Whooops, I appear to have clumsily let January and February slip by without writing a blog, so here I am! Our sold-out Hogmanay Ball 3 was an absolutely terrific evening (pics are in the gallery), we also had a lot of fun at Pin Ups Pirates at the end of January (pics are also in the gallery), and Ladies Night 4 on Friday past was also a great success (pics to be in gallery shortly). A certain "shock and awe" has perhaps been lost from the Ladies Night format (it's like everybody just expects us to have a great bill) but still almost 300 folk turned up.
The absolute highlight of the evening was perhaps the unexpected appearance of Paolo Nutini. I was in protracted emails with his manager trying to get him booked. The reason for refusing was "if he is Guest DJing we will lose him from the studio for a week as he will want to choose records". His manager maybe suggested to him that he might want to visit the Flying Duck if he headed out. Or it could just have been a wild co-incidence, who knows - all good fun anyway. Thanks also to Hannah Peel from coming all the way from London to perform, Any Color Black and Boycotts, Adele Bethel, Tracyanne Campbell and Lynsay Campbell, and the ladies from Lock Up Your Daughters and Common People. Pictures and video clips will follow shortly!
As for Pirates in January, we had talked about doing something pirates-themed for literally years. We almost did it in September, with Ryan Jarman of the Cribs as Guest DJ, but fairly late in the day he mysteriously chose to DJ at the APeeC. Why - it was almost as if his agent took our offer and hawked it around Glasgow...
Not a big deal, because in my head I had always imagined Paul Thomson from Franz Ferdinand to be the ideal Pirates night Guest DJ (you just get a hunch about things sometimes), so it was pretty cool that we eventually got our man. Credit has to go to Barney, the manager at the Flying Duck, for helping us make contact. Thanks to Paul Thomson for being a thoroughly nice chap and also thanks to all our great bands who have performed in January, and also Hogmanay - Over the Wall, Miaoux Miaoux, Jacob Yates and the Pearly Gate Lock Pickers, The Plimptons and Ace City Racers. The captions in the gallery will give you more info about what went on at these events, including drawing to your attention the victorious winner of our Treasure Hunt, Roz, whose endeavours left her quite literally
slumped with exhaustion! I went to the GFT in January to see
"Ride, Rise, Roar", David Byrne's new concert movie. As someone who is fairly obsessed with Stop Making Sense I thought the film was terrific, and a worthy successor. However, the advertised "Q and A via satellite" following the film was really disappointing. It was broadcast live from London, and was conducted by the verbose Paul Morley. Morley made his name writing novella-length reviews of albums in the 80s, and while I'm sure banter about "sonic cathedrals" was great fun when everybody could only afford to buy one record per week and could only hear good music on John Peel late at night, there's no need for such rampant drivel in 2011. An increasingly incredulous Byrne was tasked with distilling Morley's rambling speeches into actual questions, and at one point asked Morley with amazement "are you asking if I replaced Brian Eno with 3 dancers?" Morley rambled on so much that there was time for precisely one question from the London audience. Crash and Byrne!
In other gig news, I had tickets for Sleigh Bells at Stereo but wasn't able to go - I heard it was pretty disappointing - more Ting Tings than Kills. I saw Gruff Rhys last week at Oran Mor - charming and melodic as usual. In clubs news a bunch of Pin Ups Chaps headed to "Hispanic Panic" at Stereo which was a great night, and the busiest I have ever seen the venue! I also made a long overdue trip to Club Noir for their Valentines Masked Ball, and I realy enjoyed it. I will definitely be back, though I was pretty thrown by the music choices. I expected it to be themed but instead it jumped all over the shop, and they actually play The Fratellis "Chelsea Dagger". I know the song is about one of the burlesque ladies who performs at the Club, but a football-chant slice of indie just seems incredibly jarring and inappropriate in the surroundings. Lastly a gang of us headed to the Arches on Friday for yours truly's birthday. Colours were presenting 2 Many DJs but I'd almost be tempted to call it Too Many Neds, though that's a bit harsh. It
was like the wild west in there and I doubt I'll be back.
I was also at the GFT last week for "Upside Down", a film about Creation Records. It was a good film and gave due attention to my Creation faves The Jesus and Mary Chain, Super Furries and and Teenage Fanclub ("The Concept" got a whole play) and it wasn't the Oasisfest I had feared. Lots of the usual suspects were in attendance including young Craig McGee who really is morphing into Alan McGee's lovechild! Alan himself was there of course, wearing a trilby about 2 sizes too small, perched atop his head. Barney at the Flying Duck had wanted to do an aftershow but with dreary inevitability it was held at King Tuts instead, and was apparently a bit of a non-event.
If you are looking for something to do this Friday there is the terrific Superfly at The Duck, or alternatively Huntleys and Palmers are also lining up some good action at Stereo. You can read my preview in the Skinny
here. (One of these years the Skinny might preview a Pin Ups event, but in the meantime I'm happy to do my bit to give other promoters deserved care and attention!)
I'll also take this opportunity to alert you to the blog at the
Avalanche Records site. I think if I met whoever wrote it I'd be a bit scared of them because they sound a bit prickly. But they also sound pretty smart too. I'm not sure Matthew from Song By Toad Records will be entirely delighted at the reference to him walking out of the shop with pockets full of cash though. Folk in the indie community tend to be very suspicious of anybody who might actually make a bit of money from their endeavours!
Lastly I am really looking forward to
Found's gig on 14 March at the Captain’s Rest. Apparently there are about 20 tickets left, so snap some up. Their website is heavily recommended and is a treasure trove of all sorts of interesting information!
D.x