caithness music scene

[appleskin]

its good to see a lively music scene in caithness alot of good musicians around

[davem]

So many good musicians ......................and no one can be bothered to listen for free, if you ask someone to pay £6 you might as well ask if the'd like to saw off a limb.
The Y Not has put lots of money,thought and effort into making a stylish inviting and well equipped venue; and in a place where someone sneezing can reported as pneumonia 40 miles away within the hour, muso's saying the advertising should be better doesn't help. The price of newspaper ad's here means you just guarantee your costs are way higher.

So I quite agree a great place to find good musicians, and they need twice as much enthusiasm as anywhere else to cope with local apathy. (Unless you play country guitar with a backing machine - then you're appreciated, but I don't get that.)

Edit-sorry - too gloomy - there are hard core music fans who do go out regularly, but the rest!

[Gleber2]

So many good musicians ......................and no one can be bothered to listen for free, if you ask someone to pay £6 you might as well ask if the'd like to saw off a limb.
The Y Not has put lots of money,thought and effort into making a stylish inviting and well equipped venue; and in a place where someone sneezing can reported as pneumonia 40 miles away within the hour, muso's saying the advertising should be better doesn't help. The price of newspaper ad's here means you just guarantee your costs are way higher.

So I quite agree a great place to find good musicians, and they need twice as much enthusiasm as anywhere else to cope with local apathy. (Unless you play country guitar with a backing machine - then you're appreciated, but I don't get that.)

Edit-sorry - too gloomy - there are hard core music fans who do go out regularly, but the rest!

Amen to that!!!

[The Pepsi Challenge]

I sensed a good 10-pager from this thread. Surprised no-one has come out and fought the corner already. There is no scene as far as I can tell.

[Jeid]

There is no scene? I think that is perhaps a tad harsh.

The scene is there... people just need to find it. I don't think it's very fair to criticise Joe Public if nobody is out harrassing them to come along... flyers, posters, radio, write ups in the newspaper(aye, the non-paying type) all do wonders for getting people in the door.

Advertising a website of some sort with music samples on it can also help(or have the opposite effect I guess).

We can't expect people to just turn up just like bands can't expect things to be put out on a plate for them.

Moaning gets nobody anywhere. A gig is only as good as you make it.

[K dragon]

breach brother!!

lol

totally agree wit jeid on this one.

[Bill Fernie]

. The price of newspaper ad's here means you just guarantee your costs are way higher.

The cost of advertising in the Caithness.org What's On section is FREE but despite that we do not see it packed with ads for musical events that bands are playing at. Some are placed and they appear on the front page on the day of the gig and are also available for the period before the event.

If more bands began to add their gigs to the What's On then maybe more folk would check it to see what was happening.

I know everything takes time to do but sitting down once a week for a few minutes to add the gigs that are booked might just begin to have some affect on audience sizes. Also it lets folk from much further away see that Caithness lots of music going on and they might be tempted to come along when they visit the county.

We also offer free pages in the Arts section with links to the band web site. Are you all listed - See http://arts.caithness.org/category.php?cat=16
If not are your contact details easily found elsewhere for anyone looking to book a band etc.

[Deemac]

Bill,
Thanks for the advice - good to know.

I recommend you invest in a spell checker though . . . . . .

[appleskin]

having just finishing abook about blues players has any caithness musicians sold their souls to the devil

[Chobbersjnr]

having just finishing abook about blues players has any caithness musicians sold their souls to the devil

yip, went down to the crossroads & sold my soul to Santa. In consequence earning my bottleneck & the right to use open tunings

BTW where do I find the book????

[Cazaa]

yip, went down to the crossroads & sold my soul to Santa. In consequence earning my bottleneck & the right to use open tunings

BTW where do I find the book????

Was that the Crossroads Primary School?

[Chobbersjnr]

Was that the Crossroads Primary School?

LMAO how did you know.................all good blues people got taught there

[The Pepsi Challenge]

To suggest there is a music scene in Caithness would imply that there is a stealth of bands (from a wide spectrum of genres, at least a % of whom are making their living from it); several live music-dedicated venues; knowledgeable and pro-active promoters; a place to network and strengthen resources (including servies to educate musicians, especially on the business side); positive support from local and national newspapers, and local and national radio; well-maintained record stores; a healthy number of music-goers attending - and supporting - live music shows with regularity; the regular appearance of touring and commercial bands; fully up-to-date, fully experienced recording studios and engineers made available to local artists.

Now. There may be flecks of what I’ve mentioned, but to put hand-on-heart and say all the above boxes are ticked - strong and healthy at that - well, I just can't.

The majority of bands in Caithness are, in the main in my opinion, indie-rock bands, many of whom don’t make a living from music. The other bands? They appear to school bands yet to find their feet, run-of-the-mill covers acts and pseudo country acts. Granted, the likes of The Newmarket and Blackstairs put on regular live music, but where else can you see good quality live music every night of the week? When I lived in Caithness, you could play Scapa House, The Marine, The Coral, Viewfirth etc. None of these venues are around anymore. The ones that are certainly don’t put live music on enough. There are no promoters in the area, nuff said. Where do musicians - apart from on here - meet up to talk, music top of the agenda? Do you not all get together to try and strengthen community spirit? Do the papers have reviewers coming along to cover gigs? I doubt it. Seems only one national tabloid is interested in covering local bands in Caithness, and that’s me - when I can get the time off to take a trip north. Where are all the recording studios? Are any of them advertised? A healthy music scene ought to have such services made readily available. Do bands play live sets on local radio? Do the presenters interview bands about what they’re up to? Am listening. Music shops? Caithness doesn’t even have any. Such a meeting point is a neccessity. Buying guitar strings and wondering if that new Chemical Romance CD has come in yet isn’t the same when approached online. Gig-goers? How many people are turning up to indepdent gigs? Does anyone keep count? You should. When I took my band up recently, though the turnout was healthy and supportive, there was no reason why more people shouldn’t have been turning out. There was no other competiton, and the gigs were well advertised. As the lad said in another thread (and am paraphrasing) - someone with a cold in the Grove will turn out to have pneumonia when discussed 20 miles on the other side of county. James Bond couldn’t get through town undetected so there was no excuse. I also expected a few bods from her to turn up, but, well... no matter. As for touring bands? Well, that’s been talked to death. I meet bands on a daily basis and their reason for refusing to come north is all too familiar. No support, no encouragement, no punters. In short, a stopping off point before getting to Orkney... where they do care, apparently.

The above might come across as a self-indulgent rant, but I challenge anyone to say the opposite. Far as I can see, there’s a few bands kicking around playing the occasional gig, taking cheap jibes at each other, and hoping the occasional gig at Skinandis falls on their lap. Sorry, but that's the way I see it. Tell me how you see it.

[appleskin]

yip, went down to the crossroads & sold my soul to Santa. In consequence earning my bottleneck & the right to use open tunings

BTW where do I find the book????

i think you got a deal

[Chobbersjnr]

i think you got a deal

yeah, damn straight I did......just been listening to Little Feat "the Last Record Album" Lowell is my absolute slide hero NO QUESTION.....

[The Pepsi Challenge]

Seems, the silence on this topic - just like the Caithness music 'scene' - is deafening.