Looking for local venue to host party/DJ sets - moving on from Cellar 35

[Guest Tam o' Shantie]

Hi all,

Kool Thwax & Charlie have been hosting a couple of parties as well as guesting at others and want to get going with our 'Hollaween' party on October 31st. The idea of these events is to create a pre-club party atmosphere where people can chill without having to scream in each others' ears to compete with a sound system, but also get down to some highly kicking jams. Our music travels between classic hip hop in various forms, 80s pop, party gems from through the ages, miami bass, indie, dance, old school electro, cut 'n' paste and mashups etc.

We had our original event at Cellar 35 and the atmosphere was perfect, but the people running the place weren't particularly helpful and we ended up having to hire a full PA system last minute after we weren't informed that their one had broken. This time we've been dicked around by them and had none of our calls returned, so we're looking for somewhere similar. If nobody on here is representing, has anyone at least got any suggestions? We were thinking about FIVE (kinda more just a bar than a venue) or Blue Lamp (might not be up for DJs) but would welcome anything else that might be doable.

[kingofdeon]

Hi all,

Kool Thwax & Charlie have been hosting a couple of parties as well as guesting at others and want to get going with our 'Hollaween' party on October 31st. The idea of these events is to create a pre-club party atmosphere where people can chill without having to scream in each others' ears to compete with a sound system, but also get down to some highly kicking jams. Our music travels between classic hip hop in various forms, 80s pop, party gems from through the ages, miami bass, indie, dance, old school electro, cut 'n' paste and mashups etc.

We had our original event at Cellar 35 and the atmosphere was perfect, but the people running the place weren't particularly helpful and we ended up having to hire a full PA system last minute after we weren't informed that their one had broken. This time we've been dicked around by them and had none of our calls returned, so we're looking for somewhere similar. If nobody on here is representing, has anyone at least got any suggestions? We were thinking about FIVE (kinda more just a bar than a venue) or Blue Lamp (might not be up for DJs) but would welcome anything else that might be doable.

Tunnels?!

[Guest Tam o' Shantie]

did one there, atmosphere wasn't right, too big and it got annoying having to walk 200 feet away from the venue every 5 mins to make sure people were still going to be coming

[DJ Jo-D]

Above the office??

[Teabags]

The Music Club?

No17 (above Portals on the Castlegate)?

The Schooner?

[Sam 45]

Above the office??

Thought that was a strip joint?

[Guest Tam o' Shantie]

The Music Club?

No17 (above Portals on the Castlegate)?

The Schooner?

three excellent suggestions. we're going to check out 'upstairs @ the blue lamp' tonight, if it aint no good the three above will be considered

[Lemonade]

There's a good wee venue in the Castlegate, I think it's the Castle Bar the one across from Portals (right on the corner), they have a really good upstairs bit you can rent out. I was at a party there a few months ago, it's a good layout, lots of tables, bar, dancelfoor, but not too big. They had a PA but I don't know if it was rented or if they owned it, it sounded like it was wrecked though.

What about the Gas Lamp on Market Street? That's newly done up and looks brilliant and cool as fuck inside, but is always empty, they'd probably jump at the chance to get some bodies through the door. They've started doing open mic nights in there so they must have the gear.

[Guest Tam o' Shantie]

There's a good wee venue in the Castlegate, I think it's the Castle Bar the one across from Portals (right on the corner), they have a really good upstairs bit you can rent out. I was at a party there a few months ago, it's a good layout, lots of tables, bar, dancelfoor, but not too big. They had a PA but I don't know if it was rented or if they owned it, it sounded like it was wrecked though.

What about the Gas Lamp on Market Street? That's newly done up and looks brilliant and cool as fuck inside, but is always empty, they'd probably jump at the chance to get some bodies through the door. They've started doing open mic nights in there so they must have the gear.

any more details about this castlegate bar? gaslamp looks nice, dunno if they can accomodate us though.

[Lemonade]

any more details about this castlegate bar? gaslamp looks nice, dunno if they can accomodate us though.

It's the Carlton not the Castle. It's on the corner next door to RS McColl. it's a pishy old mans pub downstairs but the upstairs is OK, if a bit old fashioned.

