What's on?

[fuckin-yaldie]

Originally Posted by Jon Ashley

There are still things to be announced, so the timetables are subject to change.

I really hope you guys have some decent stuff to announce. Quite frankly, as far as live music is concerned, the line-up (aka GLC) is currently pish.

If there's no other semi-big acts announced then FW07 in the QM is going to be a joke. I can't see how it's gonna change much either as it's less than a month away.

I hear Pendulum are free during freshers week, go book them!

[Jon Ashley]

Instead of spending stupid amounts money on "big name" acts, we're choosing to invest that money into our currently running nights, because that's what we run throughout the year. Rev and Cheesy are gonna be really special, because we're proud of our club nights and we want to Freshers' to realise that these club nights are great fun. Personally, I think that is a far better investment than spending £xk on a couple of acts who'll never play in the Union again.

Remember, we tried bands at Rev last freshers' week - it doesn't really work at all.

Also, with regards to our live music being "pish", we have live music on every afternoon in Qudos during freshers' week. They may not be big names but they're gonna be great entertainment. And frankly, that's all that matters.

[fuckin-yaldie]

Originally Posted by Jon Ashley

Instead of spending stupid amounts money on "big name" acts, we're choosing to invest that money into our currently running nights, because that's what we run throughout the year. Rev and Cheesy are gonna be really special, because we're proud of our club nights and we want to Freshers' to realise that these club nights are great fun. Personally, I think that is a far better investment than spending £xk on a couple of acts who'll never play in the Union again.

Remember, we tried bands at Rev last freshers' week - it doesn't really work at all.

Also, with regards to our live music being "pish", we have live music on every afternoon in Qudos during freshers' week. They may not be big names but they're gonna be great entertainment. And frankly, that's all that matters.

I disagree. If you get big names you can charge for tickets and make a profit...

The freshers are like mosquitoes round a lightbulb when faced with the decision of dizee rascal or a pub quiz.

I'm not against money being spend on club nights but in what way is it going to be spent? Why do cheesy and rev need money spent on them? What's wrong with them at present? Last time I checked students + union + reasonably priced alcohol + half decent music = decent night. What needs changing?

[Semprini]

Originally Posted by fuckin-yaldie

I disagree. If you get big names you can charge for tickets and make a profit...

I'm fairly certain the QM's license forbids them from making a profit.

[ally.h]

Originally Posted by fuckin-yaldie

I disagree. If you get big names you can charge for tickets and make a profit...

the word you are looking for is surplus.

and the freshers pass covers entry to everything during FW, so there are no individual event tickets to be sold...

Originally Posted by fuckin-yaldie

Why do cheesy and rev need money spent on them? What's wrong with them at present? Last time I checked students + union + reasonably priced alcohol + half decent music = decent night. What needs changing?

Why provide a decent (ie. mediocre) night when the union has the ability to provide an AMAZING night for its members?

al.

[fuckin-yaldie]

Originally Posted by ally.h

the word you are looking for is surplus.

and the freshers pass covers entry to everything during FW, so there are no individual event tickets to be sold...



Why provide a decent (ie. mediocre) night when the union has the ability to provide an AMAZING night for its members?

al.

Surplus then. The point is booking and paying for a decent band wouldn't "cost" money ie it would make a net surplus if you're being picky about it.

Originally Posted by ally.h

Why provide a decent (ie. mediocre) night when the union has the ability to provide an AMAZING night for its members?

I agree but by doing what? Spending more money on what? How are you going to change what is already pretty good? What's wrong with cheesy and rev and how can you make them better with more money apart from giving free drinks away?

I don't quite understand.


FW04 had Biffy and Mr Scruff - that's more the kind of line-up I'm taking about.

[liveross]

Originally Posted by ally.h

Why provide a decent (ie. mediocre) night when the union has the ability to provide an AMAZING night for its members?

al.

When i was a fresher, my fresher's week was what decided what union i joined. I loved the linep at the GU.... (i totally forget now, but it was well good). So, i joined that union. The next year, I joined the QM because of their lineup... and so on...

I would wonder if a survey has been done on this type of fresher behaviour, because, if my case is anything to go by, the lineup frankly is pretty poor. Yes, the QM is more niche, yes, the QM is proud of their club nights, but if this is the FIRST impression you are giving over 2000 freshers, then frankly, I'd be surprised if many people joined...

I'm sorry, but I seriously have to doubt what's going on in the QM's minds' at the moment.

[Jon Ashley]

I'm not going to give away what we're doing to Rev and Cheesy in Freshers' Week, because we are genuinely making an effort and we want an element of surprise for that week. Giving everything away wouldn't be a clever thing to do.

In regards to the QM being more "niche"... err, what?

