Favourite venues

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

A few weeks ago I finally got the chance to get to go to a gig (Flaming Lips) at the Barrowland in Glasgow, which was everything I expected and I loved it. I'm from Devon so my opportunities were limited to get to Glasgow but a change in job means I'm there more often nowadays. It got me thinking, what other iconic venues around the UK and beyond should I be checking out?

My top 5 (I think), in no particular order are:

Rock City, Nottingham - sound always seems to be great, quite intimate and a great aftershow party next door

02 Academy, Brixton - love the sloping floor. Feels like an iconic venue too. Always get excited seeing the dome lit up in green with the band name underneath.

The Thekla, Bristol - it's a boat.  

Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow - feels like a cross between a gig venue and my local British Legion. In a good way.

100 Club, London - a really strange pillar in the middle of the room but I love all of the photos on the wall and has a historic feel when you're in there.

 

Where are your favourite venues and why?

 

 

[jyoung]

Great thread. The few that come to mind without any doubt...

Brighton Dome 

Thanks to its beautiful interior and intimate feel despite being one of the city's biggest venues. I'll never forget a raucous Maccabees gig there in 2012.

Concorde 2, Brighton

I used to love going to Concorde 2 as a teenager. That long walk down the seafront from the pier, past the old Vaults railway line. My formative years were spent queuing up under the old Victorian arches. The standing room is quite narrow and long but the atmosphere is always electric.

Roundhouse, London

Another one I love because of the design and the layout. I've seen various stuff here and its never disappointed - the perfect venue no matter what genre of music.

Edited September 29, 2017 by jyoung

[The Nal]

Vicar St in Dublin. Small ish, can see from everywhere, great sound. 

 

Madison Square Garden. Sound and view is as good as it gets. Can get to the bar and the toilet and back to your seat in about 3 minutes. 

 

Reds Lounge in Clarksdale. Only fits about 25 people but so loud! A proper dive bar, a real one. Health and safety would have the place shut down over this side of the pond. 

 

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

1 hour ago, jyoung said:

Great thread. The few that come to mind without any doubt...

Brighton Dome 

Thanks to its beautiful interior and intimate feel despite being one of the city's biggest venues. I'll never forget a raucous Maccabees gig there in 2012.

Concorde 2, Brighton

I used to love going to Concorde 2 as a teenager. That long walk down the seafront from the pier, past the old Vaults railway line. My formative years were spent queuing up under the old Victorian arches. The standing room is quite narrow and long but the atmosphere is always electric.

Roundhouse, London

Another one I love because of the design and the layout. I've seen various stuff here and its never disappointed - the perfect venue no matter what genre of music.

Damn, I forgot about the Roundhouse! Great place. Never had a bad gig there, in hindsight

[jyoung]

6 minutes ago, SPTFRE said:

Damn, I forgot about the Roundhouse! Great place. Never had a bad gig there, in hindsight

Chemical Brothers set at Apple Music Festival is a highlight that springs to mind. 

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

30 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Vicar St in Dublin. Small ish, can see from everywhere, great sound. 

 

Madison Square Garden. Sound and view is as good as it gets. Can get to the bar and the toilet and back to your seat in about 3 minutes. 

 

Reds Lounge in Clarksdale. Only fits about 25 people but so loud! A proper dive bar, a real one. Health and safety would have the place shut down over this side of the pond. 

 

Wow, Reds Lounge looks cool! I hadn't considered venues abroad. I've been to a few. Most memorable ones were:

La Cigale, Paris - beautiful interior

Paradiso, Amsterdam - nice venue but if you're at the barrier, as the stage is very high you tend to get neck ache after 3 hours

Terminal 5 - cool three-tiered balcony but terrible sound

[The Nal]

La Cigale looks the biz. 

Yeah Reds is a unique one. 

 

 

 

Heres a vid I took (no filming allowed!). Thats Red beside me.

 

[Hugh Jass]

Roundhouse, London

The Apollo, Manchester

Madison Square Garden

Brixton Academy

The Pyramid Field, Glastonbury

[edwardjc14]

How on earth has the Brudenell Social club not been mentioned?!, that would be my number 1, also like the Albert Hall in Manchester and Deaf Institute 

Edited September 29, 2017 by edwardjc14

[Spacey]

I love The Eden Project in Cornwall. Eden sessions held there in the Summer. Small and beautiful venue with lots of plants. 

Edited September 30, 2017 by Spacey

[Uncle Liam]

The Gasometer in Vienna.  Seen Arcade Fire and Interpol in there, and it always amuses me that it is an abandoned Gasworks. 

Metropolis in Montreal. Which is really tall but on the floor is very close to the stage. 

Knust in Hamburg and the skeleton that hangs off the wall. 

Den Atelier in Luxembourg. Which is a cracking small-medium sized venue with loud sound, and decent beer. 