The floorplan is like so:

it just sits doing nothing on Friday and Saturday nights, it would probably cost you to hire it, and I don't kow if they own the PA but it might be worth a look. They've got flashy disco lights and stuff. As I said though it is a bitty old fashioned.

[captain burrito]

upstairs of the old kings highway on the green is areet and is available for private functions. dunno about cost etc tho.

[Guest Tam o' Shantie]

We booked portals on the understanding that it would be free, printed 1000 flyers saying 2 entry (at a cost of 65) then got phoned last week told that there is a 75 'non refundable deposit' required before they can 'confirm' the booking. After clarifying that the 'non refundable deposit' is actually just a fee, we tried to explain that we had already priced our entry low on the understanding that there would be no cost to hire, and that we'd now have to get 75 people through the door to avoid losing money.

I tried to negotiate suggesting a lesser fee in light of us being fucked around, but with a share of any profit made, but they wouldn't budge an inch. I will reserve any further judgement until the night is over.

Already spoke to old king's highway about Kool Thwaxmas II though and they seem like the ideal choice for it, and all of our future events. Dead central, no fee to hire (just a hundred quid deposit which is ACTUALLY a deposit...refunded assuming no damage to venue), PA & turntables set up (just bring your own carts apparently). The only issue is that they didn't want to give a straight comment on their policy for charging at the door, but I think they might be interested in financing promotion costs as an alternative. We don't have any real desire to make a lot of money on these nights, we just want to cover our flyer/poster costs, and hopefully a bit of cash to buy ourselves some drinks with.

[Guest Tam o' Shantie]

OK, I said i'd reserve judgement on Portals until after the evening, and I'm sort of glad I did.

The 'non refundable deposit' turned out to be sort of a deposit, after all. They take 75 quid, and give you 10% of the bar takings back. So, if they take 750 quid at the bar, it's free to book. Our night ended up having about 35-40 people present with just over a week of flyering, and 370 was taken at the bar. The venue does NOT have its own PA system, regardless of what they might say. There are three power amplifiers & 4 ancient disco light units that look like speakers when they're stacked up against the well. Once we had 60 odd quid from entry fee paying customers, and 37 back from our deposit, and having paid for a PA the night before, we ended up losing not so much money and having a great time. If we had known about the potential hiring fee though, we would have just done black and white photocopied flyers and shaved 50 quid off the outgoing. We will consider this place again as at the end of the day, the bar upstairs is nice and the people who run it are pretty decent, once they figure out what their own hiring policies are.

Now, it's time for a new rant. I went in to see the Old King's Highway a couple of weeks ago, and met the owner's daughter. She listened to what I had to say, and said that she'd be interested in having us book a night there. She said that she would need to speak to her father, however, because she wasn't sure that she'd be happy about us booking it on 'mad friday' having only had 30 people or so at some of our previous parties. She said she'd ask her dad and phone me back that night.

She didn't phone back, so 2 weeks later I went back in and met her father, the owner, who said that he hadn't heard anything about this. I discussed it with him, and he seemed really decent - expressed mild concern about numbers, but also said that with a month and a half to promote it, we'd hopefully be able to get some more faces through the door. He said that he wasn't sure why his daughter hadn't gone ahead with it, so he'd ask her and get her to phone me back at 4pm when she got in. I phoned the bar at half past 5, wondering if there had been any discussion, and the daughter told me something like "Yeah, sorry I'm just in the door - my dad's just not happy about the numbers". I told her that I'd spoken to him in person that day and that he had seemed pretty up for it. She hesitated, said she'd ask him and phone back, and proceeded not to phone me back. I was in town again the next day so I nipped by at lunch and spoke to the owner AGAIN. He seemed surprised that she had not phoned me back, and we chatted some more about doing the night. He took me upstairs, showed me the place, said he'd try and do some cheap drink deals for us on the night, and said that they were trying to establish the room upstairs again as a venue, having had a bit too much competition recently from the Belmont Street bars. He said he would make sure the daughter phoned me back when she got in at 4. I phoned them at half 5 having not heard anything, the daughter tells me yet again that her dad's not happy. I asked for an explanation as to why he had all but confirmed the night with me in person (putting my details into his diary etc) if he wasn't happy. She said she'd discuss it with him right away and phone me back. She didn't. I phoned back the next evening and she said "Sorry, we're not interested with those numbers. I could get 40 people in there just be holding a kareoke night". I said in that case was it any more hassle for us to do a night there instead? She said. "Yes, because I get more money this way". How does that work? I said fair enough and asked if we could hold it a week earlier, so as not to ruin her 'mad friday' cash cow, and she said they wouldn't be interested in doing anything with us during the month of December.

