Northern Rock

BARRY GORDON catches up with two promoters bringing touring rock and pop bands to Caithness.

IF THERE is one place in the highlands that’s been deprived of high-profile rock bands over the years, it’s Caithness. The county’s two main towns – Thurso and Wick – are the biggest Highland towns outside of Inverness in terms of population, yet few bands making the headlines in the music press rarely venture further than the Kessock Bridge.

But that’s all set to change now that local promoters Darren MacLeod (from Thurso) and Ryan Cook (from Wick) have taken it upon themselves to cajole ‘name’ acts to the Far North.

BARRY GORDON: It’s been some time since quality acts such as The Yardbirds, Rod Stewart, Teenage Fanclub and Snow Patrol came to Caithness to play. These days, however, Ocean Colour Scene, Edwyn Collins, Sergeant, Broken Records, Hayseed Dixie and Smokie are just some of the names who can add Caithness to their tour diary, which begs the question: Why the sudden emergence of higher profile bands coming into the region of late?

Darren MacLeod

DARREN MACLEOD: I think the main reason Caithness has started seeing bigger acts is due to the Ironworks venue opening in Inverness. Before it was open, bands would only come as far north as Aberdeen or Dundee, and even that was a push for some bands.

Robert Hicks (Ironworks/Beyond Promotions) and Steve Robertson (Ironworks) started booking high profile acts and sometimes those acts would be looking for a couple of dates to fill out some tour spaces. Robert and Steve then started sending some bands up north to help with their tour. They’ve been doing that for a couple of years now and I’m delighted we get a chance to see some great names.

RYAN COOK: Bands have never travelled up before because no-one has asked them to. All of the bands that I have taken up have said they were delighted to be asked, and it was a great change from the usual city venues they have all played. The booking agents were the hardest ones to win over, but once they see that you are happy to take all of the financial risk, and look competent to pull it off, they are normally all for it.

BARRY GORDON: How have locals reacted to this – have the performers been well received? What have the attendance figures been like? And what do travelling acts make of Caithness audiences? What sort of feedback have you had from the artists themselves?

DARREN MACLEOD: The Caithness locals can sometimes take a bit of encouragement to come and see some of the bands on offer. Attendance figures started off poor, and if I’m honest, can still struggle at times. I honestly believe promotion has a huge part to play in it. While it’s not easy to keep a secret in Caithness, sometimes word of mouth is not enough.

Some of the bands that have been up in the past may not be on Radio 1 or ‘on the telly’, but in six months time, they will be. It’s a great chance to see bands who may never play in venues like Skinandis in Thurso or the Blackstairs in Wick ever again. The bands we’ve had have all loved the reaction they get. I haven’t talked to a disappointed band yet, despite some poor attendances at times. The crowd reaction can be quite overwhelming for some of them. We’ve also had a couple of heavier rock bands up, and they can’t believe how well the crowd takes to them.

I also get the impression that they’re surprised by the technical set up provided for them. Maybe they think we’re expecting them to plug their guitars into an old wireless, and for the singer to shout louder? But all the bands that have come up have been incredibly impressed by the equipment on offer, and the guys that run it – who are all local by the way – are brilliant.

RYAN COOK: In general, the response has been good; the 14 to 25-year-olds are the best supporters, and are very appreciative of the efforts to get these bands north. There is the minority who think that anything over £5 to see a band is a rip-off, but, as I say, they are in the minority. On average, we are pulling crowds of around 300 to the Assembly Rooms and 100 to the Blackstairs. You have highs with the likes of Sergeant – who pulled 600 people to their gig – and lows, where you will have a great band in the Blackstairs, who are relatively unknown, and you will get around 10 people turning up.

Edwyn Collins

BARRY GORDON: How could you make the public more aware of who is coming to town? Have local papers and venues alike being doing enough to bring attention to the gigs?

DARREN MACLEAN: The only way to make the public aware is to force feed it to them using every possible method. Despite the Internet playing a huge part in advertising these days, I’m still convinced that posters and flyers are the best way to make people aware of gigs.

