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Mareel - Cinema & Music Venue


madcow
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music hall, rehearsal spaces, recording studio and education facilities) for £12 million? I'm not sure that you would.

 

Why on earth do we need education facilities when there is a new High School planned? Rehearsal spaces & recording studio...what % of Shetlanders will ever use them...seriously? Do i really need to campaign for something so obvious?

 

There was sausage all to do for young families during the dreary winter months before Mareel and there is sausage all to do after Mareel.

 

I bet you're also one of those anti-Tesco people...for my money a far better asset to Shetland than the already infamous Mareel....and if it had a cafe guaranteed it would be better and far cheaper than the Mareel effort.

 

OMG. Now supermarkets are being judged on their cafe facilities. What is this obsession with eating out?

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5 days listing is not too bad with the amount of films available. Have you tried asking? I am sure it would not hurt.

I have just gone through the booking process to attend the Mareel to watch the showing of the Fridays 13:30 Skyfall show and find out that there are rooms available if I want to watch the 21:00 show instead. I would leave about 09:50 tomorrow (Thursday), ferry at 17.00. I could get back home for about 7pm on Sunday, I would have seen several friends and been out on the town as well. Then back to work. Logistical nightmare, not really. I would have to change trains though, that is a pain. Today is Wednesday. Not bad for 2 days notice...as you know films are on all weekend, every weekend, oh unless they are not. Just phone. Easy.

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music hall, rehearsal spaces, recording studio and education facilities) for £12 million? I'm not sure that you would.

 

Why on earth do we need education facilities when there is a new High School planned? Rehearsal spaces & recording studio...what % of Shetlanders will ever use them...seriously? Do i really need to campaign for something so obvious?

 

It has nothing to do with the High Schools but has courses through the college. I can only assume you know nothing of the subject you speak of. Try the campaign, nah, you won't, too full of SaUsAgE. What ever that means.

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music hall, rehearsal spaces, recording studio and education facilities) for £12 million? I'm not sure that you would.

 

Why on earth do we need education facilities when there is a new High School planned?

 

The education facilities are for higher education, not standard grades or highers. Details here

 

http://www.shetlandarts.org/opportunities/nc-music-course/

 

And a successful result for one student

 

http://www.shetland.uhi.ac.uk/news/album-release-for-nc-music-student

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£12,000,000 could've been spent so much better. What a great shame. Where's the Ice Rink? Where's the 10 pin bowling? Where's the soft ball toy / games / slide area for kids? Where's the arcade?......the list goes on and on.

 

What was sorely needed (and still is) was a £12,000,000 complex featuring all of the above inc cinema. For the 'normal' family all we really have is a cinema and a small cafe / bar...for £12,000,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hmm. At current prices, we've probably spent something like £30-£40m on building eight swimming pools, three of which are within twenty minutes' drive time of one another, and we have met the resultant running costs of several hundred thousand pounds per annum. On the other hand, there is just one Mareel (which is apparently to be denied any subsidy after year one). If you want examples of extravagant expenditure, Mareel isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

 

I do sympathise, though, with your argument about other facilities. I contended (years and years ago) that Scalloway should have had an ice rink instead of a pool, giving the village something unique that would have attracted people in, and many of us were astonished when the bowls hall at Clickimin turned out to be an indoor bowling green, not a ten-pin venue.

 

Whatever the rights and wrongs of these past decisions about provision, though, the people who have fought a long battle for Mareel aren't reponsible for the omissions of the past.

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Why on earth do we need education facilities when there is a new High School planned? Rehearsal spaces & recording studio...what % of Shetlanders will ever use them...seriously? Do i really need to campaign for something so obvious?

 

There was sausage all to do for young families during the dreary winter months before Mareel and there is sausage all to do after Mareel.

 

I bet you're also one of those anti-Tesco people...for my money a far better asset to Shetland than the already infamous Mareel....and if it had a cafe guaranteed it would be better and far cheaper than the Mareel effort.

The education facilities are for,as has been pointed out, higher and further education. I believe students can go right through to degree level at Mareel.

 

As far as I'm aware, the recording studio is in regular use with most music events being recorded and bands making albums.

 

The rehearsal spaces aren't just for music. I know that amongst other things there's a kids dance troupe that rehearse there too. The rehearsal spaces also double as backstage areas, and there's been a large number of great music events which I'm sure have made use of them.

 

Yes, it would seem you do "need to campaign for something so obvious". To me, a music venue and cinema was obvious and I'm very glad folk campaigned for it. Have you put your suggestions to the Recreational Trust, looked into potential funding or spoken to some like minded parents? Every project has to start somewhere.

 

I'd say you're incorrect to say there's "sauage all" for young families to do. I supose it depends on what you're interested in and how young the kids are. Films, the formentioned dance group, music events, evening classes, workshops... have you tried sugesting any other activities that Mareel might be suitable to host to the management?

 

I don't see what my shopping habits has to do with the discussion so I won't be commenting on that.

 

It seems to me that you're comparing apples and oranges. The building was built with music, cinema and education as the core usages, and the money was raised on that basis (I can't see the Scottish Arts Council commiting £millions for a bowling alley).

 

The planned facilities of Mareel have been common knowledge for many years so it seems odd to start complnaing about omissions now that it's open.

 

The museum doesn't have a bowling alley or ice rink, and neither does any of the leisure centres, Shetland College, the proposed AHS or the new council offices, so why single out Mareel?

