OPTIMO HOGMANAY PARTY 2003 / 2004

Due to manufacturing delays, we won't have the 7" singles back until just before Christmas. If you have already bought a ticket, we will make arrangements to give the record to you when you leave the Art School at Hogmanay (not ideal as some of you might be slightly the worse for wear!). But, we will do our utmost to ensure that everyone gets the record. In the meantime, you can download an mp3 of the Liquid Liquid song here and the Caitie Faulds 'plays' Optimo side here.

Yes, it's that time of year again and we're back with our 5th New Year Party at The Glasgow School of Art.

This year will be the best yet as we don't see the point of doing them unless each one is better than the last.

On the main floor, JD Twitch and JG Wilkes will be hosting proceedings (with a little help from Mac). There will also be a special live appearance from Midnight Mike who runs the wildly wild Flesh Records and discovered Zongamin. He will be performing a specially written set of Optimo friendly cover versions that we think will bring the house down.

Downstairs, we will be filling the Vic Bar with a humoungous soundsystem for a return visit by The Bug featuring Ras Bogle and Warrior Queen - This will shake the foundations of The Art School (and in fact, what with Midnight Mike bringing the house down, we are starting to get a little worried about the structural stability of the building!) To complement The Bug, we are proud to present Glasgow's very own Queen of the dancehall - Sister Motivator who alongside our usual Hogmanay entertainer DJ Mingo-go will be providing the downstairs 'girls together outrageously' entertainment.

In previous years we have given away a free Optimo mix cd but this year we wanted to try something different. There will be an official Optimo mix cd out early in 2004 so this years free gift with every ticket is as follows.

Every ticket will come with a 7" single which on one side will feature a live recording of 'Bellhead' by Liquid Liquid recorded when they played at the club in July. This has been re edited by Twitch and will never be available anywhere else ever. On the other side, Optimo regular Caitie Faulds 'plays' Optimo. We don't want to spoil the surprise but we can assure you that it is fab! The single will come wrapped in an Optimo 2004 year planner so you can all start getting organised next year. We appreciate that a lot of people in this day and age don't have record players so we will also make the tracks available to download as mp3s on our website. If you don't have a record player OR a computer, yr all out of luck i guess, but at least you'll have a nice little heirloom for your grandchildren!

The night will run from 10pm until 5am (approx.) and tickets will be 25 pounds. We are very aware that 25 pounds is an awful lot of money but unlike other clubs who hike up their prices for Hogmanay and count the cash rolling in, we spend a giant pile of money on production making sure the Art School looks out of this world, and, as all the costs we have to pay get hyper inflated at Hogmanay, we are pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place on this issue. The 25 pounds will however include ALL booking fees so there will be no hidden extra costs when you come to buy your ticket. Tickets are available from Defunkt Records on Great Western Road, Monorail records in Mono at Kings Court, The Art School and from Shoptimo on the Optimo website. Tickets will be available from the first week in December.

We look forward to seeing you there!