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a London venue question

What are the best London venues for unsigned bands to play and why?

I'm talking about places that:

1) have a great vibe
2) offer opportunities to support 'signed' established acts
3) can attract lots of punters rather than just friends of the bands playing

my suggestion is 93 Feet East
cromptonjingles | 15 Sep '04, 15:43 | Send note | Report this | Reply


  • Re: a London venue question

    ANYWHERE BUT THE WATER RATS _ DO NOT PLAY THERE!"
    KTCfac | 15 Sep '04, 15:44 | Reply

    • Re: a London venue question

      Any Club Fandango night.
      Inhabitant | 15 Sep '04, 15:50 | Reply

      • Re: a London venue question

        No 3) doesn't apply for Club Fandango - common misconception. Believe me, other than a few mates of Simon Williams, it's purely down to who's playing. Last night was dead.
        shadyadie | 15 Sep '04, 16:27 | Reply

    • Re: a London venue question

      may I ask why?
      cromptonjingles | 15 Sep '04, 15:59 | Reply

      • Re: a London venue question

        a lot of people are put off the water rats, as there is argueably a vailed threat on their website that if they put you on and you don't pull in enough punters they'll make sure you never get a gig in London again.
        benrith | 15 Sep '04, 16:04 | Reply

        • Re: a London venue question

          all the WATER RATS promotors are interested in is getting your money 'to cover the bar' - you could be the next big thing but if you dont get your mates down they won't rebook you and are really indifferent to you at the venue and very rude people -avoid at all costs. the worse thing is is that they pretend to LOVE music which is like Bush saying that the Republicans LOVE freedom -

          try the Bull and gate or Up all NIght - but AVOID Plum Promotions at ANY cost!
          KarlBarrett | 15 Sep '04, 16:07 | Reply

          • Re: a London venue question

            Thanks for that.

            I thought the Bull and Gate was a bring your mates type venue?




            cromptonjingles | 15 Sep '04, 16:22 | Reply

            • Re: a London venue question

              They are.
              Most venues are.
              It makes sense, if anyone's going to cover their costs.
              shadyadie | 15 Sep '04, 16:28 | Reply

              • Re: a London venue question

                ..obviously you need to bring a few people but there's little point in only playing to your mates or the other bands' accountant mates. I think Club Fandango is a good thing in this respect.
                cromptonjingles | 15 Sep '04, 16:33 | Reply

                • Re: a London venue question

                  Being a once-a-month Fandango promoter it pissed me off that some bands think they don't need to bring in anybody, and that all the 'important' people will be there anyway. You can't rely on the 'industry' just turning up. In that sense it's no different to the Barfly, Water Rats, Bull & Gate etc.

                  Tip to bands: YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO TELL PEOPLE YOU'RE PLAYING!
                  shadyadie | 15 Sep '04, 17:21 | Reply

            • Re: a London venue question

              That aside, the Bull and Gate has good sound on stage, and the sound engineers are pretty good, which can't be said for some of the other places to play in London.
              raybeans | 15 Sep '04, 16:51 | Reply

          • Re: a London venue question

            Fuck's sake. I can't understand all this Plum-bashing. Of course they need to cover their costs because otherwise, like, duh; they wouldn't exist.
            carrot_ram | 15 Sep '04, 16:32 | Reply

            • Re: a London venue question

              My band played Water Rats last nite and i found them to be extremely friendly, helpful, polite and enthusiastic. The promoter bought us all beers after the gig and the engineer was a top dude. Lovely little place. Maybe the people who have a problem with it are just in shit bands that no-one wants to come see...?
              Gaara | 15 Sep '04, 18:20 | Reply

  • Re: a London venue question

    the trick is not to play london at all.
    Besides, the audience is likely to be full of either a) your mates who like you as a person but aren't really bothered about your new emo band, or b) lahndan scenesters who stand by the bar and sneer when you talk between songs.
    chris_undereducated | 15 Sep '04, 16:35 | Reply

    • Re: a London venue question

      The people that go to Bristol's Choke night go to see new bands. There is a market for it and I'm just wondering if there is anything similar in London..
      cromptonjingles | 15 Sep '04, 16:38 | Reply

      • Re: a London venue question

        there are places.
        the best thing to do is find a band you like in the area you want to play, get in touch with them, get a bit of dialogue going and suggest some kind of gig swap arrangement. This doesn't work if the band you like are simply red and you want to play in manchester, I can't imagine hucknall being interested.

        alternatively find out about club nights. Some friends of mine played club motherfucker at upstairs@the garage last weekend and there are plenty of similar nights around the city, they generally have a following already so that's always good.
        chris_undereducated | 15 Sep '04, 16:44 | Reply

        • Re: a London venue question

          Club nights are the best way to play a gig in front of people who don't know you personally, but may like your band. White Heat is good. Artrocker is also good, but VERY cliquey. Club Fandango is good. RoTa at the Nottinghill Arts Centre is good. There are a lot of nights upstairs at the Garage that are good (sound can be very ropey, although that's a common factor to almost all London venues) There are many more...