How is Goldie Lookin' Chain more niche than Dizzee Rascal? How is Cheesy Pop more niche than Dave Pearce? That doesn't make any sense what so ever.

And as far as what's going on through our minds: we're trying something different. We've learned from last year, and we've learned that spending a stupid amount of money on acts for the one week doesn't really help us all that much in the long run. Look at our membership numbers last year after what the GU guardian called a "disastrous" freshers' week - our membership numbers were higher than ever. So, whilst freshers' week is hugely important, it's not the be all and end all - we're viewing freshers' week as the week to launch what the QM Union is about all year - brill club nights, great social entertainment, great services and a brilliant atmosphere.

[fuckin-yaldie]

Originally Posted by liveross

When i was a fresher, my fresher's week was what decided what union i joined. I loved the linep at the GU.... (i totally forget now, but it was well good). So, i joined that union. The next year, I joined the QM because of their lineup... and so on...

I would wonder if a survey has been done on this type of fresher behaviour, because, if my case is anything to go by, the lineup frankly is pretty poor. Yes, the QM is more niche, yes, the QM is proud of their club nights, but if this is the FIRST impression you are giving over 2000 freshers, then frankly, I'd be surprised if many people joined...

I'm sorry, but I seriously have to doubt what's going on in the QM's minds' at the moment.

I couldn't agree more. A decent line-up is really important as your average, straight from school, fresher isn't going to know much about unions. He/she is more likely to be impresses by one with some biggish name acts playing.

You can imagine the first phonecall home:

Parent: so... how's it all going then?

Fresher: Amazing, you'll never guess what, INSERT BIG ACT HERE played at our union! Uni is so much better than school.


There's people who will already have made up their minds about which union they're joining, if you're, say, mad about your rugby or really into metal or you're lesbian gay or bi then it's not a hard choice to make. The majority, however will be undecided until they visit the two and check them out.

Please don't fuck up FW07 QM, I'm counting on you.

Originally Posted by Jon Ashley

I'm not going to give away what we're doing to Rev and Cheesy in Freshers' Week, because we are genuinely making an effort and we want an element of surprise for that week. Giving everything away wouldn't be a clever thing to do..

So how are you going to get them through the door in the first place???

QM: Come to the QM tonight!

Fresher: Oh, right... what's on?

QM; It's going to be a really good night I promise!

Fresher: Yeah, but who's playing?

QM: It's a surpise! We made a genuine effort though...

Fresher: Er... no thanks I'm off to see Dizzie Rascal.


Note to self: stop writing forum posts in script form.

[MC Kelly]

Hmm. I only just stumbled on this thread, but here's another perspective for you. I live at home, and always have done throughout my 6 years at uni. Basically, my Fresher's Week involved more daytime events than nighttime because I was fairly conscious of getting home again at the end of the night - or at least, getting to a home of some variety

I'm glad to see that the QM is putting a lot of focus on brilliant daytime entertainment to enthuse people who either can't or have no inclination to get heftily involved at night time. It's been something that I'd have enjoyed more in my FW, (02, gah!) and I hope people take advantage of it this year.

As for our night time line up - let's face it, with nights like Cheesy Pop and Rev the QM doesn't have to prove itself with showy cash-flashing to prove that we can put on a good night's entertainment. There's absolutely no point whatsoever in spending thousands on Rev in FW, where none of our regulars can attend, and then lose the freshers the following week because there is no hype or major draw. By intentionally presenting our clubnights as our weekly nights, no nonsense, we're showing a whole new yeargroup of potential QMers that this is us, like it or lump it, but we reckon you'll like it.

And the thousands of members who've joined over the last year obviously agreed that yeah, it's pretty decent up our way.

[fuckin-yaldie]

Originally Posted by MC Kelly

Hmm. I only just stumbled on this thread, but here's another perspective for you. I live at home, and always have done throughout my 6 years at uni. Basically, my Fresher's Week involved more daytime events than nighttime because I was fairly conscious of getting home again at the end of the night - or at least, getting to a home of some variety

I'm glad to see that the QM is putting a lot of focus on brilliant daytime entertainment to enthuse people who either can't or have no inclination to get heftily involved at night time. It's been something that I'd have enjoyed more in my FW, (02, gah!) and I hope people take advantage of it this year.

As for our night time line up - let's face it, with nights like Cheesy Pop and Rev the QM doesn't have to prove itself with showy cash-flashing to prove that we can put on a good night's entertainment. There's absolutely no point whatsoever in spending thousands on Rev in FW, where none of our regulars can attend, and then lose the freshers the following week because there is no hype or major draw. By intentionally presenting our clubnights as our weekly nights, no nonsense, we're showing a whole new yeargroup of potential QMers that this is us, like it or lump it, but we reckon you'll like it.

