July Flyer Text
Right. It’s always good to start with a healthy ‘Right’ by the way.
Last month I got far too much stick for being too nice on the monthly flyer. So, this month yer aw a bunch of dicks. Right?
I’ll try and be more topical this month as it’s festival season, I don’t have any bands to book and tell you how good they are so I may as well just revert to my more comfortable ranty, moany demeanour.
First to get it in the neck are the drinks companies and promotions companies. Being in the pub game for a few years now you come to realise some things about how the operation works and how much money is wasted on useless ideas.
I’m sure you have all been to a launch night for a drink or a bar opening sponsored by a brand in your time. What did you take away from this? (apart from a worthless lanyard or an ill fitting XL T-shirt) Everyone’s out for a freebie to be honest, no one is really caring about brand impact and cultural cross genre fertilisation, that’s why these launch nights don’t work. It’s simply a waste of money and resources that could be much better spent on something that will benefit the bar and its clientele. What we want most as bars is some free stock or a reduced price so we can make our prices lower for our customers – not bloody murals of Japanese cyber Goths or fatties with sirens.
Then you get the practically useless going out guides and award ceremonies that are so out of touch its unreal. I don’t know what Scotland is gonna do when Sharleen Spiteri, Lorraine Kelly and Michelle Mone decide they can’t be bothered with it all anymore. Bars that have been open for only a few months win awards in all manner of categories because the category is sponsored by a brewery that has a vested interest in the bar or they have taken out substantial advertising with them.
In 2008 ‘Music Pub of the Year’ was between 2 venues who shall remain nameless. My research shows me that both these venues only opened in July and November of 2007! Surely to be Music Pub of the Year you have to have been operating for at least a year, paid your dues and at least affected the musical landscape in some way. This is no reflection on the venues at all and no offence is intended but it simply highlights how much of a sham and a waste of money it all is. I couldn’t even find out online who won the award in 2009! How prestigious can it be if Google doesn’t even know eh? This isn’t a jealousy issue, it’s more frustrating – look at places like the 13th Note or Sleazy’s that have been a hub for the cities musical culture for way more years than us that don’t get the recognition they deserve.
I’m not trying to be militant or anti-establishment about all this, quite the opposite in fact. What I would like to see would be everyone working together for the same goal. At the end of the day everyone needs to make money to survive. What is overlooked is that without the pubs, the drinks companies would have no outlet for their product and without the drinks companies the pubs would have nothing to sell.
In the case of Bloc+, we provide live music for free so that we don’t have to force bands to sell tickets and the music can be heard by anyone. We can survive this hit because the bands can play for less money as it’s free and people will spend at the bar easier as they haven’t bought a ticket.
In the end it seems that we are taking the hit to sell more of the drinks companies’ products. So, the Bands and the drinks companies are happy but we’re still left with the outlay to pay for the bands and equipment. If a drinks company really wants to offer support I’d love to see them spend their money on Mic Stands, Leads, Band Fees, Sound Equipment and Listings Posters rather than giving us table cards for a cocktail no-one wants or a million scratch cards for shitey competitions and bits of branded tat that will end up in the bin. I don’t mind having their logo front of house on a stand or speaker as it’s them who have paid for it and it means that we can bring you more great music and offer the bands a bit more support and a better experience for the audience.
I don’t consider it selling out; I consider it a means to bring ideas to life that Bloc+ as a small independent business simply cannot afford to do.
This month I would like a wee bit of participation from you. If you are reading this then you are probably in Bloc+ regularly and know what we are all about. If you could email your thoughts on what you would like to see happen in here. Would you really mind having a sponsors logo all over the gigs if it meant we could bring you better stuff? If you could have a dream line up (realistically! Not Pantera with Rod Stewart supporting!) in Bloc+, what would it be? Or, just your general comments and feeling about the place and what we do here.
If you could email me on crag@bloc.ru with your thoughts then hopefully we can work together to make this place what you and I want it to be.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, told you I’d be back to the rant this month!
Crag
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