This was tagged on to a previous post, but I think that it has become more important.

I am fairly bummed about the demise of the Sunday Showcase and Misssy M's film club; two things which, to me, were signs of the creative tide turning in Aberdeen.

Huzzah, a new era for Aberdeen where creative people are valued and supported by Aberdeen City and Shire.

The curfew flies in the face of some good work by the Arts department in the City Council to create more dialogue between creative practitioners in the North-East and encourage cross discipline collaboration. Also to create a support network which is self sufficient in creating opportunities for itself.

The proposed curfew IMO does not tackle the real problem, which is of flocks of drunk people coming out of clubs all at once.

• The Council should tackle the problem at the source, by penalising those licensees who serve alcohol to already-drunk people.


• Conversely, they should reward responsible traders with extra opening hours. This blanket approach didn't work in Glasgow, didn't work in Edinburgh, so why do they think it will work here?


• Bear in mind that there seems to have been virtually no consultation with existing licensees on the proposed curfew, despite the fact that the FOI documents that I received specified that a consultation should be arranged before taking the proposal any further.


• ACC have also ignored the initial suggestion by Aberdeen Taxis for the curfew to be one hour from closing and instead have made it 12.30pm for all pubs and clubs. Considering the lack of industry guidance on the issue and the suggestion by Aberdeen Taxis, there is no justification for the curfew to be that early.

I can't help but feel that Aberdeen was getting somewhere by means of supporting the arts, but now it is running a great risk of regressing.

Thanks to Andrew Learmonth and Misssy M and their work in
creating exposure for local bands and the North East in general.

They are two of only a few people that are trying to hold back
the tide; people with skills and artistry will probably want to pack
up and leave Aberdeen, and who can blame them.

I have no lectures this term, which means that I have some spare time, woo hoo!! Though I should be getting on with my disseration, but that's another matter.

One of the ideas that I have for getting more experience of collaborating with people is to form a collective.

Whiskey has joined as a kinda bass guitar craftsman and IT guy, I will compose stuff and my sister-in-law is going to paint the bass guitars. They will look pretty cool as each guitar will be its own work of art, huzzah!!

I have sent a proposal for an exhibition called Synaesthesia which looks at the interaction of art inspiring music, which inspires art again, and then you can see the sounds, ooooooh.

Haven't heard anything back yet, but I'm going to try Limousine Bull too.

The best part about new exhibitions is that there is always free wine on the first night. :-)

It's not very often that I actually act upon one of my ideas...
This week I have booked some time in a recording studio to collaborate with my mate Colin who is a local music promoter and funk/hip-hop guy.
We are going to create a new hip-hop track, using a sample of 'Dies Irae' from Mozart's Requiem.

I know it sounds totally weird, but I have an idea in my head. It will be interesting to have a bit of experimentation and see what happens :-)

I am partial to a bit of ska, so this night appealed to me right away.

First band up to kick off the night was our local young ska monger Famous Ape.

They are a young band, but don't hold that against them. I have saw them a few times and their gigs are always good. Two guitars, bass, drums, and three piece horn section - you can tell they really know their stuff and love ska music :-)

Next up was the crazy Peg & the Bouffants

The two girls that front the band are completely crazy, CRAZY I tells ya. But they are absolutely lovely and such a great laugh :-) They don't just play their set and bugger off like some bands do, they party for the whole night and then some. Both of the girls are very pretty, so they have a flock of young gentlemen that are fascinated by them, being all vivacious and full of fun.

Their set was amazing, Peg the guitarist, the bassist, the drummer and the sax player are a great band. They let the girls get on with fronting the show while they concentrate on the very tight music.

all photos displayed with kind permission from DM Photography

The favourite bits for me was when they covered 'Push It' by Salt n Pepa and their own song 'Deceiter' which really got the crowd going.

I thought Big Hand would struggle to match the energy of Peg et al, but they were equally as deranged and musically brilliant:

The trumpet guy kept on jumping off stage and into the crowd, dancing with strangers and checking out girls :-) The bassist was moving around theatrically and doing the occasional pelvic thrust when he had his leg up on the monitors, class.

They are a great band and they were well matched with Peg & the Bouffants as both bands have a great sense of fun.

