they've had about 5 locations that I can remember during my lifetime! There's one on Womanby Street now but I'm not sure if they've got a live music license anymore.
- Beneath the Holiday Inn by the bridge (now Callaghans)
- Womanby Street (before that building became the Gatekeeper)
- St Mary's Street (closed due to noise complaints from nearby flats)
- Somewhere out in Splott (what were they thinking?)
- and now the new one on Womanby Street again (opposite the old site more or less).
I know they did have an application in with the council to use the old Glamorgan Club building opposite the stadium, but it got turned down again due to complaints from residents.
People living in city centres, complaining about noise. Durrrrrr.
noise pollution? from a samba band? when the venue was sandwiched between Edward's and a strip club? of all the venues to complain about on st mary's street, that's fucking crazy.
basically following the noise complaint and visit from sound pollution inspectors etc, the venue had to either pay a massive fine which it couldn't afford or get some better soundproofing installed. Problem is that it's quite difficult to soundproof a church without destroying the building's character, they are after all sort of designed to conduct sound. The venue closed for a month to have the sound proofing installed, but once they'd re-opened they never managed to get decent bookings in - apparently there was a lot of confusion and misinformation amongst tour promoters and the like that the venue was closed or going to close, but basically it sort of fell off people's radars, and then after a few months of that the bank decided to lower their overdraft limit/recall the loans or whatever, and it no longer became a viable business to run. Though I'm guessing there were other factors as well to be fair.
It was something like that anyway. I'm amazed no one else's has stepped in to buy it though. Lovely little venue with all the work that needs doing already done? Guess it's not the right economic climate for it or whatever.
But yes, all that (mainly) stemming from one or 2 people complaining about noise. People living in flats round the corner from the venue. Flats that weren't even built when the venue opened. Surely there should be some kind of onus on the property developers to fully soundproof THEIR buildings in the first place? But then money-grabbing Cardiff Council don't really want to put any barriers in the way of anyone building more shitty slum-of-th-future flats in their beloved Cardiff Bay.
I can't imagine being a tourist, seeing all the promo guff for the incredible stuff you can do at the bay, and then getting down there and finding a shit norwegian church, a cinema and some shitty water.
the Millenium Centre, lots of restaurants (mostly chain ones), and teh Senedd building is nice for a walk around. They have various events in the oval basin, and there's a farmers market every week or so.
Oh, and there's the unofficial Ianto shrine near where they film Torchwood!
(I quite like The Norwegian Church - Roald Dahl was baptised there!)
if you mean the place with the mirrored wall on one side, where people's sweat would condense on the glass and run down in disgusting rivulets like some kind of indie water feature.
The Mayfair was the venue for my first ever gig when i was 15, which was Faith No More and Prong supporting. Riverside, i saw quite a lot there. Smashing Pumpkins, The Verve, Bowie, and many others sometimes for the measly sum of 3,4 quid a time. The Carling Academy can fuck off. I heard that Arena rumour too but that they were just relocating.
- The Powerhaus (first near Angel, then in Finsbury Park)
- The Marquee (about a million different locations, including what is now the Wetherspoons on Charing Cross Road, that huge building on Leicester Square and the current Islington Academy)
- The Arts Cafe (brilliant little venue next to Toynbee Hall)
- The Laurel Tree (home of the much-missed Piao! nights)
- Mean Fiddler (as in the original Willesden one, where Vince Power started his empire)
- Ocean (excellent mid-sized hall in Hackney that ran out of money very very quickly)
- Hammersmith Palais (shite mid-sized hall in, you guessed, Hammersmith)
and as mentioned up there^, The Spitz is sorely missed.
Kentish Town, London. Oxes were ace there
There was always a huge post blockiing your view and variable sound quality.
I really miss The Spitz - great gigs there like Les Savy Fav and Oxes (again) playing while on each other's shoulders and generally sharing instruments.
ditto Arts Cafe - watched Animal Collective in about 2003, I think it was their UK live debut.
lovely old venue in an art deco cinema. I had a ticket to see Longpigs supported by Travis and Embrace there but the venue went into liquidation just before the gig. It's a furniture shop now.
I think it might have been a year or two after though - I remember being all excited because they played on TFI Friday before I went out to see them and they actually mentioned Worcester on TV outside of the usual flood-disaster context.
