A Quick Guide To Live Music Venues In London
London is a vibrant city full of culture and life. It has seen countless world-famous bands and musicians play with the city having a worldwide impact on the music scene. For a fan of rock music I feel extremely luck to live just an hour away from the capital by train. Since the age of sixteen I've seen countless bands play in London as they pass through on world tours or for one-off shows. The range of venues enables you to see everyone from small unknown bands to mega-famous bands known the world over. For me the venue that you see the band play at has a huge impact on the show and ultimately my enjoyment. I've seen a few artists multiple times at different venues across London and the venue always made a difference to the show.
The smallest venues are often the best in my experience. The crowd are usually all big fans of the band you're going to see and you'll get a much more intimate experience as the band can see everyone in the audience and can really get a feeling from them. One such venue is the Camden Electric Ballroom, where I saw Thrice play in August 2008. The venue isn't much bigger than my old school hall and the atmosphere generated is fantastic. With such a small venue you can really get a great view of the musicians and see everything clearly. The Electric Ballroom is really easy to find too, being just a few doors down from Camden tube station.
Probably my favourite types of venues to see bands are the mid-size locations dotted around the city. Holding around two to three thousand people they generally have the atmosphere of a much larger gig but still retain some of their intimacy. The best examples of these kinds of venues in London are the Brixton Academy, Shepherds Bush Empire and the Hammersmith Apollo.
I've seen countless bands play at these three venues and they all have a large standing area with a raised seating area. If you manage to get seats at the front of the seating zone the view can be really great. Sometimes just sitting and taking everything in can be the best way to see a band, such was the case when I saw Tool play at Brixon. Not the most energetic band their light show is quite spectacular and so to be able to sit back and watch while having a decent view was really welcome.
The mid-size venues generally have big enough stages to allow bands to bring more of a show to their gigs as well. Dream Theater did this to great effect at Hammersmith by hanging two giant video screens at the back of the stage. The additional size of the venue really gives them and advantage in this department over the much smaller venues.
What I would consider the third tier of venues to see bands in London are the huge, stadium size arenas. The main two are Wembley Arena and the O2 Arena on the docklands. While allowing a lot more people in they tend to actually lose a lot of the atmosphere. Many of the people at such huge venues don't seem to care so much about the band they're seeing.
Another problem of such a big venue is that unless you're prepared to put up with being squashed down at the front you're unlikely to have a good view. For someone like me who goes to see bands to watch as much as listen this can be really annoying. You will, however, get the few acts that really shine as the venue size increases. Muse spring to mind as really filling Wembley Arena and doing a lot with its vast spaces. They're the exception though as every band I've seen at Wembley and then at a smaller venue were always better outside the arena.
If you're living near London and even have a passing interest in music then there really is no excuse for not getting into the city and seeing some bands play as they pass through. Transport in and out of the city is generally good, even if you may have to sometimes rush to get the last train out. London is unmatched in the UK for seeing live music and I hope I'll be seeing quality bands play for many years across the city at all kinds of different venues and theatres.
Patrick is an expert Research and Travel consultant. His current interest is in Birmingham airport parking, Airparks Birmingham and Gatwick parking NCP.
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