Wednesday, May 31, 2006

VENUEWATCH: Queen's Hall

Edinburgh's Queens Hall won't make it out the other side of this decade, as the local council plan to replace it with a new venue.

The city burghers are convinced that a brighter, more expensive, waterfront venue will do better than the current one; they've agreed to pump in £150,000 a year to keep the place alive while a new venue is built.

The Queens Hall was only opened in 1979; the council reports people who go to concerts and gigs at the venue are less-than-delighted by their experiences.

We're not sure that's entirely true - Falling Sky describes it as a "funny little venue"; World of Boober went to see a classical event there and didn't mind the venue so much as the audience (packed with the Ageing Middle Class: polo-necked and bolt-upright attentive, or tweedy and dozing-off blissfully.") - but then there's much more excitement for a council in opening a new venue than in fine-tuning an old one; and - hey - it's not like it's their money, is it?

Having said that, it's probably ten years since we saw a gig in Edinburgh, so we'd be interested if people will be excited to dance a jig on the grave of the QHE?


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

as there are so many places that put on music in Edinburgh closing at the moment,i dont think any music fan would like the thought of yet another one going.The Venue,a club of more than 20 years ,closes in a couple of weeks,and what was Calton Studios/studio 24 seems to be having trouble again with its license again.
a bad time for gig-goers/club goers in Edinburgh

Anonymous said...

Though the new management at Cabaret Voltaire has been a very good thing indeed.
Queens Hall is a lovely venue, though a fair distance away from the rest. The council should shut up and stop digging up roads for the sole intention of annoying me.
Gig shut a few months back too.
The main problem with Edinburgh gig venues is that property is so expensive. Did you know the Venue is getting replaced by posh flats and an UPMARKET DELICATESSEN?!
Disgusting.
Sorry for the long post.

Greg Smyth said...

I've only been to it once, the first time I saw The Polyphonic Spree, and it was possibly the best gig I've ever been to. The fact that it's actually got pews is ace.

Flum said...

I love the Queens Hall. While it's only suitable for 'certain' sorts of gigs - I've seen David Byrne, Polyphonic Spree and Magnetic Fields there, for example - it's got such a fanatastic atmosphere and sound that it's always a joy to discover that a band is playing there, and less of one to discover that another venue here is going tits up.

Post a Comment

As a general rule, posts will only be deleted if they reek of spam.