UK Cities - Which are the "key" ones to target when forging a rep on the toilet circuit?

London
Manchester
Bristol
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Sheffield
Liverpool
Birmingham
Cardiff
Brighton
+ a number of others that I can;t think of off the top of my head

the major cities with universities basically

Which are the best venues for in these cities for new, unsigned bands?

But as a new band, you might have a better chance with the Big Hair lot, because they promote a show every week, so it is more likely that there are spaces for new bands. (Most promoters in oxford only promote a monthly gig, or special one offs)

shh, dont tell adam

What's wrong with Reading?

My friend Tomohawk promotes nights at the Cellar so getting an Oxford gig shouldn't be too difficult.

(seriously, email some music to the address below, deleting the appropriate bit of the address obv)

The Fez club has had Babyshambles, and most of the other libertine spinoff groups.

Does the After Dark have bands on thesedays?

I think it's fair to say that over the last 20 years Reading town council have worked really hard and done an absolutely remarkable job of transforming the town centre at night from somewhere that (when I was growing up) used to be dark, badly lit, almost deserted and with an unmistakeble threat of violence hanging permanently in the air, into somewhere that's bright, well lit, overcrowded and with an unmistakeble threat of violence hanging permanently in the air.

There are almost no live music venues and most of the facilities that do exist are owned by the council who only seem to be interested in putting on nice wholesome family entertainment or strange minority things that no-one's interested in; and even on the rare occasions when they do book something interesting, they do their absolute best not to let news of it leak to the rest of the population of the town if they can possibly avoid it, since if people started going along, all the staff they employ to run those places might have to actually do something for a change - and they obviously don't want that.

The part of the population that you might normally expect to contain people who would be interested in live music seems to only be interested in clubbing; and if the people of the town have an identifiable regional characteric it's being aggressive and violent.

I've lived here pretty much all my life.

X-post

The After Dark is just another bloody club and hasn't had any bands on for 5-10 years afaik.

Shame.

Fwiw, I believe the first bands to play the After Dark (well, other than reggae bands I imagine) were The Ruts and the Angelic Upstarts back in 1980. Me and my mate Cally were largely responsible for booking them.

Then I moved to London in 2001 so maybe it's got better again!

(x-post)

The Fez Club is the old Alley Cat.

(xpost again!)

You can only get to the balcony bar through the main room 'though afaik - and you certainly couldn't put on anything different in there musically because it's open to / overlooking the main room at the front so it would just get drowned out.

I used to go there regularly (despite not being a student there) from the late '70's through most of the 80's (in fact I usually used to get in free because of my various existing connections in the local music scene and the connections I managed to make there) but I was very much in a minority; and once you stop going regularly it becomes very difficult to find out what's going on, to get tickets or to get in.

>Which are the best venues for in these cities for new, unsigned bands?

In Manchester your best bet is Night & Day or The Roadhouse. As a punter, I'd say Night & Day has a better atmosphere and I enjoy seeing bands there more than at The Roadhouse.

Last I heared, Spearmint a year or two ago. But we went to Dingwalls instead to see them.

Suffice it to say that I'm far too concerned with my future health, security and physical wellbeing to either mention or discuss those reasons on a public forum!

Well if you do happen to hear of anything, don't forget to let me know!

(notXpost) then I'll know yours...

but i have seen Jacobs Well being mentioned a lot (the Wrath Records bashes are normally held there .. and i suspect they know their pub scene !)

.. so that may be one to add to your list ..

I've just done likewise and it arrived almost immediately.

It is the address that's showing above, isn't it?

Hmm, so we were the lucky ones I guess.

I grew up in Worcester (about half the size of Reading) and that was also a nasty, violent little town with no music venues!

Leeds: Brudenell Social Club is pretty good, but it's mostly seated and you need to get a large crowd in to give it an atmosphere...

I second The Cluny and Head Of Steam in Newcastle, both good venues and fitting for the kind of music, I think...

The Social in Nottingham isn't a great venue, but it's alright... also, Moog sometimes put on electronic bands but if you have a large line-up then you won't be able to fit in there (it's not really a venue)... Damn You! put on gigs at the Sneinton Old School Hall sometimes, which is an excellent place for shows, but you'd probably have to ask them for a support slot with someone else...