The 42 greatest independent music venues in the UK

Leeds is replete with great gig spots – from Belgrave and Headrow House to The Wardrobe and Hyde Park Book Club. But Brudenell Social Club is the one that all the bands (and patrons) come home raving about. There’s something special about this old-school working men’s club – and it’s not just the superior crisps selection behind the bar. A century after it was founded in 1913, the club became a three-time winner of NME’s ‘Britain’s Best Small Venue’ award in the 2010s, as indie royalty like Franz Ferdinand, The Fall and local legends The Cribs passed through. With a low stage that blurs the line between performer and crowd in the main room, and a second 400-cap concert hall next door (opened in 2017) that enables multiple gigs per night, it remains the beating heart of Leeds’ live scene, and a venue that artists seek out as much as the patrons. (Plus: they sell pies.)

Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins/Bella Union Records): ‘I won’t be alone in picking Brudenell Social Club, but there is a reason why. If you love your work and put that love in every day, you will reap the rewards. They have built and developed the community around the venue with a passion that is evident in every flyer, every phone call, and every soundcheck.’

Loved by everyone from Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and comedian Stewart Lee to Hollywood composer Daniel Blumberg (who thanked the venue in his Academy Award acceptance speech), this former Dalston paint-mixing factory turned ‘outsider arts’ space offers programming you’ll find nowhere else in the world. It’s a place for avant-garde jazz, glitchy electronic improv, and even ‘Zeuhl music from Japan’, say the venue’s dedicated patronage – who have witnessed everything from multi-day Sun Ra residencies to 30-minute drum rolls. OTO is as DIY as they come, and truly a place to be cherished. 

Alexis Taylor, Hot Chip (speaking to Time Out in 2025): ‘I [once] saw Charles Hayward open for This Is Not This Heat here. His set involved pushing a speaker around in a baby’s pushchair, with various loops and drones coming out.’

An oral history of Cafe OTO.

Locals jokingly refer to it as the Salford Berghain, but truth be told the comparisons are apt. Like the (much larger) Berlin clubbing mecca, The White Hotel is a reclaimed industrial space hidden in the wastelands at the edge of town – in this case, a vehicle-repair garage in the shadow of Strangeways prison. It boasts both an ear-pummelling soundsystem and a refreshing lack of respect for noise curfews. The vibrant community around it comes for all-night raves that hark back to the early ’90s, and performances by experimental electronic musicians, indie bands, and even black metal groups.

Murkage Dave: ‘A sound guy who used to work there recently described it to me as like being part of a family, or a cult. I did my last ever Murkage club night there, a few months before my music properly kicked off, and fans still bring it up to me to this day.’

There are few better views on the UK touring circuit than arriving at the Barrowland Ballroom to see that spectacular, rainbow-coloured neon facade in all its glory. It is a sight to behold. Inside the 2,000-capacity venue – known for its wooden sprung floors – patrons and artists alike value the superior acoustics, with noisy Scots Biffy Clyro notably releasing a live album of their performances there in 2020. Back in 2023, it was named the UK’s best venue by a host of leading artists in Time Out, including members of New Order, Mogwai, and Leftfield.

Suren de Saram, Bombay Bicycle Club: ‘Whatever venue you're playing in Glasgow, it's a safe bet that it's going to be a great gig. But Barrowlands is something special. You feel like you've stepped back in time when you walk into the old ballroom, and the backstage area feels like it hasn't changed since the ‘60s. Add to that the sprung dancefloor, the iconic neon lights, and a Glasgow crowd that's up for a party any day of the week… playing here never fails to leave you coming off stage very sweaty and absolutely buzzing.’

Another venue caught in a battle for survival, fighting developers who seem bent on surrounding it with flats, MOTH Club remains (for now) one of the leading flag bearers for independent music in London. But the former servicemen’s club has also offered its glittery golden stage to the likes of Lady Gaga, Rick Astley and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl since remodelling as a gig venue in 2015. The stage is so small and the room often so packed that performers will be sweating buckets within just a few songs, trying to avoid knocking their bandmates over. And DJs are literally confined to a cupboard-cage on the corner. But whether you’re here for a new band, a Northern Soul dance-off or an ABBA sing-along club night, most would agree: MOTH is an institution to be protected at all cost.

