Gigs

Hope they have enough toilet facilities! Saw Artic Monkeys there once (about 10 yrs ago or so) and they had hardly any facilities. The gents was in the basement under the main stands where we were sat. Reached busting point so headed down. Stepped off the last step and instantly got a wet foot thinking wtf must be a water leak. Nope. About 2 inches of piss across the entire basement increasing by the minute. Lovely.

Same gig I was incredibly thankful we took the decision to stay in the stand at the back of the venue rather than moving forward into the crowd. When they played I Bet You Look Good in the Dancefloor I have never seen so many bottles (probably half or more of piss) get launched into the air towards the middle front of the crowd. It was like an open field war scene from something like LotR when the sky turns black from the amount of arrows shot into the sky.

AM were amazing though! Played Leave Before the Lights Come On which is probably my favourite AM song.

interesting. 

I think I'm getting to my post-Covid revenge spending late, as I have my first Gig tonight, and I've spent way too much on tickets for this year.

The market here is kinda different, but the ticket prices for big international artists are kinda eye-watering. There are very few cheap seats, even for the ones miles away and in a shitty position. Because big international artists coming here is still relatively rare, they do tend to sell out though. 

I've been waiting for the Black Keys to come... but they haven't shown up yet. I wouldn't have thought of them as a Stadium band anyway. 
More mid-size, although I dunno how many of those venues are around. 

I wonder about a lot of newer 'Spotify/TikTok' artists supporting tours, as they often blow up really huge with one or two songs, but I wonder if that audience is likely to want to watch an entire set 9 months later when they come around? 

A lack of mid-size venues is definitely a problem, as is the whole LiveNation monopoly. I find it hard to feel bad for the big players, the mega stars who already have more money than they will ever need, but it does have a knock on to all the people who earn a living supporting and running tours/events, and I do feel for them.

The massive venue owners and ticket companies can generally get in the bin though - especially venues that then take a cut of the bands merch sales (though smaller ones are guilty of that too).

Personally though I don't like huge venues, and much prefer a small room where you can get close to the band.

Brixton Academy (~5,000) and the Roundhouse (~3,500) are great sizes, you get that sense of scale but still a "good view" if you can get nearer the front (but you can see the stage from most spots fine, and even at the back the artists aren't tiny), but I prefer sub 1,500 and ideally 500 capacity venues. Thankfully the bands I want to see are normally in those sort of venues too.

Recent gigs I've been too:

• Cola - playing in The George Tavern (150 capacity) doing two nights - I would have thought they could fill much larger venues, but appreciated being able to see them up so close, essentially in a pub with the tables pushed to the side
• Fat White Family - played at Rough Trade East (300) - not a full gig, but a great atmosphere as they played through most of the new album
• Ovlov - played at the Moth Club (400) - managed to get right to the front between the support bands, which is a plus, because as much as I love the venue, the stage is really low and if you are even a few rows back, you basically can't see the band

What’s Newcastle like for getting acts appearing there these days?

When I lived in Sunderland for uni I saw loads of bands that would travel - nirvana, Jane’s addiction, Bowie (tin machine), the cult, Lush, NIN etc. that I wonder if today’s equivalent still go up there.

I grew up in Northumberland, and lived there for a while recently before moving back to London.

Newcastle has some cracking venues - seen lots of great bands at The Cluny, saw Idles play in Think Tank before they got big in front of about 150 people, as a kid saw Motorhead play City Hall, and Bodycount play (I think) the student union. One of the best Pixies shows I ever went too (and I have been to a lot) was at the Academy. My first gig was Neds Atomic Dustbin at the Mayfair (such a shame that closed, was a great venue).

Not been in the BoilerShop but hear it's a cracking venue. It's not just any Victorian warehouse though (technically it's late Georgian) - it's where Robert Stephenson built the Rocket!

Foos not going well so far.

Can’t get near the place for traffic. Tried parking near United at the usual spots there and all closed. Now in a monster jam. Mid week gigs suck.

Foo Fighters. Setlist spoilers ahead.

Long gig. Don’t know how people got there early enough for the support acts unless they are off work.

A long set - they came on at about 7.40 and came off at 10.15. Pretty good set list, and a lot of stuff from Nothing Left to Lose that wasn’t just Learn to Fly and Breakout. In fact there was no Breakout - but there was Aurora, Generator and best of all…Stacked Actors! Mint. Also didn’t expect This is a Call.

Acoustic version of Under You and a sole pigeon flew over the crowd and landed on the speaker tower. I determined that the pigeon was in fact the spirit of Taylor Hawkins.

They did the full Teacher. Dave played the Jimmy Page double neck SG for it. And it genuinely came across Zeppelinesque live. Extremely powerful. Hated the fact that the casual rude c*nts around were having loud conversations during the quiet bits - it’s about his mother passing, show a bit of respect man!

I’m sure they debuted a new song tonight, either that or it’s one I’ve forgotten.

Anyway it was pretty great. Rami’s keyboard solo was hilarious. That guy is a riot and you should watch Studio 666 if you don’t believe me - he steals it.

