Angus

Seaton Estate Country Club, Arbroath

I have played at this lovely venue many times over the past few years. I have performed my 'Tom Jones Show' here twice and also did my general cabaret shows.

This venue is in an absolutely beautiful setting on the outskirts of Arbroath. With lovely decor and furniture inside, it really is a very nice play to perform.

There is one downside, which I will come to in a minute, but overall it is one of the nicer venues around the circuit. A lot of debate goes on amongst entertainers regarding the quality of changing facilities but there can be no complaint here. You have access to the spa room which has it's own shower, toilet, mirrors and hairdryer if required (which obviously was not a lot of use to me) and a nice wee leather seat too ... just simply very, very nice for acts to use.

The crowd in here are brilliant. With a mixture of owners and holiday visitors, they always have a good time and are pretty much up dancing from the very start of the night. After doing a few gigs up here, it is nice to see so many regular and familiar friendly faces always enjoying themselves ..... now to the downside ....

There is only one to be honest ...... this is quite a difficult room to work when it is busy for two reasons. Where you set up is right on the dance-floor, which is bang in the middle of an L-Shaped hall. It is sometimes like trying to perform to 2 crowds at the same time, having to turn from left to right otherwise you would be performing to pretty much a wall in front of you. I just feel that sometimes it is like you are turning your back on the audience at some points. Although, the last time I was there at the tail end of the season in 2011, because the park was not too busy, the left section was shut off which allowed me to set up on a different position, facing just one section of the room. Much, much better !!!

There is another slight downside .... sounds like I am moaning now .... but because you work on the dance-floor here, you have people very, very close to you. This is not that 'prima-donna' kind of complaint ... it is more of a concern about equipment being knocked over than anything else. You will see from the video below, that with a lighting rig in place or speakers stands, the dancers are very close. What I am basically saying is that the venue would benefit from a small raised stage area which would make the acts feel a bit more comfortable about the dancers being so close.

All in all though, this is a great venue and well worth doing a couple of times a year. I am back up there later in 2012 and will look forward to it !!!

Montrose Mercantile Golf Club, Montrose

This is a venue that I have only played once, which was a couple of years ago for a Valentine's Night dance.

I arrived, as usual, early enough to see what the layout of the club was and was glad to see a nice easy access into the Club. Sometimes it can be a bit of a hassle taking your equipment in to some golf or bowling clubs due to the location of the clubhouses.

Getting set up nice and early, before the meal began, I had a bit of time to talk to the Club Convener about the Club and it's setting. The clubhouse faces out on to the course which is not exclusively played on by the members of Mercantile. There are, from memory, 3 or 4 different clubs that share the course and each one has it's own clubhouse ...... I like to gather a wee bit of local history from the clubs that I perform in ...helps with trivia questions ha ha.

Anyway, meal done and 2 sets to be done. I did my 'Tom Jones Show' in the first half and I have to say tat it was so respectfully received by the audience. With great applause and participation at the right points it was shaping to be a very good night.

The second half saw me start off with a 'special feature' on Barry White (Valentine's Day and all that ...) and then on to a great set of dance material which had the dance-floor full until the end of the night.

I really have nothing but good words for this venue ... nice stage area, good lighting, generous dance-floor and a lovely crowd. I would say to any acts that this is a venue that you would enjoy !

Barry Downs Caravan Park, Carnoustie

Now here is a great wee venue .... Situated just outside Monifieth, not the easiest to find without the satnav, but when you find it you will find a great clubhouse.

Like most other smaller caravan parks, it is mostly owners that you will have as your audience here.

It looks like a small place from the outside but when you get inside it is actually a lot bigger and since the first time I was there in 2010, it has been extended to make it an even bigger room.

I have been her 3 times over the last couple of years and I am booked to go back up in 2012 too. This clubhouse is known as 'The Pub' and is run like one too, although there is bingo and raffles too which gives it more of a Club feel. The last time I was there was at Halloween last year and it was mostly fancy dress for the customers and a great atmosphere.

This is a place that I do enjoy performing in. It is very well run by Ally and his staff and the crowd are always very enthusiastic.

Simply put ... a really great wee gig !!!

Panmure Hotel, Monifieth

This was a gig that I thought would be a promising return venue for me.

The owners of the Hotel, at the time, had seen me perform in another venue and had appraoched me to see if i would do a show for them at their hotel. This happens a lot in this business and the amount of business cards that have been handed out over the years by far outweighs the amount of bookings that come from them.

However, in this case I was given a business card for the hotel and followed up the enquiry quickly the week after and secured a booking for a celebration night for the first anniversary of them owning the hotel ... result !!!

So ... turned up and did a geat gig at the hotel ..... so good that I had an enquiry on the night for a wedding 8 months later, which we had arranged to organise through the hotel.

Subsequently, that booking organised and a fee agreed, I confirmed the booking the week before whilst trying to organise accommodation for the night.

When met with 'I'm sorry they don't own the hotel anymore and there is no wedding booked here, sorry' ....... straight on the phone to the mobile number I had for the previous owners ... to no reply and funnily enough, no reply to texts either !!!

You know something, it is only common business courtesy to cancel things if you go out of business, but I wonder what actually happened to the punter that I was supposed to be doing their wedding? Did they get married? Did they have entertainment? Or did they simply ignore the fact to tell me that they had changed venue due to the fact that they were copied into every email I sent the hotel????

That said ... being very sort notice, I was not sure of getting a booking for that night but my agents managed to fill it for me.. This business is all about who you know .... but still pisses me off that people don't realise that booking a pro act is taking someone's date out of a diary !!!

John and Nigel ... you know who you are !!!