Agree - the Brighton Centre is like an anonymous aircraft hangar and I only ever go there reluctantly.
Concorde 2 is a proper spit-and-sawdust venue with sticky floors and a raucous atmosphere! Highly recommended, even if the sound can be variable depending on who's doing the sound engineering on the night.
Komedia is very good for intimate, hushed gigs where you can hear a pin drop. But the best venue by a mile for both acoustics, sight lines and atmosphere is the Brighton Dome. It helps that it's curved (like the Royal Albert Hall) so you don't get reflections and reverberations off the back wall. It also has an excellent PA and very good sound engineers.data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
It's worse than that, I was out in the Valleys at Trefforest! data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Ah the Kollege of Nowledge. Was stationed just around the corner from there. Bet you were one of the little gits who use to burn the toast and set the fire alarms off. As I said, students, bane of my life.data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Oh Gosh. My student gigs in the 90s were great. The Corn Exchange in Cambridge had great gigs: Billy Bragg, Tori Amos and opera, too data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
I saw Tori for the one and only time play St David's Hall in Cardiff promoting her "Under The Pink" album (1993/4?), before she went all weird and up her own arse musically.
Anyway, we got there early to catch the support who were simply fantastic - an unknown artist called The Divine Comedy! It was basically Neil Hannon with a string quartet right at the front of the stage.
Funnily enough, that was one of the gigs I went to last week - sold out at the Brighton Dome, capacity 1700. And what a tremendous body of work he's produced too! data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Sorry @Derek S-H @Costello has just trumped you with Cambridge. I went to Bryngolwg, the University of hard knocks.data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
I caught her in 1992, must have been her post “Little Earthquakes” tour (must dig that album out this evening!) and she was premiering Cornflake Girl amongst others. Great gig. Her and a piano. Spellbinding. Yes, it was a slow slope downhill from there....
Bought the Little Earthquakes CD when it first came out. There is also a very good DVD and BR of her live at Montreux. Just her and a piano, quite brilliant.
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When I am ready for bed I just plug into my earphone and play the latest playlist I made. I cant listen to same songs for longer. So I keep going back and forth in the musical timeline. Currently, I am listening the Grammy 2020 nomination list and it looks like I got a terrible taste in time. The only song I am fond of from the list is “Hard Place” — H.E.R.and “Sunflower” — Post Malone & Swae Lee. the rest are some I am trying hard to like. Looking forward to developing some taste, I guess.//static.avforums.com/styles/avf/smilies/facepalm.gif
Most of my listening is as background:
On a Sunday morning I'll sit with a view of the estuary in my hi-fi sweet spot and listen to a couple of hours of jazz, classical or ambient (mostly on vinyl but some CDs too) while having a freshly ground coffee and reading the paper (this is our digital-detox time)... As I got older this has replaced Saturday nights as the part of the weekend I look forward to. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
During the week we'll have the same hi-fi as background during dinner, volume lower, taste more varied (family encouraged to share what they like) mostly using CDs and Spotify.
Other than that I have CDs and bluetooth in car and wired in-ear headphones for phone on longer journeys.
The only time I really concetrate on the music is the first time I listen to new music or old music in a new format...
Usually that will be in the hi-fi sweet spot, but sometimes at a computer on spotify on a soundbar (what have I become!) data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Happy listening.