Josh Freese - obviously an immensely good drummer, and I’m glad they have kept going but he’s not the same. In fact for somebody with a punk background he sure keeps the tempos mid - I always remember Taylor pushing them faster than the record. I missed that and I miss Taylor Hawkins a lot.

Sound wasn’t actually too bad for the cricket ground - miles ahead of The Killers who were just white noise - that was one of the louder gigs I’ve ever been too though, which will have been the issue.

The main sound issues this time were slightly overpowering drums and the usual thing at that venue where the wind just seems to blow the sound everywhere - it sounds at times like they are playing through rotating speakers!

I remembered my earplugs this time - I’ve got those trendy Loop ones. I used them periodically, not throughout so I do have some ringing. You can definitely hear the instruments better with them in. You still actually get the kick in the chest thing with them but sonically it does have the side effect of stripping power. I think they are going to prove useful for using with my own band though.

Somebody asked for tips/tactics about the venue I think - watch where you park firstly. Maybe research it a bit or ask somebody that really knows the city. We ended up parked about a mile up a turning that ran by the canal opposite Victoria Warehouse and the anchor statue - it was a real trek from there, through and past United and then further still to the cricket ground.

If you like me are too old to be getting up front, there will be loads of space at the back, but push through the crowd under the entrance bridge walkway and keep going round - you can get the impression that it’s rammed to the back and it isn’t. Look for where the (pitch? Green? I really don’t know cricket!) covering is white and that’s the area with space. Behind and to the sides there, there is unreserved seating in the stands and unless there are 20 of you or something I would not foresee problems if that’s what you wanna do.

The main stands have their own toilets and a small bar away from the big crowd too. Although there were screens, in that area and high up you are divorced from the atmosphere a bit though, so stay on the floor and get forward a bit if this is important to you.

Allow a bit of time to enter the ground too as the queues for the gates are massive - they have multiple gates so don’t feel awkward walking past the crowd a bit to find an alternative.

Apologies for the long post! The main theme is that the last honest arena rock band still largely have it. And I haven’t seen them since the NLTL tour, when they were at The Apollo.

Timings are out for the IW Festival next weekend. I have a few choices to make - main one being Johnny Marr up against Prodigy. Very different acts - love Marr and I've managed to miss The Prodigy both other times they've played here, which always seems a shame. Leaning towards Marr tbh, but would be on my own as my wife doesn't really care about Marr. Which, errm, marrs the fun a bit.

Watched Sea Girls play Kingston Pryzm last night as the new Midnight Butterflies album launch show (Banquet Records store).

Considering the ticket is included what must be at cost with the new album (about £5 on top of the regular cd RRP) they played for 1hr 10mins and mixed the new material up with a selection of older bangers. Clearly well up for the evening with the midnight album release and it showed.

About the 5th time I've seen Sea Girls live now and loved it every time and last night was no different. High energy anthemic emotive indie with catchy hooks and relateable lyrics. Especially liked one number where they stripped back to one acoustic guitar and the group front of stage singing harmonies.

Will see them again at Pompey Guildhall late this year but can't imagine it will be that much better really. Great to see a band steadily climbing the ranks but still humble enough to keep giving back to the fans (quite frankly they could have just done 20mins and called it for £5 and it still would have been good value!).

9/10

While we’re mentioning it I’ll second Studio 666 being a hoot

I saw someone wearing a Prodigy 2009 tour t-shirt the other day and got nostalgic. Brixton Academy was a fucking brilliant show!

...15 years ago.

Yeah, it's tricky. Living here, it's hard and expensive to see top acts off the island, so whilst Marr is always touring, the chances of him coming south arr slim. I dunno, will play it by ear and see how the day goes.

I liked The Marble Factory in Bristol well enough, but I've heard other people say they think the sound quality there is terrible.

Been to the Marble Factory in Bristol a couple of times, no issue with sound quality at all.

*Much* better than the Bristol Academy. But that's an extremely low bar.

In terms of venue size Bristol is pretty catered. Academy is supposedly 1600, but the layout is so terrible so it's only 1600 on paper.

Marble Factory can do 1600 easily, and is much better. SWX is 1100, and the Bristol Beacon can do 2,124 fully standing. Only been there once though, but sound quality for Fever Ray was pretty great

Fleece has a 450 capacity and is pretty good, stage is unusually high so shorter than average people can actually see the band fairly easily.

Thekla can hold 400 and I've seen some good gigs there, though being on a boat it's longer than it is wide and being stuck at the back isn't great viewing.

Exchange can hold 250, and is a great venue, Crofters Rights is a bit smaller I think.

Right on the smallest end you have the Gryphon with a capacity of 50, so tends to be smaller or upcoming metal bands, but they've had some known names there in there in the past.

Then for bigger acts you can get gigs in Ashton Gate with 32000 in concert mode. There's definitely a leap from Academy / Marble Factory to the stadium but that's the nature of things everywhere I guess.





Not really sure where I'm going with the post but ended up looking up venue capacity and wanted to share my research so it doesn't feel like a total waste of time.