Limbo Live Vol. 1
If anyone in Edinburgh is at a loose end tonight, this is where you should be. At half eight in the Voodoo Rooms Limbo will be launching the first volume of a series of Limbo Live albums. Basically, they’ve taken the recordings from their weekly live shows and compiled a Best Of as something of a showcase, both of their work, and of all the new Scottish bands they’ve given a chance to over the course of the last year or so.
Honestly, I have no idea how they do it. Three bands a week, every week, for over a year: that should be impossible. The work they put in is impressive, and the encouragement that gives the local scene can’t be underestimated. I’ve seen a number of superb bands for the first time by going along to Limbo. The beer is cheap, the lineups are varied, the sound is phenomenal and all in all it’s invariably a good night out.
Things like this really are the engine room of a music scene. They sit there and chug over reliably week after week, providing a platform not only for bands themselves, but also for other venues. The Bowery, Cabaret Voltaire and Sneaky Pete’s are doing amazing work in improving the live scene in this town, but something like Limbo, which means that even during lean spells there is something good on, makes sure that everything keeps moving, that the audiences remain engaged and excited, until bands get back on the road again and the scene around the city picks up once more.
Tonight’s gig is going to be a massive great mish mash of as many groups represented on Limbo Live Vol. 1 as they can manage to pull together. Everyone sets up at once and there’ll be a short, sharp collection of performances, rather than the standard, support-support-headline setup. This is another thing I like about Limbo, actually. Was anyone at their collaborative night with Canongait Books? It was superb. Poetry, readings and music all together in one night, and not really like much I’ve been to before – they really do try and innovate with their nights.
So please pop along and support them tonight, or go and buy the CD. Dave and Andy are a pair of total fuckwits, but they are lovely blokes, and really important to the music scene in Edinburgh, so it would be good for them to get some love in return.
Zoey Van Goey – City is Exploding
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Isosceles – Get Your Hands Off
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Ok I’m grumpy. In every review I read about gigs and venues in Edinburgh, the Wee Red Bar is ALWAYS over-looked. I’ve had offers to take Trampoline away from that place and said no. 2 reasons. 1. Colvin Cruickshank who runs the place and 2. Alex Fenton who does the sound. The Wee Red is a good venue with good sound and great staff and their contribution to the Edinburgh music scene should be more widely recognised and acknowledged.
Ok, that said, Andy and Dave do a great job, run a great night and I have nothing but respect for their enthusiasm and drive. It’s brilliant for this city and I hope they keep up the great work. But I’m going to see Doves tonight, so I won’t be there. Hope it’s a great one.
Euan, I don’t know Colvin, so I can’t say anything much, but Alex is certainly excellent. But I barely ever hear of the Wee Red doing anything that you yourself don’t put on – or at least, anything that I personally am interested in.
So it’s a good venue, and the Trampoline nights are always good, but the Wee Red themselves, apart from helping you put your night on, don’t seem to me to be doing that much.
Correct me if I’m wrong by all means, but that’s how it looks from the outside.
yes you are a moany git Euan…..but you do a more than a fair point.
have is the missing word!!!
well the opening of the bowery took away some of the wee reds gigs for sure, actually, probably quite a few. plus, colvin is not a promoter as far as I know, he’s the venue manager. you name check Sneaky Pete’s – they have PCL in there permanently. an inferior venue to wee red but with a permanent booking agent working for them putting on regular shows. same applies to cab vol, in my opinion, and the voodoo rooms has limbo on a weekly basis so obviously gets more attention – if I did trampoline weekly would that raise the wee reds status? I don’t think it needs me. anyways, you have been in the wee red, you’ve seen the posters all over the walls. i think they have been for a long time and still are a great supporter of the local/national music scene. they are just suffering a little from other venues opening. whilst this is obviously a great thing for edinburgh in general, its a shame for the wee red. given how good a deal it is to use. how good the sound engineer is. how easy the manager is to work with. it’s a stress free life for a promoter, trust me. i know my shows will always sound great and i know i have a good venue to use.
plus – just cause you’re not interested in whats on at the wee red, doesn’t mean the venue isn’t putting on good shows mr toad.
i’m just rooting for them. thats all. not really grumpy.
