"As a venue, the Weeny Stinkpot is an overpriced insult to its customers"

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

(this is a spin-off from the thread on the Great White tragedy: but i wanted to take it out of the shadow of that, and make it a bit broader)

one of the things that used to piss me off abt live reviews in eg NME/MM in the 80s — when i actually wrote for papers like that — is that, even as the availability of places to play collapsed in eg London, NO ONE EVER WROTE ABOUT OR DISCUSSED THIS

the UK rock inkies at that had a HUGE bully-pulpit available to agitate for better conditions for punters in the clubs that actually existed - i'm not even talking abt threats to life and limb, i'm talking abt basic comfort, abt asking for places you cd enjoy spending time in and not feel oppressed and ripped off

yes of course venues could withdraw advertising in protest, but (then) they wd also immediately have suffered from the lack of promotion that followed

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 22 February 2003 13:50 (twenty-two years ago)

(i think very probably the main reason i totally went off "indie" at that time as a mode of music, and switched to writing abt improv and african music, was that the latter took place in venues i actually liked being in, often quite threadbare, but not bleak and rammed and just hideous: i hated how "sticking it to the industry" as per then indie-cliche seemed actually to mean, enduring fkn awful insulting pub-rock spaces to be in until such time as the indie-band in question "made it" and was promoted to huge barn-like anonymous corporate venues w. terrible acoustics and TOTAL staff contempt for the audiences)

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 22 February 2003 13:55 (twenty-two years ago)

i guess what i'm thinking of is a CARTHAGO DELENDA EST dealy

ie when MAGAZINE X reviews an event at VENUE Y, whether pos or neg re music, it concludes EVERY TIME with a sentence such as:

"As a venue, the Weeny Stinkpot is an overpriced insult to its customers." (or whatever the fault is)

And let the repetition do the work...

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 22 February 2003 13:59 (twenty-two years ago)

an interesting comment. I do remember a theatre review in a Dublin paper which described the venue as a deathtrap and urged people not to go near it.

there are a lot of bad venues in the world, and it would be good to draw attention to them so maybe promoters and bands would look to play in other places.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Saturday, 22 February 2003 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Had a screaming match w/ a promoter the other day about this (of course from the 'band' point of view rather than the punter's), promoter blamed constant state of warfare with local councils (ie "if we actually did everything that the councils demanded we'd have to charge £75 at the door and the council KNOWS THIS and is doing it on purpose" etc), and I have to say that from what I know of Camden (for example) I'm inclined to believe him

― dave q, Saturday, 22 February 2003 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

(haha this thread title is possibly the least enticing ever achieved on ilm: i may abuse moderator privs and change it later) (abuse achieved: carry on)

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 22 February 2003 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

dave i suspect it's just TOO LATE in london to set stuff right on this score

it's bernard brooke-partridge's posthumous revenge

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 22 February 2003 14:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Problem in London is all the old ppl who complain about the slightest little thing. I mean for fuck's sake, most of them are deaf anyway, can't they just relive their pleasant Blitz memories instead of complaining about noise all the time? The sooner the 'Logan's Run Act' is passed the better

― dave q, Saturday, 22 February 2003 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

don't you be dissin steve strange!!

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 22 February 2003 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

(What was the original thread title?)

― Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 22 February 2003 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I think you're absolutely right Mark. Unfortunately it's ingrained in the culture of rock n' roll (us against the Man) that venues should be small, cramped sweatboxes. It adds to the myth that rock is 'dangerous', and we're fighting against the squares who want to do stuff like make sure there's adequate fire exits, or sprinklers or whatever.

Only last week Peel was bemoaning the fact that he couldn't have more people at Maida Vale for some session and was railing against the authorities who were limiting the nunbers for safety reasons.

Irony is of course is that 'rave' culture wouldn't have happened without people breaking into disused warehouses, hangars and other equally dangerous venues.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Saturday, 22 February 2003 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Sigh. Even my mother has written me warning me about the unsafe conditions of the nightclubs that we play in.

― kate, Saturday, 22 February 2003 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I was not unhappy to see the Lounge Ax in Chicago go, b/c it was a miserable place to see a show (or to play a show) despite the owners' good intentions and good taste. I actually think a number of local reviews pointed this out even before its demise.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 22 February 2003 19:59 (twenty-two years ago)

ha ha ha -- like in most cases it's actually a choice beyond economics -- that's rich.

― jack cole (jackcole), Saturday, 22 February 2003 20:20 (twenty-two years ago)

that line wz called TINA in the UK, jack: "There is no alternative"

thatcher used it a lot

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 23 February 2003 15:40 (twenty-two years ago)

bump for UK weekday viewers to ignore also

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 24 February 2003 11:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I hate mosh pits. Seated venues rule.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Monday, 24 February 2003 12:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I mean, how often have you been at gigs where the behavior of the audience was stupid/dangerous/obnoxious/fun-spoiling etc? I dunno if this is because audiences for alt/rock gigs are treated like shit and therefore respond accordingly, or because audiences act like animals at rock gigs and therefore the promoter feels there is no point in doing anything better/safer

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Monday, 24 February 2003 12:09 (twenty-two years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.