The newspapers do what they can, when they can. I work for the local paper so I know how it’s run. The reporters are very willing to do articles on local bands and acts visiting the county, but sometimes they’re so busy that they actually need the info handed to them. It’s worthwhile contacting the paper if you have a gig coming up or know of someone worth writing about. They are a local paper at the end of the day, and they want to know about events happening in Caithness.

Ryan Cook

RYAN COOK: I use the local newspapers to advertise and they have been very helpful with that. They will do articles about upcoming bands and run competitions for tickets, etc. It would be nice if we could get a regular music column every week with reviews of albums and gigs and so on. I have my own website (see belwo), which is pretty basic at the moment. Our local council has banned people advertising outdoors without planning permission, so that has been a big drawback for myself. They can’t see that people are trying to improve the community.

BARRY GORDON: What are the main problems in dealing with higher profile bands?

DARREN MACLEOD: If I’m honest, I haven’t had many problems as yet. Up until recently, I was only on the sidelines when it came to bringing bands up. I’ve been left to look after quite a few bands and it’s usually hassle free. The younger bands are more of a handful than the seasoned professionals. We had Edwyn Collins up last week and he was a pleasure to work with, as were his band and crew. Highly professional, no messing around. They came in, they set up, they sound-checked and there were no issues at all. They also put a fantastic show on.

RYAN COOK: I haven’t encountered too many so far, they have all been good to deal with. The whole rider thing got a bit of getting used to. Couldn’t get my head round the fact that you were paying these guys thousands of pounds to play, but still had to fill their dressing room with free booze.

BARRY GORDON: Given the cost of getting bands so far north, is it fair to say that making a profit isn’t the main motivation for booking such acts?

DARREN MACLEOD: No-one wants to lose money. But sometimes the figures can be a little on the thin side. Making a profit is not of high importance. Entertaining the local music fans and building a good reputation for the county is the top priority. If bands had been visiting the county regularly when I was a teenager I would have loved it.

I sometimes feel jealous of the younger ones we get into the gigs, as me and my friends didn’t have the opportunity to see a lot of bands when we were growing up in Caithness. I also feel a bit proud that I get to be involved in bringing these bands up. It’s a good feeling when you see folk at the end of the night who have had a fantastic time. That’s what’s important, not profit.

RYAN COOK: Making a profit doesn’t come into it. I have lost money on the door at most of my gigs in the Assembly Rooms. As there is no purpose built venue in Wick I have to hire in all Sound and Light for the bigger shows, as well as the extra staff and venue hire. So you’re around £2000 down before you even book the band. Luckily, I am a licensee and I have my own bar at each of the gigs so I do make some money from that. Sometimes a profit, sometimes just making up the loss on the door.

BARRY GORDON: Are agents and bookers alike now beginning to understand that Caithness is a viable place to perform?

DARREN MACLEOD: As I said previously, a lot of it comes down to Robert and Steve at the Ironworks. They’ve put a lot of bands up this way and thanks to that, other bands are now beginning to see Caithness as a stop on a tour. There’ll never be a time when we have two or three bands a week coming up because the population simply doesn’t justify it, but if we’re putting on one cracking gig a month, I’m happy. If the gig is good, the agents will book for other bands, and word soon spreads around the musical community as to which venues are worth playing.

RYAN COOK: Yes. Before, coming to Wick was an unknown quantity as they didn’t know if anyone had the know-how to organise and run a large gig. In the first six-to-twelve months the most common question I was asked was “Who have you worked with before?” Or, “What have you done that makes you think this can work?” The proof is in the pudding now, with bands coming back to me asking if we would have them again, and promoters looking to collaborate.

BARRY GORDON: Local people have made much comment regarding the price of tickets. Given it would cost more for people to travel out with the county to see them when you add up travel and accommodation, are they justified in their complaint?

DARREN MACLEOD: I think the ticket price thing can be a sore subject. Bands don’t play for nothing and given our position on the map, the bands can charge more than they would in other places. Their cars and vans need petrol just like everyone else. No-one likes paying for things and everyone likes a bargain, but, unfortunately, booking a touring band is not cheap.