)
Sneeky Pete’s is the worse venue that i have even had the pleasure of attending a gig at…..shite hole-tastic
it all depends what you like in a gig/venue doesnt it. i prefer the bowery to the voodoo rooms because i prefer slighly scrubby rough as arseholes venues over clean professional venues. sneaky petes for me is a brilliant wee place to watch a band – as long as you can get close enough round the corner to actually see the band. the bowery and wee red both rule for me in terms of the venue but as far as promotion/bookings etc they will never compete with the bigger more established (and staffed) venues. however with all this competition going on it can only be good for the edinburgh music scene.
i completely agree michael. wee red and bowery cannot compete with the venues who have permanent booking staff. but they can get help by being promoted by the people who know them and love them. hence why i raised the wee red as a great venue. i know the post was ultimately about limbo and those guys do a great job. but when matthew started name checking venues, i felt it was only fair the wee red got a shout out. maybe they don’t have as much on, but they’ve been doing this for about 20 years now and they’re still going strong and you know what, lots of people play there without the aid of trampoline. les enfant bastard, dead boy robotics and the Foundling Wheel night for example springs to mind. its a great venue.
Sneaky Pete’s certainly doesn’t tick many boxes as a venue, and yet seems to attract good line-ups.
Quite why any band would want to play with their sound bouncing directly back off a flat brick wall facing them no more than eight feet away, while standing on a stage that would be generously called a ledge is beyond me.
I’ve certainly had a couple of good nights in there but that’s more down to the company and the entertainment than the environment.
i do see your point dylan but in the traditional sense the bowery also has nothing going for it. it has no stage, the paint seems to be peeling off the walls, its basically just like an empty room in someones house. but it works because it has charm. some people like little sweatbox venues where you are nose to nose with the lead singer. and as for the sound every gig i have been to in sneaky petes has had perfectly good sound as far as i could tell.
i don’t dislike sneaky pete’s. stage was too small for 6 people. other than that, good sound engineer, friendly staff, alright on stage sound – though as everything is so close together it gets a bit noisey. but they have PCL there so booking gigs is easier for them i guess.
while im at it i might as well add that there has also to be a mention for people like claire at henrys who slogs away putting bands on every night of every week. of course the majority of these bands might not be to everyones taste but how many bands who are now going onto bigger and better things (broken records/jesus h foxx/eaglowl etc) have maybe got a break or learned thier trade playing venues like henrys? it might not be as ‘cool’ but it certainly deserves as much credit as the venues previously mentioned.
BART BART BART
exactly tom. bart bart bart.
The Bowery does need a stage, Michael, agreed.
The reason that room gets so chatty is because no-one can see anything more than three rows back.
I thought Sneaky Pete’s was better before they moved the stage from where it used to be along the shorter back wall – facing straight down the length of the room – rather than off to one side where it is now.
I’m not sure why they decided to move it at all, unless there’s a fire exit back there or something.
I have nothing against little sweat box venues – I agree that venues need that bit of character and not just a practical layout.
by the way i would like to say i do love the Limbo nights….seeing the good bad and ugly of the Scottish (and further afield) music scene is always a joy…..there is always a good crowd with good banter…..just wanted to say like
Sneeky Pete’s a dog turd of a venue….plain and simple….if i could i would wish it to fuck off and die a slow and lonely death
and i agree with tom. the limbo guys are great and the nights are always great fun to attend. sorry if i went off the point of the post.
tom we agreed 3 times. lets never do that again eh. ;o)
At the end of the day, I think the people behind the venue are more important than the venue itself.
Voodoo Rooms is not the kind of place I would normally want to go for a beer in, but Limbo put on great nights.
Sneaky Pete’s – I’m with Tom on this – is not a great venue. It’s just the wrong layout. But it works, because PCL have shoe horned some amazing gigs into the place.
Has anyone been to or heard anything about this Maggie’s Chamber place? From the website it looks like a smaller version of Cab Vol, but with a similar vibe to the Voodoo Rooms.
