Dave-IRL

Plenty of time afterwards to head to the Lemon Tree for the IRL set as well and bus wanking is very popular amongst bands these days. I should know. I'm a bus.

thanks 8-)

Is ding good or bad? o_O Please clarify. I aint too good wit da kids speak. In fact I'm pretty ding. ??

Well it looks like we'll be keeping Gus at the helm so I'm unsure how we're goning to get on next season. My heart says we're going to start splashing some of the cash we clearly have (bid nearly 100k for Rankin last year & 50k for Twaddle - none of which has been spent since) and sort out our squad. If Haining goes as expected then we def need at least 1 if not 2 Centre Halves. Would love to keep Cuthbert but he's been harping on about returning to Celtic since the day he arrived. if both leave we will have John Potter and Marc MacAusland as our only two CBs. A left back is a priority also, as Miranda looks like he's heading home and Mo Camara is quite simply not a left back. We've never had a right midfielder in the 5 years Gus has been in charge so I'd expect some movement there, plus a reliable left winger and a striker who can actually find the back of the net regularly wouldnt go amiss. My head unfortunately tells me that Gus will give contracts to pretty much all those who've expired (Garry Brady signed on this morning) and we'll spend the rest of the summer looking at trialists with Gus' usual 'we have to be sure they're better than what we've got' mantra being doled out all summer until he makes a panic signing who turns out to be gash (see Tonet for a recent example). We'll then start the seaosn with Mo Camara at LB, no natural right mid in the squad and be looking wistfully at Craig Dargo, hoping he's gonna find his shooting boots over the summer. We've been linked with a few players, particularly Lee Mair, Michael Higdon and Mark Brown who would all be reasonable if not inspiring signings. Oh yeah, and if Andy Dorman is still here I'll be fkn delighted.

Probably not, but going to see just one band isnt really the point of a festival

Doesnt seem to have affected ticket sales from what I gather 8-)

Everyone should buy tickets for this gig.

the slashes were to save me typing 'or' clearly everyone on here has a passion for playing or promoting or attending gigs in the city. We are all contributing to the local music scene by being involved. I dare say we are all guilty of not attending other bands shows, but I wasnt really targeting people on here, more the general public. In fairness tho, I'd like to think most folk on here will go to a gig if they fancy it/see it advertised irrespective of if they're playing/promoting. But i get the sense that the people in Aberdeen who are not involved in the music scene in some way or other would rather go to Revolution and drink cocktails to a DJ background than go to Drummonds for band action...

Once upon a time St Mirren actually tried this - they bought former Barcelona & Spain captain Victor Munoz, and a former Barca striker (OK it was Stevie Archibald but still...) - paid them megabucks and expected success to roll in. 18 years later we've just finished our 3rd consecutive season in the top flight - the longest stay we've had in the SPL since we signed them. And to think that Davie Hay (manager at the time) is regarded as some sort of football mastermind and Gordon Smith (his assistant in the Mirren Massacre) is now running the game in this country... I'd far rather Saints had lived within their means and didnt have to go through the 90's hell we experienced in Div 1. We thought we were bigger than we were and paid a heavy price for it. Aberdeen's board cant seem to see the (Calder)wood for the trees in this case though... I apologise for the pun. profusely.

I think many folk are preaching to the converted on the forum. Everyone who writes on here clearly has a passion for playing/promoting/attending live music within the city. But I fear that we are in the minority in Aberdeen. There definitely appears to be a culture whereby people will only go and see their mates bands, or bands that have already 'made it' to a certain extent (ie NME says go and see this band). The local press give short shrift to unsigned bands therefore denying them the coverage that might help to boost attendances. Having never really lived in another city (other than Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane for 2 month periods when travelling) I can't say if this situation is replicated elsewhere. Thoughts?

John O'Pies

Hindsight is often 20-20 though Cal - I bet if you asked them the same question after that season the would have said it was shit. I know some St Mirren fans who reckon being pumped by Brechin and Queen of the South on a regular basis and watching the complete and utter dross John Coughlin turned out for Saints (Mark Crilly, Laurie Ellis, Ricky Robb, Robert Dunn, John Baird, Allan Russell, Brian McGinty - what a team!!!) was better than this season. I have absolutely no doubts that they would have hated every minute of that season at the time. But some folk just like to moan and complain all the time.

A complete myth. Falkirk arent pretty to watch. Motherwell's game is based on pressing high up the pitch and forcing errors, using mini counter attacks from the halfway line to capitalise on said errors. Falkrik are actually just shit. really shit.

Anyone who was at Dananananaykroyd on Sunday will testify that the visuals are pretty impressive!

And by the way - Dons best managers in recent times are Alex Ferguson and Alex Smith... both came from Saints. Fancying going for the hat trick? Gus McPherson & Andy Millen. 2 for a pound!

You've knida half grasped my meaning there Dave. Obviously with any debt ( big footy club or wee guy with an overdraft ) there is a minimum payment required periodically - presumably monthly in the case. But I think as we've covered thanks to Milne the bank are allowing Aberdeen to tick over by servicing that monthly payment, with perhaps a wee bit more to cover the interest on the debt. What I dont see happening is the bank or creditors putting pressure on the club to reduce the debt significantly, as the debt mentioned in the papers is always around the 6 million mark from memory. Look at the situation with Clyde - where the owners of the stadium tried to evict them due to unpaid arrears on their debt. Clyde are skint and they have no obvious way out of it. Aberdeen on the other hand are operating quite comfortably, turning over a nice wee profit last season. When the players who earned that profit wanted a wee bit more for themselves, the club basically told them to beat it. Now the manager has got them another 4th place finish, Euopean football (albeit it may only be one trip to Latvia 8-) ) and they've told him to do one as well. But we agree that its a shocking decision. I just think Dons fans have targeted the wrong people in this issue - Calderwood should've been hailed as a hero. Yes he had his faults and made some baffling decisions (Severin could've played CM for another 10 years before moving to sweeper!) but ultimately he's better than anything you've had since Alex Smith!

