Looking for European gig venues for a friend or mine.

[laurentius]

Hello Apo,

Avi, a musician friend of mine from Australia is coming to Europe this spring. He is asking for advice to find suitable clubs to play in. My connections to the clubs only extend to Finland. If you guys know any good venues in your countries please let me know. Thanks in advance and Happy New Year!

http://www.myspace.com/ylisten

Mods if you could please fix the typo in the thread title, thanks.

[Snotty]

I cant get the music to work on the site, I assume youre just looking for pubs with live music and such

[laurentius]

I'm not sure about pubs, his music is quite atmospheric and as such doesnt really fit into noisy pubs very well. I'm more looking for local jazz clubs, smallish rock venues, even upscale bars and such.


Nothing too big...yet.

[Cort Haus]

Tell him to get on the sodding internet and look up some promoters and venues.

I can give this advice on my own country for free, though :

Whilst there is a thriving music scene here in London, the customers are brought by the bands themselves in most cases. Effectively the promoters are booking audiences, not bands. So don't come here expecting to play to throngs of people, as most punters generally watch their mates' band and no other. From what I've heard, the Australian scene is far better for customers, who actively seek out and watch unknown bands. In Britain the cult of the DJ has killed much of the passion for live music - except among the musicians and bands themselves. There are plenty of great small bands here - just not very many customers.

Most music venues are pubs, though if he thinks jazz clubs are the way to go then look up jazz clubs in the countries he is interested in.

I would recommend small London venues like the Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon or the Hope & Anchor in Islington. The Betsey Trotwood promoter is Plum Music. http://www.plummusic.com/

Hope and Anchor : http://www.bugbearbookings.com/pages/ha.htm

[Ecthy]

Berlin: Magnet Club, or the Irish Pubs if he's looking for small gigs really.

[Chemical Ollie]

I would have a small gig (2-300 people) for him in south Sweden on 1st of April if I liked the music, but I don't. It's too deep and introvert for the audience my show is aimed at. The title song is "ZZZZZ"

[laurentius]

Thank you everyone for your answers. I will forward your recommendations to Avi.

Cort Haus: Its interesting to hear that. In fact in Finland we book the audiances as well, the bands have to (unfortenately) categorise themselves to a certain group for us to be really interested about them. In this University town aside from the Uni parties the most profitable nights for us(the club owners) are the heavy metal nights. Those people drink a LOT of beer and their friends usually take care of them if they are too drunk. The Ravers on the otrher hand dont drink too much and the punks tend to get a little too excited especially if they have some smuggled liquor of their own with them.

This is why I'm a little concerned for Avis prospects here. He isnt easy to categorize and its difficult to imagine a crowd (at least in this town) big enough that would dig of such music.

I'm sure he would do much better in NY of London than here.