Reverend and the Makers, Tinchy Stryder, Chipmunk, Calvin Harris, The Maccabees, Mr Hudson, Starsailor, Noah and the Whale, Doves, The Ting Tings, Robyn, Sam Sparro, Soulwax. Not just a round-up of my musical tastes, but a list of artists I have seen at the Bristol Academy over the last few years.
Last night, I was there to see Hot Chip. It was a sell-out gig and my friend Polly and I ended up watching the band from behind a metal grill. Last year when Hot Chip played at the Academy, I was up on the balcony, where unless you are right at the front you have to rely on the two small monitors to see what’s happening on stage. Don’t get me started on the Academy 2, the long and narrow bar upstairs now turned into a smaller venue patently unsuitable in which to enjoy live music.
My heart sinks when a band I really want to see play live announces that they are coming to Bristol but appearing at the Academy.
The O2 Academy has the commercial muscle behind it to snap up bands on nationwide tours who perform solely in O2 Academy-branded venues from Bournemouth to Glasgow. But whereas London’s Brixton Academy, housed in a beautiful old art deco theatre, is regularly voted the country’s best live music venue, the Bristol Academy is anywhere but “the place to experience live music in Bristol” as its owners AMG proclaim.
The place to experience live music in Bristol is at the Thekla, Trinity Centre or St George’s, not a soulless former cinema where you have to sometimes fight to get even a half-decent view of the stage.
I have seen some of my favourite bands at the Academy and one of my best live music experiences in Bristol was when Soulwax put on a documentary film before their set, with the audience sat in rows of seats, before playing live and then, as if that wasn’t enough, doing one of their famous 2ManyDJs sets.
But when a band I love play at the Academy, it is always the music that makes the night memorable for me, not the venue.
And you didn’t even mention the scandalous price of the drinks in The Academy!
When we went to the Dottodot Festival there last year they made me leave the sweets I was carrying outside the venue, as ‘no food or drink’ was allowed to be taken in. How pathetic is that?
I personally think The Thekla is the best venue in Bristol these days in terms of the artists it attracts and the atmosphere.
In the O2 Academy’s defence, they’ve managed to attract bands of calibre to Bristol that have been skipping the city for many, many years. And the sound is better than the Colston Hall or Hippodrome were the last time I went for a gig, and the Bierkeller too for much of its history.
The drink prices are shocking, though. Have a couple in the Hatchet before you go in.
I completely agree with this, always shudder when I see a band I want to see playing there. I have to really want to go as you can’t see anything and the sound, unless you’re in front of the sound guy, can be really dodgy.
For me the Colston Hall has to be the best venue. The Elbow gig last year was just amazing.