What's the preference: small, intimate, hot and sticky? Seated theatre style? Open-air festival? And what helps make a good night out, apart from the artist natch?
Now that the smoking ban is here it has to be small and intimate but I can do without the hot and sticky bit thanks.
in the round at mr kyps is great, one of the best type a gigs i've been too, not that i get out much any more, but i used to, in my last life BC amor mundi hatty
I like Kyps too. Probably my favourite place of all is Marr's Bar at Worcester.:blushing: Nicest owner ever there in Brian. Nice atmosphere and all dark and cool little tables with candles on and everyone near to the stage, relatively. My kinda place. I also now love the Half Moon, because the management is very friendly. I don't like seeing Nick in the sit-down theatre style venues. Lacks appeal for me. Same with larger venues.
I suppose it depends largely on who's playing. I tend to only want to see people who hold court in smaller venues, even kitchens
nicest venues weve been to.... small venues: community hall, knighton in north wales, just a really nice venue... thought the citadel in st helens was great when we went there last year, althouth not brilliant accustically, and do like academy 3 in mancs, great sound and lighting.. natural levs related softspot for opera house in buxton.. theyre probably our four favourites...
Conducive Ah, the Gardener Arts Centre in Brighton was lully - great acoustics and cumfy seats. Sadly they went a bit overly 'theatrical' and music steadily slipped from their program...they're just about to shut their doors for the last time. They also had a bit of an issue about smoking (back in '94, long before the smoking ban kicked in), which caused some fun when Roy played there...
actually best gig i think weve ever done, although not sure the venue really compares with proper venues, was actually the driftwood spars pub/restuarant/music place in st agnes... going off slightly on a tangent, but the weirdest and most drunken gig we have ever done... 3 daft monkeys in st agnes... We booked a very random b&B over the internet and spoke to the lady there who was slightly insane over the phone but insisted we couldnt miss it, as it was just by the welcome to st agnes sign... arrived in Ag, and she was right... massive grey house, covered head to toe in the deadest ivy you have ever seen... we eventually got into the house and wandered around trying to find someone to actually help us.. .eventually this little old lady appeared clutching a cat, mumbled "aaaaah.. you must be the guests" (you have to put on a voice thats a mixture of long john silver and the witches in macbeth to get the full effect), handed us three keys, and said "you have a choice, pick your room and leave the other two at reception"... wandering through extremely dark corridors with waiting staff and hotel staff wearing french maids outfits we checked out the first roo... double room, with the scariest furniture you have ever seen... wardrobe covered in gargoyles, and various bits of wooden chests of drawers that must be a hundred years old if they where a day... if we had woken up in the night we would have had a heart attack... second room, was pleasant, scary, but pleasant but was single beds so that was out... carried on down the pitch black, scary corridors with the creaking floorboards to the third room... absoF'inglutely bizzare.. white melamine units, fluffy duvet, heart shaped pillows, like it had been decorated by barbie on acid... settled into our room and saw our freinds pull up in the car park.. .to say natalie our freind looked scared was an understatement, the colour drained from her face when she saw the house.. after finally hunting down the little old lady (who now refused to budge from her drawing room cos the cat was on her lap) and got two keys...scarey wardrobe room was immediately turned down, so plans of sex for them went out the window with the room with the single beds... The house got stranger... as we had the video camera to record a few bits at the gig we did our usual quick bit of filming of various things to use as an intro... our room, the hallways, the drawing room, back up the hall, back to our room... watched the video back..... our room, fine, hallway, did not come out, other rooms, did not come out, back in our room, video appeared again... SCARY AS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! had a couple (maybe a few more than a couple) of bottles (maybe flaggons) of scrumpy and headed to the venue... a 3 mile walk!!!!!!! got to the venue at around half five and decided to have dinner prior to the gig which was starting, we assumed around half eight... as soon as we got to the bar we where greated by "aaaah.. you must be mrs wilkinsons (name changed cos i cant remember her name) guests...." that kinda scared us more, he whole village knew who we where and said it in such a way that made us feel like it was possibly our last night on the earth.... had dinner, several, maybe an awful lot of the local scrumpy on draught, and waited... and waited.... and waited... and waited... about nine got a little worried, where we in the right place, had we got the day wrong... so texted tim... "Did we not tell you... its a late gig.. starting about half ten or so" he texted back.... ****! Its