Recently in music Category

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.