Is there another club as good as moshulu?

[Heather]

wow, i might go to the moorings one day. sounds like fun. and a change of scenery is always good.

[Flash@TMB]

Gee

Thanks Bonesaw Bazz, please come along to our relaunch once the buiilders have finished. I'll buy you a free 'woosh' for the plug Cheers!

Heather I notice from your Bio that you are listening to Ben Harper. Several years ago I accidentally ate some mushrooms that turned out to be hallucinogenic (wonder how that happened). Anyhow Ben Harper was on the Jools Holland show that night on TV, and played 'Please Bleed' live. It was fantastic. I went straight out the next day and bought the album. Might put it in the Jukebox soon.

One thing I'd like to point out is that The Moorings is a bar and not a club, so it's not fair to compare us.

I don't get to Moshulu much because I'm old and too tired to go, but now the bar is closed for a few weeks I intend to spend some time there. In my opinion Moshulu is much better than the Palace (or the Ritzy as I knew it). I feel this way because I had to suffer through the latter half of the 90s - the dark ages when the Palace routinely kicked us out then begged us back when they needed the money. Even during the early 90s they only ran alternative nights on Mondays and Thursdays, catering to neds the rest of the time. On Fridays I went to the Sloe Club at RGIT Union, and Saturdays and Tuesdays Caesers Palace.

The difference here is that unlike the Palace, Moshulu actually means it! My understanding is that the people that ran the alternative nights at the Palace also have they same involvement in Moshulu (please correct me if I'm wrong), so all that was good about the Palace is present in Moshulu. Aberdeen has been crying out for an alternative venue the size of Moshulu for a long time. Especially one that admits us at weekends.

Right now we're all spoiled for choice. I manage to get to Drakes from time to time (easy since it's only 15yards away) and love it there. Drakes has worked wonders is helping to create a thriving music scene in Aberdeen as opposed to the covers bands that we've had to endure for the last 15 years... and they done that because they believe in it. Needless to say I'll also be spending a fair bit of time in Drakes over the coming weeks.

From the Moorings perspective, the creation of Drakes then Moshulu have been a massive boost for us. One alternative venue does not constitute a scene! The Moorings actually suffered after The Satelite Bar shut... strange because on paper that was it's main competitor. People like choice, choice is attractive and helps build the sort of movement we have now. There really is no place I'd rather be right now than Aberdeen. It's only a matter of time before something explodes several of our young bands into the big time. Other places aren't so fortunate.

See you all in Drakes/Moshulu over the course of the next few weeks

Flash

[Guest Tam o' Shantie]

i fucking love the moorings, ever since i went to the first inept gig there a while back, pete and ross always manage to sort out my 'sober' problems.

double jaegermeister,

goldshlanger,

cherry vodka,

tequila cocktail,

addlestones,

rum, coke + lime,

some of my moorings faves

it's relatively cheap and the pinball machine is ace. and the jukebox ain't half bad either, any plans to include more cds in the range?

[Flash@TMB]

jukebox

Hi Tam,

The current jukebox only holds 100 CDs, we try and rotate at least 10% of them each month.

We're always looking for input about what to buy. We have so little free time that we hardly ever get to listen to the radio oir view a music channel. We really rely on our customers to recommend stuff.

The way the jukebox works is that we only take advice on what to add NOT what to remove heh heh. For the bulk of the selection we aim for a roughly equal spread over the last 30 years of music. There are some special weightings though and the latest stuff gets a few extra slots.

We also like to feature local bands material, and would like to surrender around 10% of the jukebox to that cause. In order to feature as much local band material as possible it would be good if bands agreed to issue the bar with special CDs combining perhaps the material from 2-3 bands on a single disc. In other words if 2 bands have albums that run to 30 and 40 mins respectively then they might decide to issue us them both on a single disc. We will not go ahead and combine stuff ourselves.

Now that the rock resurgance has begun to take hold, several other bars have started to include a lot of 'RAWK! Classics' on their jukeboxes. This has enabled The Moorings Bar jukebox to move further to the fringes. We have slowly replaced a lot of overplayed material with less exposed stuff. Personally I love Paranoid and Doctor Doctor, but would prefer to go ten years without hearing them again. There are other places, where people that haven't heard those songs a million times, can visit for their fix.

We're also starting to concentrate on specific albums rather than greatest hits compilations. Often the songs that people most identify with are the ones hardly anyone mentions.

Finally our policy for removal is that the more frequently something gets played the sooner it comes off. I mean there are only so many times a day I can stand listening to 'Hey Stoopid' and 15 has crossed that threshhold.

Get back to me with some recommendations, preferably stuff that I haven't heard. The best way is to burn me a trial CD (gasp) and if I like it then I'll go out and buy the originals to put in the machine. My taste is very broad, pretty much everything from ABBA through Zappa, with a little bias towards punk.

See Ya

Flash

[New Found Power]

When is the Moorings closed, and when does it reopen?

[Flash@TMB]

Already

We are already shut. On the 4th we sold off most of our draught half price, then gave the rest away for free to those that were still around at midnight, in an assortment of containers. One guy went off home lugging a 36 gallon bucket of beer!!!

The bar is likely to be closed for around 1 month, but it may be as long as 2 months worst case scenario. The builders are on a bonus to finish early.

I'll post stuff here as soon as we reopen.

The modifications are extensive:

Widen the rear of the room out from 4 feet to 17 feet.

Build a permanent stage 14 feet wide, 10 feet deep and 38" high positioned centrally across the rear of the room.

Establish a dancefloor 17 feet x 15 feet immediately in front of the stage.

Increase the number of seats, but make the seating removable in case we stage any really busy events.

Increase the capacity to 200-250 people.

Raise the ceiling to enable the sound to travel further.

Remove the floor tiles and reinforce the floor.

Gut both toilets and redo them in full stainless steel throughout. The ladies will retain all 4 cubicles.

Create a second fire escape.

Replace the roof at the rear of the premises with a sound proofed and insulate steel industrial roof running at a slope.

Install a new hot air blown central heating system.

Install new cold air intake and extract fans.

Reposition the machines to afford maximum clear view of on stage activity.

Extend the bar counter to improve access to the bar (although it was already the second longest bar counter in Aberdeen).

Redecrate the place sympathetically.

Install 25KW (yes TWENTY FIVE KW) PA system including delay speakers. Originally this was to be 20KW, but after testing the system out we determined that delay speakers were required to drive the sound the full length of the room when crowded. The modifications to open out the room will make the biggest difference to sound travel as currently less that 5% volume from any system will travel the full length of the room. The stage is also designed to accomodate the bass bins underneath in order for bass to travel along the floor and not interfere with the mid and top.

Afterwards the bar will appear much larger, but the overall look and feel with be the same, although we may struggle to replicate the smell and mould of the original toilets. Hopefully the sound will be an improvement. This system achieves HiFi quality sound at all levels, and is able to deliver incredible sound at very low levels so we'll pipe the jukebox through this instead of the current shite speakers.

That's the full story.

Flash

[paranoid]

Re: jukebox

Originally posted by Flash@TMB:

Personally I love Paranoid

Aww bless. :O