As promised you can now read our review of the Ladies Night action in our rather presumptuously-titled "All because the ladies love Pin Up Nights" article in the fanzine section of the site.

Tickets for this Saturday's Mercury Music 2009 Nominees The Invisible's live performance at our HLDB night at the Captains Rest are now available from our online store . Buying from the store is overall 50p cheaper than buying from Tickets Scotland. Bargain! Check out The Invisible's terrific SXSW showcase clip of them performing my personal favourite Invisible song "London Girl" here. You owe it to yourself to see this band live!

As you'll know by now we see HLDB as either a great way to start the night, or a great night out in itself, seeing as you have great bands downstairs and HLDB and Pin Ups DJs on the decks upstairs from 8pm til midnight. The chat is we will be going to One More Tune at the Glasgow Art School afterwards - to get an idea of the great variety of music that shall be in store, why not listen to Matthew of One More Tune's great Subcity show here?

In other action I am going to see Banksy's film "Exit through the Gift Shop" tonight, which I expect to be crazy but good, I'm going to listen to one of Glasgow's finest ever songwriters Edwyn Collins and his wife Grace talk about their new book on Wednesday, and on Friday I'm going to see the absolutely hilarious Australian comic Brendon Burns at the Gay-rage (a long-standing booking, which unfortunately probably rules me out of seeing Memory Tapes at Stereo). (I get Memory Tapes a bit confused in my head with Neon Indian, as I can never mind which one of them does the weird, but good, "Deadbeat Summer". I have checked my Pod and it's Neon Indian. Oh well..)

All that and of course The Invisible, Gdansk and Dead Sea Souls on Saturday, not to mention the small matter of the "strange, unpredictable and jaw-droppingly good" new Gorillaz album Plastic Beach being released today - I'm going to have to find time to listen to it obsessively on repeat!

And finally, I stil think there is an outside chance I might be able to get along to Glasgow's very own fantastic Sonny Marvello's launch of their new single "Easy Boys" at Stereo, Renfield Lane, on Saturday. I hear it's an early-ish gig, so where there is a will...

All things considered, it's gonna be quite an exciting week! x

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Thanks very much to all of you who made it out on a not entirely pleasant February evening for the Pin Ups Ladies Night 3. You brave little soldiers! I have written a fairly lengthy write up of all the brilliant Ladies Night action which I think I will post in fanzine article form to make it easier to read. Look out for that in the next few days. In the meantime Ladies Night 3 pictures are now in the gallery, enjoy! x

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Thank you very much if you came along to the NME aftershow last week - pictures are now here. It was a very well attended event and I hoped you enjoyed yourself. It's hard for me to judge if it was solid-gold fun-times as on the night there seemed to a lot snags for me to deal with. Stereo is a terrific venue - lovely big room, huge high stage - but I must admit that running events of the nature of the NME aftershow in a venue with just 1 room makes me very nervous these days. The problem with a 1-room venue in an aftershow "guest DJ" situation is that everyone is a hostage to whatever tunes the Guest DJ puts on. (If you are someone who has ended up in a rammed Kitchen at the Flying Duck listening to the Pin Ups chaps DJ as the Guest DJ empties the Main Room then you will know what we're talking about here. It hasn't happened very often, but it has happened.)

You want the fun and excitement of the bands turning up, but you also want a Plan B if the tunes the bands put on are mental. Alas, there was no Plan B available at Stereo as the Big Pink dished out what Paul Smith tells me was a set of mostly early noughties hip hop songs (I couldn't identify them, so they can’t have been of the excellent Rawkus Records variety, because I listened to a lot of that stuff round 1999, 2000, 2001).

I did notice a fair amount of folk leaving during the set so it was with some relief that us Pin Ups characters got onto the decks at 2am. The songs that followed were possibly a tad too pop but I felt we owed folk some straight-up dancing. In fairness, I think that prior to the Big Pink going ghetto on our ass Bombay Bicycle Club's set from 12.15ish til 1am had went down pretty well across the board. During that there were quite crazy scenes involving about 50 folk jumping about the stage (including Bombay Bicycle Club-s, Big Pink-s and Maccabees-s) and we had to give Stereo staff a hand to identify non-band members and ask them to come off the stage. I trust we were most polite in doing so. Personally when mangled and in a disco I find stages fairly irresistible - so I can understand why so many folk were up there! Lastly I should mention of course that there were sterling performances from Fangs and French Wives, thanks to them!