Given Bristol’s history as a thriving port city, it seems fitting that one of its most iconic venues is on a boat. But the Thekla is much more than a novelty – for a big tin can, it sounds fantastic on board. Built in Germany in 1958, the ship was for a long time abandoned and half-submerged before enterprising novelist Ki Longfellow and her husband, Vivian Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, brought it from Sunderland to Bristol in the ‘80s. Since then, it’s been a nightclub-for-hire, housed a Banksy, and served as a proving ground for local legends like Massive Attack and Portishead. 

Austin Williams, Swim Deep: ‘It makes me sea sick to think about how many times we’ve played Thekla, but Bristol has always been such a great city for music, and there's an incredibly rich musical history there, and with that comes great energy. The stage is small, the dressing room feels like a prison on the Titanic, but it has an amazing atmosphere and feel to it. I hope it sails on forever.’

This vintage estate pub has been so hailed for breeding a new generation of art-rock bands in the late 2010s that the ‘Windmill scene’ actually has its own Wikipedia page. Respected alumni of the era include noisemakers Black Midi and Black Country, New Road, both of which were nominated for the Mercury Prize while still performing at the Brixton venue. Before those bands’ ascendancies, the south London pub’s most famous patron was Ben the rottweiler, who lived on the roof and had a tendency to bark at passers-by. He sadly died in 2015 – but the boozer lives on! (And Ben does, too, on the venue’s merch).

Eddie Green, Shame: ‘It’s a true stalwart of grassroots music and, to my mind, the dictionary definition of an independent venue. Booker/promoter Tim Perry has spent the last two decades curating innovative line-ups near enough every night of the week, and bands receive 90 percent of door takings, which is a breath of fresh air. I don’t think we will ever forget the feeling of elation as 18-year-olds being handed £400 after one of our gigs there.’

Built in 1877 as a community centre for the disabled, The Deaf Institute has been a hub for Manchester’s student population since it reopened as a gig venue and clubnight space in 2008. Part of what makes this Grade II-listed Manchester institution so perfect for patrons is the unfaultable layout of the main Music Hall, which is accessed by entering through the Gothic-style stone entrance arch and heading upstairs. Here, beneath the mirrorball, and surrounded by wonderfully garish wallpaper, you can fit 250 people between a wall-length bar and the balcony opposite. Throw in an elevated stage (great for stagediving), and you’ve got an explosively atmospheric space offering perfect sightlines, whether you’re in the nosebleeds or perched on the staircase-seats at the back. Behind-the-scenes, meanwhile, the Deaf Institute offers both an apartment-sized dressing room and bunk beds in case the artist didn’t book a hotel.

Proudly claiming the mantle of ‘York’s independent DIY venue’, The Crescent is a former working men’s club that today hosts gigs, record fairs and club nights while also serving up local ales to patrons young and old. It is, above all, just an absolute hoot, run by enthusiastic staff whose passion for music is made evident by the palpable buzz that intoxicates the main event space – most recently for acts like ’80s Japanese punk icons Shonen Knife, and indie upstarts Westside Cowboy. And if you do get pooped out, the neighbouring bar and games room is a sanctuary, featuring a rather loud maroon checkerboard carpet and a host of retro pub games like bar billiards.

With security famously rumoured to be run by an army of Hell’s Angels, Rock City is an institution with a lore as rich as its gigging reputation. Formerly the Alexandra Skating Rink (est. 1876), the 2,000-capacity space has hosted everyone from Nirvana and Public Enemy to Guns ‘N’ Roses since it opened as a live venue in 1980. And when David Bowie turned up in 1997, it was reported that he had a Persian rug brought to the dressing room – perhaps as an antidote to the venue’s notoriously sticky hardwood floors, which were ripped up and sold to fans ahead of the introduction of shinier replacement flooring in 2019. Though it was named Kerrang! magazine’s ‘Venue of the Year’ for an incredible 10 years running in the ‘00s, Rock City doesn’t solely cater to heavier music – it’s also home to Nottingham’s biggest club nights and indie staples like the annual Dot to Dot Festival.

Pauline Black, The Selecter (speaking to Time Out in 2023): “It looks a bit rough from the outside, but inside it’s got some soul – like the music made inside it is the most important thing. The security – mostly folk from the biker fraternity – are always surprisingly friendly and respectful.”