And the thousands of members who've joined over the last year obviously agreed that yeah, it's pretty decent up our way.

Er... yeah but some people actually enjoy seeing live acts. It's not rocket science ffs. I think we're all agreed that Cheesy and Rev are good, nay, excellent nights but a Freshers Week without some big acts to draw the punters (and for everybody to simply enjoy) is not a Freshers Week in my opinion.

The QM has a long history of being a music venue, countless stars have graced the Qudos stage. It's such an important part of the union and this should be reflected in the QMs Freshers Week line-up.

Sure, if you want to go home and get snuggled up by the fire with your mum than that's up to you but for the majority, FW is a week long piss up with most things happening at night.

I'm not saying spend thousands on Rev, I'm saying get in 2 or three bigish names, say a band and a DJ, charge entry for one or both of them (does FW cheesy not charge anyway?).

I don't see how the QM can spend 4 grand on two piss poor daytime DJs (which no one came to) but not spend some money on getting in some acts that, after entry and drinks monies have been taken, are not going to cost them anything!

I'm sorry but:

TV programs
Pool Tournament
Pub Quiz
Unplugged
Computer Games
Treasure Hunt
Cocktails
Giant Boardgames
Bingo
Goldie Lookin Chain

is not a very exciting looking week (or hugely different from a regular QM week).

(Thumbs up on the daily bands in Qudos, Comedy and BBQ though)

I really hope my gut feeling is completlely and utterly wrong but I feel QM FW 07 is going to flop badly.

[djtoast]

From a purely practical point of view I'll point out that it's easier to say "book big-name bands, charge entry, quids in" than to actually do that.

Bands have schedules decided in consultation with their management that include touring, studio time, one-off events (eg festivals) and time off. If they're in the studio or on "holiday" it's likely a flat "no" to any attempts to book them. Plus to book a band to play a show if that band isn't already touring is more often than not prohibitively expensive because of the need to transport them and their various staff (instrument techs, TM, possibly sound engineer), and their gear (or hire backline) etc etc etc.

So really the best chance of securing a well-known band for a reasonable price is to find someone who's already touring, and slot a date at the QM into their tour - if they have dates anywhere nearby on adjacent days bob's your uncle...

But there tend to be very few suitable bands in that position at any one time, and particularly at this time of year when playing festivals all summer has made many want some time off.

Plus the fee and other costs tend to make the financial equation much tighter than people realise. It's not quite as easy as "Book Franz Ferdinand, pay them five grand, sell a thousand tickets at a tenner a head and you've doubled your money"

[Semprini]

Originally Posted by fuckin-yaldie

You can imagine the first phonecall home:

Parent: so... how's it all going then?

Fresher: Amazing, you'll never guess what, INSERT BIG ACT HERE played at our union! Uni is so much better than school.

And then 6 months later...

Parent: so... how's it all going then?

Fresher: Fucking pish, the big first week was where they spent all their money, there's fuck all on that's any good now.

[Jennifer W]

Originally Posted by Jon Ashley

Also, with regards to our live music being "pish", we have live music on every afternoon in Qudos during freshers' week. They may not be big names but they're gonna be great entertainment. And frankly, that's all that matters.

Just for a point of information the live music will actually be performed in Jim's bar from 12-1pm tuesday -thursday and 1pm-2pm on friday.

Our daytime events schedule for FW is very full and includes every regular Social event the QM puts on on a weekly basis. This year I have added to the regular schedule by including at least one event on every day of the week. To give the Freshers a taste of what these events are like it is necessary to show them off in Freshers' Week just like we do with our club nights. In addition there are many extra events - a vintage clothing fashion show, pampering sessions, multi player console gaming, bingo and live acoustic music just to mention a few. I'm very proud of the busy line up we have produced and hope that it means students who might not necessarily stay to the evening events can have an exciting week anyway.

Big bands may be a 'quick fix' to draw the Freshers into the building for that one week but this year we wanted to work on showing them how good our regular line up is and hence what we can offer them all year round as well as giving them some special events that we have yet to announce the details of.

[raikje]

i'll be interested to see how FW works out this year, though i fear that freshers will always remember the "big names" they saw above anything else. i found a quote from some random person on a forum somewhere about last year's FW - "the thirty quid is basically covering the cost of the acts turning up". and unfortunately, that's the opinion of a lot of people, so "no acts" = "where's my money gone?"

i am wondering though- how is this lineup costing £20,000? i reckon that must be roughly what the qm get from the freshers pass sales, and i think the agreement between the student bodies says they're not allowed to make a surplus from the pass money. so a few comedians, GLC and a silent disco surely can't be costing all that much?