AudioMedia - January 2009 - (Page 70)

01|09 AMSR THE LAST PICTURE SHOW A Visit to Edinburgh's Picture House The Scottish capital’s got a brand new venue – production-ready to boot, and German proto-synthmeisters Tangerine Dream are amongst the first to play there. JONATHAN MILLER sounds out The Edinburgh Picture House. uilt upon extinct volcanoes atop the Firth of Forth – a North Sea inlet, for the benefit of those not in the geographical know, the City of Edinburgh undeniably boasts one of the most beautiful cityscapes in the world, with its namesake castle – Scotland’s most famous – dominating its skyline. Yes, the Scottish capital’s 444,000-odd citizens have much to sing and dance about, and now, thanks to the sterling restorative and upgrading work of owners MAMA Group, they’ve got another licensed music venue in which to do just that (as also have the million or so annual visitors that make Edinburgh the UK’s second most popular tourist destination after London). Ladies and gentlemen; thank you for being patient; please welcome… The Picture House! B Billing itself as a 360-degree music business, MAMA Group Plc. was founded in 2002, focusing on music and media businesses. As such, the Group currently comprises three divisions. Live Music includes the Barfly network of live music venues, plus the Hammersmith Apollo, Jazz Café, The Forum, and The Borderline, all in London; as well as holding interests in live music events, including the Lovebox Festival. Artist Services include artist and producer management, music publishing, merchandising, and investments in recording businesses; and Consumer incorporates The Fly (one of the UK’s most widely distributed music magazines), Campus Group – a collection of specialist media and marketing agencies working for clients interested in the student and wider youth audiences, plus a Look M ama ticketing business. Meanwhile, MAMA’s Music and Media Solutions sideline is responsible for all brand partnerships activity, uniquely positioned to integrate and deliver a variety of brand objectives across the Group’s stable of assets. Simply states John Stout, newly appointed General Manager at The Picture House: “It’s an integration that works.” Indeed it does – with a good deal of success, hence the MAMA Group’s most recent addition to its Live Music venue portfolio: the 1,500-capacity Picture House that had begun life on Edinburgh’s Lothian Road back in the 1920s as a cinema, appropriately enough. “It was opened in 1923, I believe,” Stout continues. “Later it was used for live music as well – particularly throughout the Seventies, though it certainly had quite a lot of bands coming through its doors in the Eighties, and then later it was taken over and transformed into a nightclub. So we’ve taken those things away – the nightclub infrastructure, if you like, and installed a live music infrastructure in its place.” Not only infrastructure in the architectural sense of the word, but also in terms of installing and stockpiling a healthy selection of sound reinforce ment equipment to create a state - of-the -ar t, production-ready venue ideally suited to the type of visiting performers that Stout – previously responsible for programming all non-classical music at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall – is primarily employed to attract. “It is production-ready,” he concurs. “There’s full sound and lights already in the venue. We can adapt quite > 70 AUDIO MEDIA JANUARY 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AudioMedia - January 2009

AudioMedia - January 2009 Contents Recording News Post News Broadcast News Geo Focus: India What's Up UK? Special Report: Pimp My Ride AKG C214 Sony Acid Pro 7.0 Final Cut: Mirror's Edge Opportunities in the Reality World She's Got the Look The X-Factor Sadie LRX2 Source Elements Source-Connect 3.1 Buying a Recorder In Control Product Sampler: Trade Shows Video Guide AMSR News Digico SD8 The Last Picture Show File Server

AudioMedia - January 2009

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