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This might seem like a rant but I reckon there's an increasing number of folk having load-in issues....


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Tonight I'd like to thank Aberdeen City Council for their traffic policies which afforded me the opportunity to carry this lot from the gig venue back to my hotel room in the pissing rain - in two trips. Unable to use my (electric, zero emissions I might add) vehicle because there's no freaking way to get a car anywhere that doesn't involve a bus gate, closed road, one way street or a pedestrian zone. Got back to the hotel just in time for the bar to shut. Absolutely perfect.  

Gig was good though.

PXL_20240303_002943462.jpg

Edited by Edenburgh
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Ah yes.....you seem to have experienced the joys of Aberdeen traffic planning department who seem to be permanently on drugs! 😠 The assignment of bus gates and LEZ change monthly now I think just to confuse people and allow them to hand out fines for the poor council coffers. Where was your gig? (Glad it was a good one)

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6 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

What's with the cab that can wobble most venues on their foundations? I'd be travelling lighter and using a collapsing hand cart.

BTII cab is actually pretty easy to kick back and wheel around 

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5 hours ago, Acebassmusic said:

Ah yes.....you seem to have experienced the joys of Aberdeen traffic planning department who seem to be permanently on drugs! 😠 The assignment of bus gates and LEZ change monthly now I think just to confuse people and allow them to hand out fines for the poor council coffers. Where was your gig? (Glad it was a good one)

Gig was in Drummonds on Belmont Street.

We reckon 2 of the band members will be getting traffic violation fines after trying to deal with the impossible restrictions.

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7 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

What's with the cab that can wobble most venues on their foundations? I'd be travelling lighter and using a collapsing hand cart.

 

Very light and has wheels on the back. Mine was a godsend with 4 flights of stairs to my flat. As for the Trace cab I had before.... nightmare! 😦

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1 hour ago, Burns-bass said:

Bristol is similarly challenging for this. I once had to carry my aluminium double bass half a mile to a gig. 3 hours later I was still knackered!

Two words. Golf. Trolley.

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My absolute worst load-in is O’Neill’s in Winchester. You have to stop on or next to a junction controlled by traffic lights and carry all the kit through to the back of the venue. Then park your car in a multi-storey and walk 1/4 mile back. The load-out is worse because by then the venue is rammed, and you have to drive all the way round the one-way system to get your car back to the venue.

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Ah the joys of gigging. 

 

I went to the bar last night. Had a couple of beers. Got home. Watched a bit of telly. Only thing I had to carry was my wallet. 

 

You've got to absolutely love the gigging thing to put up with it.  I never did. 

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My least favourite was the Royal Horseguards Hotel in Whitehall Place. We played at a private party there once on the second floor. Stunning views of the Millenium Wheel. But load-in was down a flight of steps in the street, through a couple of passage ways, through the kitchen (currently engaged in providing dinner service for about 200 guests), round some more passages, into a crappy goods lift, and then another set of passages on the 2nd floor.

 

Loading out was much easier, down two flights of stairs in the adjoining Liberal Club (talk about seedy opulence) and out the main entrance.

 

Parking was less of a challenge than you might expect - the drummer ran a parking business and had the keys to a nearby underground carpark.

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1 hour ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

Ah the joys of gigging. 

 

I went to the bar last night. Had a couple of beers. Got home. Watched a bit of telly. Only thing I had to carry was my wallet. 

 

You've got to absolutely love the gigging thing to put up with it.  I never did. 

 

Surely those chips are pretty heavy? 🙂

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Glasgow is the same and now the council in their wisdom have decided to extend the parking meters form 6 pm till 10 pm and it costs a bloomin fortune to park on the street. The now closed Hard Rock cafe on Buchanan st was the same. no access to the front after 10 am and you couldn`t get access to the front until after 7 pm.

 

Still that`s no longer a problem as the feckers let the staff know on Tuesday that the venue wouldn`t be opening and if punters wanted to try their overprice fair there was one in Edinburgh!

