Idlewild concert was amazing

[lacey]

I'd just like to say that idlewild was brilliant last night!!!!! I was right up at the front screaming out all the words and even though I now have black and blue feet, from being trampled on, it was worth every moment Man I just hope that this is the start of more great bands to come. Thanks to everyone who organised the gig, it was legend of a night, and a great memory that I will take away from this year. ALL I NEEED IS A LITTLE DUTCH COURAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rock on!

[Eiken]

Screaming out ALL the words?
Even though they were wrong?

"All I need is a little discourage."

Not dutch courage.

[Thalia]

It didn't even occurr to me that they were quoting Idlewild - i was wondering why anyone would need booze to go up and sing at a concert You'd think the fact that the title of the song is 'Little Discourage' would give the lyrics away

But anyway - i thought they were pretty awesome, really enjoyed hearing all those songs i knew back in school

Does anyone know if the Union managed to make a profit on it? It certainly didn't sell as quickly as Karl Kennedy did.

[lacey]

I guess that's what happens when you drink too much Jager... screaming misquoted lyrics aside, it was still a fantastic night.

[Eiken]

What, you mean people were enjoying themselves?!
And DRINKING?!
Great Caesar's ghost.
Having said that, i like the (subconscious?) link between drinking and Dutch courage. i have way too much time on my hands!

And Thalia - AFAIK, no profit was made. I know what you mean about hearing the songs from back in school; i felt quite old tonight. loved it though.

And Amid Concrete and Callousness were superb.

[AliceChalliner]

bar tabs were great and we sold over a hundred more tickets than Karl Kendedy....the night was very much a success for Musfund and the Union, and thanks to everyone that came, helped and enjoyed themselves!

I fucking loved it

Alice
(Your friendly neighborhood Music Officer)

[Eiken]

bar tabs were great and we sold over a hundred more tickets than Karl Kendedy....the night was very much a success for Musfund and the Union, and thanks to everyone that came, helped and enjoyed themselves!

I fucking loved it

Alice
(Your friendly neighborhood Music Officer)

i stand corrected, and partially blame Delts for instilling negative thoughts into my mind.
Alice, you stood next to me for a large portion of the concert and blanked me.
What did I ever do to you?!


I loved it too.
I've never seen them do a bad show.

[AliceChalliner]

Alice, you stood next to me for a large portion of the concert and blanked me.
What did I ever do to you?!

Who are you?
I was stood in the wings of the stage for a large portion of the gig....then behind the lighting desk with my feet resting on it (because it made me feel cool....)lol

assume you were near delts? I think at that point i hardly looked at anyone cos i was watching the band very intensely! sorry if i offended....whoever you are....

[Eiken]

Alice, you stood next to me for a large portion of the concert and blanked me.
What did I ever do to you?!

Who are you?
I was stood in the wings of the stage for a large portion of the gig....then behind the lighting desk with my feet resting on it (because it made me feel cool....)lol

assume you were near delts? I think at that point i hardly looked at anyone cos i was watching the band very intensely! sorry if i offended....whoever you are....

nah I'm just kidding.
You've no reason to know who i am, i was more making reference to the fact that Idlewild were so awesome that why would anyone notice who they were standing next to...

i confuse myself.

[Jono]

Best concert the union has ever hosted! Certainly in the last four years. Well done to Alice.

I would like to make a personal appeal that we see more of the same in future. The sheer awesomeness of the band, coupled with the gig's monetary success serve to demolish the ridiculous myth that headline acts cannot be hired for reasons of economic viability ! For three years we've been treated to lame excuses that big bands won't make money so we don't bring anyone over (With the exception of some radio 1 DJ's). Not only were Idlewild massively popular within the Uni, but we had groups travelling from Dundee and all over Fife to see them!

So to all you lot considering running for DoES, how about it? Shall we make St Andrews the place to be?

[zipporah]

Definitely need more names up, venue one is Fife's biggest dance venue, after all! Although, we should cut back on the dance - the bias towards getting DJs in for any big event is frustrating.

Are Bombskare coming back?

[RandomMusings]

Hopefully Bombskare will be back sometime soon. We hoped to have them this semester, but unfortunately that fell through.