There’s certainly a Voodoo Rooms look to Maggie’s Chamber, isn’t there Bart?
Right down to the black velvet stage-backdrop studded with little white lights.
Should be great for photos, then!
I’m assuming its the same people that are running it.
Or maybe they just hired the same interior designers.
Can I just go back to Bart’s observation:
Here, here!
Quibbling over the comparitive merits of the various buildings is largely irrelevent when you consider the remarkeable nocturnal creatures that inhabit them, and thanklessly lay on all this entertainment for us. On the whole I’ve found them all to be a thoroughly delightful bunch of scallywags and scoundrels!
is maggies chambers not just the three sisters venue that baby tiger booked in for a while?
God, I hope it’s nothing to do with the Six Tits..
What a horrible place that is.
I have no real criticism for the Wee Red or for Henry’s, this was simply about a single promoter who has done an amazing job.
Since I have been in Edinburgh the Wee Red has, whilst never being my favourite venue, consistently put on good shows, but not all that often.
Cabaret Voltaire have dropped off a lot recently, but apparently there are a lot of tours being cancelled due to the credit crisis which has caused a lot of bands to cancel tours. Good sound though and a pleasant, if bland, venue.
Sneaky Pete’s is a truly awful space, and I wish they’d turn that stage around, but they have shown a real commitment to getting good bands on and I have a lot of time for them because of it. I’ve had really good nights there, but of course the PCL connection is a massive advantage.
Henry’s is also a horrible place to go for a pint, but they have also put a lot of great stuff on over the years. The only reason I left them off that list was because they seem to have been struggling for good bookings since before Christmas, although as Euan says, this could easily be down to pressure from other venues. I nearly omitted Cab Vol for the same reasons.
The Bowery is just great, although the lack of a stage does cause some problems for the crowd. Even the tiny one at Sneaky’s seems to make a difference, although I have heard a lot of bands say that they like being at the same level as the crowd.
Maggie’s Chambers looks promising, because I am not that keen on the Voodoo Rooms in general, and a smaller, cosier version might be really nice.
This isn’t about the Voodoo Rooms of course, it’s about the guys from Limbo. And that list wasn’t really a considered statement about which the best venues are, it was just a casual sentence in a post about a hard-working promoter.
I wish the Caves would do more.
bullshit
it’s not like us to go off the subject in hand now is it? but for what it’s worth, i did praise limbo for what they do and admire them for having the drive and energy to do it every week. i couldn’t do it. but i’m glad somebody does.
Your missing my point, Tom.
Go back and read it again.
We can pick faults with all the venues, but the promoters, sound engineers etc. are all doing a great job regardless of where they set up. We shouldn’t forget that.
i don’t care…..if i pay my money i want to be able to enjoy the show….and sometimes that is not poss at the Bowery, esp when it is busy, because of the lack of a stage….
I like how Tom swings from talking utter arse in one post to making quite lucid sense in the next.
Dylan – i was harsh….but my point still stands….regardless how hard the put upon staff work, if a venue is shit then it’s shit….no slight on the lovely staff.
thats the point i was making
well done limbo tho…nice venue….nice stage
also, Matthew you have been to a gig like this before – Versus at the Wee Red (of all places!) just this past month. The 3 of us set up at once, and went track for track. Played on each other’s songs and even covered each other.
. . . and Colvin and Alex and everyone else at the Wee Red were amazing to work with. No taking away from the Amazing work Dave and Andy are doing, but the Wee Red does get overlooked really unfairly.
Having only ever been to the bowery once I agree it needs a stage. Not only for a better visual but for a better sound, also. The ceiling is so high that a stage/platform (even a 2footer) would vastly improve the acoustic bounce to the place.
Dylan & I were talking about the problems the Bowery’ve faced from noise complaints & that they need to soundproof a little, also (especially the high windows at street level). That’s an area they’ll need to address soon before complaints turn into Environmental Officer visits.
