edinburgh [ CTW Weekenders ] Edinburgh Weekender (Friday 8th - Sunday 10th August 2003)

[TomD]

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right then

if anyone's interested in checking out scotland's capital then this post's for you. if you're not, then, hmm.... i'm not going to try and convince you to come.

bit of an introduction. edinburgh is a city in scotland. that means it's north of newcastle. the end.

the festival: the city becomes VERY busy during August, the month of Edinburgh Festival (or Festivals). if you don't know anything about the festival, basically it's a combination of the comedy, arts and film festivals. which means as well as there being shitloads of tourists about because it's summer, it's also full of actors, artists, media types, etc -- you know the type of people who don't usually venture outside london. end result is that there is SHITLOADS to do, you could spend an absolute fortune just going to see comedy, you'll get flyered everywhere, and there's the possibility of seeing someone famous.

transport: there's a direct train from kings cross that runs several times a day and takes 4.5 hours, can be as cheap as £35 return if you book in advance. there's also the virgin cross-country line which goes south-west after york and includes towns such as wakefield, birmingham and bristol. again, cheap fares if booked in advance.

accommodation: there are two travel inns, a premier lodge and i think another budget hotel. aside from that, there are plenty of B&Bs, a sheraton and a hilton. however during the festival accommodation gets booked up VERY quickly and is not cheap, but i don't know prices, since i actually live here. there will probably be room for a few folk to stay in my flat if you're willing to bring sleeping bags, and you're ok with sleeping on the floor. and it's a student flat so it's not going to be as clean as your mum's. my flat is [currently] a 15 minute walk from the town centre.

the clubs: first off, there are no trance nights in edinburgh. secondly, there's only one hard house night, "nuklearpuppy", which is poorly attended and badly run (allegedly). what edinburgh thrives on is house, prog, techno, drum & bass and hip-hop. we don't get big names such as PvD, Tiesto, etc, because there simply isn't a venue big enough for them. there are four or five main venues in edinburgh that hold "decent" club nights (i'm talking in comparison to your local Time & Envy or Ikon-type nitespots).

scotland's licencing laws mean nearly all pubs are open until 1am. clubs are generally 11pm-3am. which means you're considered to be there early if you're there at 11.30. there are no afterclubs, and there are no clubs which stop serving alcohol at 3am but stay open later. 3am is your lot. however, different rules apply during the festival, as the council grants licences for most clubs to 5am, and pubs to 3am. this means a longer night, and the best thing is that you can start drinking again at 6am, with two pubs that for some reason are specially licensed to open that early.

i would love to see some folk up here, but the thing i'm mainly worried about is it not living up to people's expectations. edinburgh's not considered to be a "clubbing" city by everyone else, but that's because in comparison to clubs down south, the scene up here is relatively underground. and i don't just mean that it's people don't want to see the same big-name DJs week in, week out; they want decent music and not just to get [censored] up on chemicals. that's not to say that the nights i have up here aren't [censored] amazing though -- they are. it's just it's different horses for different courses, what works well down south doesn't necessarily work well up here, and vice versa. different crowd, different tastes.

Update: Potential Weekend Plans

got some potential club listings for you. here's some nights i'm looking at to drag you all down to for the weekend of August 8th-10th and it's looking pretty good IMO, nice and varied. plus since you're up during the festival period, you get the 5am licences.

Friday 8th: FreakLab (cross-genre) at Studio 24, Edinburgh . basically a separate spin-off night from local techno night "Dogma", it's some of the residents from Dogma along with other local names, and occasional guests. its first night is only this Friday, so i can't give any review of it yet, but the music policy is meant to be pretty varied, anything from house to techno to d&b to breaks to electro and all that's inbetween. [censored]-up no-boundaries stuff, basically. probably about £7 i should think. 10.30pm-5am (not confirmed, may be 3am).

* edited to add: actually I've found out there's Edinburgh's attempt at a hard house night called "Nuklearpuppy" at Ego which will be on this night. yet to find details so i'll post them up when i do. could be a decent alternative to FreakLab, if anyone prefers that instead.

Saturday 9th: Majestica (prog/funky) at the Venue, Edinburgh. it's a monthly night that i've been to a good few times now, run by three guys who are all nice chaps. the music policy is funky haas on the basement floor, and then upstairs on the main floor i'd probably describe it as general progressive-type stuff, with tribally house to start off with moving through to a more uplifting housey finish, sometimes nice and trancey, sometimes technoey, depends on who's playing! last guest they had was James Holden, which was amazing. very friendly crowd too. you can find a review i wrote here. £10. 10.30pm-5am.

Sunday 10th: Taste (prog/funky) at the Liquid Room, Edinburgh. legendary long-running local Sunday night - went to the ninth birthday night last Sunday. Taste started out life originally as a gay night; if that puts anyone off then tough [censored], because it has a good atmosphere (again really friendly crowd), plays good tunes, and is an excellent way of finishing off the weekend in style! so if you're up for going out on the Sunday that's what i recommend. music policy starts off with kind of deep house and then builds up to progressive -- almost trancey -- in the main room, and funky house upstairs in the back room. there's a review i wrote here £10. 11pm-5am.

then you all piss off home. thanks.

the good thing here is that you get to see what i think are edinburgh's three best venues, all in order of cleanliness! there's Studio 24 (a converted cinema that's dark, dirty and minging; has a warehouse-feel to it), the Venue (a bit cleaner, but still has a nice underground atmosphere) and the Liquid Room (plays host to the biggest nights in Edinburgh and has one of the best sound systems, and has a laser too. wow). plus i know there's no big-name guests here for you to see, but for me it's all about the music and the atmosphere really, and i'd rate these three nights (well the two that have been going, anyway... freaklab like i say hasn't started yet) as being quality for tunes. no hard house & trance but i'm sure you'll like 'em.

if you don't want to club all three nights, then of course there's plenty of other stuff to do. the pubs will all be licensed till 3am anyway. and there's restaurants, comedy, just pissing about in town... the choice is yours...

BUT if you're up for trying something new and leaving the confines of the english border then, well... the kettle's on

PHEW!!!

massive fuck-off post.

for more info on clubbing in edinburgh check out cscot.com -- soon to be redesigned and updated (it's a bit out of date just now).

anyone interested? stick your name down and i'll try and get something sorted here.

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!!!! CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS !!!!

[TomD]

whoop de doo

[CreamyC]

The link is currently down due to site issues, apologies.

[Signum]

 

This person is currently down due to site issues, apologies.

[Tresh]

The jock-land weekender is looking very popular!!

[CreamyC]

Tresh said:

The jock-land weekender is looking very popular!!

 

Laugh mate, I'll remember that.

[Tresh]

CreamyC said:

Tresh said:

The jock-land weekender is looking very popular!!

 

Laugh mate, I'll remember that.

 

If ur referring to the Liverpool one,? Give a [censored].

[CreamyC]

I wasn't. But fair enough mate.

[Tresh]

Ur asking for it tonite.

[CreamyC]

No, just not in the mood thats all.

[Signum]

tresh, your avatar really is so bad

[Tresh]

CreamyC said:

No, just not in the mood thats all.

 

That time of the month?

[Tresh]

signum said:

tresh, your avatar really is so bad

 

I know

[tommy]

Would love to come to this. If I hadn't just started a new job and wasn't [censored] knows how much in debt, I would.

 

Have a guddun neways, and I'll c ya @ Wildchild Tommy.

[TomD]

yeah shitloads of people are coming.

 

it's the Party Of The Year!