If you’re looking for a spiritual live music experience, there are few places in the UK more ethereal than Union Chapel, a Grade I-listed Victorian Gothic Revival church in Islington. From the stained-glass windows and pew seating to the 150-year-old pipe organ, there are all kinds of beauty to admire inside the stunning, octagonal main chamber, which dates back to 1799. A pretty place, sure, but it’s Union Chapel’s diverse programming that has turned sceptics into believers since the church began hosting concerts in 1992. Everyone from Nick Cave to Björk to Philip Glass has graced the stage since then, with Time Out readers voting it London’s Favourite Venue four times.

Built in 1924 as a joint venture between a half-dozen local trade unions, The Trades Club has historically positioned itself as a place of community and activism – holding Anti-Nazi League discos in the ’70s, and raising money for victims of the Kosovo crisis in the ’90s. Over a century after its establishment, this long, rectangular brick clubhouse retains those same socialist values while also welcoming a broad range of musicians. The Trades Club has had veterans like Patti Smith (who raised benefit funds for victims of the Calder Valley flooding in 2012) alongside recent buzz bands like Man/Woman/Chainsaw over the years.

Antony Szmierek: “This place is so special because of the people that run it. Everything here, from the stage to the lights to the green room, is punching so far above its weight. Every night in here feels like magic. Looks a bit like an upside-down boat and has a pool table, too.”

Many a Great Escape Festival patron knows the pain of trudging along the seafront in a bid to catch a buzz band at far-flung Concorde 2. But somehow, no matter how inclement the weather, the journey to this former Victorian tea room is always worth it. There’s something homely about this Brighton staple – which is curious, given that it was once a notorious biker gang haunt and then an amusement arcade. Concorde 2 opened as a music venue on New Year’s Eve 1999 with a Fatboy Slim DJ set, and since then it has hosted everyone from Amy Winehouse to Coldplay.

A fixture of the south coast’s live circuit since 1968, The Joiners was facing closure in the post-pandemic years until it was brought into community ownership in 2025 under the Music Venue Trust’s ‘Own Our Venues’ initiative. The purchase prompted an outpouring of support from musicians such as Frank Turner, who grew up patronising and performing at the former pub, and has repeatedly hailed its significance. There’s also some interesting lore behind the bar: the old venue manager used to be Roger Moore’s stunt double in ‘70s James Bond films.

The Forum became a music venue after a group of local promoters, who’d had success bringing bands like Green Day to Kent in the early ‘90s, decided it was time to open a permanent space. They settled upon a former public loo at the foot of Tunbridge Wells Common – and in the thirty-odd years since, local artists such as Soft Play (formerly Slaves) and Everything Everything’s Jeremy Pritchard have vouched for it, with the latter once claiming that he ‘went there every day between the ages of 15 and 19’.

Steve Diggle, Buzzcocks: ‘It was previously a public toilet, but it’s a great venue that has great support from local people who love music.’

Take a moment to appreciate the stunning backdrop before you enter this Newcastle institution. Housed in a former flax and flour mill, two-room livehouse The Cluny is surrounded by cobblestone streets, brick chimneys, and dramatic views of the Byker Viaduct and Bridge over a river Ouseburn tributary. It’s an ideal hangout spot on a summer afternoon, and live music has been an almost nightly fixture since the turn of the century – when local legends like Maxïmo Park and The Futureheads were honing their chops here. Since then, the Cluny has continued to be a vital proving ground in the far north: Sam Fender played here on nine separate occasions in the ‘10s before he went meteoric.

Legendary Manchester promoters Now Wave discovered this former printing press and auction house just a few doors down from the old Factory Records headquarters back in 2018. After a refurb and a grand opening late that year, Yes has become one of the city’s liveliest music venues, boasting a basement club, a beer hall, a rooftop bar, and a garish pink live room kitted with a NASA-approved soundsystem (the Danley Sound Labs PA speakers were designed by people that also pioneered technology for the US space programme). Throw in some amazing pizza and the atmosphere of a never-ending house party, and you’ve got a four-storey Manchester music mecca well worthy of the city’s illustrious cultural heritage.

