Ah the good ol' days of shug and spaz!
If a band want a gig, go and ask somewhere, there simple, thats all it takes,
Then again, many bands dont want to do that, some gig sporadically, some a lot, some never,
we all like differant things, some see it as a future, some see it as a hobby, some js see it as a laugh, we all see it in differant ways
the music scene to me, well, im going to say this as it is, if i didnt play in bands, i probably wouldnt care, all i care about is that if i feel like i wanna play a gig, i can go and get one, thats it, thats all, right now im having enuff fun with my spidey costume, but again, that shows my opinion, it isnt the be all and end all of what i do,
im delighted im awesome at what i do, and every week im jamming somewhere, maybe not gigging, but constantly jamming, i look on it as a routine sorta thing, i love to jam, and on a week to week basis, i know i will be able to, play a gig here and there, get many a compliment, boost my massive ego a bit more, its all good
If young bands want a gig, thats all they need to do, when silverstone left school they got a couple of gigs easily enuff, then we went our seperate ways (life got in the way. anyways, it was js a high school band, well, thats how i look at it now, marilyn manson can only be played in so many places, haha) Grannpa Duke were all made up of high school going guys, but started gigging outwith the high school, only played there as we could cause of our age, the duke were a pub band, we were all teenagers then but thats what we did, wanst hard, organised our own gigs at the start of it, easy enuff it was then too, and just as easy now, unless of course you start organising events, ive been there, done that, worn the t-shirt, but im talking about bands getting their own gigs, the event thing is something else entirely
if i want a gig somewhere, i js go in and ask, unless im asked first, thats all it takes, then again i can play in excess of 3 - 4+ hours
still though, not hard..........
Last edited by Reev; 10-May-07 at 16:34.
"The Light seems small and far,A Darkness envelops my soul,Hiding behind my empty smiles,Within my mind, Deeper I fall."
Ah the good ol' days of shug and spaz!
mon the voodooqueen
Big Imagination For Feeling Young Cause Life Yearns Real Optimism
I thought it was Vooboo Quen Ben will know what I'm on about... well, if he remembers.
"The Light seems small and far,A Darkness envelops my soul,Hiding behind my empty smiles,Within my mind, Deeper I fall."
never have heard such a beast of an attempt at twist by anyone rather than callum mackay!
when he sang twist that one year!
was awesome !
Big Imagination For Feeling Young Cause Life Yearns Real Optimism
damn! missed that, i remember silverstone, performed "hell yeah" by h blox one year, was wicked. then the spin off goldrock lol
Haha, I remember the VQ sign... our list reigns supreme though!
having just finishing abook about blues players has any caithness musicians sold their souls to the devil
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.
Couple of points TPC:
I gather you're in Edinburgh, population (including surrounding towns with good/excellent communications) around 1m perhaps? Percentage of population of the age group to be 'interested' in live music and with sufficient disposable income and no other interests to indulge - maybe 10% = 100 000?
Caithness: population around 30 000. Percentage of population of age group to be 'interested' in live music - maybe 10% = 3000. as for disposable income, who knows?
Centres of population = 2 large (10 0000 people) with virtually non-existent public transport in or out in the evenings.
Music shops: Gone, out of business. How are the wee independent shops in Edinburgh doing these days? Oh they've gone as well.
What percentage of the Edinburgh population are actually gigging musos? 10% of the 10% maybe = 10 000, which sounds enough to sustain a couple of decent music shops.
Same percentage applied to Caithness = 300, which doesn't sound enough.
Regarding the glory days, The Moonshine at Scapa closed in the 90's due to insufficient business. The weigh inn burnt down, as did Dominos.
Bands in the 90's complained bitterly that there were no gigs/too little cash/audience would rather get p**sed/no future/only interested in country or dad-rock, we're off south to make our fortunes...
Face it, even in the glory days the scene here was pretty insignificant, but we all liked it a bit.
Most people either grow out of music or face the facts that only a very lucky (or rich) select few ever make anything of a music career.
And the only thing that's remembered in Caithness in the field of popular music is when the Blonde Brothers' single was Sounds record of the week in 1978.
An awful lot of musos did their thing in between, both here and down south, I wonder what happened to them all...
As far as I can see our music scene is pretty damn good for a little place like this. I'm glad you came back for a gig and I hope you enjoyed it as I'm sure the audience did. Come back again soon.
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