Live music in the UK in August.. how does an Aussie find out some info?

May 8, 2006 7:42 AM

I'm taking a holiday from around the 25th of July for 5 weeks to the UK, France and Germany. As well as doing plenty of sightseeing, I'd love to see some great live music by some bands/DJs that might not make it to Australia for a few years. Being in Melbourne, and having never been to the UK before, I have no idea about what source to go to, to find out what festivals or gigs by bands/DJs are coming up. Melburnians know to check their local street press, where do the Brits go to find out all their music news? Please recommend some great websites for news, reviews and schedules. Anything with an RSS feed would be awesome, but I'm not worried if it doesn't have one. A poke around in google found www.virtualfestivals.com which seems to be good for festivals, but not much for gigs. Not like the usual street press that I'm used to reading. I had the thought to go to Reading/Leeds Festivals or Creamfields, but I think they might already be sold out. I also have no idea where to buy tickets from. Are there major ticket agencies to head to? Is ebay a good option? Also, any thoughts, recommendations or live music experiences for festivals, gigs or venues are more than welcome! Thanks!
posted by snarkle to sports, hobbies, & recreation (10 comments total)

oops... looks like I forgot to read the labels on the boxes before i posted!

Sorry!
posted by snarkle at 7:46 AM on May 8, 2006

The Forum, in Kentish Town is a great venue, not too big, not too small, bands that are on the cusp of huge things, use this venue, before moving on to......

Brixton Academy, is big (5000ish), lots of top bands, great sound.

If you like smaller intimate gigs, 100 club, Oxford St.
Borderline (country, americana, ALt. Country), Charing Cross Road.

Use NME, Uncut, Mojo & Q magazines, timeout. They're all great for listings (online too).

You can head to HMV, or Virgin Megastores on Oxford St for tickets, there's also a few smaller places off of Oxford St/Tottenham Court Rd that are worth looking at (Stargreen Tickets, Argylle St).

That should keep you going for a while!
posted by the_epicurean at 7:47 AM on May 8, 2006

More....

The Astoria, another cool venue.
Mean Fiddler, smaller sister of Astoria
The Garage, their halfbreed smaller still sister in Highbury.
Hammersmith Apollo.
ULU, is pretty good.

Cargo, rivington st, shoreditch
93 feet east, shoreditch.
posted by the_epicurean at 7:50 AM on May 8, 2006

Well, the UK is actually a pretty big place. I can recommend quite a few places in London, though...

Camden is the place to go to for 'alternative' and rock/heavy/metal gigs. The Underworld and Barfly to name a few. Small venues, cheaper prices for entry. But can be somewhat esoteric in appeal. I love it personally, nothing quite like seeing obscure Japanese rock bands on a tiny, tiny stage in London...

A few big(ger) ones:
Carling Academy (Brixton & Hammersmith Apollo here in London)
Mean Fiddler (formerly LA2)

Ticketmaster is very good for tickets (in variety) but they shaft you for price. Ebay is rarely a good idea, with the amount of touts scamming money for concert tickets. Reading sold out in about an hour, so I wouldn't put too much hope for it.

There are yonks more, but I forget. And need to get back to work...
posted by slimepuppy at 7:59 AM on May 8, 2006

The Big Chill
fRoots festivals directory
posted by omnidrew at 8:00 AM on May 8, 2006

On preview; what the_epicurean said.
I did html though, that counts, right?
posted by slimepuppy at 8:01 AM on May 8, 2006

I use Ticket Web and Ticketmaster to buy most of my tickets - you could search the dates that you are in the UK to see if anybody you'd like to see is playing...
posted by SpacemanRed at 8:01 AM on May 8, 2006

Agh, and grab yourself a copy of Time Out London when you get here. If, indeed, 'here' is London.
posted by slimepuppy at 8:02 AM on May 8, 2006

you don't mention if you're interested in London specifically - but in any case, note that all the venues the_epicurean mentions are in London. Get Time Out on a Wednesday if you're staying in London - that'll tell you about the upcoming week. Not sure about advance planning.

On this site it appears that you can get day tickets to Reading, and there are a few weekend tickets for Leeds left.

On preview, what slimepuppy said.
posted by altolinguistic at 8:20 AM on May 8, 2006

Although it has more of a clubbing bias (for your DJ fix) Don't Stay In has database that can be shown in a calendar format with events listed by location (town &/or venue), music type etc. & includes festivals.

There are forums attached which can be handy.
posted by i_cola at 12:17 PM on May 8, 2006