Edinburgh gets a new venue
- Artists:
- Idlewild »
- The Music »
- Ryan Adams »
- The Charlatans »
- Martha Wainwright »
- Guillemots »
- Dirty Pretty Things »
- The Wombats »
- Chutes »
The Picture House was unofficially welcomed into being last weekend by Idlewild, but tonight (Thursday) it is officially launched with a sold out Travis gig. The venue's line up over the next couple of months includes Martha Wainwright, The Guillemots and The Cardinals featuring Ryan Adams.
The 1500-capacity venue fills a previously gigantic gap in Edinburgh's venue roster, between the 800ish-capacity Liquid Room and 3000ish-capacity Corn Exchange, and ought to boost the live music scene in Scotland's capital.
The building on Lothian Road has seen many incarnations as a cinema, venue and a nightclub, previously played host to Queen, Pink Floyd and The Smiths as the Caley Palais in the seventies and eighties, but is more commonly remembered by twenty-somethings (often unfavourably) as the Revolution nightclub.
It was briefly relaunched as a rock venue in 2006 under the guise of GIG, but closed its doors in January 2007. It has since been renovated under the direction of the man responsible for Glasgow's Carling Academy.
Despite work still continuing in the balcony - and tools still on view under the stage – The Picture House made a pretty good impression on preview night, with no obvious glitches during awesome-sounding sets from Chutes and Idlewild.
Highlights over the next couple of months include:
October:
5 Dirty Pretty Things
11 The Charlatans
22 Martha Wainwright
27 The Music
November:
12 The Wombats
13 The Guillemots
14 The Cardinals featuring Ryan Adams
- Spotifriday #19: This Week on DiS as a playlist
- Idlewild - Post Electric Blues
- Year 2000 - A Playlist of Songs Wot Soundtracked the Launch of DiS
- Idlewild set official release date for Post-Electric Blues, include two bonus tracks
- Summer Sundae Weekender: The DiS review
- Great Escape '09: DiS' Suggested Schedule
- Spotifriday: Drowned in... The Great Escape 55 Track Playlist
- Festival Preview Mixtape: DiS' Camden Crawl companion
Idlewild
The Music
Ryan Adams
The Charlatans
Martha Wainwright
From the archive
DiSband #2: Land Of Talk
Great Escape '09: DiS' Suggested Schedule
A Month In Records: May 2007
Tweet This
Share on FacebookThe Liquid Rooms hold 800?
Surely not.... I wouldn't have thought even half of that.
I went to a gig at Gig
Possibly the worst setup for a venue ever, it felt like the stage was an after thought.
Going to see Jarvis there in a few months, hopefully they will have changed it round enough.
There's no way
Liquid rooms holds 800! i'd say 200 max..
That's near my office.
Looks alright.
TERRIBLE line-up though. Hope it attracts better bands.
The Liquid Rooms
Won't hold much more than King Tuts which holds 150 I believe.
Where did the writer get the figure 800 from??
Keep in mind Tut's in Glasgow holds up to 300,
800 for Liquid Room is pretty easy i'd say
it is about 800
King Tut's is 300
(http://www.kingtuts.co.uk/history.html) and Liquid Room is definitely at least twice the size of that, plus there's the balcony to include.
SECC is 350 capcity though, yeah?
I'd like a stewards enquiry...
I'm far from convinced you can fit 800 folk in there.
Spoke to a pal who used to dj in there and while doesn't know the figure he says its a lot less than 800.
More atmosphere on the moon!!
I was at the Idlewild gig at the Picture house and while the band were brilliant the crowd were shit.
The place seemed to be full of posers in their "night out on the town" gear. I had a group of these upper class fuckwits stand next to me. They spent most of the gig glaring at anyone who dared to sing along, they laughed openly at the bloke in front of them who was doing a bit of jumping about, and the only song any of them knew was "You held the world..."
Also be warned, once the gig is over you won't be able to get out of the one exit door because of all the Crawfords and Jocasta's queuing up to get their Barbour jackets and fox fur stoals from the inconveniently placed cloakroom.
Thank Christ I've got my tickets for "5 'wild nights" at King Tuts. At least a Glasgow crowd knows how to rock!!
800
sounds fair to me.
remember there is an upstairs too.
The cloakroom
Problem was there for years, even as a nightclub. I was hoping that someone would have seen sense and moved it but obviously not. Don't forget the gents toilets are next to the door and cloakroom as well.
There's
just something nasty about this venue location (yeah, it's on fucking lothian road!). Maybe it's my memories of Revolution bubbling to the surface but they'll have a tough time creating a decent atmosphere in a venue like that.
it is much better
they haven't really added anything, and the same raised seating sections are still at the edge. But they've taken out all the crap that meant you couldn't see the stage from most of the venue, so that's definitely an improvement.
I was reasonably impressed at the idlewild gig. Apart from the service at the bar, which was worse than the standing order on a busy day.
cloak rooms at gigs - why?
i can't believe anyone would waste their time using one...
i thought the crowd at that gig was really good. good mix of ages, good mix of types of people, i liked that.
Reel Big Fish
are playing there in February. I hope this venue does well, it should be ok. Gig was gash, and the guys that run Ego tried to turn it into a proper venue but the promoter mafia in Scotland (DF, CPL, PCL) wouldn't work with them at all.
Those guys are working with the Picture House though, which is why it's actually got touring bands coming to it. I've not been in since it was Gig, but I'm hopeful it'll do good and last. It makes a lot of difference to me, saving the train fare and travel time to the weege and back for gigs I otherwise would skip. Good luck the Picture House!
ha ha
"Apart from the service at the bar, which was worse than the standing order on a busy day."
Things I don't miss about living in Edinburgh: trying to get served in the Standing Order.
i really hope this place is a success
cos the city needs it. the sound at the idlewild gig was PISH though...
There's not really anything on that I'd go to
save maybe the Jarvis Cocker thing, which is a shame because it's not far away from where I live.
I hope that they get some good bands playing in the new year :)
cloakrooms
well I got my jacket stolen at a gig at The Caves last week, so that's what cloakrooms are for. Insurance policy.
that is sad news :(
hopefully it's just teething problems and they sort it out real good. And get some good acts on, not much coming up I really fancy like.
used to be gig?
I wonder if its still got the wanky VIP area? I hated this place when it was gig, it looked like a roller disco for boy racers.
have they changed the carpets yet?
the one that's been there since it was rev?
Aye
carpet's all better.
I've still
got a bit of the carpet stuck to my trainer. sshhllooooop.
sound @ idlewild
was horrendous. if they fix that it might just make it.
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