Music Banter - View Single Post

Mojo · 12-13-2008, 06:35 AM

Prepare for long post. I apologise, I'm longwinded.

Newcastle is a great place to be. They may have a bunch of overpaid twats they call a local football team but for nightlife it really is a great place. Newcastle does attract a lot of major artists but undoubtedly is still a few steps behind London, Birmingham and Manchester. Newcastle has five main live venues.

The METRO RADIO ARENA is the major venue. The CARLING ACADEMY seems to be the second biggest in the city on par with NEWCASTLE CITY HALL and the much smaller universities - NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY and NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY complete the five. Before The Academy came along the two universities combined seemed to do the job it does now which leaves the universities a little emptier than maybe they once were. The City Hall is a fully seated venue more suiting to stand up comedy. Not my favourite venue and yet for some reason Motorhead seem to love it. Seeing Motorhead in The City Hall is an experience.

Outside of the big five Newcastle still has a fair few attractions for those who enjoy their music. TRILLIANS ROCK BAR in Princess Square has been open for decades and provides quite a dark, dimly lit, underground environment. I mean underground in the literal sense as upon entry you have to go down the stairs into what looks like a dungeon. It is one of the main hangouts for the more metal orientated locals. Each table is dedicated to a band, with cuttings and CD's encased in the glass and the walls also covered in cuttings, posters, promo's and the odd guitar or two. I can often be found occupying the Black Sabbath table. The long bar occupies the majority of the back wall and displays, from left to right all the way across one of the most active live music schedule's in the city. Trillians accommodates local bands, unsigned bands from around the country, the odd Johnny Foreigner and some great signed bands who realistically may be a little too small for the Uni's. Off the top of my head I recall Orange Goblin, Will Haven, The Anti Nowhere League and Lord Bishop playing there in recent times but there have been many more worth of mention.

THE CLUNY on Lime Street is seemingly hidden out of the way and is further towards the quayside than it is central to the city but is well worth the walk. The Cluny has another active and very varied schedule of live music also accommodating signed, unsigned and local acts. The gigs take place in the back room of the pub in a very small, intimate setting holding I would say 200 people at an absolute max. A very nice environment. Boris at such a venue was nothing short of mind-blowing.

The HEAD OF STEAM, owned by the same company as The Cluny and also having locations in Liverpool and Huddersfield is even smaller. Upon entry the stairs up will take you to the bar and the stairs down to a very warm, intimate but somewhat congested venue. It barely even has room for a stage which means the bands that play here are eye to eye with their audience. A lot of the people I know in bands have played here and the bar has a very good reputation for getting itself involved in local and unsigned music by offering a stage to those who may need it but also attract artists from further afield. Their website sums it up perfectly – “Live music is very important to us. Our basement is THE RECOGNISED entry-level live music venue in the area. By that, we mean we are an ideal venue for new bands which are trying to break onto ‘the circuit’, as well as some lesser-known touring bands.”

LA TOSCANA on Leazes Park Road is possibly the most obscure location I have visited. La Toscana is an Italian restaurant opened in 1973 whose owners have taken it upon themselves to provide a great service to the city’s artistic culture even though the vast majority of residents probably don’t even know it. The walls are covered in local art and periodically they will hold ‘Musical Restaurant’ nights offering a very varied range of live music. I may be going to one tomorrow but so far the only one I have been to offered two acoustic sets, poetry reading, a very Indie looking band with several keyboards and songs about dancing bears and Bong, a Newcastle based psychedelic/doom/drone band. A very attractive place for the more experimental local musicians, especially as every set is filmed and uploaded to their website.

The STAR AND SHADOW CINEMA is situated very near to The Cluny on Stepney Bank, again a short walk from the city centre. Run entirely by volunteers it hosts world and independent film in a very cosy, small theatre and also has a room for live entertainment. It has clearly been designed to accommodate areas of culture that are very hard to find in Newcastle and it really does appear as though a lot of work has gone into achieving this, taking clear priority over profit, The vast majority of what you see inside and the work done to design and fill the building has also all been done or made by the volunteers who work there and the years membership to gain entry is only £1.

There are a huge number of local bands and artists gigging in and around these and several other places in the city that are really been helped by the smaller venues for no other reason than giving them places to play. The Star and Shadow is a great example of this as is La Toscana and their website which now holds A LOT of videos of live music performed there. The Metro Radio Arena may make the money (£60 a ticket for Cliff frigging Richard?!) but providing people know where to look and where to go there is so much more on offer.

