So… Friday night was fun, yeah? After their hit performance last year, frequently described as “out of this world”, “unbelievable” and “one-of-a-kind”, The Blanks returned to Southampton once more, taking to the stage for Friday night’s Twisted event at the Cube.
Doors opened at 10pm but, as tickets were scanned and hands were stamped, the vast throngs of Scrubs fans and A-Cappella aficionados were informed that the Blanks (a.k.a. Ted’s Band) would not be on stage until 12.30am, with Chris from the Scott Mills Show in place to warm the crowd up until then.
But, as the Cube’s re-entry policy was non-existant, most of the night was spent waiting around for the band to arrive.
12.30am came and went, and with promises of their imminent arrival postponed to 1am, the packed basement quickly thinned out as everyone flocked to the bar once more to grab a last minute drink but, as the minutes crept by, the arrival of the awkward musical stars of Scrubs was postponed yet again, leading to a wave of palpable dismay, and anger, rippling through the ever dwindling crowd.
Then, finally, at 1.15am, the Blanks walked on stage to a roar of excitement, but with only 2 out of 4 mics working, another precious 5 minutes were lost while the technical problem was fixed.
Just 3 songs and 14 minutes in, the band came to the end of “Teenagers Forget Streisand Because the Only Girl is Cooler than Dynamite” (a Katy Perry, Cee-Lo, Duck Sauce, Rihanna and Taio Cruz medley) and promptly walked off stage.
Initially the reaction was of shock and surprise, but as the DJ took back the microphone (one of the better ones no doubt), this quickly turned to disbelief, anger, and loud booing… Was this it? 3 hours of waiting, buying drinks and standing around for 15 minutes of fame, it seemed that we were now the butt of an awful joke at our expense.
Not only had we waited until 1.15am for the band to arrive, but we had also just been subjected to an infuriatingly short, 15 minute set – could this night get any worse?!
Short answer is yes. After ¾’s of the crowd headed for the stairs and the chance to meet the band, we remained queuing for another 20 minutes before I noticed a security guard leaning over to a fan feverishly clutching a poster ripped from a nearby wall, saying that there would be no signings tonight, just one photo opportunity per person, lasting a total of roughly 2 minutes.
As a Fresher, this is the second time I have attended events at the Cube, after the Fresher’s Welcome Party, and also the second time I have been completely disappointed with the organization and outcome of the event.
No wonder that, by this time, nearly all Freshers have left the Cube behind in favour of the likes of Sobar, Jesters and Clowns – who wants to be ripped off by expensive drinks and bad gigs at your own SU or get trashed and have an amazing night on £1.50 triples at Sobar?
Your call, but I’m not heading back to the Cube any time soon.
Editors’ note: We’re more than happy to publish an alternative perspective on the state of entertainment at the Union, providing the piece is legible and interesting.
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Yet another biased article from Soton Tab regarding entertainment at SUSU.
Perhaps some of your writers would like to report on some of the many success stories at SUSU? Perhaps an article on one of the many live sell-out gigs? Maybe some the amazing charitable events that is conducted there by various societies and RAG?
What get’s me the most, is that this “writer” (can’t say journalist) has been to SUSU twice and has pretty much condemned all entertainment that SUSU has to offer. The Freshers Welcome Parties (yes there was two of them!) were a massive success! 3000 happy freshers (actually, that’s 2999 discounting Ben here).
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I am genuinely amazing that you managed to get RAG and amazing in the same sentence.
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Actually no that was stupid ‘cus you could say “RAG is very far from amazing.” and that is a sentence. NB this is all in good humour. Alex has done a brilliant job this year so far.
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Really your laying into the guys trying to raise money for charity now?
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I’d love to know what drinks are expensive behind the Union bars- comparative to a Friday night anywhere else in town!
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Very true, SUSU has the cheapest drinks anywhere anywhere in southampton on a friday night, including sobar/jesters! Problem is, due to the local residents, the Cube can’t advertise this!