All of this obviously takes a bit of money, which I’m guessing is not available right now (otherwise the place would have the requisite bits & pieces?). I know charity is a reason to pretend to be on the phone, but what if all of you punters & band members got together one Saturday or Sunday morning, pooled a bit of cash, hit the lumbar yards (or wherever), then all pulled together to build a stage? It really isn’t that hard a job, especially with a ton of you giving up a morning to do a bit of sawing & nailing & painting; just a little bit more than a very sturdy decking (ok, that’s overly simplistic, but you get what I mean). There’s lots of info on line detailing construction etc.
The same can be said for the window soundproofing: get 2 pieces of composite wood/mdf (cut to the shape of the window frames) to form the ‘bread’ of a sandwich, & attach them to either side of some 2½” packing/soundproofing/matrress foam. Then, for extra proofing attach some dimpled/acoustic foam to the side that faces into the venuie. It’ll be good enough to dampen the majority of the noise. A handful of you, again, could do this on a Saturday afternoon after having a whip round.
You could also pass a hat at gigs asking for people to contribute (a quid a person would be fine over the course of a month, eh?)… the Jesus H. Foxx gig I went to was rammed. If half of them gave £1 it wouldnt take long to get enough to cover the expenses.
Or am I just being silly, with altruism being only a word in a dictionary?
I should think The Settlement (the shadowy organisation that halds the keys to the venue along with the purse strings) should pick up the tab for providing a venue fit for purpose so The Bowery can trade effectively as a business.
Additionally, the trouble with a DIY stage is that the double door at the back of the performance area serves as a Fire Exit, so any stage installed there will need to incorporate a ramp or steps down to the doorway, and that would take the project beyond basic Ikea flat-pack levels of joinery skills.
Still, it’s not impossible.
i think the Wee Red may have scooped the gig of the month for May
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=gb_scotland&query=detail&event=319136
I really like the Wee Red. We’re planning to go and see the Stormy Seas next month – apparently they’re playing a good few places, but we’re eyeballing the Wee Red gig because we like it so much as a venue. Mr Coriander was a mature student at ECA until a couple of years back, and I know he’s got a lot of time for Colvin.
The venue I really, really can’t stand, and will not return to on principle no matter who I miss, is the Ark. Godforsaken shithole of a place.
Anyway, how was the gig? Had birthday duties otherwise would have tried to drag my broken shell of a body along …
The Ark fucks goats, it really does. I’m with you, I can’t stand the place and I am not going back. Yesterday might not have been great as an actual gig if you didn’t already know the bands, but as a big ol’ party it was brilliant. I wonder a little what newbies would have made of Sparrow & the Workshop singing I Think We’re Alone Now if they didn’t know the context though. Bless their cotton socks – what a splendid evening!
Last night was a lot of fun actually.
And Art Fag dedicated a song to me…
swoon
did you blush dylan? or is that not possible at the moment?!
the singer of art fag once called me a cunt from the stage…..i win
What was it called, Dylan, Little Red Corvette? Oh no, it was Bright Fucking Glowing Red Candle Bulb!
I should think The Settlement (the shadowy organisation that halds the keys to the venue along with the purse strings) should pick up the tab for providing a venue fit for purpose so The Bowery can trade effectively as a business.
Actually, this is an interesting point. The venue owner doesn’t have any responsibility for what their leaseholder does (presuming ‘the Bowery’ has a lease on the space for what they do). It’s the leaseholder’s job to ensure what they do in that building stands up to all environmental regulations etc., & any additions to the fixtures & fittings (such as a stage) is down to them. All the owner has done is rent them the property. The only time they have any say in the matter or liability is if its specifically mentioned in the contract/lease.
I remember now that there’s a door at the back. Bugger. That’ll reduce the depth of the stage somewhat if you fit a ramp/stairs.
I really like the wee red too – Colvin is super nice and the sound in there is great. Beer is cheap too. A small stage woudl not go a miss – S&TW installed one for a recent gig they did there and it worked well.
Sneaky Pete’s I’m not impressed with just cos the layout is perverse. Not sure what the thought process behind that was.
