DOES HE MEAN US? Re: Local bands
I would like you all to know that I shall be reducing my involvement in the local music scene in Edinburgh. It is with some regret that I find myself in a position where I am totally disillusioned with the whole local set-up. I have worked hard with the best of intentions to promote local acts both at home and abroad. however when I look at the wider picture and see that most of the help and backing has come from outside Edinburgh I wonder why I should carry on.
Maybe if the local press and media had helped to champion the cause of local unsigned acts. I w0uld not find myself in this Position. So to those of you that l've worked with over the years a great big thanks. And to those of you out there still chasing stardom. all the best. See you around.
David Cairns Promoter
The Mercat Edinburgh
THE NEW HA HA
Re: Glasgow Fabulous
Call me old-fashioned but l have a theory about comics and cartoon strips which is that to be of any value they should be all. or at least one. of the following: 1) funny; 2) topical or thought provoking; 3) politically satirical and 4) valuable purely as an art form.
Sadly you seem intent on continuing to devote page space to the so far off-the- mark Glasgow Fabulous. l have read all of them, including the ones featuring me. and on finishing the final frame still find myself looking for the punch line. It is disappointing. to say the least. that The List wastes valuable jOurnalistic space on this claptrap when there is so much untapped. unexposed talent out there.
How about for the next few issues you devote that wee bottom quarter page to an advert for a competition for a new comic strip that actually
2 THE LIST 6—20 Jun 2002
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amuses? I would be honoured and flattered to be sent up in a comic strip of any kind of quality.
This is not a case of sour grapes from someone who can't take a joke. more a case of bottom grapes for a comic strip that doesn‘t make a joke.
Unless of course 'Eh?‘ is the new 'Ha Ha' and I am entirely missing the point. Somehow I doubt it.
Ali Jengahead via email
FEVER PATROL
Re: Kylie (issue 441)
l was saddened to read the article that James Smart wrote on Kylie's Fever tour. This tour compared to the rest of her tours is by far the best I have seen Kylie at. although this is my only second time seeing her live.
I wanted to ask is James a fan of Kylie and has he followed her right from Neighbours? If not I can understand why. but if he has followed her from the beginning. as a true fan you also go through the highs and lows of a pop star's life whether you agree on the musical route they take.
You only have to look at the rate the tickets sell to see how time and time again she can pull the crowds. Kylie is by far the best at churning out cheesy pop tunes. but give her credit as a writer of music too. But her niche in life is doing what she does best and that is pop.
Brian Green Via email
FREAK LIKE ME
Re: Love Freaks review (issue 441)
I had to apologise to five friends for suggesting we go to Love Freaks. How could you possibly put such a pile of tosh on yOur hit list?
When I phoned for tickets they said there was an age limit of 16. That was much too high. About 1 1 w0uld have done it. How many grown-ups
think it's screamingly funny to say ‘cheesy knob' and 'l've got a wee fanny' or watch a central character who's a sixth rate Citizen Smith?
You encouraged people to miss OS! to go and see this. Graham Norton is funnier and he's dull nowadays. Please get good reviewers for theatre. Your cinema review for Attack of the Clones was a masterpiece of demolition. so more of that quality please. Greg Philo via email
BEER MONEY
Re: T in the dock (issue 441) I read Neil Mowat's letter last issue with a mixture of surprise and dismay. Having done nothing but praise his organisation's trypTich event in my 'ramblings'. l was unsure what I had done to incur his wrath. In my column I was observing the almost constant presence of the Tennent's logo in Scottish culture and was not making any aspersions upon his organisation or my treatment at trypTich.
In his letter he claims that Tennent's monopolisation of Scottish culture is a necessity and that we should be glad that they pump money into such worthy musical ventures as the national battle of the bands that is T-break and their own trypTich.
TrypTich is undoubtedly a good event. but do the benefits to Tennent's of having their logo all over almost every magazine. stage. pub and poster in the country outweigh the benefits to the general public or the musicians involved? I can only guess at the benefits to the promoters.
As far as interesting music needing Tennent's endorsement. I should point him south to the All Tomorrows Parties festival which seems to manage fine without incorporating one letter of its name into one from a beer can.
if I am right in thinking that his letter was precipitated by
pressure from his beer sponsor. is it now a crime to criticise Scottish music's new corporate paymasters? Stuart Leslie Braithwaite via email
FITBA’ CRAZY
Re: Power in the Union? (issue 441)
Brian Donaldson needs to get off his high horse and lighten up a bit. Doesn't he know we like hating the English football team? Doesn't he realise there's a difference between hating a team and hating a nation? It's just a laugh. isn't it?
In the global scheme of things it doesn't matter who wins the friggin' World Cup. The whole thing‘s a soap opera. But folk enjoy soap operas and there's no harm in that.
So you back your fav0urite team and you rage against their enemies. And if your soap opera enemy is England. it's only rational to back one of their soap opera enemies. For the duration of the World Cup. it's OK to be a Germany. France or Senegal fan. It's not a world war we're talking about
And if you can't tell the difference between soap opera and real life. it isn‘t football that's to blame: it’s your head and you need to see a shrink. Peter Davies via email
NET LOSS
Re: Power in the Union? (issue 441)
Knob.
Jim Brady
via email
(Eloquent. persuasive and stimulating: readers of The List are all these things and more. Ed)
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