Hi Tom
I will let Rosalie respond to the majority of your post when she gets home from work

However from my own point of view I see nothing necessarily wrong with ''buying 'a few pieces of equipment, plonk them on a few chairs and tables and call this Karaoke.'?.'' .....and you are right you can often have a lot of fun that way and indeed I have just such a setup in my lounge room and when we have visitors ....we often enjoy our evening singing many songs around the coffee table...LOL!

It is quite clear however that many peoples expectations of any Karaoke show will be quite different ....and obviously what one person may consider to be quite acceptable and 'fun' Karaoke....can often be considered by another as quite 'ordinary' and not worthy of a second visit.......it all depends on your perception of what Karaoke is.....and/or.... what it should be...and as I said before..... that perception can be quite different for many of us.

Despite what was eluded to by a previous poster..I have always been of the belief that Karaoke on its own will never attract huge crowds...... irrespective of the 'quality' of the karaoke on show.... and as such a crowd of say 30--40 dedicated Karaoke singers will often consist of a high proportion of SWD`s often resulting in a very small bartake........on the other hand if the Venue is the type of venue that attracts people to it ..either through clever marketing ...good food ..or whatever.....then Karaoke can ..and will.... often keep them there for much of the evening...and often more successfully than your standard pub band who tend to lose one third of their audience with every 10 minute break they have.

Fortunately the 2 speaker (on chairs) and player on Table type operators are a dying race...(though I could certainly name a couple in Brissie)..and it would also be fair to say that singers are now far more discerning than ever before.....and the fact remains that generally and for the majority....... that standard of Karaoke just does not cut it anymore!.....particularly with the tecnology available today (singstar etc) for the lounge room wannabe popstar

Of course your own perception of a good night at Karaoke may be quite different from that of my own.......and I suspect that a Karaoke night at say the Royal George Hotel in Brisbane may not fit in with your own personal preferences as far as Karaoke goes?......we are loud....too loud?....again a matter of opinion.....packed with mainly the under 30`s.......no breaks at all.....dance music in between singers.......a lot of singers........however it is not unusual for the RG to have a bartake of up to $10000.....thats not bad for 4-5 hours of Karaoke ......and thats what its about!

Despite what was hinted to at in an earlier post........the RG remains consistently .....one of the busiest bars in the Valley every Wednesday night ......week in and week out...... and is often THE busiest venue in the precinct on many a Wednesday night.... irrespective of other forms of entertainment on offer ......and for that we are gratefull.....and yes the Management (and staff) of the hotel group are the best..no question!
Submitted by Rovics Karaoke on 25-02-2007

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