I like Voodoo Rooms too, or at least I like what Limbo does to the ballroom – those lights on the wall and the projector and stuff is all their work as far as i can tell, so a doff of the chapeau goes their way. Also the sound is always great, another bug bear of mine in venues like Bannermans, which is not a favourite of mine.
I agree with DC too – it’ll be up to the tenant to fit out a space but if there’s a door behind the stage there will be health and safety constraints in terms of putting something like a stage in front of a fire exit for example. Not saying it is a fire exit but if it’s used for stuff then building control won’t allow it.
moan moan moan.
bowery, wee red, limbo etc are all amazing venues and we’re lucky to have them. sure, they all have their faults but think back not two years ago…things were dire. we’re getting there.
the bowery does need a stage though, and the wee red needs more than just trampoline (despite it being one of the best nights going) to sustain peoples opinion of it the great venue that it is.
ps. yes ted, vs was awesome. x
Hi Folks.
I don’t want to get overly involved with chatter, but since there are comments going up such as
“Sneeky [sic] Pete’s is the worse venue that i have even had the pleasure of attending a gig at…..shite hole-tastic”
and
“Sneeky Pete’s a dog turd of a venue….plain and simple….if i could i would wish it to fuck off and die a slow and lonely death”
… I thought it only fair to put our case, just a little bit… and also to mention that there are a couple of mis-conceptions about the way bookings work at Sneaky’s.
I’ve spent a number of years doing what I can to book the best Edinburgh bands, and also trying desperately to get a decent standard of touring bands to visit Edinburgh. Finally with Sneaky’s we seem to have found a place to do it. I for one am very pleased about it.
I’m longstanding friends with the excellent crew run Limbo – those guys make such a real effort on their nights, well above the call of duty. Andy and Dave have raised the bar in Edinburgh, and elsewhere for that matter, and we can only hope to follow.
Henry’s has always been a great venue in my opinion. I ran a clubnight there for a year, and whilst I had to battle against production standards, it was a real blast.
The Wee Red is an excellent venue, and the sound can be really good at times. Colvin is a stand up guy and I’ve really enjoyed the shows I’ve done there. It reeks of history and that can only be a good thing.
I’ve not yet been to the Bowery (mea culpa, sadly I work too many hours to make it to enough gigs outside Sneaky’s!), but I’ve heard many very warm comments, and there definitely seems to be a real sense of community about the place.
I worked at Cabaret Voltaire for a couple of years (and still run one of their clubnights) and really can’t fault them at all. They have one of the best PAs in Edinburgh and for their size they beat most UK venues hands down. Solen was an amazing booker and Jim is a great new choice for the job. In particular I think Jim will concentrate on the local scene and I’m sure he will make the Cab an amazing platform for the best Edinburgh acts.
So with all that in mind…
I simply can’t agree with the idea of hating any venue for putting on acts that they love and believe in.
I’ve said for years that what I’d like best is for Edinburgh to have as many venues as possible putting on as many great shows as possible, and for all of them to be done really well. We’ve got a situation now where London agents have got their eyes fixed on Edinburgh as there seems to be a real sense of a decent scene brewing. The fact that we’ve got people debating the relative merits of several small venues that are all consistently putting on great shows is surely a cause for celebration.
Three years ago I really struggled to find decent local acts to support touring acts in Edinburgh. These days Edinburgh bands frequently outshine the touring acts. If we (collectively) hadn’t given bands good places to play, then I’m sure any semblance of a scene could never have developed.
People will of course have qualms with any venue, so I thought I’d answer any complaints about Sneaky’s:
** It’s too small!!!***
- Sorry but yes, we are a small venue. I was never sure that we could put on gigs at all. But I have a real commitment to putting on the best bands I can and wanted to give them the best possible home. We demolished every fixture in the place to make enough room for a stage and still just about squeeze in a bar.
- Although our official capacity is 120, we limit this to 84, as we want people to see the show. Since we’re frequently sold out, we could make a lot of extra money by over-selling shows, but we’ve chosen not to. We really to want people to get the best possible gig experience.
*** I can’t see around the pillar!!! ***
- The pillar keep the building up. We’ve got five storeys above us and if we removed the pillar the whole place would topple.
