Uter

Welcome to the Üter website.

Üter is a one-man-band with a difference. There's three of us. I am called Declan and I started Üter in about 1998 on my own and have recorded and released two singles, Vibrato (self-funded) and Tomorrow's Clowns (on OSCarr Records).

As the idea of me on stage playing along to a backing tape sounds fairly dull I have enlisted the help of Marceline Smith (token chick) and Martin Johnstone (one for the ladies) to play along with me to that backing tape. If the mood takes them and there's nothing on TV, they sometimes contribute in the studio too.

There is no big philosophy to the band, unless Martin and Marceline have one that I don't know about. It's more of a collection of opinions, tastes, senses of humour and general high moral standards expressed through the medium of music. That, and a way of avoiding having to grow up and get a proper career.

NEWS

We never played the gig with Data Panik. I mailed the promoter of the gig the following to explain:

Steven,

The main reason for us pulling out of the gig is that we found the way DF Promotions handled almost every aspect of the organisation that involved us unacceptable.

When we were first contacted about this by your collegue Ross Morrison on 19th October, we were offered a gig, "supporting Data Panik at The Bastille as part of the Radiance Lighting Festival". As fans of Data Panik we were of course interested in playing the gig, with the added incentives being that playing with a band with a considerably higher profile than us would presumably mean that we'd get exposure to a lot of their fans and that we would at least get payed enough that we wouldn't make a financial loss.

It wasn't until the 14th November that you even mentioned that there was another band playing and that we would be competing with them for a place on the bill, and not until the day of the gig that you made it clear about the situation regarding payment. I'm still not sure about aspects of the payment. What about the tickets that would have been sold on the door? Do we get a cut of that or do you assume that these people would only be there for the headliners?

If we had known these things at the start, and I should remind you that I replied to Ross on the 21st October saying, "Let me know more details, soundcheck, etc when you have them.", we probably would have told you then that we didn't want to play, as there would have been no Data Panik fans in the venue when the first band was on, and little chance of breaking even financially.

Essentially, we would be playing to an empty room funded by a whip-round from our mates.

Incidentally, we actually found out about Thee Comrades playing when one of us happened to be reading The Herald's gig guide, a few days before you told us, which listed the gig as "Data Panik + Thee Comrades", with no mention of us at all. This was also how the gig was billed in The List and The Metro. It seems to me that the only thing DF Promotions did for us is print our name on the tickets.

From our point of view, this gig would have been a waste of time and considering the unreasonable proposition that you eventually offered and the total lack of any consideration that has been shown to us, I feel perfectly justified in our actions.

I quite understand that DF Promotions will not want to deal with our band again and if this gig was anything to go by, the feeling is mutual.

Declan

We are, however back on track and ready to rock once again at The 13th Note Cafe next Monday 5th December with Mr Sneaky and The Village Orchestra. It costs £4.

Bye bye!

posted by Üter on Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Hello!

We're playing the gig with Data Panik and Thee Comrades I mentioned in the last news bulletin, on Friday 25th November at The Bastille Tavern in Argyll Arcade in Glasgow.

Tickets are £6 on the door or if you buy them from me before 4pm on the day you can get £2 off. Cool huh? E-mail me if you want one.

posted by Üter on Thursday, November 17, 2005

Thank you Blogger

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