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Unusual/interesting/beautiful venues for gigs


bornagainbass65
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I expect there is already a thread for this, but I couldn't find it. I've just seen some pics of the venue for our next gig, and wow ... The fabulous Longton Central Hall in sun-drenched Stoke on Trent. One bonus of playing with a gospel choir means you get to play in some beautiful old churches and halls.

Anyone got some pics to share of interesting places they have played? Lovely old Victorian boozers? Posh hotels? Fancy theatres? Or what's the most dismal room you have played?

Show us your pics...

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Around this time last year my band played a show in a disused Cold War missile silo on a former army bass near Stoke that hosts an annual paintball tournament.
It was good fun but freezing cold. The 'venue' was a long concrete tunnel with a huge ammo storage room off the side. It was basically a huge echo chamber! Snare drum for days!

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I'll dig out some pics when I get time but I did an acoustic set about 8 years ago in the 12th c Abbaye de Prebenoit for an outside radio broadcast. Three guitars, vox and an acoustic bass with no amplification. Sound was fabulous. Such beautiful natural acoustics in the main hall. Quite a humbling experience.

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[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1456347743' post='2988206']
My first ever jazz gig was at the National Railway Museum in York, right by The Mallard or Flying Scotsman or something. I don't know, I was too busy trying not to mess up Autumn Leaves


[/quote]

Nice we had an office party with the CPS there many moons ago. Three people got taken home in an ambulance due to getting pissed and falling on to the tracks!

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The Last Bus Depot in New Pitsligo - a big shed flanked with two double decker buses which have been tricked out with a kitchen and seating - like a giant camper van. People can sit in them and watch the gig - the back couple of rows of seats are "al fresco" (so the roof's been chopped back) so they act like balcony seats. Really cool place, absolutely crap acoustics (it's a metal shed) but we had such a laugh playing there, would love to get back there some time.

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Here's a winery venue in Washington State I used to play pretty often with my jazz trio:



And the view from the terrace we'd usually set up on, next to the tasting room. The amphitheater seats around 3000 people and we did pre-show gigs on the terrace before ZZ Top and Bob Dylan shows down there.

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[quote name='Subbeh' timestamp='1456362318' post='2988371']
Wow, what a stunning venue and setting that is :o
[/quote]

Yep, but those pics barely scratch the surface really. If you do a Google Images search on "Maryhill" you'll see what I mean.

Edited by Passinwind
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Played a few nice ones when I was in a function/wedding band too... a lovely old brick cellar with suprisingly good acoustics near Waltham Abbey, on the grand marble staircase in hte entrance hall at a public school in Surrey, in a converted barn in deepest darkest Surrey which had been beautifully done, similar venue in Oxfordshire/Bedfordshire (next door to Ozzy and Sharon's gaff - which was ironically the reason for the super strict 11pm curfew!!!), The Pump Rooms and the Guildhall in Bath (both sumptuously Georgian in their decor), a gorgeous riverside hotel near Henley where our function room opened up onto the lawns which rolled down to the river, Ascot Racecourse...

But also some lovely venues where I've seen music too...

Ginglik - a nightclub under Shepherds Bush Green which is a converted Victorian Gentlemen's lavatory complex - the sort where you would have had a barber, a cobbler, a tailor etc all in the same place underground. Used to have the very best acoustic showcase night in London (The Big Secret), sadly not any more. They used to have an artist live illustrating the music which was then projected up onto the wall... Sooooooooo cool!



Bush Hall in Shepherds Bush - lovely venue.

Riverboar on the Thames - saw British Sea Power doing a renewable energy corporate event...




Soho Revue Bar (formally the Raymond Revue Bar), London - saw Paul Carrack doing an album launch show case gig there. More alcoves with poles and red velvet wall coverings than you could shake a... I'll stop there...

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre - saw Nerina Pallot there supported by Jon Allen many moons ago on a balmy summer's evening. Totally magical.

St John's Church, Farncombe - venue of Farncombe Music Club. Always a lovely place to see acoustic based music (and noisy stuff too).



Green Note, Camden - teeny tiny venue cum veggie restaurant in Camben. Wonderful place. Fave ever venue.


Red Sky July - couldn't get far away to get a full band shot with my 50mm low f-stop lens... too intimite!

Minack Theatre on the cliffside in Cornwall... say no more!

Eden Project in Cornwall... also say no more.

My back room - when we used to do "house gigs". Here's (this year's Grammy winning) singer songwriter Amy Wadge from about 6 or 7 years ago doing a gig at our place...

Edited by TrevorR
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Two weeks ago I was playing this amazing venue - the Rickshaw Theatre in Vancouver, BC. It's an amazing venue in Vancouver's Chinatown district which used to be a cinema showing kung fu films for the Chinese ex-pats.

[url="http://s22.photobucket.com/user/RevDave/media/SkimmityHitchers_Rickshaw_MC_13022016_007good%20band-crowd%20shot.jpg.html"][/url]

[url="http://s22.photobucket.com/user/RevDave/media/ML%20rickshaw%20crowd%20amp%20band%20amp%20badger.jpg.html"][/url]

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I've got very few pics of my life, so can't help with any for gigs. But from the sublime to the....... I remember a great gig on the aft deck of HMS Belfast for M&S and with an enthusiastic 'unofficial' audience looking down on us from the Tower Bridge footway. And there was the gig for RNLI on Newlyn harbour with a stage built from fish crates. And not to forget that the first stage I had a gig on was as an eleven year old at he Royal Alber Hall. Lots more, but that's enough.

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