So, once again I'm at a total loss as to why all of these places have this bizarre attitude. If a bar takes 370 at the door, has to pay a bartender to work for 5 hours at 5 an hour, and let's just say 25 of electricity (for total argument's sake. how you could run this up i'm not really sure, but it's a nice even number and lighting/PA and everything must use up a fair amount of juice). Doesn't that leave you with 320 of 'free money'? Sure, they have to pay for the booze, but the bar's already stocked so it's not really part of this calculation. The owner himself said that things had been quiet recently and that they wanted to get a new crowd in. Am I missing something here...?

[Guest Tam o' Shantie]

So, does anyone know if there is another place in town which like the Old King's Highway has its own turntables & mixer & PA system?

[Steven Milne]

you guys could do some back room slots at moshulu sometime?

[Steven Milne]

woops, that was meant to be a PM.

if you wanted to have a laugh and do a slot anytime give me a shout and you can do a slot with me in the front room too if you want - it gets lonely there on your own sometimes, some people to dj with would be affa nice.

[Guest calumunderkills]

you guys could do some back room slots at moshulu sometime?

Milner and his back room antics are legendary

[Guest Tam o' Shantie]

woops, that was meant to be a PM.

if you wanted to have a laugh and do a slot anytime give me a shout and you can do a slot with me in the front room too if you want - it gets lonely there on your own sometimes, some people to dj with would be affa nice.

thanks man and we probably will do this sort of thing. at the moment though we're really wanting to start establishing the parties themselves, which is kind of hard when we have to flip to a new venue every time. will give you a shout soon about doing a 'guest slot' or sumthin

[Guest idol_wild]

I'm looking to start a monthly club night with live music and then DJs after, but there are just no venues in Aberdeen I can think of that will accomodate me on a Saturday or Friday night. It's pretty saddening.

If only The Tunnels restored some faith in such events.

Sigh.

[Stichman]

I'm looking to start a monthly club night with live music and then DJs after, but there are just no venues in Aberdeen I can think of that will accomodate me on a Saturday or Friday night. It's pretty saddening.

If only The Tunnels restored some faith in such events.

Sigh.

Gutted. An Idolwild-led clubnight would be a clubnight indeed.

[Guest idol_wild]

Gutted. An Idolwild-led clubnight would be a clubnight indeed.

Well, I intend to speak to The Lemon Tree and Moshulu, but I fear both of them are:

a) Far too big.

b) Far too expensive.

I just want to do something along similar lines to The Gun Club and Sister Resist! - both of these nights were fucking great and usually well attended. Aberdeen misses such nights, I feel. Although the local musical climate has changed dramatically - but still.

As amazing as I think The Tunnels is, I feel it's shooting itself in the foot by not allowing nights such like these to take place one Saturday night each month.

[Stichman]

Well, I intend to speak to The Lemon Tree and Moshulu, but I fear both of them are:

a) Far too big.

b) Far too expensive.

I just want to do something along similar lines to The Gun Club and Sister Resist! - both of these nights were fucking great and usually well attended. Aberdeen misses such nights, I feel. Although the local musical climate has changed dramatically - but still.

As amazing as I think The Tunnels is, I feel it's shooting itself in the foot by not allowing nights such like these to take place one Saturday night each month.

Indeed. Somewhere suitably cosy would have been ideal, somewhere like the Tunnels. I'm surprised they weren't keen on the idea. Surely everyone's a winner?

[Guest idol_wild]

Indeed. Somewhere suitably cosy would have been ideal, somewhere like the Tunnels. I'm surprised they weren't keen on the idea. Surely everyone's a winner?

I just can't book The Tunnels on a Friday or Saturday full stop anymore, it seems. The last Friday I managed to book it was only because of a cancellation and I had to be done by 23:00. They're just too busy, I guess.

[RossP]

What about Drummonds? Now that it is undergoing new ownership and all that?

Late licence, walk in trade, ample dance floor and live band stage...

[Alan Cynic]

The walk-in trade would be the problem (possibly)?