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The only time we've played in Aberdeen, we had an onsite car park and crew to help with the load in/out. However, no one was there to see us and if we played again, we'd be lucky to fill the cafe at Torry Battery! 

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Not parking related, but did a pub gig last night. Car parked outside 20ft from the front door. Easy. Except for the punters/smokers who insisted on standing in the doorway blocking it. 

Ffs, a whole car park to stand in and you all crowd into a 10ft square space. 🤦🏼

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1 hour ago, jezzaboy said:

Glasgow is the same and now the council in their wisdom have decided to extend the parking meters form 6 pm till 10 pm and it costs a bloomin fortune to park on the street. The now closed Hard Rock cafe on Buchanan st was the same. no access to the front after 10 am and you couldn`t get access to the front until after 7 pm.

 

Still that`s no longer a problem as the feckers let the staff know on Tuesday that the venue wouldn`t be opening and if punters wanted to try their overprice fair there was one in Edinburgh!

I've played the Glasgow HRC a few times (and we had 2 bookings for this year which now seems to be off as per your comment about it closing suddenly this week).  I've had to wheel my amp from Bath street in the rain.   

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1 hour ago, jezzaboy said:

Glasgow is the same and now the council in their wisdom have decided to extend the parking meters form 6 pm till 10 pm and it costs a bloomin fortune to park on the street. The now closed Hard Rock cafe on Buchanan st was the same. no access to the front after 10 am and you couldn`t get access to the front until after 7 pm.

 

Still that`s no longer a problem as the feckers let the staff know on Tuesday that the venue wouldn`t be opening and if punters wanted to try their overprice fair there was one in Edinburgh!

I'll be playing The Howling Wolf at the end of this month. I'll have to pay the £60 Ulez fee of course but luckily the extended parking fees don't start until April 1st. My band won't be playing there again unless things change. My advice to them is to install a PA and backline so that bands can get the bus to the venue rather than have to spend their gig fee on Ulez fines and parking tickets.

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Yeahhh Aberdeens a nightmare. Everytime I go out I find a different road closed. “Thankfully” we only seem to gig Krakatoa (aka the moorings) so I just park in the NCP 2 mins away. 15 quid for an average gig is a bit of a stinger like. 
 

How was the gig? 

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We have a gig booking conditions that states parking on site and access to venue. Plus minimum set up space 

 

If a venue cannot offer that then don’t gig there !! 
 

Much less hassle that way and health & safely matters apply to us too as musicians!

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Many years ago I did a great gig on a boat in the Thames. Easy parking, easy load in.

 

Load out was an issue, though.

 

The tide had gone out and I had to carry a 90lb cab up the gang plank at an angle that was close to being a ladder. I hurt for days after that.

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O'Neills in Birmingham - managed to park to load in just outside, then had to find a parking space. Then at the end of the evening had to drive the quarter of a mile or so from the parking space to outside the place (half an hour or so), load out through hordes of Brummie morons, and finally get out of the city centre - so desperate to get away that I finished up with a speeding ticket for 40 in a 30 on the ring road. Vocalist got a parking ticket. And now it's in the CAZ, and I'm not sure that any of us in the current band has a compliant vehicle - not that I'd ever want to play there again.

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16 hours ago, Edenburgh said:

Tonight I'd like to thank Aberdeen City Council for their traffic policies which afforded me the opportunity to carry this lot from the gig venue back to my hotel room in the pissing rain - in two trips. Unable to use my (electric, zero emissions I might add) vehicle because there's no freaking way to get a car anywhere that doesn't involve a bus gate, closed road, one way street or a pedestrian zone. Got back to the hotel just in time for the bar to shut. Absolutely perfect.  

Gig was good though.

PXL_20240303_002943462.jpg

 

Did you not get to use the car park at Drummonds? Admittedly it's not ideal because it's several floors below the bar itself, but at least it's nearby.

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