Gebaude 9 in Cologne is a filthy venue in the best possible way. Run down, ragged, down and dirty. 

Darnforth Hall in Toronto. A decent sized old school musical theatre. 

Columbiahalle in Berlin needs to be mentioned. 

Zurich Volkhaus as well.

And how could I forget Peyote in Instanbul? And the Barby Club in Tel Aviv????


On outdoor venues. 

A-38 Tent at Sziget 

The Forum in Vienna is class. It's this run down ampitheatre with all kinds of graffiti, old posters, and different food and drink options. 

Du Pont Arena in Abu Dhabi is surprisingly good for an outdoor venue. Saw Chemical Brothers there and the sound was fantastic. Well managed as well, especially in the Middle East where these things have a tendency to go wrong. 


In terms of just the UK

Albert Hall Manchester, Brudenell, The Haunt in Brighton, Bristol Academy, Hull Welly, Sheffield Leadmill, The Cluny in Newcastle, and Hammersmith Apollo. 

Although lets be honest, London venues have never come close to The Astoria. 

 

Edited October 1, 2017 by Uncle Liam

[Gnomicide]

The Royal Court in Liverpool will always hold a special place in my heart. In the 80s & 90s it was very run down but that added to the charm of the place. 

The circle and balcony were very steep but I didn't see many from up there, down on the floor was the place to be. All seets had been removed, it was nicely sloped so you could see from anywhere but that didn't really matter as most of the time was spent in a sweaty, lurching, bouncing pit if a crowd. I saw countless acts there, some on their way up, many seemingly staying at the same level and coming back every year. 

The floor was sticky, the bar was crap (£1 for a warm can), half the lights didn't work, no heating and only one phone so if you wanted popular tickets, you had to queue up at the box office. 

The ones that stand out for various reasons were U2, Bon Jovi, Iron Maiden, Whitesnake, The Cult, The Mission, Slade, Manics, Dio, The Pogues... I could fill a page.

Now it's been reclaimed as a theatre. They put on the odd comedian but it's mainly shite Scouse comedy musicals. The down stairs has been put into tiers and they serve food fer Christ's sake. 

I couldn't find any old pics of what it was really like but this at least has a standing crowd. I think it's from when Coldplay did a charity gig there a few years back.

Anyway... places that still exist.

Manc Apollo - like The Royal Court but bigger.

Manc O2 Ritz - nice balcony, good size, over priced beer.

Favourite festival setting is The Woodland at Bearded Theory. 

 

Edited October 1, 2017 by Gnomicide

[The Nal]

Forgot to mention The Tempodrom in Berlin.

[LJS]

Green's playhouse in Glasgow which got tarted up (slightly) to become the Apollo had facilities second to pretty much everyone but rocked like nowhere else.

Sadly long long gone. 

[Comfy Bean]

4 hours ago, LJS said:

Green's playhouse in Glasgow which got tarted up (slightly) to become the Apollo had facilities second to pretty much everyone but rocked like nowhere else.

Sadly long long gone. 

Showing your age here sir :-)

I always like the abc on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow. 

Been at some special nights in the barras.

Loudest sound I ever heard was in 53 degrees in Preston. Think it's part of the uni complex.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

20 hours ago, The Nal said:

Forgot to mention The Tempodrom in Berlin.

Damn it, how could I forget that! I saw Morrissey there last year! Super cool place. Everything a modern venue should be

Edited October 2, 2017 by SPTFRE

[not worthy]

The Wulfrun, Wolverhampton

Its surfaces have been saturated in my bodily fluids so, so many times

[Hugh Jass]

The Royal Albert Hall is pretty cool I have to admit.

[dondo]

On 9/29/2017 at 6:00 PM, edwardjc14 said:

How on earth has the Brudenell Social club not been mentioned?!, that would be my number 1, also like the Albert Hall in Manchester and Deaf Institute 

Brudenell is on my list- great venue

Before I moved to Leeds my favourite was always the Barrowlands (and still is though not been in many many years) but when I moved here I really like the Apollo in Manchester.

Sadly missed is the Cockpit in Leeds

 

Edited October 2, 2017 by dondo

[Uncle Liam]

4 hours ago, Hugh Jass said:

The Royal Albert Hall is pretty cool I have to admit.

Yup. 

Certainly fancy enough, and great fun on the floor with a decent crowd. I did both Foals gigs there in 2013. That was a fun day.

[FestyAcademical]

The old Band on the Wall in Manchester. The new refurbed one is great , a lovely well designed modern venue .. but the old one had so much more atmosphere and ambiance in my opinion.

 

King Tut's Wah Wah Hut , Glasgow . Crazy name , crazy place and some of the best lost nights of my life .

 

The Roundhouse , London . My mum used to hang out there in the 60's . When it was re-opened I could totally see why.

 

JB's Dudley . Huge space and probably one of the best PA systems for an indoor venue I'd seen and worked on.