I think it depends on what kind of band you are. Were from keith so we play alot of gigs around the smaller towns, weve managed to make a bit of a reputation so people do come see us, although it is true you do have to play alot more covers but when we shove our own stuff inbetween it still seems to go down well enough. The money is good too, getting paid around 200 a gig. If your a metal band though, I just wouldnt bother playing the smaller towns. I wont name them, but a seemingly well respected and popular metal band from aberdeen played in keith last year, they cleared the place out. All that said there is a bit of a music scene in the elgin/lossiemouth area. Theres a promotions company in elgin thats brought some big-ish names in (some ex stone roses guy or something really) but its really all indie stuff. We also played a gig in lossie town hall a few weeks ago, there were four bands and it was really well promoted, so about 200 people showed up, so aye, i dont think playing the cities is the be all and end all, there are decent places inbetween too. Edit: The afore mentioned metal band was not enrapture, who also played keith and apparantly went down really well, I didnt go though.