Nottingham: RFI, S&D

music scene is good, liars club at stealth

Nottingham: Part the First - Location.

Why are you moving here? I ask mainly because if it's for student purposes, then Beeston is okay as it's close to the main campus, but otherwise it's miles away from town and nothing ever happens there.

The places I would suggest looking for are:
*Sneinton - I live here, most of the music types do too, it's quite cheap and easy to walk into the city centre, and there is a lovely pub (the Lord Nelson) and a windmill.
*Lenton - again, cheap. Mostly a student area. A couple of good places to drink, and there's a new arty cafe opened up there. Walkable into town, and good bus services.
*West Bridgford - expensive, a bus ride away from town, but pretty nice and has its own little centre of shops/pubs, and the Boat Club venue is there. And the cricket ground. Good for middle-class types, I suppose.
*Mapperley Park - I don't really know much about this area, but it's supposed to be nice. All I know is it's leafy and relatively expensive.

The city centre is small - most things are on roads off the main square, so unless you choose to live in Hucknall (seriously, don't do this) you won't need the tram.

Aha! How long would it take me to get from Sneinton to the university?

Nottingham: Part the Second - Music.

There is a great music scene in Nottingham. I'm not the best person to tell you about D'n'B clubs or anything like that (aside from the fact that there are some, and people go to them), but I can fill you in on some other stuff.

Venues:
*The Rescue Rooms - although this is part of the evil Rock City empire, it is run by one of Nottingham's best promoters, who did indie stuff for years, so does have good gigs regularly. It is okay to hang out in, although does get rammed with asymmetrical haircuts occasionally. Previously played: Robyn Hitchcock, Herman Dune.
*Stealth - just a bag of shit. The decor is horrible, the people are horrible, the sound at gigs is horrible. Previously played: CSS, Vincent Vincent & the Villains.
*The Social - quite good, comparatively. Medium-sized 'indie' gigs and plenty of club nights, and a free jukebox that has had things like Neu! and the United States of America on it, along with yer Strokes/Yeah Yeah Yeahs/Klaxons etc. Previously played: Final Fantasy, Smog.
*The Rose of England - small room above a pub. The pub itself is not that nice, but the room is quite good. Previously played: The Curtains, Pamelia Kurstin.
*The Maze - bit further out, but a good sized room, attached to a pub. Previously played: Six Organs of Admittance, Ali Roberts.
*The Boat Club - out of town, big venue. Essentially a big hall with bar bit. Previously played: Lightning Bolt, ...Trail of Dead, Led Zep (okay, a long time ago, but they did).

Eep, got to go for a bit. But I will continue this later.

The Broadway is a top art cinema with 4 (count 'em!) screens and super comfy chairs. also the bars alright.

St Anns has wonderful allotments! But, yeah, mostly it's not good. I know someone who lived there and he always said - "oh the Meadows is worse..." Which isn't saying much.

Shopping!

Plenty of good shops and as has been said the city centre is all pretty walkable from one side to the other in about 15 minutes (?). I've never actually timed myself.

Am back. I'm assuming that you need the main University of Nottingham campus, as opposed to Trent or one of the other ones. But it does take a while from Sneinton - I'm currently studying there and I take two buses in. I leave an hour for journey time, although it doesn't take that long. It's only ever been a problem for 9am lectures, mind you.

Anyway, Nottingham: Part the Second - Music (continued).

Record shops:
*Selectadisc - by far the best. A good selection of vinyl & CDs, nice staff, pretty good layout once you get used to it.
*Fopp - very occasionally has vinyl in, but don't expect any. Like any other Fopp, really - lots of £5 deals, and a good selection of DVDs and an okay range of cheap books.
*Rob's Records - second hand. Vinyl upon vinyl, mounds of the stuff, piled haphazardly and likely to fall on your head. Doesn't really do good rare stuff, but is great to dig into.
*Good Vibrations - up Mansfield Road, again second hand, worth a dig. There are some newer ones like this on the same stretch, too, but they haven't been around long enough to judge.

Promoters/stuff:
*Damn You! - taken over from the old guard as the main independent promoters in Nottingham. Put on lots of American stuff, freak-folk and noise and indie-rock. Associated with Gringo Records.
*Liars - mainstream hipster-trendy, and now Ricky's left Notts I'm not sure what's up with these guys, but have put on some good stuff.
*KneeKnees - quite new, do similar stuff to Damn You! but smaller and a little more avant-garde at times. People like Pamelia Kurstin (the theremin player), Jez Riley French, etc.
*Don't Start Feeling All Romantic - tweepop, and only sporadic gigs, but they do DJ stuff too, and is all very fun if you can stomach hair-slides and lollipops.
*Supernight - again, new. They've put on Rose Kemp and Fonda500, do arty things, and play great music between bands.
*Electric Banana - don't usually have bands on, but a good club night upstairs at the Social, playing new indie, old soul, new wave, 60s pop etc...
*Supraphon - Saturday day times downstairs at the Social, nice relaxing beer and some library music, psychedelia, funk-folk and Latvian freakbeat.
*Loom - electronic festival that will hopefully happen again. Had Doddodo, DJ Scotch Egg and a bunch of others playing last time...

Gah, I could go on but it would take me all night... there's always stuff going on, is the basic message behind this.

does sam tasty still do lovely uber-twee things at junktion 7 or whatever?

Aye, that he does. I tend to conflate Tasty 'Zine gigs with Don't Start Feeling All Romantic, though, as they're pretty much the same set of people, and most gigs they do are now joint promotion.

i've been to Nottingham a couple of times. I've liked it more with each visit. It seems to have a lot of nice pubs and gig venues and clubs and stuff. Rock on.

I love how small the internet is... do you people know Sam Tasty as well?

Yeah, Sam's a nice guy. He backs me up on my declarations of revolution. You're also a *grr* Bowlie, aren't you? I know him & the DSFAR folks (and my flute player, and my boyfriend, gahh) are all on there.

There are some great pubs, and I was about to list them all, but I realised it would take me ages and I really should be doing revision instead.

Thank you for the excellent information. I am sufficiently reassured that the city is indeed habitable! (But of course anybody with further information—particularly about the less quantifiable elements of the cultural life of Nottingham—would obviously be welcome.)

W Doe's letters to the Evening Post are worthy of their own thread.

Just in case anyone reading this is actually in Nottingham, I will shamelessly self-promote, and state that I am DJing this:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/131/367184557_19c1671430.jpg

I will be on very early, hence me not even being mentioned on the flyer. It's free, so there's no excuse. I'll probably play things like Delia Derbyshire, The What Four, Brainticket, Bruce Haack, The White Noise, The Whyte Boots, La Dusseldorf, Hildegard Knef, The Godz, The Free Design, Cosmic Jokers etc...

Sounds great! How about doing a mix and posting it up somewhere?

Eek, I can't properly mix. I just put things on one after the other and hope it's at the right speed.

Proper DJing.

I DJed in Nottingham once. It was brilliant. someone from Dublin who would kind of have known me in the same way that I kind of knew her wandered into the venue when I was on. She must have thought that I had become a superstar DJ. DEADLY.

I've always really liked Nottingham when I've been there! Although I don't live there so can't be of any help. Although my nationwide knitting mafia contacts inform me there is a good WOOL shop in Beeston (where my friend used to live - so I quite like Beeston! Don't recall it being *that* far away but certainly not within walking distance - sigh, as if I lived anywhere NEAR walking distance of my job in London sigh blah veal etc). Still, Nottingham is one of my "could do!" cities, in my very tenative and scared 'might move out of london' ideas.