(Incidentally, for the aftershow there was a whole will-they, won’t-they thing going on with the Drums and early 80s Glaswegian new wave band The Wake. The chat was that if we got the Wake playing live, because the Drums are such huge fans of the Wake then the Drums would turn up and also play and perhaps DJ. William of Rokbun was the go-between trying to get it all ironed out. The problem was that we already had Fangs and French Wives booked to play live, and I didn’t think the kids would enjoy a random band appearing onstage at 1am. The result was that the Drums didn’t come along but the other 3 bands did. Them’s the breaks. I also missed the Drums live set as I was outside the Barras flyering! Hopefully we can get something sorted with the Wake and the Drums later this year, so stay tuned. I love the idea of bands paying their dues, and also love the idea of deserving bands like the Wake getting a bit of recognition.)

More recently HLDB on Saturday at the Captains Rest was pretty good fun. (Yes, we are now calling it “HLDB” rather than Heavylight Darkbright, subtle re-branding!) I take a backseat with the HLDB as it’s James “Butcher” Cassidy’s thing. My main role was DJing upstairs for a few hours. Butcher Cassidy has a bang up to date selection of songs on his ITunes so myself and Paul dished out a fair amount of stuff like Hot Chip, Presets, Soulwax etc, plus a very weird mix of Air’s “Sexy Boy” and we even found some room for stuff like the gorgeous “Backyards of our Neighbours” by Au Revoir Simone. Downstairs saw performances from ESQ. Iamchemist, Casino Brag and Ace City Racers. I didn’t actually get a chance to speak to Iamchemist which was a shame as he played Pin Ups at the Beat Club a few years back and I remember him being a dead nice guy. Butcher was very pleased indeed with everybody’s performances and reckons Casino Brag in particular would fit in nicely at a future Pin Ups.

On Friday I was away seeing Chicago (starring Marti Pellow!) in Newcastle as a romantic surprise for my lovely lady friend Wendy. My problem with musicals in general is that I never quite think the songs are consistently good enough. In the case of Chicago there are truly great songs like “All that Jazz”, “Cell Block Tango” and “Razzle Dazzle”, but I can’t remember the melody of most of the others. Nevertheless I would probably rate Chicago as the best musical I’ve seen. I went to see Phantom of the Opera back in New York in May, and I thought the tunes were really weak. Even “the music of the night” only actually has, in my humble opinion, a genuinely catchy section in the chorus. Maybe I’ve just trained myself to enjoy different things? Perhaps being raised on my big brother playing the Smiths, New Order, the Specials, the Clash and U2 has somehow wrecked my ear for musicals? If so, then I wouldn’t have it any other way! You can keep yer musicals!

(While I was watching Mr Pellow James and Paul awarded themselves a wee evening out and went along to Spitfire at Blackfriars. It’s a night I used to go to a lot but haven’t been in ages, mainly because of HLDB being the night after. I’m happy to report that James and Paul had a great time. If you’ve never been to Spitfire you should check it out – it’s the second Friday of every month.)

Rounding up, for the first time in weeks there isn't a Pin Ups thing on this weekend! What will I do with myself? The word on the street is that I am staring down a very significant birthday. That will no doubt occupy my thoughts. Eek! Why not cheer me up by snapping up a strictly limited £5 ticket for Pin Ups Ladies Night 3? They’re on sale in the Pin Ups store right now. I don’t want anybody turning up on the 26th acting like they’ve been shot when they hear that the admission is £6 for girls and £7 for chaps. If want to pay your usual fiver then you can do so right now. On the 26th you will hear my other usual response about pricing complaints – “look at all the action you’re about to get for your cash –what do you get from the ABC? Nothing!”

D.x

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Firstly pictures of last Friday's terrific Pin Ups are now in the gallery, check them out. Thansk very much if you made the efort to come along. It was yet another "good one"! Also, tickets for tonight's NME aftershow are also still onsale in the store whcih you can access via the menu bar over there on the right. The Barras holds 1900 and Stereo holds 300 (and we've already sold about 100 tickets) - so, "you do the math"!