The Charlotte, Leicester
Your mum, obvs
snap.
leicester's the charlotte. terrible venue if i'm being honest.
toucan club, cardiff
has that gone now?
depends which Toucan you're talking about
they've had about 5 locations that I can remember during my lifetime! There's one on Womanby Street now but I'm not sure if they've got a live music license anymore.
from memory, i've been to at least three locations of the toucan
i thought it'd finally been closed down. i liked the toucan, one of the few places on a weekend night that wasn't unspeakably grim.
the 5 locations were/are
- Beneath the Holiday Inn by the bridge (now Callaghans)
- Womanby Street (before that building became the Gatekeeper)
- St Mary's Street (closed due to noise complaints from nearby flats)
- Somewhere out in Splott (what were they thinking?)
- and now the new one on Womanby Street again (opposite the old site more or less).
I know they did have an application in with the council to use the old Glamorgan Club building opposite the stadium, but it got turned down again due to complaints from residents.
People living in city centres, complaining about noise. Durrrrrr.
i'd been to the first three
noise pollution? from a samba band? when the venue was sandwiched between Edward's and a strip club? of all the venues to complain about on st mary's street, that's fucking crazy.
yeh it's really weird
but i think it's because their live music room was up on the first floor so nearer to the flats or something. Either way it's fucking dumb.
The Boat Race, Cambridge.
It's now a trendy winebar.
The Point in Cardiff
such a shame, it was a lovely venue.
wasn't that closed due to noise as well?
get some ear plugs or don't live next door to live music venues you idiots.
it was sort of yes, in a long convoluted way
basically following the noise complaint and visit from sound pollution inspectors etc, the venue had to either pay a massive fine which it couldn't afford or get some better soundproofing installed. Problem is that it's quite difficult to soundproof a church without destroying the building's character, they are after all sort of designed to conduct sound. The venue closed for a month to have the sound proofing installed, but once they'd re-opened they never managed to get decent bookings in - apparently there was a lot of confusion and misinformation amongst tour promoters and the like that the venue was closed or going to close, but basically it sort of fell off people's radars, and then after a few months of that the bank decided to lower their overdraft limit/recall the loans or whatever, and it no longer became a viable business to run. Though I'm guessing there were other factors as well to be fair.
It was something like that anyway. I'm amazed no one else's has stepped in to buy it though. Lovely little venue with all the work that needs doing already done? Guess it's not the right economic climate for it or whatever.
But yes, all that (mainly) stemming from one or 2 people complaining about noise. People living in flats round the corner from the venue. Flats that weren't even built when the venue opened. Surely there should be some kind of onus on the property developers to fully soundproof THEIR buildings in the first place? But then money-grabbing Cardiff Council don't really want to put any barriers in the way of anyone building more shitty slum-of-th-future flats in their beloved Cardiff Bay.
is there anything at all of worth in cardiff bay now it's gone?
I can't imagine being a tourist, seeing all the promo guff for the incredible stuff you can do at the bay, and then getting down there and finding a shit norwegian church, a cinema and some shitty water.
depends what you're into I guess
the Millenium Centre, lots of restaurants (mostly chain ones), and teh Senedd building is nice for a walk around. They have various events in the oval basin, and there's a farmers market every week or so.
Oh, and there's the unofficial Ianto shrine near where they film Torchwood!
(I quite like The Norwegian Church - Roald Dahl was baptised there!)
http://peterblack.blogspot.com/2009/08/tribute-to-ianto.html
the red eye, good shout.
also,
what is in place of the red eye these days?
Barfly
in glasgow
Had some of my best nights/gigs out there,was a shithole but we loved it.
They've turned it into...
THE SAME BUILDING BUT WITH SOME ANONYMOUS FLATS WITH NET CURTAINS!
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=n1&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=18.98626,39.418945&ie=UTF8&ll=51.53676,-0.113618&spn=0.004865,0.009624&z=17&layer=c&cbll=51.536802,-0.114479&panoid=SwDxiGJMA0A6Uvs6ojsm6A&cbp=12,191.64,,0,-10.65
Bradford Rio's, now an asian wedding venue
metro
but good fucking riddance.
what was that really tiny basement place in soho?
You're thinking of S&M parlours.
