played live with

I find you so self obsessed and paranoid its unreal.....

Thats just an opinion by the way.

quality thanks for that so, just to clarify

self obsessed - for trying to highlight the gc site which is currenlty being set up for local bands rather than talk about myself

paranoid - for responding to slaggings/negative comments

but obviously i respect your opinion

cheers

Now I know how a dentist feels...

Look' date=' you said "regards criticism, why would we take it on board?" and I said "All bands should take criticism on board, it's the only way you learn how to evolve for fuck's sake." I did NOT say you should try to sound like other bands. In fact, one of the GREATEST bits of criticism you should take on board is that YOU SOUND LIKE EVERY OTHER FUCKING PUB BAND IN THE COUNTRY. You say you don't want to sound like other bands... well you've failed. Miserably.

"If you don't think it's good, you're shit" isn't off the page. If you don't take criticism on board, you obviously think you know better than everyone else. But any musician with half a fucking brain realises that they're always going to be their own biggest fan, and therefore extremely biased - you need someone else's perspective to truly gauge the quality of your music. To do otherwise is just ridiculously arrogant.

I too would like to know what happened to individuality. Where did you hide it?[/quote']

haha that is sad

so what you are saying is that the constructive criticism i should take is 'that you sound like yevery other fucking pub band in the country' and obviously you being an authority on such matters - you play pubs and thus are a pub band at present and we dont sound like you

now i will try and keep this simple for you as you are struggling with the concept of having your own opinion -

all i have said is that there are many different styles of music which dont appeal to everyone. what you are saying is that you dont like our music and what we do which is fair enough.

now i have been to your website and listened to your tunes which i am sure you are very happy with and think that is the sound everything should be judged by. again it is not my thing but appreciate the fact you are playing the music you love.

so you do what you do for the people that like what you do and we do the same for the people that like us.if you become successful playing your stuff then more power to you and i wish you well, in the same vain just because you dont like our music doesnt mean that it isnt good.. just not what YOU like

i write the way i write and as i have never seen 'Blood on the Merry Go round' and havent 'Heard the Screams' recently nor do I know where the 'Devil Dwells' that will not be the way i write as that would be me following a trend set by you which would make me a follower not an individual.

so good luck and i will hopefully get down to drummonds tomorrow to catch your set if not have a great gig

cheers

But obiously not as interesting' date=' otherwise I'd have more than 11 bands replying by now. Which is pathetic.[/quote']

which is one of the points i have been making - heaps of people being negative about GSn and what we do when time could be better spent promoting themsleves and the scene which sites like yours will do.

(hopefully i havent jinxed your site by supporting it)

No need for sarcasm' date=' I was only pointing out [b']why what you said was easy to take the wrong way, as a few people seem to have done.

You're keen on learning from your mistakes, learn from that one, and from the one you made when you replied to constructive criticism as you just did.

no offence intended and point taken.

all i was highlighting was that when you make a joke that is a spur of the moment thing and certainly dont think about the way people would pick up on it.

as i mentioned before the issue changed from the initial thread which was slagging Girl Said No and saying that they shouldnt be on as they are not part of 'the scene' and are not alternative etc which was why i replied in the first place -just to say that not everyone has the same musical tastes etc. since then on the most part it has been good banter with more people getting involved and irate as they dont appreciate the fact that i dont share their opinions on certain topics.

on another point as it seems a few folk aree looking into this thread to see what is said next may be worth you adding something about your granite city site which is a quailty idea and far more worthy of the space than whether people agree with me.

all the best

cheers

Still not a very obvious joke though' date=' it wasn't obvious to me even knowing it was a joke, I still had to look for it. I never heard the interview though.[/quote']

in future i will start with 'and this next comment is meant in cheeky chappy type jokey manner please dont take offence' before i say anything.

I have absolutely no idea what this thread is about but felt like I should mention the fact that Staccato Set have played T in The Park' date=' supported Alabama 3, have a few songs released on a couple of compilation cd's, played Musicworks in Glasgow, travelled the Clyde playing on a boat at a Radio Magnetic party, invited and played PRS New Talent Stage on Fringe Sunday in Edinburgh and currently recording and new extended ep for release later in the year. Not too shabby really... We are/were principaly an Aberdeen band, although Ziggy is now based in Edinburgh and is very networked but we tend not define ouselves or be defined by geography and therefore avoid the whole 'who is doing what from where and how good... debates' Its all a little silly to be honest but human nature huh, as I have just proved by writing all that blurb at the sart in some sort of pissing contest. Just wanted to show that a band can be very active and be playing high profile gigs, getting a fair bit of attention but don't always have to follow the ego route...

That said, when we complete our new cohesive recording we will be getting in peoples faces, because we will have a product worthy of such egocentric behaviour. [/quote']

fair play to you and congrats. nothing wrong with listing your achievements as for most it generates interest and i will certainly be looking out for you guys in future

all the best