With reference to big names - I would love to see more well known bands up here. The problem is money though. Because Venue 1 is so large, bands try to charge more for the gig because the venue size is larger. Then when we don't sell out, as is usual (think Pigeon Detectives, Karl Kennedy, this weekend), the margins are likely to be extremely tight. A well known band, or even some of the less well known bands, are likely to be charging around five figures to play in a venue such as ours. This would put ticket prices at levels that many students can't afford and hence a vicious circle ensues as less and less people attend. This is why DJs are more common up here - they charge a lot less (unless it's someone like Daft Punk at around £140,000 for a show!). That said, as has been shown this weekend, a little bit of careful research on bands/prices/demand etc and copeous amounts of advertising to the students and the general public can go a long way.

Many bands are often unwilling to come to St Andrews with Dundee so close, which they seem to prefer (God knows why! - maybe because they can sell out smaller venues as they have a wider base of people in the area) - hopefully a few more gigs like Idlewild will change that! It was fantastic - and the future looks positive. Go Fuzzmund!

[Jono]

Hopefully Bombskare will be back sometime soon. We hoped to have them this semester, but unfortunately that fell through.

With reference to big names - I would love to see more well known bands up here. The problem is money though. Because Venue 1 is so large, bands try to charge more for the gig because the venue size is larger. Then when we don't sell out, as is usual (think Pigeon Detectives, Karl Kennedy, this weekend), the margins are likely to be extremely tight. A well known band, or even some of the less well known bands, are likely to be charging around five figures to play in a venue such as ours. This would put ticket prices at levels that many students can't afford and hence a vicious circle ensues as less and less people attend. This is why DJs are more common up here - they charge a lot less (unless it's someone like Daft Punk at around £140,000 for a show!). That said, as has been shown this weekend, a little bit of careful research on bands/prices/demand etc and copeous amounts of advertising to the students and the general public can go a long way.

Many bands are often unwilling to come to St Andrews with Dundee so close, which they seem to prefer (God knows why! - maybe because they can sell out smaller venues as they have a wider base of people in the area) - hopefully a few more gigs like Idlewild will change that! It was fantastic - and the future looks positive. Go Fuzzmund!

I'm certainly not suggesting we could hire bands that'd happily fill out Wembly. But we've got a lot more leeway than you'd expect. This is the biggest venue in the town, and it can be opened up to the public as needed. There were fairly sizable contingients from all over the place; Fofar being a paticular example. I reckon that depending on the band, you could probably fill venue 1 just with the public alone.

Oh, I should point out that the appeal to potential DoES candidates was rhetorical. If you've got an intended candidacy don't post it yet, for heaven's sake!

[RandomMusings]

I'm certainly not suggesting we could hire bands that'd happily fill out Wembly. But we've got a lot more leeway than you'd expect.

Jono, in principle, I agree. However, there are two issues. One - I know full well how much some of the 'middle of the road' bands are trying to charge and it is not a sum that the Union, let alone a subcommittee, could stretch to - not by a long shot, as I said, unless we were guaranteed to sell out at significantly higher ticket prices than last weekend.

This is the biggest venue in the town, and it can be opened up to the public as needed. There were fairly sizable contingients from all over the place; Fofar being a paticular example. I reckon that depending on the band, you could probably fill venue 1 just with the public alone.

I stand by my point about Venue 1 probably being too big for this kind of event. I went to see a band at Fat Sam's a few months back who we had contacted a few weeks earlier to play Venue 1. The ticket prices there were just £13 and the capacity of Fat Sam's is, what, about 400-500 people? If we had charged tickets at this price and paid the band roughly what they wanted, we would have had to have completely sold out to 'break-even', but remembering that this does not include the cost of staff, hiring in equipment, publicity, etc, which leads me to think that our venue is charged proportionately a lot more than somewhere smaller.

There are also issues to consider with opening to the public regarding security and other such things - although the Idlewild gig went off very well on that regard. It is very difficult to advertise properly in order to pick up as many locals as possible - only those who are really interested in the band are likely to seek information and act on it once they have it. A band such as Idlewild is likely to capture the interest a little more than some others.

At the end of the day, I am in no way saying that big name bands coming up is not an option, cos it is, I'm just pleading caution (and realism) on expectations, as I know how difficult it is to make these events a success (I've teched enough to an empty room) and how much work all involved on the Musfund committee went to with the promotion and ticket selling. The more people who come to all the musfund events, and not just the 'big' ones means the more the name 'St Andrews' gets around on the live circuit. I'm with you on fingers crossed that we can get more bands coming up because of it and get St Andrews back on the tour map that it used to be when the venue regularly sold out - hell we even had The Who here once! Live music is the way forward!