I don't know if I was in an nostalgic mood that night, but my favourite song from Big Hand was their cover of 'Ice Ice Baby' by Vanilla Ice which they played slowed down in a rocksteady rhythm. When you read it I'm sure that you would think it would sound crud, but trust me it works!! This was also when the girls from Peg & the Bouffants went up on stage and started dancing gyrating to the song.

Quality night, such a great laugh. Go and see them!

photo published with kind permission from Lyncean Photography

he who is always making basses and I were watching a documentary on BBC Four about the history of prog rock, and I was intruiged to learn about the varying fortunes of all the musicians from that era.

It got me thinking:

Can you morally justify listening to and enjoying a piece of music if the composer was a horrible person?

Does the music itself take on a life of its own?

Can we appreciate its beauty irrespective of the failings of the person who wrote it?

* Wagner composed some very beautiful, dramatic music and his use of leitmotif inspired the composition of film scores for a whole new generation of composers. His most famous piece of music is 'Ride of the Valkyries'. His music was even used in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. But Wagner was an anti-semite and wrote essays on how the work of Jewish composers were inferior to his German counterparts. Only a few months ago I heard 'Ride of the Valkyries' on an advert for nappies!! Come on!!!
* Gary Glitter. I don't think anyone in their right mind would go into a record shop and ask for some of his music.

Hey everyone

One of the main things that I do apart from uni is that I am the Event Manager of Feugh Fest:

I don't expect for people brown-nose me, but I expect at least a small degree of professionalism..

Here's a hint to anyone that is looking for a gig in any festival or venue in Scotland. Start by being polite and introducing yourself and describing what you do. Don't pretend to be my best mate when you are a total stranger. Give me details of somewhere I can hear demos and info, and maybe some idea of what gigs you have had.

Or am I asking too much?

photo displayed with kind permission from Lyncean Photography

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Inspiration can strike in the most unpredictable of places, and I hope that in 2009 you all find inspiration to do the things that you really want to do.

Another one of the traditonal singing engagements that I do at this time of year is to meet up
with the Chapel Choir and sing Christmas carols to the little tots that have come to see Santa at the Elphinstone Hall. This is great fun and we get to load up on mulled wine and mince pies.

Then we all swiftly hop on a bus and it's off to Peterhead prison...

There's nothing quite like going into a maximum security prison filled with sex offenders to make you feel that your lot in life isn't so bad.

The choir has to go through all the normal security checks at the prison and are escorted by the staff, but where the security staff have cosy looking gilets and waterproof jackets, we have bright purple cotton choir gowns which act as windsocks, which makes for fighting with the wind an incredibly challenging and soggy experience.

For me, the weirdest thing about going to the prison is the way that the prisoners bring in their own chairs for the concert and then they kinda stare at you before concert begins. I don't know, is it a defensive manoevre? Do they think that we are judging them? But all of the prisoners lighten up and are as nice as pie once the concert starts. Maybe they are just waiting contently until they get to sing 'Ding dong, merrily on high'.

There are also some precious moments in the christmas carols:

'God rest, ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay
For Jesus Christ our saviour was born upon this day.
To save us all from satan's power when we have gone astray...'

OMG, I don't know where to look.
You might as well do a little dance in front of them exclaiming 'you're a baddie!'

Last wednesday was quite, er, interesting...

The university new music group is dedicated to performing works by new (or relatively new) composers from the 20th century onwards. During the concert at Kings College Chapel we were treated to a night of John Cage.

I don't know if you know much about John Cage, but he is the composer that is most famous for his work 4"33

Youtube clip

The funniest thing is that people try to not make a sound during the piece, and inbetween the movements you hear the culmination of all the coughs and splutters that people have been holding in for the past few minutes :-)

We were treated to some great John Cage pieces such as 'Scottish Circus', which it as times quite melodic, and sometimes it is all over the place!

There was also 'Litany for the whale' which was for four voices placed at different parts of the hall. The music was composed so that it should sound like whale song, and it was even better in the echoey acoustic of Kings.

Then there was the piece for four transistor radios. Even though with all these pieces you could go into a debate about whether or not it is music, this particluar performance of the transistor radios was just great. It was great simply for the fact that when one radio was 'playing' solo, it tuned into Northsound 1 and by sheer coincidence there was a news report on at the same time. I thought it was great as from this one excerpt of the performance you had a great sense of time and place.

Well done New Music Group, your concert was great fun :-)