Cited in texts by Charles Dickens and Geoffrey Chaucer when it was known as Halfway House, the rebuilt George Tavern – thought to be one of the oldest pubs in London – was purchased by artist Pauline Forster in 2002 after being left derelict for decades. It has since been championed by everyone from Kate Moss and Ian McKellen to the Rolling Stones. It’s a wonderfully loose joint – the sort of place where promoters and artists are given free rein to curate entire evenings, whether that be a late-night takeover of obscure electronic music or a cheesy covers night. Watching a show here – be it The Last Dinner Party or the latest new buzz band – feels a bit like you’ve snuck into someone’s living room.

Eddie Green, Shame: ‘We wouldn’t be true to ourselves if we didn’t give a mention to the legendary George Tavern, E1. A venue we’ve frequented far more often than we’ve played, we’ve never failed to have a great time. It’s a pretty blank canvas for people to do what they want until the small hours of the morning.’

Shoreditch is no longer the trendy indie musician’s sanctuary that it was 20 years ago, but this 150-year-old multi-storey pub – formerly owned by culture vultures Vice magazine – remains legendary for its long reign as a pinnacle of the capital’s live music scene. Everyone from Charli XCX to the Arctic Monkeys to Mercury Prize winners Wolf Alice cut their teeth inside these walls (while Kylie Minogue even played here in 2014). The Old Blue Last’s relentless triple-bill gig nights are still a fixture, though the famously loose atmosphere has since migrated elsewhere, leaving a canon of drunken myths in its wake.

Mark Bowen, IDLES (speaking to Time Out in 2024): ‘There's something about being cramped into that little box of a stage that fills you with energy and forces you to burst out into the audience. It was always rowdy, always crowded, always chaos.’

‘There was always some batshit night there’: An oral history of the Old Blue Last.

Wedged in backstreets between the Principality Stadium and Cardiff Castle, this famously tough-to-pronounce institution (the name translates to ‘Little Ivor’s Club’ in English) has been synonymous with the Welsh music scene for decades. Local icons from the Manic Street Preachers and Catatonia to the Super Furry Animals passed through here in the ‘90s and ‘00s. It’s still loyal to Welsh artistry, and it’s a proper community asset (having been a Registered Charity since 2019), while also acting as a magnet for global talent via events like the annual Sŵn Festival, which was founded by BBC radio DJ Huw Stephens in 2008.

Gwenno (speaking to Time Out in 2023): ‘I went to my first gig there when I was four or five: my mum was collecting funds for the Welsh Music Society, and I vividly remember being about waist-height to people, watching Mike Stevens on stage. It was the venue where I played my first gig, and I’d go to it throughout my late teens and early 20s. It’s just a really friendly vibe. I don’t know what Cardiff would do if it lost Clwb.’

Each of the steps up to the gig room at Glasgow’s King Tut’s offers a reminder of the rock royalty that has conquered its stage since the place opened in 1990. The venue’s most famous fortnight came in 1993, when The Verve, Radiohead and Oasis all played within a single two-week span on their way to explosive mega-stardom. The latter Mancunian band, so the legend goes, was discovered here on a night that directly led to their historic signing to Creation Records. King Tut’s endures as one of Scotland’s greatest career-makers: ask everyone from Calvin Harris to Lewis Capaldi.

Lauren Mayberry, CHVRCHES: ‘A Glasgow classic. It’s not as sticky-floored as it used to be, but it still has a certain special magic to it. As a teenager, the dream was to play here.’

Possibly the only venue on this list where you’re encouraged to have a sit-down meal while enjoying the music (the mezzanine restaurant offers steaks and tostadas on a balcony overlooking the stage), The Jazz Cafe is also the place to go in Camden for esoteric programming. It’s housed greats like Gil Scott-Heron and Pharoah Sanders in the past, but today it also welcomes ambient music, Italo disco, reggae and hip-hop. The wider neighbourhood may no longer be the bastion of breaking rock music that it once was, but The Jazz Cafe still explores all kinds of deep, cultured sounds on the fringes of the mainstream. That it’s also one of the most polished yet intimate-feeling live spaces of its (450-cap) size is merely a bonus.

Courtney Pine: “The venue reflects the vibrant and diverse area of Camden Town by catering for all kinds of musical tastes without prejudice.”

