The best gig venue in Manchester, bar none (Manchester Apollo)

Member Name: mrjoegoodwin

Product:	Manchester Apollo
Date:	26/05/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sloping floor, attracts big names, relatively intimate venue

Disadvantages: Dodgy areas nearby, no air conditioning

The Manchester Apollo is a concert venue in the Ardwick area of the city, that first opened its doors as a cinema in 1930, before giving way to theatre and music performances.

Theatre productions at the Apollo are now rare (tending to take place at the Palace Theatre, or the Opera House), and the vast majority of shows taking place at the venue now are live music performances, with top name comedians also filling the seats when they come to town.

Comprising two main layouts (fully seated, and concert standing), the Apollo is split into 2 sections, a ground floor (which can be either seated, or standing, depending on the artist), and a circle balcony area, which is always fully seated. At its highest capacity for a standing gig, the Apollo can house 3,500 people - 2514 standing, and 986 seats.

The best thing that the Apollo offers over similar venues in Manchester is the sloping floor in the lower part of the theatre. Particularly for standing gigs, this allows all visitors to get an excellent view of the action on stage, particularly useful if you're smaller than average and are used to watching the back of a tall person's head instead of the gig itself! The Apollo is similar to London's Brixton Academy in this respect, and in my opinion offers the best standing gig experience in town.

With its capacity being larger than the university-owned Academy venues, but nowhere near the cavernous M.E.N. Arena, the Apollo is perfect for attracting big names, without reducing you to watching a tiny dot on a big screen from the back of an arena sized venue. In recent years, I've personally seen Oasis, Kings of Leon and The White Stripes here (all of whom regularly play to arena-sized venues now), and also comedians such as Chris Rock, Ricky Gervais and Peter Kay.

There are a couple of downsides to the Apollo - Ardwick isn't the nicest area in the world, so be careful where you park your car. There's official parking nearby, but be careful of straying too far towards the 5 a side pitches at the Ardwick Powerleague. Also, the building isn't air conditioned, so when it's a hot and sweaty gig, it gets VERY hot and sweaty at the front. Dress appropriately! Bar queues are typical for any such concert venue, with prices to match.

To summarise, whenever one of my favourite artists comes to Manchester, I always cross my fingers and hope that it's the Apollo they're coming to play, it's the best venue in town for a gig, offers great views from all areas of the theatre and attracts some of the biggest names in the business.

Summary: Cross your fingers that your favourite band plays here when coming to Manchester