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SUSU does actually offer the cheapest drinks on a friday night than anywhere but writers that only go there once a year wouldn’t know that
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The barstaff are shocking though.
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Please expand on this well thought out argument if you will
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Correct me if im wrong but Jesters on a Friday night – free entry before 10 and a free drink before 11..? is it possible to get cheaper than Free?!
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This is not an issue about how SUSU can or cannot put on an event but the blanks/blanks managers themselves. It was exactly the same when they played here last year (except there may have been longer for pics – queue was massive so didnt bother). The likely reason they were a let down was that they were at the Hertfordshire uni before southampton…making a lot of money for a little effort. I think a lot of the students were disappointed with the performance so maybe SUSU needs to reconsider inviting them again or negotiate a better experience for the students.
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Cant believe the tab has posted another article crucifying the same event, low blow and all this one does is discredit the first.
Expensive drinks? Pfft. I dont where you go drinking but the prices are pretty standard/reasonable.
In fairness ‘zee’ last year the blanks were at reading uni before southampton so i wouldnt consider that a reason for their poor performance.
Publishing another article of the same opinion as the other and about the same event is retarded.
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Dave, you’re missing the point of this REVIEW (not article) entirely.
What I wrote was an accurate description of the evening.
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You got simple facts like drinks price wrong. You can’t really claim any accuracy
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I happen to agree with Ben. I was fortunate enough to get an early-bird ticket and therefore only spent £4 on the evening, I do however feel sorry for those who had to pay £7 on the door. As we came to see Teds band that is basically 50p per minute! I think if the organisers had known the time they were coming on stage they should have told us in advance.
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Your ticket was for more than just the blanks being on stage. You were in a nightclub with the cheapest drinks in the city and one of the biggest radio DJ’s in the country as well. This was a club night not a blanks gig!
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Plus- only 25 people paid £7 on the door. Maybe some of these people should get more involved in SUSU instead of whining about every last detail and making no effort to change it.
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Regardless of whatever you call your so called “review”, this is a completely inaccurate account of events that happened that night. As a fresher Ben, I suggest you sample more of the Southampton nightlife before slating what SUSU has to offer!
And if this is a “REVIEW” as you call it, why are you not telling us more about The Blanks performance? What songs did they play? Did the crowd go mad? This feels more like a personal attack on SUSU to be honest.
As for being “ripped of by expensive drinks” Luke (your own editorial team) defends the price of drinks at SUSU along with Fox and Alice “SUSU has the cheapest drinks anywhere anywhere in southampton on a friday night, including sobar/jesters!” Residents cannot be held responsible for advertising drinks deals. This is why Bedford Place has trouble sometimes with its own custom.
And finally, “bad gigs”. What other bad gigs can you think of? You have only been to one by the sounds of things? Just to name a few… what about the sell out gigs with: Feeder, Chase & Status, Pendulum, Friendly Fires, Athlete, Kele, Passion Pit, Tinchy Stryder Beat-A-Maxx, The Subways, The Noisettes, Pete Doherty, Zane Lowe, Nihal??? Oh wait… I forgot… You have only been to SUSU twice!!! No wonder you know nothing about SUSU!!!
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But surely every event should be as good as those ones you just named in order to bring back custom? The Blanks themselves were good, just we as customers were very misled on the set length. We were also lied to about when they were coming on!
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The time that was stated for their set was correct at the time of booking them. Their delay was unforeseen and was out of SUSU’s control.
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Between the venues and tech student staff we work our arses off on these nights, and as a student-run website I think it’s terrible that fellow students are so ready to be critical of the guys behind the scene who are working such long hours!