I went to see Miike Snow at Stereo last night and was fairly confused. These New Puritans were on at the Captains Rest which was a pretty unfortunate clash as I think We Want War is tremendous. But the majority steer of Butcher Cassidy and Seatbelt Dave won the day and Miike Snow it was. Some parts of the gig were really good but other parts were just really weird. They have a song "Silvia" which I swear sounds just like what you would expect to hear if Coldplay teamed up with some cringey Radio 1 DJ (Kissy Sell Out or somebody) and had a crack at reworking "Sunday Bloody Sunday". The melody, the drumming, it's pure Boy-era U2, toppedd off by all these squiggly synth bits. The best bit of the entire gig was probably the start (a-ha, I dodged the obvious "the best part of the entire gig was probably the end" joke)! The best bit was the start because the whole band comes onstage in identical white face masks and the lights are dimmed and they ramp the smoke machine right up. It creates a great effect. Overall I'd say that Miike Snow are worth seeing, but you have to maybe expect the unexpected. Even "Animal", which is a groovey wee tune on record and probably the reason for the healthy attendance, was sort of turned inside out and they didn't play the ska-ish guitar hook until they dished it out as a kind of coda to the song.

Tonight of course we are back in Stereo to host the NME after show. Beforehand we will be at the NME gig itself at the Barras. It's been a wee while since I've been in the Barras and I'm looking forward to it. I hope they still do pints of Diesel (I'd never drink it anywhere else) - it's a Friday night after all! If you are coming to Stereo get round sharp and treat yourself to the lovely tunes of French Wives and the sheer mental-ness of FANGS! D.x

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I know a lot of folk check the Pin Ups site on the day of a Pin Ups, so a very good-day to you! I hope you are going to make it along. It was chucking it down with snow earlier but it looks nice and clear now so no excuse for you not to get out and right in amongst it! January is traditionally a slow month for action and I haven’t really been up to much lately. Celtic Connections usually has a few good things on but this year there wasn’t much that took my fancy. I considered going to see the “songs of Nick Drake” show at the Royal Concert Hall, and although I was encouraged by the presence of Stuart Murdoch on the bill in the end I didn’t bother as I feared muzak renditions. I got into Nick Drake in about 1999 and I still feel like he’s a wee bit of a precious hidden gem.

Delphic were playing King Tuts a few days ago, and Rokbun has a review here which you can read. We almost got Delphic along to play Pin Ups last March and personally I was all for it. I liked what they were doing and they seemed to be growing their career organically. However it’s now 2010 and I’m not so enthused. Music biz people seem to have decided that Delphic are going to be a big band, despite the fact that over the last year they have – in my opinion – failed to write a genuinely great tune. They’re getting an industry shove and it’s style over substance. Do these music biz folk think we’re daft? I don’t agree with the way in which bands are being turned over very quickly nowadays and shoved down our throat. You used to get at least 2 albums to develop - which Delphic still might do successfully - but only if they get the chance! Now it’s a hit single or bust. I was so sure that Ellie Goulding and Marina and the Diamonds were next up on the conveyor belt, and would be named on the BBC’s “Sound of 2010” list, that I named them in our mock version which I wrote 2 months ago. I was correct. Both are inane and I don’t believe either possesses the genuine star quality which Florence Welch obviously has. We shall see.

Continuing on this theme, in a quite a curious move Jim Gellatly has decided to offer his services as a consultant to new bands. I agree with the comments on the post that Jim probably has to firm up what he’s going to be offering, but no doubt has good advice to give. Nevertheless, more generally, the whole thing seems a bit odd. I see 101 bands who I know will go nowhere. But a lot of these bands are quite happy exactly where they are – playing gigs at the weekend for their pals. Are any of them going to thank Jim if he tells them to cut the guitar solos, cut their hair, change their clothes, change their band’s name, change the lyrics, stop swearing all over their press releases, stop mentioning the Stone Bloody Roses in their influences, stop writing their myspace blogs as if they’re Irvine f*ckin’ Welsh? I doubt it!

Lastly I went to the Odeon Quay to see Blur’s No Distance Left to Run film. Obviousyl one for the fan nutters and in attendance were James and Mark of Juno, Manda Rin, and a whole load of chaps in Fred Perry (or Ned Perry as I call it – I was wearing the Ned Perry myself ha ha). Personally I thought the film was absolutely amazing – love, pain, regret, joy, happiness, friendship – it’s all in there.

So, back to tonight’s fun and games. There is a crazy amount of attendees signed up on Facebook. Let’s see if that translates into another jam-packed evening. I’m off to make up some CDs and then pick Late of the Pier up from the airport!

D.x

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