I was talking to someone from Edinburgh just the other day who told me a few venues in Glasgow are closing down?? They pointed to the influence of England's media. I think press culture has a role in this - and radio. The fact that the UK is swayed by Radio One and big glossy magazines promotes uniformity and commercialism. That's why a diversity of small stations and street papers is vital. There is talk of a national dance mag starting in Australia - based in Sydney and run by UK publishers - and I fear this will mean that our diversity will be compromised. It's very hard to convince English industry types (esp those aligned with large clubs) that each country has its own unique make-up and that other scenes are not merely small, backward models of theirs. They just come here and see what they want to see. Very few industry types in Sydney have a clue about techno (it is very subcultural there, I think other Sydney guys on this list would agree, this is why we should send Christmas cards to Southern Outpost, Fuzzy, etc, for keeping it real!!) so if a magazine came out of there you could bet that people we care about in Melbourne or Adelaide or Perth or Sydney's underground would have to conform. Thank God also that the Sydney street press still covers techno and at least gives people the option of finding out about it, a Sydney glossy won't do the same. Any one see that letter written by Sydney's Ministry of Sound boys in 7 in which they refuted that Ben Sims was popular in Australia with the rather embarassing "who the hell is Ben Sims?" Nice guys who just have to do their homework. Like they didn't have an inkling that Sims was a drawcard in cities like Melbourne. It was really funny to us but was more Sydney-centricism/UK-centricism than ignorance. They just know flossy players like Judge Jules, Nick Warren, Dave Seaman, etc.
>I feel the same about Glasgow (Scotland) in many respects ...
