Frustrated Musicologists in the Barren Kingdom of Fife,

The Kingdom of Fife needs more live music. All of today’s artists head towards Edinburgh and Glasgow, an appearance at either usually constitutes the Scottish leg of their tour – it’s very unfair on those who don’t live in those two cities.

I’m not asking for a Foo Fighters gig in Kennoway Masonic Lodge or Radiohead to headline the function suite in the Danskin’s Arms, Methilhill (that would be plain crazy, they'd have to play in support of the legendary Tam & Margaret). I just want a better effort from the Kingdom of Fife’s three main venues to stage better events. I don’t think I want to see a band at Kirkcaldy’s Adam Smith Theatre but they still ought to try stage more comedians. Rothes Halls, Glenrothes would probably argue that they do stage top live music events; of course, they’ve had Billy Ocean Colour Scene, Ian Brown, The Proclaimers (twice), The Delgados and Grim Northern Social since 2000. Carnegie Hall in Dunfermline does stage a great music festival, Tigerfest, every year and the line-up is always full of the best up-and-coming Scottish bands, but the 4-day run is the complete extent of their decent music performances for the year.

The venues are surely up to hosting the rising stars of the Scottish indie scene, of the same status as those who played at Tigerfest this year: Aberfeldy, Popup, Datapanik, Bricolage. I wonder if places like the Rothes Halls fear that these gigs wouldn’t attract enough people but, surely that can’t be the case, they have their own marketing systems, with mailing lists and advertisements. But today, the bands are able to rally their own fans through the internet, with myspace. It wouldn’t be difficult for the venues themselves to post notices on a few of the local forums – AFTN, Fence, The Bellyaches – or seek collaboration with some of the countries top DJs – Radio Scotland’s Vic Galloway and Tom Morton – or the nation’s poorer DJs - the XFM Scotland and Kingdom FM lot. Some kind of shared initiative with Fence Records would be appealing to me. The Fence Collection are always putting on some great stuff but even still, loads of the Fence Records artists have to do their gigs in Edinburgh and beyond.

If the band booker at any of the Kingdom of Fife’s venues needs to consult a musicologist, I’d only be too happy to impart the wealth of knowledge I’ve gleaned from years of being a radio freak. I’m starting the campaign here to wake the Kingdom up to live music, I’ll have the Red Hot Chilli Peppers playing Buckhaven High School assembly hall by Friday.