don't hang me, I'm only the DJ

well, that was fun. My first foray into 'proper' DJing (as opposed to rambling on over the web) went shakily, truth be told (the mixer wasn't really geared towards vinyl,at least not combined with CDs) so I'm sure some entertainment was provided for the throng via my ineptitude on the wheels of steel. Less entertaining for the multitude I'm sure was the selection of tunes played, but the Born to Be Wide nights (every second Thursday at Edinburgh's Venue) are cast as 'industry' nights, where people whose day jobs are involved with music play selections from their record collections - Sandy from Avalanche showed a nice line in surf versions of Ramones songs while Baby Tiger's Neil got the crowd out of their stupor with some more recognisable stuff like Outkast and Radioheard. Which was what the kids wanted - I should know given the amount of requests I got for the Charlatans and Smiths, and Franz Ferdinand (the latter one I was able to fulfil). There aren't enough musos in Edinburgh to sustain a night in a club of course, so (gasp) the public ere also welcome to attend, which they did in numbers. Granted they maybe didn't recognise such delights as 70 Gwen Party, Cable and Big Flame, but I'm sure their lives have been enriched by the experience.

cheap plugs

in an attempt not to let the blog die I'll input some random self-promotion. So, is this music? issue 9 is done and dusted and the long slow process of mounting the cover CDs to the magazine begins. Actually, there are mags in shops now, but not enough (including our surprising order of 90-odd for the Far East...)
So things are pretty busy, but enough to stop me taking to the, ahem, 'wheels of steel', on Thursday. The Born to Be Wide club at the Venue appears to be what you might call a 'music industry event', which is a bit of a worry, especially as the punters there will doubtless be expecting stuff from Michelle McManus and Mogwai (not together... mind you...)
Anyway, the 2 other Djs at the thing are 2 nice industry types (basically because you couldn't really use the 'I' word when referring to them). Thus, Neil from Calvin/Baby Tiger (don't let him tell you he's in Cayto, it's not true), and Sandy from Glasgow's Avalanche, will be spinning some plastic too. I'm just hoping that the timing will allow us to see David Jack and the Magnificents, who are also on at the Venue that night.

B&S go global?

For us hipper-than-hip cats in Scotland they'll be best remembered as the first Electric Honey band to make it big; to the johnny-come-lately indie kids elsewhere they're dearly loved for wiping the smile off Pete Waterman's face at the Brits, while pop music lovers in general have encountered them all over the place - on the covers of mainstream magazines, on radio, on Top of the Pops, and doing charity gigs and occasionally talking politics.
However, as we had a few pals round for a Burns Supper at the weekend, the one guy with no interest in pop music at all - more into his minimalist German composers - perked up at the album which had previously been washing over him. "It's... the theme music from 'Teachers!' "
When Stow College is a housing development, world famine has been eradicated and Steps have all gone on to legendary solo careers, is this how Belle and Sebastian will be remembered ?