This brick-lined basement space makes the most of the enthusiastic local support for innovative new music, providing the shot in the arm that the city's music circuit has...

It may be the rough and ready bar of a New Town backpackers' hostel, but thanks to canny local promoters such as Baby Tiger (www.baby-tiger.net), the eclectic bills of indie,...

Basement Jaxx, Starsailor and Futureheads have all raised the roof in this converted slaughterhouse, but the 2,500-capacity venue's finest moment remains the N.E.R.D MTV Awards...

The Pleasance's Cabaret Bar hosts the Edinburgh Folk Club's weekly sessions for 11 months in every 12; the exception is August, when the venue becomes subsumed by the Fringe.

This spacious cellar bar offers regular sets of unobtrusive modern jazz, with guest artistes often featuring on Saturdays. It's worth dropping by on Wednesdays for the...

Owned by the same company as the Corn Exchange, this 460-capacity space plays host to sporadic shows from acts of the calibre of the Arctic Monkeys and the Dresden Dolls....

This quiet upstairs room in an even quieter bar was a major venue during the 1960s folk revival. These days, it hosts Folk 'n' Friends (www.singingsession.com), a loose-knit...

The Forest provides an antidote to the creeping commercialism of other venues. Housed in a converted church, it contains an art gallery, a non-profit café and a club-cum-music...

Assembly Direct, the city's foremost jazz promoters, have decamped to the altogether more dapper Lot, leaving Henry's to become the unofficial heart of Edinburgh's experimental...

Housed in the beautiful former BBC Broadcasting House, this music-and-dining venue is a real looker, a grand and expansive space with tables on the main floor and seating...

One of the victims of the massive Old Town fire of 2002 was the Bridge Jazz Bar on Cowgate. Proprietor Bill Kyle turned to the local jazz scene and asked for its help backing a...

Assembly Direct (www.jazzmusic.co.uk), the promoters behind the Edinburgh International Jazz Festival, left their previous haunt at Henry's Cellar Bar to set up an altogether...

On a busy night, the Liquid Room is as claustrophobic as a riot in a prison cell. Happily, the lack of cat-swinging capacity doesn't prevent it from being a great gig venue:...

This nifty little basement space is now the home of Out of the Bedroom (www.outofthebedroom.co.uk), a regular weekly event bringing together aspiring local singer/songwriters.