Fish out of water

Wierd. All the people I know that listen to Radio One in and out of my work are probably outwith their perceived age catchment, so it kind of gives rise to the notion that Radio 1 that are maybe out of touch with their audience, rather than the other way round.

This thread has made me want to buy more basses. Pity I've got no money.

Ah, Rollercoaster. A legendary tour. Too skint to go myself. Heard all about You Made Me Realise though.

Sounds good. There were really good songs on Farm, hopefully they'll feel inclined to give them an airing. Good result for O2 as well I see.

Feck me, that's a terrible line-up.

Not sure its that - the crackling would only happen if you adjusted the pot. If it's happening allthe time then its probably something else.

Was going to say the same, I've seen them go for six or seven hunner on the bay. Lovely bass though. Would love to know what it is you're playing that makes the Miller redundant.

Think we got linked with Glass Onion (proto-Travis), and The Dykeenies. We sound fuck all like either. Think the only common link was that we probably drink in some of the same pubs.

This is a wind up, right? Tell me you're just doing this out of boredom to see what the reaction is to a bit of controversy?

I'm detecting that someone in Wolf 359 is a bit of a trekkie.

What he said.

You've cynically ruined the illusion, but you're probably right. Still, why would anyone want to know so much about another person who isn't really that interesting at the end of the day.

Actually, this is a pretty good point. You know far, far too much. Placeboboy - You are Sandi Thom and I claim my 5 prize.

Evidently.

aha! I see what you did there. A subtle, yet incisive post. Really. And you play the violin too. There really is no end to your gifts.

Oh. sounds like a rivetting chap.

At the risk of displaying stunning ignorance - who is Joe Bonamassa?

I'm not sure you necessarily need to do this; Once you're down here, it can very quickly be apparent what you're up against. Glasgow is saturated with bands. I work with a guy (his name is oddly enough the same as one of the main characters from 2001) who's band decamped en masse from Aberdeen to Glasgow. I remember him saying one day that he found it quite daunting as he hadn't realised just how many people there were in Glasgow who were in bands. and this guy's band were doing alright as these things go. Glasgow is also saturated with venues; most are open seven nights a week and generally have bills of 3-5 bands. So, all you have is multiple venues fighting for the same gigging crowd. And the gigging crowd down here is not that great in terms of numbers, even on a Friday/Saturday night. There is no passing trade to speak of, except for maybe Box, and people seem to have mixed feelings about the place. I think if you spend herds of money on promotion (cannot emphasise that enough) and as little as possible on recording then you can raise things above a few piss poor gigs in the city centre that nobody aside from the coachload you organised from up the road turned up to and get people genuinely interested in what you're up to. Then you'd be able to stay in Aberdeen and hopefully bend circumstances to a situation of your own choosing. All that said, if you're just fancying a change from Aberdeen, then yeah, Glasgow is a top place to live. It's funny, some people in Aberdeen think you have to go to Glasgow, and some in Glasgow think you have to go to London. I think you don't need to do either. Copy Haho seem to rub along alright. They don't even live in Aberdeen AFAIK.

So...what do you get for your 24K then? Is that just straight missionary intercourse? Are there extras? Why am I asking...

It's not new - a girl did the same thing a few years back, and was on Richard and Judy talking about it. If memory serves, she auctioned her cherry off on ebay? She was a bit of a hippocrocafrog in the looks department too.

Well, it has to be said that if you are gagging for any half decent opportunities for exposure in Scotland, a lot of peeps think cultivating a relationship with DF should probably be high up on your list. However, its not a guarantee of success. Policechief were DF favourites for a few years and got a lot of work as a result, but it didn't amount to much.

Jockrock has a listings page - site is meant to cover the whole country but its inevitably glasgow-centric. Also try the gig guide: The Gig Guide Think Rockers does a lot of punk bands - might be something there?

Just out of interest, do you still have the pickup cover?

P2P was really bad a long time ago when I first moved to Glasgow and places like Fury Murry's (now a strip club fact fans) were legendary at it. I have played one or two of these things but this was at a time band admin was the domain of the drummer/manager and it was only when things started getting a bit heavy with the promoter the one and only time I played Fury's that I clicked onto what was going on and advised that said drummer/manager might wish to review the gig booking policy. I can see both sides of this - a lot of acts show a stunning level of naivity in thinking that the promoter is there to solely promote and that the town should be plastered in A2's advertising them. Once you stop and think that say a venue costs upwards of hundred quid to hire, posters and their distribution might cost a couple of hundred and then you have to pay an engineer and whatever else, you start to sympathise (only a bit mind) with what some promoters go through. Hence the Promo's that stipulate you don't play another venue in town either side of your date with them. Ticket splits, etc. A lot of the time we're talking about promoters that are just as small time as the band's they book so really its probably better that bypass the promoter entirely and just book the venue and promote it yourself and then, once the overheads are covered all the moolah is yours - providing you actually have an audience that turned up to the gig. I'd be willing to wager that the overwhelming majority of bands don't have an audience and aren't willing to do the sort of spadework required to run their own night. These are the same bands that generally think its ok to just "be good enough" and everything all will fall into place. This last scenario only ever works if you have personal connections in the right places. At the end of the day, none of this stuff comes for free. Money has to come from somewhere. Maybe the promoter should get it up the arse - after all, if they were stupid enough to gamble their money organising a night where only the three sets of parents turned up. Maybe the bands should bend over the table as the promoter took a gamble on them and the gamble failed. Fuck this, I'm never playing live again. All sounds like to much fucking hassle. At least it'll stop the arguments about gear sharing/who's on driving duties. That's a thread of its own.

Aside from the awful montage on the back wall its no worse than most of the other venues, and I include the sacred cows. Anyhoo, the forum will ultimately be whatever you decide to make of it.