nine o clock, were in some sort of witches coven, we are completely and utterly slaughtered off our faces, the gig doesnt start for about two more hours and weve got a three mile walk back to the scariest house on earth.... about 2am we finally prepared to leave (we could barely walk by this point), and we decided to enquire about the possibility of take-outs... why, i will never know, but we did... landlady happily obliged taking an old 1.5 litre jd bottle and filling it with ciderand handing it to me, then a 1.5l smirnoff bottle, filling it with cider and handing it to andy... sadly it did not seem to concern her to wash them, nor to pour away what was actually in the bottle... so clutching 3 litres of 7% cider mixed with JD and Vodka we decided to head home.. it was at that point that we realised we didnt have a CLUE where we where... thankfully a very nice helpful man came over... "aaaaahhh your mrs wilkinsons guests arnt you" he said in a slightly knowing way... just go up the cliff path.. straight up, and you cant miss it... I dont know if you have ever tried to climb a very narrow cliff path, overgrown with thorns, in the pitch black, with no torch, hammered to the point where you cant walk, clutching 3 litres of cider and vodka, in a place you dont know... its interesting to say the least, especially when the path keeps splitting in two and the wrong turn will end you up in newquay... interestingly we bumped into a fair few people on that path, to each we asked directions, and from each we got the same reply...."aaaaahhh your mrs wilkinsons guests arnt you" they all said in a slightly knowing way... "just carry on the way you are going.. straight up, and you cant miss it..." amazingly they where correct... we found the house, probbaly about 6am, crawled along the scary corridors and collapsed in our rooms (the mad ladys cat then decided to eat all our milk portions meant for our morning coffee)... checkout was 11am, we surfaced about 2, hunted down the old lady who was once more in the drawing room cradling her cat... she explained to us how the till worked and asked us if we could go to reception, write ourselves out a bill, and put the money in the till (how trusting, or insane is that) scariest place we have ever been, and probably the longest recovery time we have ever needed afterwards, but if you ever see anyone you know or like playing in st agnes, GO... there we are... complete and utter sideways tangent... best venue in the world... the driftwood spars... (as a sidenote, at 3dm in falmouth was chatting to someone and a fellow came over and enquired if we had found our b&b in st agnes... twas the git who had sent us up the cliffpath for a bit of laugh.... )
One of the best venues I've seen Nick at ... has to be the Pitt near Farnham .... and I actually mean outside in the actual pit ... not crammed into the barn !!
Hmmm, I might have to agree with the big man there, even thought I've only seen him in the barn that was very special too! But Castlekirk by candlelight would be right up there too... decisions, decisions :biggrin:
I would have to agree with Paula - the Castlekirk was a bit special (despite the midgies). Never been a fan of the Half Moon I must admit but I seem to be alone on this one. Although Nick performing in a caravan at a free festival in Watford was quite amusing - I don' think he would necessarily claim it was a career high point but hey....
Mark, have we formally met? I'd hate to be impolite and not say hello just cos I'm a bit slow :blushing: it's hard to miss anyone at Castlekirk LOL!
Here in the north east of England I think the best place to see Nick is The Buddle, Wallsend. It's very intimate with tables and chairs where people can relax whilst enjoying the entertainment.
I do like the cambridge junction - its quite close - nice little place to see bands and a great shape to be able to see even at the back. The staff are lovely too. Also Colchester Arts Centre and the Point at Cardiff are pretty cool to as they are old churches.
Do you know Matt at the Junction, K? Nice guy. Union Chapel in Islington is another atmospheric former churchy place.
No I dont linn but all the staff are lovely... The chapel at islington is great too - to be honest been to quite a lot of nice venues - also like glasgow academy which is the old cinema and the amsterdam paradiso is spectular - again an old church However, top of snowdon is bad either lol :rofl:
Best on this tour - Komedia, Brighton. I would like to package that whole Upstairs ambience and transport it around the country.
Komedia Have to agree - Komedia far the best I've seen on this tour and maybe any time....although 12th June 1998 supporting Roy at the Spitz still holds special memories for me. With just two nights of this tour to go, the last night could be extra special. I'm trying to figure out how to get back from Cambridge as the last train leaves at 11.03 and I'm sure Nick'll still be going strong then...any one know of cheap b & b's there ?
I know the answer to this one! There's a Travelodge in the Junction complex - but currently £70! Probably half that a few weeks ago! Otherwise Iceni in Coleridge Road, Abbeyfield in Rustat Road, Hamilton in Chesterton Road - all around £30-£35. I am not sure if I'm staying. Would like to get home if possible, but...
