It’s becoming a bit of a recurring theme, this depressing review of the year lark.
In 2008 I said it had been a bit of a flat 12 months after preview highs, last year continued the downward trend and, despite a couple of blips, this year has surely been the poorest since 2007.
Locally, aside from The Law who on the basis of their Doghouse gig on Monday night are still clearly way ahead as the best of the rest, nobody has picked up the baton from The View, who are still blazing a trail for Dundee and are shortly to release album number three.
The question everyone is asking is where are the new View?
Well, unfortunately we can’t answer that various people have shown some great promise among the chasing pack, none more so than The Law, Luva Anna, Sergeant et al.
Sadly, although The Law continue to enthrall everybody whenever and wherever they perform live, the industry bigwigs just haven’t taken to them in a recording sense more fool them.
Luva Anna are still working away behind the scenes, Dave Webster has written some great new material which he’s showcased acoustically recently, but tangible results are still to come, hopefully they will early in 2011.
And saddest of all, Fife’s big hopes Sergeant folded towards the end of the year after only one album.
As is often the case, bad timing was cited as their undoing, and if their record had been released when it should have been who knows where they would be now.
Delays over its release saw it disappear into the ether and the Glenrothes boys decided that, although they’ll still work together and with others, Sergeant as an entity was finished.
Conversely, the rise and rise of Biffy Clyro continued and they’re now up in the stratosphere with a platinum-selling album and the glory of being covered by an X Factor-winning act… well, never mind.
Meanwhile, live music across the country had some great moments, none better than the summer festivals, with yet another glorious T in the Park and Rockness, followed closely by Belladrum, Wickerman, Wizard and Loopallu.Year’s highlightsGreat times were had at them all, with favourite moments being Muse on Friday at T in the Park just fantastic and the daftness of Madness on the Sunday.
All across the country, though, live gigs and festivals were bucking the recession, with huge audiences bigging up their heroes on stage in front of them.
Well-attended gigs at Duke’s Corner and The Doghouse, plus some great club nights at The Reading Rooms, kept the momentum going.
Again, though, it has to be said that towards the end of the year the recession had kicked even the most voracious fans in the wallet and ticket sales had dipped alarmingly at some events, causing cancellations at others.
Fat Sam’s in Dundee was the scene of two of the best events seen for years in the city.
Plan B’s gig in October was simply amazing he’s a fantastic singer, we all knew that, but what an amazing guy as well.
His Motown medley encore will live forever in the minds of everybody who was lucky enough to be there.
For Rocktalk, though, the most personally-satisfying musical event of the year was the Dundee Concert For Haiti back in February.
The fund-raising gig at Fat Sam’s, organised jointly by The Courier, sister paper the Evening Telegraph and the venue, was a brilliant success from start to finish with every musician that took part doing themselves and the city proud.
The collaboration between The View, The Law and Luva Anna, known as The Lavvie Wall Nun, is still vivid in the memory as is the concert itself.
Seeing so many fantastic musicians coming together in aid of such a worthy cause was a joy to behold, and a terrific reminder of how much superb talent there is in Dundee and the surrounding areas.
But the most important part of the night was doing something to help out people in a terrible situation, and managing to raise £16,000 was a fantastic achievement. Thanks once again to everyone who made it possible.
All that remains is to wish everybody a Happy New Year, and hopefully this time next year we can all be looking back at a wonderfully musical 2011.