Venture out from London (a mere half-hour train ride), and you’ll find Guildford, which boasts very decent musical heritage. The Stranglers (once known as “The Guildford Stranglers”) formed here in 1974, while Ed Sheeran studied at the ACM Music College in the late ‘00s. Amidst all this, the Boilerroom is the town’s musical focal point – helping launch talent for over 20 years while also offering London commuters opportunities to catch their favourites in more intimate surroundings than they’d find in the capital.

Best known for its crockery and brutish football team, Stoke-on-Trent also boasts The Sugarmill – and you’ll be hard pressed to find a better place to see a band within a 40-mile radius. The academy-style gig room can fit 400 fans, and despite being located in a city more famous for pottery than pit-moshers, everyone from Muse and The Libertines to Daft Punk has turned off the M6 to grace its stage over the years. ‘Can they do it on a cold, rainy night in Stoke?’, goes the old football adage. But in gig-going terms, they often can – thanks to the Sugarmill.

There’s no missing this three-storey townhouse pub, which has stood opposite Brighton Station since 1848 and these days is half-covered by a mural that features everyone from Frank Zappa to 2Pac to The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan – a testament to icons of the music world no longer with us. The Prince Albert’s regular programming in the gig room upstairs ensures that it’s a mainstay for local music fans, but it really comes alive during the annual Great Escape music festival, when half the UK music industry can be found sinking pints at the bar between shows.

Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins/Bella Union Records): ‘This pub has been host to some of the best gigs I’ve seen since moving to Brighton 14 years ago. My favourite would be a toss-up between a double bill of Penelope Isles and Pom Poko, or another double header of Water From Your Eyes and Plantoid.’

At the height of its prominence in the ‘10s, The Lexington was reputed for having the best live sound in all of London. It is still one of the best places in the capital to catch an artist on the way up – and the fun rarely stops at the final chord. Open until 4am on the weekends, The Lexington also doubles up as the spot music fans migrate to when last orders have been called elsewhere, with DJs setting the mood in the pub while long-running indie disco White Heat sets the tempo upstairs. 

Lauren Mayberry, CHVRCHES: ‘A special place in CHVRCHES lore because we signed our first record deal in the bar here. Great variety of shows and club nights. My friend Charlotte and I once placed quite highly in the pub quiz.’

Beloved enough for BBC Radio6 DJ Steve Lamacq to once run a three-hour feature on the venue, Esquires has been Bedford’s bedrock for new music for nearly 40 years. Originally a 19th-century chapel (evidence of the original features can still be spotted around the main stage), it was christened by acts like Teenage Fanclub and Stereolab in the early ‘90s before becoming a catalyst for the Britpop revolution in the mid-decade. It’s faced closure in recent years, but thankfully prevailed thanks to support from the local community – who can often be spotted wearing the venue’s ‘Bedford Isn’t Shit’ t-shirts around town. 

Georgia Hardy, The Itch: ‘I’ve been going to this venue since I was about 14, especially once all the music venues in Luton shut down. My high school band got to support Wolf Alice and Drenge here on their first tours, which was such a major experience. Venues like Esquires are vital to young people living outside of major cities – they give people access to music they might not otherwise get the chance to see.’

In a town better known for its riotous hen dos, Pleasure Beach amusement park and past glory as the UK’s premier staycation spot, Bootleg Social is a bastion of alternative culture. Confined to a basement just a few doors down from Yorkshire Fisheries – Blackpool’s best fish and chips shop – it matters little that the dressing room is a cupboard at the side of the stage. The bands love it here for the room’s lively atmosphere and intimate layout. And the staff are just as passionate as the punters about the artists that come to play.

While it’s undeniably turned into a bit of a scene in the past 10 years, the ‘Shack’ – as it’s often referred – remains a catalyst for launching London’s new bands to success. It’s still an essential cornerstone of the capital’s gig map. Like all good grassroots venues, it’s hot, sweaty, and you’ll likely find as many band members behind the bar as you will upon the tiny stage. With so many of the Shack’s events offering free entry, you’ll have plenty of money left over to spend on pints as well, which means it’s good for a supremely messy night out.