I think the ticket prices are justified considering what it costs to travel to the central belt or even Inverness for a gig. We try to keep costs down as much as possible. There have been occasions where money has been lost and folk have not been able to be paid due to other costs being more important. That’s just the way of things. We accept that and the folk who work with us accept it.

RYAN COOK: Generally, it comes down to the fact that I use a venue that only holds 600 people. I’ve had a few complaints that Ocean Colour Scene is costing more in Wick than any other Scottish show. I have the smallest capacity, so if we are all paying the same fee to the band then the variable is the ticket price. Simple common sense.

I have been accused of high ticket prices on smaller gigs, but I do all shows at break-even ticket price, so possibly I am not negotiating as good a deal with the artist as I could. But the ball is always in their court as I need them, but they don’t need Wick. Most of my shows in the Blackstairs are free and when you check the venues down south they are charging three-to-four pounds. Most people don’t notice this. Ask any promoters down south, though, and they have noticed.

Ocean Colour Scene

BARRY GORDON: What about local bands – have they been given the opportunity to open for visiting groups?

DARREN MACLEOD: Local bands are given the opportunity to support whenever we can. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many bands up here writing and performing their own material. When I was in my first ‘original’ band we had to set up our own gigs. I’d always try to book a band from the South to perform at it as well, but no-one else was really doing it. We used to construct a stage out of scaffolding (which was ropey at times), as an extension to one of the stages in a local social club. The first time we staged an event, over 250 people turned up to it. I knew then that there was a market for gigs in Caithness.

Unfortunately, the club was shut down and demolished eighteen months after our first event and that put us out of action for a while. I think the fact that there were no venues staging these types of things had a lot to do with the poor number of bands who were writing and performing their own material. I would hope that as we start to get more and more bands coming north, we’ll get more bands forming who write and play their own stuff. Originality is the key to music, and while I respect what cover bands do, there’s something special about performing your own music to an audience.

RYAN COOK: Yes, to a degree. The thing is, most bands in the area are cover bands, so you tend not to use them for support slots. Then you have the problem of trying to tie in the musical genres, and most of them aren’t anything like the bands from the South.

BARRY GORDON: Who would you like to take up next? And how do you see it going within the next couple of years?

The View

DARREN MACLEOD: I don’t know who I would like to take up next. We have the X-Certs from Aberdeen coming up in December and they’ve just started getting a lot of support from Kerrang magazine and Scuzz TV. I think they’ll be ones to watch. We’ve also got Broken Records coming up in November, who are just fantastic. They’ve played all the major UK festivals this year and are getting some great reviews.

[Joking] Maybe I’ll give Metallica or the Foo Fighters a shout. They might do half an hour in Skinandis if we give them free entry to the club after the gig! I think the next couple of years will be vital in building the music profile of the county. Playing smaller venues and out of the way places is something more and more bands are doing these days. Hopefully we can become a regular stop for high profile acts and prove that Caithness is a great place to play.

RYAN COOK: I’m focusing on The View at the moment – there is a huge demand to see them in the area. Also, I would like to take bands that appeal to a broad spectrum, like The Levellers or The Saw Doctors. I really don’t know how the next couple of years will go. I am limited by my audience size and venue capabilities. Hopefully we can carry on at the same rate of progress – and who knows who may be gracing our county in the years to come.

Barry Gordon’s list of major bands who have played Caithness:

Ocean Colour Scene
Edwyn Collins
Broken Records
Sergeant
Smokie
The Law
Finley Q
Old Blind Dogs
Del Amitri
Snow Patrol
Echo & The Bunnymen
Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie
Teenage Fanclub
The Excerts
The Mode
Sorren Maclean
Hayseed Dixie
Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett (of Little Feat)
Michael Marra
Saw Doctors
Jimmy Page
Aberfeldy
Roddy Hart
Clive Carroll
Gene Vincent
The Hollies
The Yardbirds
Merseybeats
The Searchers
Billie J. Kramer and The Dakotas
Baron Knights
Alex Harvey
Applejacks
Heinz Rockin Berries
Dave Dee
Rod Stewart
Noel Reading (Jimi Hendrix’s bass player – and who played Caithness twice with The Burnettes)

© Barry Gordon, 2009