I can understand doign covers as being path of the course - you know, intersperse your first couple of gigs with a few covers, but venues refusing you just because you do both originals and covers.....fuck them man. What if...I dunno, U2 turned up, and said 'well, we'd like to play, but is it right we can only do covers?"

No, music will never eveolve and develop if you are constrained like that. Conider the group that have been the big thing for the kast 24 months over here: Franz Ferdinand. They got out of the 'covers or no venue' thing by finding, funding and prmoting their own venue, and it really worked to their advantage. I admit that when you <18 and cannot even afforda new set of strings for your axe, trysing to do something like that seems an impossibiliyt, but give it a try man. If it comes to it, just do open air free-bies, and if you get audiences, make sure your local paper covers it. Then throw that infront of the venue owners and see if they can be arrogant enought to refuse you then!

Keep on rocking man!