Best and worst gig venues - then and now

Worst venue I went to recently was the Engine Rooms in Southampton, a hangar-like space utterly devoid of atmosphere

Thanks Stu. I only went once to a Manchester punk club back in the day and I can't remember if it was the Electric Circus or Rafters. The description and location of EC is now making me think it was the latter as that article doesn't ring any bells. What I do remember it was Buzzcocks with Steve Garvey replacing big Garth on bass.

Manchester venue Hendrix played revived.

www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/19/you-can-feel-history-return-new-century-hall-manchester

Yes, agree

I went a few times

I like the Brixton Academy and been there many times

These are scary scenes though....


Four people in critical condition after suspected crush at Asake gig in Brixton

Met police begin investigation after large crowd try to force entry into O2 Academy during performance


www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/16/four-people-in-critical-condition-after-crush-at-o2-academy-brixton

There's quite a lot missing from the news reports I've seen.

Initially the blame seems to be placed on ticketless fans trying to gain admission: and this may well be the case. But this was an excuse used by the authorities in terms of recent football disasters, the most recent being the European Cup Final in Paris with Liverpool involved, again.

So, how many people were in the venue at the time the crush took place? Could it be that those trying to gain entry had tickets and a crush was caused by those panicking at the speed of admissions?
This isn't to excuse what happened, but to point out that blaming ticketless fans ( a criminal element ) is very easy when other factors may be involved.

It's obviously tragic, and could impact on gig going in the future, but let's reserve judgement til we know the full facts.