A roundup of sorts

For some of my more regular visitors you might have noticed a distinct lack of my 'Weekly Roundup' posts on a Sunday. This wasn't really a deliberate decision on my part, I honestly just don't have the time any more. I need to have at least one day off a week to chill out, by chill out I mean deal with emails and plug all things Olive Grove, and of course spend some time with Erin and Nic.
This have course meant that I haven't posted much news lately, so hopefully this wee round up of sorts should make up for that. I will also aim to try and plug some good gigs that are coming up pretty soon, you have been warned.

First up we have the announcement of this years goNorth event, in case you don't already know this is Scotland's largest music industry event that takes place annually up in Inverness. Some of you who have been regular visitors to the site might remember I went up last year for the first time. If you fancy reading about my adventures, then you will can read all about it here. If you can't be arsed, then the gist of the post is that I got drunk, saw some great bands and met some awesome people. If you're in a band and you want to learn more and make contacts, then it's invaluable. For me personally it gave me the opportunity to meet some industry folk that I wouldn't normally have the chance to meet, that and I had the pleasure of spending 3 days with Ian from Have Fun At Dinner (an experience that will live with me until the day I die).

Last Thursday I got invited along to a press event officially launching this years goNorth, the big announcement for this year was that there would no longer be a goNorth stage at this Rockness Festival. In it's place the organisers have introduced the goNorth tour, which guarantees any band that plays at this years event the opportunity to play at either Belladrum, Loopallu or Wickerman.
Now announcing this as being their 'big news' did inititally feel like a bit of a come down, I think I am pretty safe in saying that Rockness has a bit more prestige compared to the other three festivals. Much as in the same way that most Scottish bands want to play at T in the Park, I would guess that Rockness would be their second choice. So now that opportunity has gone, it makes sense for the goNorth organisers to look for new opportunities to give smaller band the chance to play in front of bigger crowds. Yes, Rockness is a loss, it looks pretty god on a bands CV, however, the more I think about it, the more I think that this might be a positive thing. In my experience I have found that it's actually been at the smaller festivals that I have 'discovered' new bands from. At the larger festivals I usually have my day all planned out, at the smaller ones like Belladrum I was much more inclined to try something new.
That's just my opinion, it might sound like spin, it's not. It's just my opinion, if you don't like it then feel free to disagree, just remember that it wasn't my choice and if you feel the need to start pissing and moaning about it then it won't make a blind bit of difference.
If you are a band and that hasn't put you and it really shouldn't, then you can find out more details on the goNorth website.

If you follow me on Twitter, then I guess you already know that myself and four of my fellow bloggers, Song By Toad, Ayetunes, Glasgow Podcart and The Pop Cop, were asked to take part in a 'blogger battle' on the awesome 'Pop Goes The Revolution' show on SubCity Radio. The show is now up to stream here, I had a lot of fun and was chuffed to be asked. If you fancy hearing me and Jim Ayetunes talking pish and playing tunes, then you can listen again here. I went with a theme for my choices, 'songs that are free to download', I went with Come On Gang!, It's All Happening, The Son(s) and Adam Stafford, winning the battle hands down.....


If you were out and about in Glasgow on Saturday night, then you might have seen some of these sexy little posters knocking about in various venues across the city. Yes, I am shamelessly using the fact that I put posters up as an opportunity to remind you all about this months Kid Canaveral SXSW fundraiser that's taking place at Stereo on the 24th. This really is going to be an awesome night, I think some of the evening is even going to be filmed by the BBC as part of a documentary. Awesome Sauce!!
Joining the Kids for the evening we have Randolph's Leap and Martin John Henry, so that's three of my favourite artists on the one bill, you've no idea how excited I am about this gig. Plus as if that wasn't exciting enough, we also have OnTheFly coming along to spin some tunes for the night. If you haven't already bought yourself a ticket then now's the time to get that sorted. They are available to buy directly from the band, or you can get them in person at Tickets Scotland, either way, if you don't have a ticket then you better have a pretty good excuse for not showing your face.


I guess I should also use this opportunity to announce that there will be another Peenko Session taking place in March. I've managed to rope in a pretty big name, which I am itching to tell you about. For now thought it remains under wraps as we need to sort out numbers, a limited number of spaces will be made available for you to come along. I'll let you know a bit more about it nearer to the time.

I'll round up this wee post with a few more events, the first one is the UWS Refreshers Mini Festival which takes place on Thursday 10th February at UWS Union, Storie Street in Paisely. For the day they've got Flood of Red, Fatherson, Carnivores, Marvel Heights, Skies Fell, Pacific Theatre and Dilectrics on the main stage. Plus an acoustic stage featuring Aaron Wright, Michael Cassidy, Little Fire, Debbie Kate, Calum Muir and Jamie Keenan. Doors at 6pm, it's ONLY £2 ENTRY! Open to anyone 18+

Last, but not least we have this years John Cage Musicircus event that takes place at the Tramway on the 26th of this month. The event is all an all day celebration of music and sound, which is aimed predominantly at children. The concept was the brainchild of John Cage and the events are viewed by an audience of hundreds on the day, as well as being filmed and recorded for web broadcast. They are still looking for more artists to take part in this years event, if it sounds like something you might be interested in, then you can download the press release here for further details.


And that's all for now kids, I don't know about you, but I am fucking knackered after typing all of that up. I guess it could have been worse, you poor fuckers had to read it (not that I expect that many of you got this far).