          Another approach is to book your own venue and promote the night yourself. That way, you can get bands you like on the bill, who will bring a crowd who will probably like your music, you can play music between sets you like so people who like what you play will be more inclined to come back, and you don't have to listen to promoters (who do very little to actually draw people into their venue - that's why they book bands with lots of mates), telling you only got paid £18 because even though 35 people came to watch you, only 24 of them had fliers.

          limo | 15 Sep '04, 17:05 | Reply

  • Re: a London venue question

    my favourite little venue is probably Buffalo Bar. I do a monthly club nite there and have played there with m'band. It's a gorgeous little venue, the staff are completely wicked and the vibe is always good. Plus it's right outside Highbury/Islington tube and opposite the Garage so it often gets quite a few randoms. As for supporting signed bands, in my experience that comes with either being chummy with a promoter or with the band themselves.
    Gaara | 15 Sep '04, 18:37 | Reply

    • Re: a London venue question

      they're just rude and arsey at Plum promotions thats the main problem and rather resentful - Bull & gate is really good as are all the bugbear venues and Up All night (buffalo Bar) bands have to expect that if no one knows who they are that they have to get their mates down but if you want to make it you have to play as regular as possible and that's when mates started crying off and the venues grumble, but good people like bull & gate etc give you the benefit of the doubt whereas with Plum its all about the money regardless how good you are and I think that's the problem - and also suppose you are an ace band with 3 friends - you'd lose all the gig opportunities and then wither away which is the saddest thing in the world - either that or just battle on - if you make it then stick yer Vs up at the toilet circuit and hope you dont have to go back!

      KTCfac | 16 Sep '04, 10:53 | Reply

      • Re: a London venue question

        err, is that the longest sentence ever written? try again with punctuation, then maybe it will make some sort of sense.

        nothing | 16 Sep '04, 12:14 | Reply

        • Re: a London venue question

          I didnt know that I was entering an Grammer competition. Have I won and most importantly do I get anything free?

          It was a rant and therefore required the scarcist of punctuation

          is this better?
          KTCfac | 16 Sep '04, 12:33 | Reply

          • Re: a London venue question

            No - it was a spelling bee. Tough shit, you lose for "Grammer" and "scarcist". We won't even go into the (*shudder*) missing apostrophe in "didnt".
            Raanraals | 16 Sep '04, 12:44 | Reply

            • Re: a London venue question

              am glad you spotted the deliberate mistakes in there - good to see people paying attention - however I do have a problem with "I be E except after C" which should be a Pulp lyric in an ideal wurld

              what's your take on the correct use of inverted commas and semi colons?
              KTCfac | 16 Sep '04, 12:49 | Reply

              • Re: a London venue question

                Your use of hyphens leaves something to be desired. Consider substituting semi-colons to denote a subclause.

                And the phrase you mean to use is 'I before E except after C'. It may also be worth your noting that you don't need to use double quotation marks when quoting that phrase, those are only applicable when you are citing someone else quoting someone, for example:
                Yesterday, on the news, Peter Sissons said 'Descartes is most famous for writing "I think, therefore I am"'.

                Hope that's all understood. Good luck in your future adventures in the crazy world that is the English language.
                nothing | 16 Sep '04, 13:01 | Reply

                • Re: a London venue question

                  Hmmm. I'm not too happy with the comma in the middle of the sentence, "It may also be worth your noting that you don't need to use double quotation marks when quoting that phrase, those are only applicable when you are citing someone else quoting someone." Perhaps a colon would have been better. The "for example" should probably then have been a new sentence. It might also be worth considering whether punctuation at the end of a clause in inverted commas should be placed inside or outside the inverted commas. I believe either is acceptable, but the former looks neater.
                  Raanraals | 16 Sep '04, 13:14 | Reply

                  • Re: a London venue question

                    Sooooooooooooooooooooooo.......What's the Dublin Castle like for sound/passing trade etc...
                    senses | 16 Sep '04, 13:19 | Reply

                    • Re: a London venue question

                      is this tuernd into Pedant's Corner?

                      Dublin Castle is good but they have a sound limiter so as not to piss off the neighbours - and the pub is always busy but only your mate will drag themselves into the venue bit - worth playing though
                      KTCfac | 16 Sep '04, 13:29 | Reply

                      • Re: a London venue question

                        Ahh cool, we'll bully everyone else into coming next door then! As for the sound limiter...uhh ohh or drummer will be f00ked!

                        Nice people on the phone and that so looking forward to it. Alas I don't live in London I don't get to check out the club nights. From what I've read in thepast there does seem to be some cool stuff going on and the buffalo bar does sound cool. Saw some pix of Yeti there.
                        senses | 16 Sep '04, 13:34 | Reply

              • Re: a London venue question

                Your use of hyphens leaves something to be desired. Consider substituting semi-colons to denote a subclause.

                And the phrase you mean to use is 'I before E except after C'. It may also be worth your noting that you don't need to use double quotation marks when quoting that phrase, those are only applicable when you are citing someone else quoting someone, for example:
                Yesterday, on the news, Peter Sissons said 'Descartes is most famous for writing "I think, therefore I am"'.

                Hope that's all understood. Good luck in your future adventures in the crazy world that is the English language.
                nothing | 16 Sep '04, 14:20 | Reply

                • Re: a London venue question

                  Needing a bit of ego boost? Nothing to say?
                  Why don't you try correcting spelling and grammar on message boards!

                  Wanker.
                  John_Brainlove | 16 Sep '04, 21:18 | Reply

                  • Re: a London venue question

                    My friend, you need to understand irony. That said, there's nothing wrong with correct use of the English language you know. (You may note that young KTCFac is unmoved by my message. Consider that this may be because we actually know each other and this is nothing but a running joke).

                    Honestly, so much anger! Don't take life so seriously!
                    nothing | 17 Sep '04, 09:44 | Reply
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