The point I tried to make earlier tho is that Aberdeen have been pleading poverty for years yet still manage to find the money to service the 4th highest wage bill in the league, stumped up the cash to get Calderwood in the first place, have reputedly paid around 900k to get rid of him, paid 6 figure sums for at least 3 members of their current squad not to mention all the money that has been spunked in previous seasons. Lets face it - if St Mirren made a reported 250k this season by getting to the Scottish Semis, how much did Aberdeen rake in last year by making the semis in both cups plus the UEFA cup run and the sale of Russell Anderson? You certainly are not skint. Yes you might have a large debt, but as you said yourself, this debt is being allowed to you by the bank, by virtue of Mr Milne. They are not calling it in or by the sounds of it demanding that you reduce it greatly any time soon. You have a large support which will generate income, you have finished 4th 3rd 5th 4th and 4th in the last 5 seasons IIRC - again bringing in vast sums of money from the performacne related TV deal. But for some reason, Calderwood has his hands tied when trying to negotiate new contracts for the players he wants to keep, and in the end they leave due to the club not giving them what they want. If you listen to Jimmys interview on Radio Scotland yesterday you can almost hear the annoyance in his voice when he says "What a team we could have had here" I think my point here is that the board and the people running the club are holding it back and firing the manager is an absolute shocking decision.

Of course Mr Milne could wipe the debt out with a wave of his hand, but until he gets his planning permission it will never happen. Calderwood for Saints!

And in other news, the Titanic has hit an iceberg... of course thats going to happen. Its the main reason why Milne has stayed for so long. Aberdeen really need some stupid oil billionaire to take leave of his senses and plough all his readies into the club. The potential is there, just needs someone to be daft enough to do it.

Skint is having to sell your stadium to Tesco or face going out of business for good. Skint is knowing that if Hugh Murray hadnt scored in the last minute against Stirling Albion to save you from Div 2 in 97, you wouldnt have a club anymore. Where did the million quid from Anderson's sale go? Where did all the UEFA cup money go? Aberdeen claim poverty all the time, but still have as you say the 4th biggest wgae budget in the league. You also paid heavily to bring Calderwood and NIcholl to the club. Why spend all that moeny to bring a guy in and then not give him ther esources he needs to progress the club? I feel for JC - he's done a cracking job at a club who have struggled to get any consistency since Alex Smith left, and yet he gets nothing in return for it. Fans calling for his head constantly despite him clearly being a fantastic manager. And before any starts with regards to my earlier post, I realise this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black after my rant about Gus McPherson. But you'd say the same if Gus was your manager. No really. We dont score goals. We dont play nice football. John Potter is our captain. We stayed up on goal difference. We rely on 1 man to win games. its dire.

Was there in February this year and loved it, got nowhere near the amount of stuff done I wanted tho. The uber touristy City Sightseeing bus is actually well worth doing tho, we left it till our last day there and found heaps of stuff we wished we'd done earlier. We never got to do the cable cars either due to high winds but it looked amazing. Segrada Familia is awesome tho, as is Nou Camp. Get a Lonely Planet guide tho - well worth having on you for finding places and decent restaurants.

My take on the weekends action: Starting with my team St Mirren: Gus Must Go. The guy has worked wonders in taking us from 8th in Div 1 when he took over (bearing in mind it was 2 auto relegation places an we scraped survival) but the inability to beat a Hamilton side who were in terrible form, at home, with pretty much a sold out home support, speaks volumes of our current situation. Gus seems to stumble upon a formation that works well in one game, and sticks with it blindly irrespective of the opposition. Then we go on a run of defeats until he stumbles upon another formation, which works once etc. I bear no grudges towards the guy and appreciate what he has done, but I really feel that he has taken the club as far as he can. Caley: Didnt deserve to go down. They had the nuts to do what was needed in firing Brewster and have given a lot of Scottish guys the chance to prove themselves at SPL level in their time. Having said that, Ross Tokely GIRFUY! I'd honestly rather have seen Falkirk go down. Hughes bleats on about how he gives young guys a chance - and in fairness the last few seasons he did and they were quite successful. This season he decided to give his wage bill to old codgers like Pressley, Bullen, McCann and McNamara and it came back to bite his erse. Aberdeen: Dear oh dear when will you Dandies learn? May I remind you all that the season before JC took over you finished 11th. I honestly cant think of anyone who will be able to take that job and put up with losing your best players (Hart, Clark, Nicholson, Anderson, Severin tbc) due to the board not stumping up the cash required. They claim they're skint but have a big average crowd in comparison to some, and made it throught he group stages in the UEFA cup last season. Thet surely would have made enough to keep a few of those boys on a 2 year deal? Losing JC is a big mistake in my book. Newcastle: Foot. The. Shot. In. Themselves. Re-arrange as required. Celtic: As above. Ayr: beating the club formerly known as Clydebank over 2 legs to relegate them. Magic.

They were the stage times as we were told pre gig - I never found out we were on at 8.45 until er... 8.30. Mind you, if you'd come to watch the support bands you'd have seen the whole Dana gig

Is it part of the art school yeah? just off grassmarket? we were offered it as a hire for part of our tour last week and were told it was in the middle of nowhere, which i was dubious about... we didnt take it on that basis, plus it was last minute and we would have need to organise a full line up etc

Whats the Wee Red Bar like as a venue? And where in Edinburgh is it?