Are all the new toys getting boring?

In the past few days DF have announced that Connect isn't going ahead this year, blaming the Credit Crunch as the main reason for it's absence this year, it made me think is the Scottish Music Scene getting a bit boring. Musically, no I would say it's probably the healthiest it's ever been, but with the demise of Connect and the snoozefest that is the Tennents's Mutual gigs, I found myself thinking how boring it's got. A couple of years ago we had Indian Summer, a vibrant up and coming festival, that got the whole boutique festival pretty much spot on, then being the greedy bugger that he is, Geoff Ellis and his evil empire stepped in stole all of their thunder with Connect. Admittedly I did jump on the Connect bandwagon (still went Indian Summer mind you), but the line-up that was offer at Inveraray Castle was quite literally mouth watering. then what happened, well Ellis's new bay kills off Indian summer and then Connect becomes some kind of poor man's T in the Park. Brilliant, just brilliant.

Next up Tennents cancel Triptych, a truly unique festival that offered up a variety of different acts that you wouldn't necessarily see in Glasgow, plus they offered up special one off shows, ie pretty much any of the gigs held at the Tramway (why is this venue not used more often??). To replace it with Tennent's Mutual, which sounded new and exciting when it first came out, but after months of pointless voting, the first gig (excluding their launch nights) that the presented us with was the Shred Your Face (or something like that), featuring Los Campesinos, No Age and Born Ruffians. Yes that was a decent enough line-up, but it was the same line-up that was also touring the UK, so it was hardly as if we were getting something all the different. To be fair some of the gigs that they lined up were not too shabby, although having said that I didn't really see the merit in having bands play in Paisley Town Hall. if most of your punters are coming from Glasgow to go to a gig, why not just have it there. Anyway, those gigs were way back last year and now i find myself somewhat bored by the whole concept, if I have to go through another vote I think I may well die of boredom. Having had a look at their website they too seem to have given up the ghost, their news section is pretty appalling, the forum is merely a platform for unsigned bands to 'big themselves up, shame nobody is listening though.

Is all of this a bad thing, well for me I guess not, as long as there is still a demand for live music, which I believe there is, what with O2 and HMV both getting more involved with their investments in various venues. My big hope for this year is to see promoters thinking more about the pricing of tickets, scrap or even just incorporate some of the booking fee into the ticket and the return of Indian Summer, a boy can but dream....