12-13-2008, 06:35 AM	#36 (permalink)
Mojo Melancholia Eternally Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: England Posts: 5,018	Prepare for long post. I apologise, I'm longwinded. Newcastle is a great place to be. They may have a bunch of overpaid twats they call a local football team but for nightlife it really is a great place. Newcastle does attract a lot of major artists but undoubtedly is still a few steps behind London, Birmingham and Manchester. Newcastle has five main live venues. The METRO RADIO ARENA is the major venue. The CARLING ACADEMY seems to be the second biggest in the city on par with NEWCASTLE CITY HALL and the much smaller universities - NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY and NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY complete the five. Before The Academy came along the two universities combined seemed to do the job it does now which leaves the universities a little emptier than maybe they once were. The City Hall is a fully seated venue more suiting to stand up comedy. Not my favourite venue and yet for some reason Motorhead seem to love it. Seeing Motorhead in The City Hall is an experience. Outside of the big five Newcastle still has a fair few attractions for those who enjoy their music. TRILLIANS ROCK BAR in Princess Square has been open for decades and provides quite a dark, dimly lit, underground environment. I mean underground in the literal sense as upon entry you have to go down the stairs into what looks like a dungeon. It is one of the main hangouts for the more metal orientated locals. Each table is dedicated to a band, with cuttings and CD's encased in the glass and the walls also covered in cuttings, posters, promo's and the odd guitar or two. I can often be found occupying the Black Sabbath table. The long bar occupies the majority of the back wall and displays, from left to right all the way across one of the most active live music schedule's in the city. Trillians accommodates local bands, unsigned bands from around the country, the odd Johnny Foreigner and some great signed bands who realistically may be a little too small for the Uni's. Off the top of my head I recall Orange Goblin, Will Haven, The Anti Nowhere League and Lord Bishop playing there in recent times but there have been many more worth of mention. THE CLUNY on Lime Street is seemingly hidden out of the way and is further towards the quayside than it is central to the city but is well worth the walk. The Cluny has another active and very varied schedule of live music also accommodating signed, unsigned and local acts. The gigs take place in the back room of the pub in a very small, intimate setting holding I would say 200 people at an absolute max. A very nice environment. Boris at such a venue was nothing short of mind-blowing. The HEAD OF STEAM, owned by the same company as The Cluny and also having locations in Liverpool and Huddersfield is even smaller. Upon entry the stairs up will take you to the bar and the stairs down to a very warm, intimate but somewhat congested venue. It barely even has room for a stage which means the bands that play here are eye to eye with their audience. A lot of the people I know in bands have played here and the bar has a very good reputation for getting itself involved in local and unsigned music by offering a stage to those who may need it but also attract artists from further afield. Their website sums it up perfectly – “Live music is very important to us. Our basement is THE RECOGNISED entry-level live music venue in the area. By that, we mean we are an ideal venue for new bands which are trying to break onto ‘the circuit’, as well as some lesser-known touring bands.” LA TOSCANA on Leazes Park Road is possibly the most obscure location I have visited. La Toscana is an Italian restaurant opened in 1973 whose owners have taken it upon themselves to provide a great service to the city’s artistic culture even though the vast majority of residents probably don’t even know it. The walls are covered in local art and periodically they will hold ‘Musical Restaurant’ nights offering a very varied range of live music. I may be going to one tomorrow but so far the only one I have been to offered two acoustic sets, poetry reading, a very Indie looking band with several keyboards and songs about dancing bears and Bong, a Newcastle based psychedelic/doom/drone band. A very attractive place for the more experimental local musicians, especially as every set is filmed and uploaded to their website. The STAR AND SHADOW CINEMA is situated very near to The Cluny on Stepney Bank, again a short walk from the city centre. Run entirely by volunteers it hosts world and independent film in a very cosy, small theatre and also has a room for live entertainment. It has clearly been designed to accommodate areas of culture that are very hard to find in Newcastle and it really does appear as though a lot of work has gone into achieving this, taking clear priority over profit, The vast majority of what you see inside and the work done to design and fill the building has also all been done or made by the volunteers who work there and the years membership to gain entry is only £1. There are a huge number of local bands and artists gigging in and around these and several other places in the city that are really been helped by the smaller venues for no other reason than giving them places to play. The Star and Shadow is a great example of this as is La Toscana and their website which now holds A LOT of videos of live music performed there. The Metro Radio Arena may make the money (£60 a ticket for Cliff frigging Richard?!) but providing people know where to look and where to go there is so much more on offer.