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Tiger Tiger (Manchester)
by dreamer87
In Manchester you are truly spoilt for choice when it comes to the range of nightclubs on offer, in July 2011 me and 9 of my girl friends celebrated our friends hen night at Tiger Tiger Manchester. There are a few other pubs and clubs surrounding this club with the famous 'Bird Cage' directly opposite. It is located in the Printworks ... which is one of the city's big going out areas, featuring an array of bars, clubs, restaurants and a Vue cinema.
When you first enter the venue the music is loud and you walk straight into the ground floor bar, to your right is the restaurant. As part of our hen package we had a 3 course meal and a few bottles of wine on the tables. To be honest the food was average, if it wasn't part of the package I wouldn't be too happy paying much for it and certainly wouldn't have had 3 courses! On the upper floors there are a number of different rooms containing bars and dance floors, the best room by far in my opinion was the 70's room. This room was by far the most popular being jam packed all night, the only problem with this was there were far too many people in there and being on the top floor, this room was unbearably hot. We couldn't spend more than 5 minutes at a time in this room which was unfortunate as it had a much better atmosphere than the rest of the place altogether. There is also a good quantity of seating in each room you can even book your group one of their private booths which we would have done if we'd have known about it.
There was a good variety of drinks in the club, varying from cheap to expensive wines, cocktails and lots of spirits and mixers. The wine we were given as part of the package was however awful so I wouldn't recommend the house wine at all, we left a full bottle on the table it was just too vinegary! I only had a couple of doubles with mixer as these cost £7 a pop which was too much for my budget!
Overall this wasn't a bad place but I wouldn't return here, the music wasn't great and the drinks were too expensive but we had a great night due to great company!
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The Joiner (Southampton)
by aero-zeppelin
The Joiner's Arms is only a few minutes walk from me and is one of the lesser known music venues in Southampton known nationally but is recognised for booking bands such as Oasis and Coldplay before they made it big, and I hope this continues as the last band I went to see there were Reckless Love who played at last year's Download ... Festival.
It's located on St Mary's Street about half way along it (St Mary's is a very long street!) in the Southern part of the city about ten minutes walk from the city centre, and fifteen from the Southampton Central. It comprises of a bar area in the front and a stage at the back with a large ground area and has the capacity to hold about 200 people. It doesn't often get crowded but when it does there's enough room to manouver around it's just a bit tight which isn't very nice when you have a drink and you're moving around with a lot of people moshing around you!
For me, the Joiner's Arms is more of a music venue than a pub. I've only ever been there to watch bands play and I rarely drink there as the prices are quite steep. I could only describe the atmosphere as a typical grubby pub if you only go there to drink but as a music venue it's much better. Ticket prices vary depend on the act who's playing. The acts that play at the Joiner's tend to be of rock genre, with some variations every now and again.
To conclude, as a music venue this is a nice little pub with a friendly atmosphere as everyone tends to be into the same music and therefore can enjoy the acts playing. It can be quite cramped but entrance is often cheap in advance, with tickets on the door usually £2 more than the billed price. I wouldn't go for a quiet drink there though, too expensive.
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The Southampton Guildhall (Southampton)
by aero-zeppelin
I've been to see artists such as Bowling for Soup and Sum 41 at Southampton Guildhall within the last few months. It's not a bad venue at all. This review is based on going to see live music acts.
It books several well known acts, mainly comedians and musicians and is well equipped for either. The seating/standing area is ... huge, a very open area. Capacity varies depending on the event, but there is permanent seating on the balcony which overlooks the arena but they are quite far back and wouldn't want to even try them out for a show. Either side of the arena both sides have a bar which sells alcoholic and soft drinks as well as snacks, but they are very pricey (Double Southern Comfort and lemonade was £6.20!!!), so I wouldn't recommend buying anything unless you're treating yourself or someone else. During live music though it does get quite warm especially if you're deep in the crowd and they do hand out free cups of water so you can be poor and still hydrate yourself! For toilets and a cloakroom you'd ahve to leave the arena and go downstairs, I didn't see any disabled toilets while I was there but I'm sure they'd have some located sensibly.
Determining prices of events going on depend on the act that's playing. A concert typically costs around the £20 mark which is very reasonable, with the comedians varying dramatically, depending on their popularity.
I've recommended going to the Guildhall to friends and they've enjoyed its atmosphere as wel as the act they've gone to see. I've never been to see a comedian there though I do anticipate gonig to some future shows to see what they've like. It's not perfect but it's the biggest Southampton has for that range of entertainment.
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