Georgia Hardy, The Itch: ‘Stepping into The Shacklewell Arms for the first time at age 18 changed my life so irrevocably that it’s hard to sum up in just a couple of sentences. I’d found a place where I felt I belonged – for outsiders in love with music, counter culture, alternative worlds, and fun. I’ve worked the door, repped shows and DJ’d, watching countless promoters and bands cut their teeth as ideas blossomed and friendships were made – I can’t imagine what UK music would be without it.’

The Concert Hall inside this ornate, 200-year-old arts institution started life as a circular stable for the Prince Regent to park 44 of his horses and their groomsmen, but nowadays it’s one of the South Coast’s liveliest venues, with room for 1,700 people. The art deco backdrop made the Dome a great fit for the Eurovision song contest in 1974, when ABBA triumphed with ‘Waterloo’, but more recently, it’s served as the buzzy centrepoint for international new-bands mecca The Great Escape festival (which is also held in the aforementioned Concorde 2 and Prince Albert). 

Arlo Parks: ‘Roxy Music, Black Sabbath and Bowie all played there back in the day. It has a magical energy to it. I love the architecture, the sound and the history.’

Rescued from the jaws of death in 2023 by Tokyo Industries – the group behind Manchester venues like Deaf Institute and Gorilla – this iconic red-brick Seel Street institution is thriving once again today as a shining beacon of Liverpool’s cultural heritage. Formerly the Royal Institute of Arts & Science, the 98-year-old live space is now split into 550- and 350-cap spaces hosting rock, jazz and electronic music, each with its own characteristic decor. Part Victorian theatre, part Manhattan Loft Club, the venue is Liverpool through and through – which is scouse for ‘open ‘til 4am most nights’.

Championed by locals in King’s Heath for its community-building and risk-taking programming, the Hare & Hounds is, essentially, a banging south Birmingham pub with a historic music venue upstairs. A Grade II-listed building decorated with art nouveau fixtures, this cultural hub has stood in its present form since 1907 – but its legendary status among locals was confirmed in 1979 when it became the site of UB40’s first-ever live performance. Since then, it’s served indie bands, hip hop groups, drum and bass nights and, of course, plenty of red, red wine.

Austin Williams, Swim Deep: ‘Me and our bassist, Cavan, would go on heady nights out there, and then we did our first support show with Pond, a band we really loved, in 2012. I remember being too shy to introduce ourselves, but then Jay Watson (also of Tame Impala) came bursting into our dressing room playing a song he’d made called “The Bee Song”, and we were pals ever since. That show really felt like the start of Swim Deep. We’ve played here multiple times since.’

Housed in a former hairdresser’s and wig shop, this tiny multi-storey space – comprising music studio, rehearsal space, and 70-cap live venue – is the brainchild of a collective of inspired local musicians who set up here in 2015 after their previous space was served a demolition notice. Since then, Delicious Clam has been dubbed ‘the keystone of Sheffield’s DIY community’. Between the graffiti-strewn walls of former pawnbrokers and tobacconists, it continues to promise an electric and eclectic atmosphere – as well as the occasional special show by massive names like Self Esteem and Amyl & The Sniffers.

Once the site of a public address by Sir Winston Churchill, this ornate Grade II Wesleyan chapel was a nightclub between 1999 and 2011 (RIP Brannigans) before being renovated for concert use in 2014. Since then, it’s hosted everyone from Cymande and Cameron Winter to Grammy winners Tame Impala and Olivia Dean. The majestic interiors are a stand-out, with the former speaker’s platform reborn as a stage in a hall flanked with wood-furnished pews and stained glass windows.

Papillon is a relative newcomer to the live music circuit, having only opened as a gigging venue in autumn 2023. But the building itself is much older, a historic, renovated church which was built in 1845. Unsurprisingly, both the acoustics and the decor are superb – with a massive stage flanked by spiral staircases, wood-beamed ceilings, stained glass windows, a 360-degree balcony and, of course, a disco ball. With room for 450 people, it’s also a pleasantly unstuffy gig-going experience.

Its programming might be dominated by drag bingo, David Lynch cabaret and debauched karaoke nights, but Walthamstow Trades Hall seems destined to become one of London’s next great live music spaces – especially since being inducted as an official Independent Venue Week venue in 2025. It’s an unbelievably raucous spot: a 100-year-old social club that feels like a gym hall with a bar inside it, next to an abandoned petrol station on a high street at the end of the Victoria line. Remember Phoenix Nights? It’s like that, but better.

