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Hi all!

Just joined the forum (or maybe rejoined...I dunno what happened to my original login details!). Looking forward to Aberdeen tonight. And hey Fox and others - thanks for the kind comments.
Anyone tht knew the Twa Tams before will know it was one of Scotland's best touring venues. It got sold to Belhaven last year and has been closed for two months for refurbishment and we were honored to be asked to come and be part of the opening gig!
There'd been a lot of speculation of whether or not there would still be live music and the rumour mill really kicked in.
Anyway! The new licencees (Mark and Lisa) and Belhaven have made a huge improvement to the place AS A PUB. And they treat msuicians extremely well too. The house PA is still not in and may improve things - and the stage 'area' (a raised, carpeted area with a ballastrade in front) is a bit small and not really a stage per say. It will suit a lot of acts OK though - more sedate blues bands and solo/duos will probably find it good. I'm not convinced it's the ideal place for 'touring' or energetic bands tho'.
My biggest concern tho', is that I doubt they'll ever charge people to get in. Now that's no bad thing for loads of reasons, but for some acts it's not an ideal set up.
For the record (and I've had a LOT of stick for this in the past, but stand by it 100%), Radiotones made a decision a few years back tht we really shouldn't do gigs where people get in for free unless it was a special event (ie charity show/industry showcase/Blues Bonanza/Smokie Blues/etc where music/blues fans predominantly made up the audience) or in a 'new market/area'. Two main reasons - one, as some of you will know, neither Radiotones or myself solo are 'nice' palatable stuff and we play few covers. Lets say I/we have quite a niche style...the average pub(free) gig goer usually wants to hear soemthing they can at least partly recognise. So it's unfair on them and the band.
The other reason is that I/we play quite a few gigs where ticket/entry is around the £10 mark...because of that, it's hard to explain to people who maybe paid that price to see one show stumbling across another gig where everyone got in for free!
Anyway, back to the topic! I can see why Fox couldn't see/hear - the venue was rammed...and the sound was poor. I was playing my electric Nationals thru a Lonestar combo but it was turned down low so was probably pretty clean sounding. The poor sound situation will change, I am sure, when the place has been sounded out and a 'house'PA put in.
Re Aberdeen tonight - there's a couple fo local Aberdeen bands on with us...Drummonds is a cool venue - great proper stage, decent lighting, solid house rig and generally good house engineers.
Our harp player isn't playing tonight - just myself plus bass and drums.
Anyone wanting to get a feel for the band before heading out can check out www.myspace.com/radiotones or www.radiotones.com.
...think I'll head over to the general bit of the site now and introduce myself!

Cheers!

Dave

Thanks Son...hope to catch you around soon.

Cheers!

Dave

Hi Son

Nah...haven't heard anything from the committee, so I guess there's no Radiotones or Dave Arcari at Dundee. I got solo gigs in Worcester on the Friday and then a festival in Wales on the Saturday, so if anything comes out the woodwork it'll have to be the Sunday. Hopefully get something sorted in Arbroath - had a good blast there last year!

Cheers!

Dave