Push, on Dean Street
if you mean the place with the mirrored wall on one side, where people's sweat would condense on the glass and run down in disgusting rivulets like some kind of indie water feature.
that's the one :D
I remember catching a glance of my own boobs in the place as I was dancing
I went home soon afterwards. Gin and mirrors don't mix.
Push was terrible
in that about 5 people were able to see the stage.
The Point in Oxford
The Belle Angele in Edinburgh, which was part of the Gilded Balloon complex that burned down
I think we all know this post shouldn't be here
Leeds Town & Country Club (Orbital, Leftfield)
Leeds Duchess (dEUS)
Bradford Rio's (Napalm Death)
Cambridge Barfly/whatever else it used to be called (Caribou/Mae Shi)
arent wilco playing the town and country club in november?
Rios is an asian wedding venue now. you can still mosh tho
Newcastle:
The Riverside, The Mayfair, Egypt Cottage (kinda), Agora.
Apparently the Arena is closing down too.
:(
The Mayfair was the venue for my first ever gig when i was 15, which was Faith No More and Prong supporting. Riverside, i saw quite a lot there. Smashing Pumpkins, The Verve, Bowie, and many others sometimes for the measly sum of 3,4 quid a time. The Carling Academy can fuck off. I heard that Arena rumour too but that they were just relocating.
the spitz, spitalfields
:(
I was just going to say that
Quality venue.
Manchester: some little cafe / gig venue near 5th ave. (it was on that same street), can't remember what it was called
closed down years ago. Saw Orthrelm and The Locust there in 2003. And Narcosis too, once.
This:
- The Powerhaus (first near Angel, then in Finsbury Park)
- The Marquee (about a million different locations, including what is now the Wetherspoons on Charing Cross Road, that huge building on Leicester Square and the current Islington Academy)
- The Arts Cafe (brilliant little venue next to Toynbee Hall)
- The Laurel Tree (home of the much-missed Piao! nights)
- Mean Fiddler (as in the original Willesden one, where Vince Power started his empire)
- Ocean (excellent mid-sized hall in Hackney that ran out of money very very quickly)
- Hammersmith Palais (shite mid-sized hall in, you guessed, Hammersmith)
and as mentioned up there^, The Spitz is sorely missed.
I wish Ocean would reopen
I'd like another venue I could walk to.
Kilburn National
I think it's a supermarket now.
*Universal Church of the Kingdom of God
see also the Astoria/Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park (although it was already closed for many years before I started going to gigs).
Arts Cafe did my head in
always would be daylight streaming through that massive window and you'd be playing to people eating stonebaked pizza.
The curse of being first on the bill
I saw some of my favourite gigs ever there, including American Analog Set, Julie Doiron and The Shins
The Jug of Ale (B'ham)
Closed down last year. I think it shut down because they wanted to turn it into flats or something? Not sure.
Northampton's Soundhaus
How I miss thee
The Soundhaus in Northampton
I adored it's grotty charm.
guildford civic hall
cant say im massively gutted
The Verge
Kentish Town, London. Oxes were ace there
There was always a huge post blockiing your view and variable sound quality.
I really miss The Spitz - great gigs there like Les Savy Fav and Oxes (again) playing while on each other's shoulders and generally sharing instruments.
ditto Arts Cafe - watched Animal Collective in about 2003, I think it was their UK live debut.
I always wanted to go to the Hallamshire Hotel in Sheffield when I was growing up and used to scour the listings
but once I got to Sheffield as a student it had been turned into a trendy wine bar :(
did you ever go to the hallamshire house?
they had a one armed snooker champion.
Yeah, the one opposite the Closed Shop?
I once made the mistake of sitting in the little nook where all the old men sit. They were a bit surprised.
Birmingham Powerhouse
Hummingbird, Jug of Ale, Bham Odeon
Worcester Northwick Theatre
lovely old venue in an art deco cinema. I had a ticket to see Longpigs supported by Travis and Embrace there but the venue went into liquidation just before the gig. It's a furniture shop now.
I saw Back to the Planet and Echobelly there in 1994
did you know that David Bowie played there in the early 1970's?
I saw Echobelly too!
I think it might have been a year or two after though - I remember being all excited because they played on TFI Friday before I went out to see them and they actually mentioned Worcester on TV outside of the usual flood-disaster context.