The Brain Drain

www.stopthecurfew.com

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?
• We bear in mind that 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 this city 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.

Results

I had a really nice birthday. It was far better than last year, which consisted of being in a recording studio/barn in the middle of nowhere, sitting around and getting bored.

When he who is going to shave his beard off and I were in Yatai I felt my head drooping like I was going to fall asleep, and I only felt better when I went outside for fresh air.

It was really strange, I haven't experienced anything like that before. I sorta felt a bit faint, and I felt a lot better when I got some food. Hmmm, perhaps I just didn't have enough to eat or something.

I got a good result for my essay: 18 out of 20, which equates to 90%.

But I got a 14 overall for the course, which is 70%. That means that the other thing that I was assessed on (presentation) must have got about 60% as the essay and presentation is 50/50 weighting in determining the final course mark.

60%! Come on, I had some really nice graphs and stuff :-(

Do bar charts count for nothing...?

In am now in my final term of uni, and if I get 75% or more in one of my two courses, then I think I will get a 2:1 honours degree.

Now, if only I could pull my finger out and get some work done...

Motivation is somewhat lacking at the moment.

I had a gig with Sumisumi last night and it was ace fun, it was a great experience to sing with Andy and Alan and I would love to do more.

I totally loved Drew from Wounded Knee, who was the other support act for The Flowers of Hell. His sets are mesmerising, absolutely beautiful. Up there with Thomas Truax is the 'totally loving a gig' stakes.

Oh and for those of you who are not aware, Aberdeen pubs and clubs will have a new curfew beginning in September where everyone will have to be in their place of boozing at 12.30pm. After that they will not be able to get entry to anywhere else!

From the info I have looked at from licensees in public forums virturally none of the licensees have been consulted in this process, and the council have ignored the initial request of a one hour curfew and changed it to 12.30pm with no justification.

Please consider signing the petition here or finding out more info with FOI documents here

Improv

Roughly about 10 months ago, I did my first gig where I sang with absolutely nothing preprared. I was going to do 'improv'.

Needless to say, I was shitting my pants.

Funnily enoughm because I basically didn't stop singing for 20 minutes, I just launched myself into it and sang, or more appropriately, spoke, some strange things indeed. The patrons of The Tunnels were treated to such aural delights as:

'Matt, can you get my bag...Matt? Matt! Hellooooo, yeah my bag is under the table.'

'Andy!! Yoohoo, Andy! Andy!!!! Do you want a pint?'

Well it wasn't all complete nonsense, I sang little snippets of stuff that I have learned before, which ended up with me singing in french, german, italian latin and english by the end of it.

I was fair chuffed when the audience thought that we (Andy and I) were good. I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if they had asked for a refund or something. I had never been in that kind of situation before, and didn't know how anyone would react to what I had done.

Well Sumisumi is having another adventure, and this time we are also recruiting the talents of the Kitchen Cynics:



Come on down if you fancy something a bit different. Expect the unexpected!



Andy
Alan
Me

jam

I have no lectures this term, which means that I have some spare time, woo hoo!!

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

he who is currently trying to sell a bass 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.

Mixing it up

http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/

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 :-)

25 things

I'm sure BTK asked me to do one of these things a while ago, but it was near my exams so I didn't bother.

1. I have a twin brother called Jamie, he is an insolvency practitioner.
2. My brother gave me away at my wedding last October as my dad couldn't make it due to ill health.
3. My brother is a lot more successful than I am, but he deserves it as he works hard.
4. I am currently emailing using the lappytron in my bedroom; I'm still in my jammies and it's 10.30am
5. I have just changed to Blogger in draft and I quite like it.
6. I am going to finish my music degree this summer, and think the current financial climate isn't exactly ideal for a graduate :-(
7. A lot of the facebook fans for my band Aka Ska seems to be people that have never seen the band; people from Argentina, Chile, Puero Rico, Brazil, all over Latin America.
8. I'm not sure why someone would become a fan of a band that they haven't heard.
9. I'm quite like trying Polish food.  I buy some random stuff from the Costcutters on union street and market street.  I really like jar of pickled red cabbage and polish pretzels are effin' amazing.
10. Polish cordial is well better than British cordial; there is less sugar and it actually tastes more of fruit.
11. I have some Polish dumplings in my fridge, and I'm not sure what you do with them.  Are they an accompaniment or a main meal?  What do you have them with?
12. I bought a 75p kazoo a while back and couldn't play it so I assumed it was broken.  Then I bought a funcy £1.15 one from Bruce Millars and tried again to no avail.  I gave it to my mate who works in the Tunnels and he could play it straight away!  I need lessons in kazoo playing.
13. I sometimes work the odd shift in The Tunnels to help out.  It's good for me as I get to hear local bands while earning some money, I did a lot of band shopping last year.
14. I love how the local music festivals, both Feugh Fest and Wizard, have helped to showcase the talent we have in Aberdeen and Grampian.  
15. You have probably guessed this already, but I really love music and I love my job as an event manager.  It's great seeing things coming together.
16. I think that Aberdeen is slowly waking up to the fact that there is a lot of talent up here, and there is no need to go down to Glasgow/Edinburgh/London to find opportunities.  There has finally been a slow decline in the brain drain, and I think the area will soon have an arts scene that will be the envy of the country.
17. I really respect people who are honest.  Being honest is sometimes the hardest thing to do, and I think you can be honest and disagree with someone or be critical without being offensive.
18. Going back to university is simultaneously the best and stupidest thing I have ever done.  The best cos I love it so much, and can't think of anything other than music that I would enjoy more.  The stupidest as I left my decently paid job at the council to pursue my ambition with no savings and no real means of supporting myself.  Thank god for academic trusts and bursaries.
19. I am currently a fellow of the JTH Charitable Trust, the McGlashan Charitable Trust and the Stanley Picker Trust.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, you are a true godsend.
20. Next week I am going to collaborate with an old mate to sample a passage for Mozart's Requiem and create a hip-hop track with it.  Excitement!!
21. I want to save up to buy a loop pedal and start writing songs.
22. I have composed a piece in two movements for piano and SATB choir inspired by Rememberence Sunday.  It's not finished yet, just needs the odd tweak.
23. For the past few weeks I have had a terrible time with my sleeping patterns.  Sometimes I can't sleep at all cos I'm thinking too much, other times I will literally sleep the whole day.  My singing teacher said that I am a bit depressed after all the stress of the past year and it's like a big comedown.  I think she is right, it's like I'm trying to hibernate or something.  
24. I will really need to get more disciplined with myself if I am going to write my dissertation.  I have made GANTT charts and everything!
25. I like Office 2007, but Powerpoint is a real pain in the arse, 2003 powerpoint was better.
    

Gig review: Ska frenzy at Cafe Drummonds with Famous Ape, Peg & the Bouffants, Big Hand.

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!