Standard Arena Fare (The NEC Arena)

Member Name: posthuman

Product:	The NEC Arena
Date:	21/01/04 (500 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good road links, Buying tickets direct saves money

Disadvantages: Lack of cloakroom, Arena atmosphere

I'll admit this from the very start. I'm not a fan of arenas. At the end of the day they are just great big warehouses, with the atmosphere and acoustics that you'd expect of such a building.

However unfortunately some bands these days are so popular that they have to play venues of this size.. so recently I bit the bullet and went along to two gigs there.

The NEC Arena is pretty much what you'd expect. A stage at one end of the 'warehouse', with tiers of seating along the three other walls, and a mixture of seating and standing (dependent on the event) on the main floor.

Any provision of large projection screens (to give people at the back a better view), is entirely at the discretion of the event promoter - and nothing to do with the venue. But obviously for a place this size, any promoter would be pretty foolish to not include these in their set design. The stage is nice and high though, so that people standing shouldn't have too much trouble seeing what's going on.

Acoustics seemed about average - again, this probably has more to do with the touring crew as opposed to the venue's own provisions - but it did seem to be better than events I've been to at Wembley Arena. Those of you who are off to your first pop concert and don't like 'loud' things may want to think twice about getting seats near the front. Or buy some highly fashionable ear plugs. As with any gig at any venue, if you're up at the front, your ears will ring afterwards.

Bar prices are about average venue prices - £3 or so for a beer. Both bar and door staff are reasonably friendly - although do at times seem to be quite rushed and stressed.

The venue has varying door policies, although for the more 'metal' gigs they seem to have a policy of no spiky jewellery, studded belts, et cetera. Anything which they don't like the look of gets withheld, and returned after a lengthy wa
it at the end of the gig. Both times I went, everyone got frisked, and had their bags searched on their door.

A big thing to watch out for is the lack of cloakroom facilities - very very irksome for those who have standing tickets, and have to just stand there and hold their coats throughout the gig - it certainly makes going to events there over the winter somewhat tricky! In response to a complaint of mine, they successfully managed to contradict themselves by saying that "to provide a cloakroom for this many people would simply not be feasible" and "there is also rarely a demand for such a facility"

Getting to and from the venue is pretty easy. It's located right by Birmingham International Airport, so great roads and transport links. The trains getting back at night can be a bit... unpredictable however. At one event, we had no problem getting on a train home (Coventry). At another, the train company managed to send a train with only three carriages, leaving half the passengers unable to board, and having to wait an hour until the next (and last) train. The platform attendant's response? "How are we supposed to know that there will be concerts at the NEC?" (whilst standing beside a poster advertising NEC events)

Gig listings can be found at www.necgroup.co.uk - Tickets for events there are best bought here too - they seem to have lower booking fees than other agents (presumably as you're buying direct). Tickets are usually between £20 and £30. If you have the option, and aren't with kids, I'd highly recommend getting standing tickets - you'll be closer to the stage. And can dance without people behind you saying "sit down, you're spoiling my view" (yay). A nice little touch for those of you who like to keep your ticket as a souvenir, is that, whilst you have to surrender your ticket when you enter the standing enclosure, you can get it back after the event.


All in all, not a bad place, nothing especially outstanding either. At the end of the day, if your favourite band are playing there, you'll go there. And if they're not playing there, you won't.

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