- Also Edinburgh crowds in particular seem averse to standing close to acts. Consequently even if only 20 people are in front of the stage, you’ll still find ten lurking at a distance, not getting a proper view, and afraid to move closer.
*** Why is it sideways???!!! ***
- Two reasons:
1. There is a bizarre anti-bass-trap if you face the room forwards. All bass gets sucked up and disappears and everything sounds tinny. I think it’s something to do with the curved ceiling, but who knows, I haven’t had a acoustic engineer in yet.
2. The stage would block the fire exit, there are laws about this and we have to observe them. Soz.
*** PCL run the place and that gives them an unfair advantage ***
PCL don’t run the place. We get some hookups, but most of our hires are from outside promoters. PCL actually put on, on average, one gig a month. Andy is the in-house booker and I’m greatly impressed with his breadth of knowledge of upcoming bands. It hink he’s done a truly great job in he short 3 months he’s been with us.
The exact situation, for the what want to know, is that I have a 50% share alongside Paul of PCL. Paul doesn’t get overly involved, and they pay a gig hire fee the same as everyone else, no special rates, no nothing, everyone pays the same fee.
*** Sneaky’s have an in-house booker and that gives them an unfair advantage ***
- Well I really can’t make any apologise for this. We’ve got a mission to put on the best shows we possibly can, and whilst I tried for a time to book the shows for Sneaky’s, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. I already run all of the club shows and do the sound half of the time, not to mention working the bar.
- Every venue must have someone to control the calendar, and so it makes sense to have a booker.
As I said before, I want all of Edinburgh’s venues to do really well, and I really hope that we all have a future. We’ve seen far too many venue closures in the past few years, and every little but helps. It’s very un-businessmanlike, but I really don’t feel all that competitive about things. Edinburgh has long needed a really good shakeup, and any amount we can contribute is all for the good.
Also I’d like to mention that I’m glad no-one has dissed the sound. It’s incredibly hard to get a good sound in a venue this size, and we’ve made huge investments to try to get it right, I hope you’ve noticed!
Finally… if you’re still reading… I appreciate that the bulk of the comments before must have come mainly from musicians, many of whom have played here. We really do listen and want to make this a great place for you all to play. We’ll absolutely listen to any constructive criticism. If you’re not the type to follow this with a comment, you can find me behind the bar or the sound desk most nights, and I’m all ears!
This is a really good comment, Nick, not least because you resist the temptation to tell those slagging your venue whilst not really offering anything to the discussion – Chutters! – to just fuck right off, which I would have had little argument with.
I figured the sideways orientation had something to do with the fire exits. I’ll be honest, I’m not that much of a fan, but if there’s reasons that can’t be solved then so be it. No-one has an ideal layout, so you just have to make the best of it.
I am not, as I said above, a big fan of the space at Sneaky’s. Honestly, though, I really don’t think it matters that much. Every venue has their floor plan flaws, and at the more DIY end of the market you have to make some compromises, there’s just no way around that.
What defines a venue, for my money, is the attitude of the people who run it and the kind of shows which are booked. If you are a nice person, supportive of the local scene, and consistently book good shows then people will love the place irrespective of any limitations of space. The quirks may even become part of the charm, if people consistently find themselves at shows there and come to love the place.
Basically, my attitude is as stated above: work hard, book good things, and be a decent person to deal with and people will (or fucking well should) overlook everything else. This, it has to be said, seems very much to be what you are doing, which is why I’ve been as complimentary as I have recently.
I agree with you about the lack of any need for a competitive attitude as well. At the moment what we all need is for people to start seeing Edinburgh as a worthwhile stop on their tour itinerary, in which case having PCL involved can only be a good thing, as far as I’m concerned, although I don’t know them personally. Certainly they’re brought some really good bands to Sneaky’s, and that benefits all of us.
So good work, and please, please keep it up. I know it took me a while to twig, but I’m impressed with what you’ve been doing at Sneaky’s since I started to pay proper attention. Sure, the venue’s not ideal in many ways, but I just don’t think that matters in the long run.