I understand that things are not perfect and journalism is all about sensationalism but I also thought that students at this University would have the decency to consider the great things too. And you say you’re disappointed in the union…
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Completely agree… I would love to see Jesters, or Sobar, or Chilli whites pull off what we do. On a friday night we beat them on drinks prices and Music quality while maintaining a decent relationship with our local residents. I will buy a pint for anyone that can show me a club in Southampton that can match what we do on a technical level. Seriously everyone behind the scenes works damn hard I know because there were people at the blanks gig that worked from 3pm in the afternoon until 6am the next morning making it happen! (I only worked 12 hours on it)
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You may beat Jesters/Sobar on a technical level but the fact is the Cube is a rubbish venue – hence why attendances at club nights are terrible. I have seen many a night at the Cube with very poor attendances leading to cancellations of the nights.. Hey Ewe, I Love College, Fat Poppadaddies, Glamourpuss to name a few… Explain how Jesters remains open every night of the week…
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Couple of comments:
1.) When can you get £1.50 triples at Sobar?
2.) It is not the fault of SUSU that the band were late
3.) The night was not a Blanks GIG and they were oly meant to do 3 songs
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1) Tuesday night not friday making the cube cheaper
2) This appears to be beyond comprehension.
3) I would have thought that having Chris Stark as a DJ would have made that fairly clear
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Christopher Power… SUSU did not have the Blank’s arrival time on stage anywhere in writing prior to the event, meaning that many were under the impression that they were in for at least a good 30-40 minute set.
2. Do you see ANYTHING on this poster to symbolise that this was in fact more of a Chris Stark gig, supported by the Blanks or just actually ANYTHING saying this is NOT a Blanks gig?… No?… Neither could I!
So, before you rip into someone who, by the looks of things, is stepping into journalism for the first time, take a few moments to just think about your oh-so-carefully bullet-pointed attack strategy and the way you use the comments part of this review.
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I went to see Faithless at the Cube 2 years ago when I was a student, I think it was midweek though so I can’t comment on cheap fri drinks. The event started at about 9pm but they didn’t appear until gone 1.15/1.30am and were only on for about 20mins from what I remember. It was a fun night but a little frustrating, especially as you are not made aware of the scheduled timings beforehand and the no re-entry policy means you have to stay. The late timings also mean you cannot go to this sort of event if you have a lot to do the next day, especially with a 8am-9am start and a full day afterwards. It also means you cannot leave the cube and head to jesters to join friends on a separate social afterwards, something which to me means you lose out. I don’t like to put the Cube down as it was a fantastic venue in my freshers year and we went to either fri/sat every week fro about 3 months solid at one point. Despite this every gig I went to in my 4th year was at the Guildhall followed by jesters, purely because of the social aspect of going out afterwards meeting other housemates/friends who weren’t there.
I think the cube loses out now because jesters was previously somewhere the 2nd years + went to avoid the freshers in the cube, but now so many sports societies live in jesters the freshers end up in there too and the cube suffers.
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I cannot believe the s**t that Soton Tab come up with sometimes! You make accusations and say things which are not true! Triples for £1.50 at Sobar! You are a fresher – you know nothing obviously!
Also SUSU making lots of money! You are joking! We make little money if any at all! And anything that SUSU makes GOES STRAIGHT BACK TO YOU! SUSU is a bigger organisation than you realise! SUSU is there for your welfare and enjoyment. I believe (could be wrong) that it is becoming a registered charity.
The night at the cube was obviously not going to be a 3 hour gig from The Blanks. Also Chris Stark was there!
I think you should get to know more about SUSU before slating it! The drinks are cheap and everyone enjoyed the Welcome Party … except you obviously!
Please can you stop slating things which you know nothing about you ignorant fool! And Soton Tab, I have read far too many articles on here which are based on false claims or which are just plain wrong!
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Theres no need to get so aggressive. And I’m sorry but I’m pretty sure that every Tuesday I can get triples for 1.50…. He may have got some facts wrong but if you look past at the point he was trying to make then I agree with him on several points, and I’ve been here for four years.
We also know that not ‘everyone’ enjoyed the welcome party, same as not ‘everyone’ enjoys union events such as fresher balls and grad balls. I went to last years grad ball and was appalled at what we got for our money. As I was appalled at what I got for my money at my freshers ball years before.