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We are going to see Skyfall next week, Canna wait!

Does anyone have anything positive to say about their mareel cinema experience apart from moaning?

 

I'll say something positive. I've been in the anti-Mareel camp, purely for financial reasons. The jury is now out on whether it can sustain itself financially though so I intend to enjoy and support it as much as possible while I can.

 

The cinema is great, cant really fault it. I wouldnt go if tickets near the front were all that was left as it would give me a stiff neck but thats the only minor point I can think of. I like the bar, its different from any other bars in Shetland which is a good start. There's loads of empty space which means that when there are functions on it should be easy to get into - whether it can cope with 600 thirsty Shetlanders remains to be seen - anyone been in during a large concert? I did see one of the workers coming down the stairs precariously carrying a large amount of empties and found myself cringing - on a busy night the stairs look like a possible accident spot, not sure how they engineer that out though.

 

Now looking forward to Lisa Lashes and Happy Mondays which should give a real idea of how good a music venue it is. I think they've done a decent job in terms of layout and getting some quality shows on and given they are in the teething phase some of the moaning on here seems to be just for the sake of itself.

 

Have to agree with the negativity around the web site, one of the worst I've seen and I'm a geek who actually cares about stuff like this. Find myself going straight to the search field every time which is a sure sign the site is almost dysfunctional. Thankfully the SBO site is a lot better and you can find a lot of the info there, I managed to buy tickets for Mareel using SBO website via a wireless link on my smartphone from Turkey a couple of weeks ago, fiddly but still great to be able to do this. Havent tried FB yet but if thats the best option I'll take a look - not everyone is internet savvy though and many may just look at Mareel's site, give up and lift the phone.

 

 

Perhaps there should be a planned closure of this thread - kill it on the 31st of December or something as its in danger of becoming tedious.

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Same here, the only place i wouldnt like to sit is at the front but apart from that the seats are great, i love how steep they are. The only thing that annoys me is people scruffling sweety bags during the movie, surley they can go without a sweety for 90 mins of their lives. What i would do is sell assorted sweets in plastic bags like 20p mix bags you get from local shops.

I havent tried the cafe yet but it looks cool and friendly. The Mareel is here now so can we all just stop moaning and let them try make a success of it.

As for the comment about people not getting so see movies because of no bus or car for travel, the movies are listed weeks in advance, surley people can make arrangments a few weeks ahead.

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... The rehearsal spaces aren't just for music. I know that amongst other things there's a kids dance troupe that rehearse there too. The rehearsal spaces also double as backstage areas, and there's been a large number of great music events which I'm sure have made use of them. ...

 

So basically if a group has a block booking for say dance classes and so forth, the Green Room isn't available to them when certain types of gigs are on, meaning they have to cancel the class?

 

Aye, there's plenty of films shown during the day for those who can't travel into Lerwick in the evenings.

 

Do you think all yokels don't work during the day then?

 

I've got no problem with regard to how far in advanced the cinema listings are shown but the timings of some, yes, especially when a film might only be shown on one date only at a specific time.

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Do you think all yokels don't work during the day then?

 

Pardon?! I don't think many people work 7 days a week, and I don't think Mareel can put on the films on days and times to suit everyone living anywhere in the islands, or to suit all working arrangements and travel timetables. Often the schedule will depend on the distribution deal they can get for a particular film. The figures showing that attendance has been greater than expected so far, suggests to me that there are many in Shetland who are very glad of the cinema and are making good use of it.

 

Do you know that classes have been cancelled, or are you jumping to conclusions here? I wouldn't expect the dance classes to be held at the same time as the gigs which need to use the backstage areas.

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Do you think all yokels don't work during the day then?

 

Pardon?! I don't think many people work 7 days a week, and I don't think Mareel can put on the films on days and times to suit everyone living anywhere in the islands, or to suit all working arrangements and travel timetables. Often the schedule will depend on the distribution deal they can get for a particular film. The figures showing that attendance has been greater than expected so far, suggests to me that there are many in Shetland who are very glad of the cinema and are making good use of it.

 

Do you know that classes have been cancelled, or are you jumping to conclusions here? I wouldn't expect the dance classes to be held at the same time as the gigs which need to use the backstage areas.

 

Some people do work in excess of 5 days per week and on the days that they are off, may have to do such boring tasks such as shopping. Of course Mareel can't please everyone all of the time - but there are many people who simply cannot afford taxi fares into Lerwick in the evenings. So you have a situation whereby whilst many might dearly love to visit and enjoy Mareel, they can't due to travel/financial constraints and yet others in town without cars can visit in the evenings. Incidentally, your post didn't say Saturday/Sunday but "day". Yes, the cinema attendance figures are great but is there a breakdown anywhere showing where the attendees are from?

 

Whilst you may not expect dance classes to be held at the same time as gigs, Mareel did put itself forward as multi-functional and sold itself to the public that events would be able to be held simultaneously. How can my question be regarded as jumping to a conclusion? Do you not agree that it could be a possibility? So far, we have the cafe/bar not being available to cinema goers when a gig is on, the Green Room not being available when a gig is on - does that also mean that local youngsters wanting to use the recording facilities can't do so when a gig is on too? Who gets priority on the bookings, a band gigging wanting to record or a local youngster who might only have a certain amount free due to studying for his/her exams - or is it a case of first come, first served? Tell you what, I feel sorry for the Manager.

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