Broadcaster Melvyn Bragg described the locomotive works on Forth Banks as ‘the crucible of the Industrial Revolution’ – so when German industrial rock group Einstürzende Neubauten christened the building’s rebirth as a music venue in 2017, it couldn’t have been a more fitting match. Built in 1823 as part of the world’s first commercial train factory, Boiler Shop now stands as one of the most dramatic live music spaces in the country: a vast, 1,000-cap warehouse crowned with wood-and-steel beams and flooded with light from the floor-to-ceiling windows.

This picturesque spot is housed within a Grade I-listed flint building that dates all the way back to 1349 (!), and was formerly known as St. Swithins Church. The church was described as ‘doomed to ruin’ in 1905, but by 1980 it had been occupied by a group of local creatives bent on renewing the space to serve the arts. Since then, it’s served everyone from Nirvana and The Stone Roses to Kae Tempest – with today’s programming spanning jazz, rock, and even synthesizer festivals.

With a truly stunning pink-red interior featuring velvet chairs, garish wallpaper, and a curtained stage, it’s no surprise that Belfast’s Empire Music Hall is great craic. Formerly a Presbyterian church (est. 1874), the venue was overhauled in 1987 and quickly became a central hub for live music and entertainment, welcoming local talents like The Divine Comedy in the ‘90s alongside legends like John Martyn and the Undertones. Today’s clientele includes ‘lecture dodging students, old regulars, and passing tourists’ – a mix as eclectic as the decor.

Rick McMurray, Ash: ‘Growing up near Belfast in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, indie venues were a lifeline. And I'm glad to say some of those are still with us, as well as newer venues like the ‘Oh Yeah Music Centre’, which is named after one of our songs. But I’ve been going to The Empire for longer than I remember, and seeing Julian Cope there will always stay with me.’

This world-famous Soho basement club has hosted all kinds of jazz and rock royalty since it opened in 1959 – everyone from Jimi Hendrix and Charles Mingus to Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone has played there. Soho may have changed a fair bit since then (it’s cleaner, but a lot duller), but Ronnie Scott’s feels like it’s preserved in time – still bathed in red lights, with the walls adorned with photos of players from years past, and offering up-close seating for all kinds of mercurial jam sessions. It’s not the cheapest night out, but it’s a special experience.

Courtney Pine: ‘It’s an intimate venue that does its best to make not only Londoners feel comfortable, but also support local artists to be the best that they can be on stage.’

This charity-based arts centre raises over £1.5m a year to ensure that the people of Exeter and Devon have access to leading contemporary arts – and 27 years into its tenure, the Phoenix is doing a great job. The building itself was part of the university when it was built in 1909, and later became a military hospital, with some members of the public still convinced that it’s haunted. Those claims may or may not have been fuelled by the ‘101,433 not-for-profit pints’ poured in 2024. Either way, concerts from acts ranging from the Arctic Monkeys (in 2005) to Confidence Man and The Orb are usually the bigger talking points.

Rachel Goswell, Slowdive: ‘Having lived in the area for 14 years, I have been to the Centre on numerous occasions, and we finally did a show at the Phoenix as our Glastonbury warm-up in 2023. The venue is small enough for it to be an intimate show, and it is also an accessible venue for those with additional needs, which makes it a win-win in my book.’

Once a pub rock landmark that accommodated the likes of Ian Dury, Elvis Costello and Joe Strummer, The Ivy House escaped demolition and redevelopment in 2013 when the locals stepped in. Now, it’s London’s first community-owned pub. The unpretentious interior is delightfully rustic – think wooden bar stools, chalkboards, and a consistent beige-and-brown colour scheme throughout. The regular programming today, meanwhile, includes folk and alt-pop shows, Sunday jazz performances, and ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Book Club’ events.

Luis Felber (Attawalpa/Netflix’s Too Much): ‘I first ventured here for an open mic when I was 17, it’s [still] an important place to me spiritually and as an artist. As the first community-run pub in London, the Ivy House should be a default setting for how venues could run in this country. So much love and attention goes into it. It’s also got a very Lynchian performance space with heavy red curtains. I love this South London monument so much I featured it in Too Much, the Netflix show I co-created with my wife.’