The SUSU is not all bad, as we have identified elsewhere on the Tab, but it does make several very poor decisions. No-one expected the blanks to be on all evening, you never do with bands, but with the prevalence of advertising people could be forgiven for presuming they may be on stage for at least a half hour, forty minutes like a proper band.
If you don’t like what we write then you are more than welcome to write for us, as can anyone who has commented here. As the editor said we would welcome people giving a balanced opinion from the other side of the fence to this article rather then shooting down a fresher and potentially putting them off getting involved with the union next year, which sorta goes against SUSU policy of integration don’t you think????
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I do agree with you here Tom you do need to calm down a bit Ram this is the comment box of a student newspaper not BBC questiontime! However just to raise a few things yes on a Tuesday night (When the cube isn’t open) the drinks are cheaper at Sobar. However on a friday night (When obviously the cube is open) the drinks are cheaper at the union. That is an indisputable fact. Ram you are correct about the new charity status of the union and that is because SUSU does make a fair bit of profit which as you said goes directly back into ensuring students have the best university experience possible! Whether it is building a database of trustworthy landlords for renting your house next year (Available on January the 13th in case you were wondering) but also ensuring our clubs and societies have the necessary equipment (Thats over 170 different societies and over 80 different sports clubs). To be honest I wish a bit more went into paying our staff properly but hey lol! I cannot argue against the highly valid point that we wanted the Blanks to be on stage for longer however I have done some research into this and if you cost how much the Blanks are to book (per song) For the cost of £5 entry it just wasn’t possible to have them play a full gig at that price. Therefore it was a careful balancing act between having them play a long enough and keeping costs down. Last year it worked because they gave us an encore. This year there tour manager wouldn’t let them this is unfortunate but we have to live with it. I think that for £5 a night with Chris Stark in a club with what the cube was offering is actually very good.
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Tom, you’re an idiot.
If you’re ‘appalled’ at what you get for your money then you need to do some serious research. SUSU has never over spent on one cost at a Ball and the profits made are always minimal, to ensure that the events are the best they possibly can be…… and before anyone says that a gradball shouldn’t have a profit margin (as has been said before on here), a small margin is given every year to allow for any unexpected last minute costs that may occur. As the events have been well pulled together, the profit margin has never been at risk.
You say to Ram that he could write for you which is a fair point. So I put this to you…… there’s loads of ways a student can get involved with the Venues dept in SUSU, and student input is always welcome. Why don’t you try and get involved? that way you’ll see how clueless your comments are. Wake up!
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I also find that insulting people is an effective way of getting them involved in the union!
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I wasn’t questioning that they don’t over spend or make a profit, making a profit is a bad thing for SUSU when it’s our money. I was questioning how an event can be so poor. NO-ONE i spoke to about the grad ball said it was good, this is a group of around 30-40 people who went together. We had fun, but because we made it fun ourselves, a poor choice of one of the headliners, overexpensive drinks and pointless funfair made it look like we had gathered very little for our money. Everyone appreciated how hiring such a large location is expensive, but when other universities can book much better acts, it looks a bit pointless.
I will happily admit I have had great times in SUSU, my first year we spent most fridays at kinki before it died a death through being empty. I was trying to make a point that for every success story that has appeared in these comments there are unfortunately several events that have bombed.
Saying i’m clueless is pretty harsh,just because I have found fault with university and spoken my mind through articles on here doesn’t mean I don’t know what is going on. I know people work hard and seeing it get shot down is painful, but if people learn from our feedback then it can only get better and SUSU may become a regular success rather then a one off when big acts get booked.
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Tom is right, Ben is an example of one of many freshers out there who are not impressed with the Union’s provided nightlife, surely this should be a wake-up call that something is not right? So instead of slating him, respect his opinion and sort it out, ensuring the trust of freshers present and future.
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