.... and really I'm just procrastinating (aren't we all) from a couple of essays...

[Jono]

Well, I'm certainly procrastinating.

I disagree on the point of advertising. I've picked up fliers for events in Dundee Union, Fat Sams, London. There were even posters in KFB for a band night in an Anstruther Pub. Admittedly advertising out of town would require some tremendous legwork, but then you have to spend money (and effort) to make money!

As for 'The Who', I'd imagine that was back when The Union was a cool, chic new development; as opposed to the monstrous eyesore; too small for the picky student population we currently entertain. Then there's the rapid expansion of many universities (tens of thousands) compared to ours (7,000-ish), coupled with our funding situation. That said, I hope idlewild proves a precedent, rather than some exception.

Failing that; Tribute Bands?

[RandomMusings]

Well, I'm certainly procrastinating.

I disagree on the point of advertising. I've picked up fliers for events in Dundee Union, Fat Sams, London. There were even posters in KFB for a band night in an Anstruther Pub. Admittedly advertising out of town would require some tremendous legwork, but then you have to spend money (and effort) to make money!

I think we actually agree on this Jono, I just maybe didn't phrase it too well. I meant that advertising is indeed a lot of effort to do it properly, as you physically have to put in places where people are almost forced to look at it. Anyone who is interested in an event would still actively look it up anyway on their own backs.

As for 'The Who', I'd imagine that was back when The Union was a cool, chic new development; as opposed to the monstrous eyesore; too small for the picky student population we currently entertain. Then there's the rapid expansion of many universities (tens of thousands) compared to ours (7,000-ish), coupled with our funding situation. That said, I hope idlewild proves a precedent, rather than some exception.

It was indeed. I was wasn't using it as an example of recent events - although it would be absolutely amazing to have The Who here even now.... hmmm, might send some e-mails ;-p. We have had some amazing bands here in the last couple of years, but they are not 'big names' (yet) and so haven't had the support they perhaps deserve (eg Amplifico) - as I said in a previous post, if people come along and experiment with new bands (there's something on most weekends during the terms) then hopefully the following of live music can pick up again and Idlewild will have been the catalyst.

Failing that; Tribute Bands?

I have a feeling we've tried that before and people didn't turn up - I guess it depends how good the tribute band is, and who they are 'pretending' to be....

[thePontificator]

I do remember hearing something about the QMU offering us the chance to have the option on any of the bands who were playing there and touring Scotland. We turned it down, not sure why but I suppose they must have had a good reason or else it was an amazingly stupid thing to do, and instead all the bands who were offered went to Dundee venues instead.

This was when Musfund had just started I believe, apparently it was whoever the DoES or equivalent was. But that's another reason why Dundee get these bands and we don't. I don't think we would have got all of the bands the QMU had, but I'm sure we could have got a few of them.

Also, Musfund is there to loan money to people looking to put on music projects in St Andrews, so it's completely within someone's power, if they can work out the finances, to bring a small-medium sized band to St Andrews.

[thePontificator]

I have a feeling we've tried that before and people didn't turn up -

There was also a Music Festival put on in the union and people didn't turn up. It needs to be well known bands to get anywhere Venue 1 anywhere near full. Otherwise it's always going to be hardcore fans and people who are friends of the band who are playing.

[HeavyMama]

The Idlewild gig was great - best gig we've done all year!! Thanks a lot Alice for getting us on the bill!!
All the best,
Sinister Steve
HEAVY MAMA

http://www.myspace.com/heavymamamusic - brand new Heavy Mama tune up in time for Xmas! Enjoy!!!

[Jono]

I have a feeling we've tried that before and people didn't turn up -

There was also a Music Festival put on in the union and people didn't turn up. It needs to be well known bands to get anywhere Venue 1 anywhere near full. Otherwise it's always going to be hardcore fans and people who are friends of the band who are playing.

That's the curse of having a chuffing great 1,000-capacity venue, and a tiny number of events with a cats chance in hell of filling it up! To sell out any given event, 1/6th of the entire student body (which can politely be described as eclectic) has to turn up. Otherwise, in my opinion, events looks under-attended, and a bit crap. Rocksoc is the big one for me. I prefer the V2 arrangements, because it just looks empty in Venue 1, even with half the room cordened off.

Add to that those events which run elsewhere because the decour is allegedly inappropriate, and you've got a big black hole!