I'll be drammed

                                 

On Monday night a friend and I were trying to find a bar to go to where we could sit and exchange some ideas on songs in the comfort of a nice pub. Our first choice Lauries, was ruled out as we discovered it was now closed on Monday nights, and then it came to me, Uisge Beatha -  a place where I've done that sort of thing before and always welcomes a jam session, so of we went to give that a go.

Upon entering we politely asked the barman in Dram (formerly Uisge Beatha) if we could sit quietly in the empty room and tinkle on our guitars exchanging some ideas. However, the barman pointed out that there was still 10minutes left of The Game on the multitude of flat screen tvs and hinted that it wouldn't be suitable for the handful of people that were in the bar to be distracted - non of whom appeared to be in the least bit interested in the football.

This new incarnation of Uisge Beatha seems a flat screen shadow of its much loved former rustic self,  with its 'made to look old' decor, the bar famous for its music  sessions, and thoroughly ancient decor seems to have lost what made it a great place to be in the first place.

ah well, off we went and were welcomed into the bustling Bon Accord where we enjoyed a beer and some chat about great songs and occasional non offensive (honest) light picking on the geetars.

Mr PRS

I recently helped a friend out in his choice of guitar purchase. He was looking for something Like a Gibson Les Paul without the price tag and had narrowed it down to an Epiphone Les Paul or a PRS. I had a shot of both of them and much preferred the wide neck and general feel and sound of the PRS not to mention the fact that it was cheaper.

The upshot of his PRS purchase was free tickets to meet MR Paul Reed Smith himself when he visited Glasgow's Oran Mor last night along with some fantastic session guys and a full collection of his finest instruments. There was a question and answer session, aswell as interesting demonstration of the acoustic properties of the wood that is used in PRS guitars and some top class session musicians turning up the voltage to show what the guitars could sound like when played very well!.

Despite Mr PRS enthusiasm for handing over my credit card details in exchange for one of his fine guitars, I decided to stick with my Gibson Les Paul, but maybe I'll add a PRS to the collection in the future, it did sound fantastic and is a truly versatile and easily playable electric guitar.

Soundcloud

The internet is awash with excellent free tools and software for sharing things over the net and with a bit of searching you can quickly find something that does what you are looking for.  I recently tried out soundcloud in order to show a demo I recorded. Soundcloud can be used to share, send and receive audio files with the minimal of hassle. I uploaded and easily shared it on facebook, twitter etc aswell as embedding it onto the front page of my web site and emailing the link to folks on the mailing list.

Via a bit of surfing I discovered Greg Brown's yet to be released album 'Freak Flag' which is currently streaming for free on the No Depression web site.

A similar service but focusing more on a page to place your music on is bandcamp - which my own mp3s are on. Bandcamp doesn't have the community / social networking aspect of soundcloud but does have great features for getting music to fans - e.g. download codes.

The less said about myspace the better, it's dying a quick death. For a great article on the demise of myspace visit Andrew Dubber's Blog

Southside Happenings

shawlands - before the arcade (1936)

That’s right, a record shop, when was the last time you heard of one of those opening up!?

Southside Records situated within Shawlands arcade, sells all kinds of 2nd hand vinyl and cd delights at decent prices. Go check it out.

Further on the musical agenda for the southside this year is the opening of a new music venue. The Glad Cafe , who are planning on providing the southside with what it's been long over due - a decent live music venue. Fingers crossed.

Another part of Shawlands which is shining the light for southside culture seems to be Skirving Street, which hosts a number of coffee shops –  Biscuit , Beanscene and 1901 deli aswell as a number of boutiques and the aptly named - Young’s Interesting Books. The southside has been hard hit by the recession but it’s great to see these local businesses surviving.

For an invaluable local guide to all that's on in the southside of Glasgow visit  - Southside Happenings

The picture of the old Embassay Cinema on Kilmarnock Road (how things have changed eh?)was found on Virtual Mitchell , great resource for seeing how Glasgow has changed through the years. 

Christchurch Earthquake

My thoughts are with all the people in Christchurch, New Zealand who are suffering greatly due to the earthquake this week.

So far most folks I know in Christchurch have reported in safely either directly or via friends and I hope that continues to be the case. Communication has been difficult and a lot of people have been displaced from their houses so i hope that is the reason for not hearing from everyone.

For a city, Christchurch remains a relatively small and close knit community and I doubt anyone in the region will be unaffected by these events.

It makes for grim viewing but when I look at the images of what remains of the city, all the familiar buildings and my favourite places seems to have gone and the task of getting it back on it's feet seems gargantuan.

As the tragedy unfolds and the realisation of the loss hits, I hope everyone pulls together to get through these difficult times, as lives, homes and communities will need to be rebuilt.

Take care Christchurch.

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