The Knowhere Guide

The Local Music Scene in Basingstoke, Hampshire*

Basingstoke, Hampshire Record Shops and Venues

Record Shops

• hmv
• again i shop in london and brighton
• I went to jez fees record emporium and knocked 3 times and ask for jimi, he wasnt there but andy was,i think, was having a jodrel in the toilets.
• HMV, (the festival place, basingstoke) that has the most variety of music, dvds and videos. And u r more likely 2 find wot u want there rather than anywhere else.
• jeremy fees second hand record emporium, knock three times and ask for jimi
• Reading HMV. Very good selection, often stocks cd's that are hard to find in basingstoke. Excellent metal section.
• right the only decent record that b'stoke desperatly needed for the growing demand of djs has now sadly shut down. so if you dont have the internet then long trips to london are needed in order to get any decent vinyl
• The same behemoth chain stores that blight every modern mall, stuffed to the gunwhales with ignorant mouth breathing staff who know less about music then an 80's footballer
• the record shop at the top of the town near the post office seems to sell a wide range of music, and if you want cheap top 40 cd's ask around there's a bloke that sells them real cheap, a lot of people kmow him.
• HMV (oppersite WH Smiths in the old part of town near Woolies). if you's is clever, you can just rip off any security tags without damaging the CD within
• HMV!
• no proper music shops exist in boringstoke, there is the shop Area51 that sells second hand tapes/dvds/cd's/videos etc.
• For the truly unusual try the RSPCA charity shop in London Street. Eight year old chart compilations and old Cilla Black LPs - fantastic!
• HMV and Virgin
• Go to Reading
• Well, we could do with an independent record shop, you know something like Rough Trade or Andy's Records. Anyway, we have a Virgin and HMV.
• All stock a nice range of STEPS and if you're really lucky, maybe you will find a bit of SCOOCH tucked away behind some of the CD's.
• If you like Industrial, try the normal shops but look in the 'dance' section. Basingstoke shop people are trendies and put it in the wrong place.
• Squerials Nest
• There are a few good record shops, but they are mainly mainstream ones, such as Virgin and HMV.
• MVC is worth joining, the prices with the discount make it a really friendly shop.
• Worth checking them all out first to see who's the cheapest!
• W.E.M., Ourprice, etc
• HMV
• Squirrels second hand on Joyces Yard, good place to buy second hand vinyl as everything is on CD nowadays.

Clubs (Dance Music) and Music Bars

• There used to be Martines and Ziggys when i was 18, always a fight outside! Now there is only liquids - luckly i escaped the joke 6 years ago - and even though i have been to liquids only twice, it is rubbish and full of idiots. Everyone moans about the joke but no one ventures outside of it. There is a whole world out there.
• Silks up the top of town is a good place to go for their weekly rock nights. The bang bar although out of town is also a good place to go especially for Dr Fells! (goth night :P)
• Ok people giveliquid a lot of grief here it seems! but to be honest go out of basingstoke all clubs are rubbish if you always go to them! If you spend time out of time and go back to liquid its a good place to go and there are a number of attractive locals!
• the only 1 i know is liquids. Its located near the new bus station, under the multi-storey in town.It's an over 18's club, but has an under 18's night on a monday every month(tickets at the door cost £6), it play's hip-hop, garage, dance and r&b. Check it out, if u like that sort of thing.
• martines, tuesdays are drop acid and start a fight night
• NONE!! Liquid sucks but all the sad townies in Basingstoke that have never ventured any further think its great! GET A LIFE!!! Its crap!!!
• Lloyds bar in blazingsmoke?
• The only underground club in basingstoke is the bang bar, the rest of them are just to townie, i guess zero's has some good nights :) like on the 29th of novermber,
• b'stoke recently open what was said to be an amazing superclub. i beg to differ. the place is the other side of the town so after a few drinks at the top of town you feel well you know drunk. but the nights still young and you decide to go to liquids nightclub. this will take around 15 mins sober from the top of town to the bottom.drunk well counting for toilet stops and vomiting about 45 im gonna say. so anyway you make there on a cold saturday night and discover you now have to que for about another 45mins. finally get to the door pay your 7 pounds oh sorry if u have a coat around 10 pounds and enter into the amazing 70s cheese club great. i am going to say though on thursday night they let 18 year olds in the entry is 2 pounds and the music is far far better the place is packed unlike the saturday. ummm if you can handle the children go thursday and enjoy yourself otherwise dont bother.
• A new night club has opened near the bus station called Liquid. This is part of the town centre re-devolpment( Festival Place ).
• Zeros, as the name suggests. New - Liquid in Festival Place. same as all the others in Britain, but at least its a proper club.
• If you like Drum and Bass and hip hop you'll be lickey to find anywhere in town that you will like, but if you check out the function room above the white hart or Bang Bar on cirtain advertised nights i think you will be impressed, ive been to a couple of them and they are very good.
• No decent clubs (sadly Martines is shut!) but a new 2 million pound club is opening soon although sadly that will be ruined within 6 months by the sad scagheads who seem to ruin everything in this town.
• Zeros is a cool club, Thursdays is a great night, top new dj and only a pond per drink before 11pm. Cool!!!!!
• Don't make me laugh! Go to London instead.
• Magnums used to have an indie night called Shakermaker, unfortunately magnums resembles a corridor more than it does a club. No space to dnace then, more like a wine bar type thing.
• There aren't any good clubs. Bang Bar (formerly Magnums) has some good function nights uncluding Back to the future, Shakermaker and Dark Trix, as well as some good funk nights. The RhuBar is probably the best place in town with decent atmos and some good funk music. Yates has a fairly good atmos and music mix too, and booze is nicely priced. Martines has gone, thank God. Zeroes has arrived, oh dear. Chicagos will play anything from the 60's, 70's and 80's as long as it's Abba or Wham, and I'm afraid is nothing less than a cattle market. The Litten Tree has quite a good atmosphere sometimes, but if you're 20, you are too old! Drakes, well it has a cage! Erm, well that's it. So if you like rock, indie, alternative, reggae (basically anything that's not megapopular, charty or dancy) then you're stuffed.
• Martines closed a while ago and has been replaced by a new club Called Zeros. Zero's is beneath Chicago's and used to be the underneath Pool and video part of Chicago's. Zero's is a fairly relaxed club that plays the latest dance music. Highly recommended.
• Get real, this is Tadley we're talking about! There's a Mothers and Toddlers club at the Sally Army?
• Works formally known as Volts - New Management/ New Decor nice atmosphere - Ni-i-icce dancers!!! I don't know what it was like before but it looks like they've really made an effort this time - Lolly pops and perfume in the toilets!
• Depends on what level of rough or old bird/bloke you are looking for. If your after the more portly, middle aged spread variety, check out the Chicago Rock on any weeknight where there will be this level of women and men in abundance. If you're out on a real large one however why not check out "Voltage" in the Worting trading estate, SLAMMIN tunes and a really top night honest !!!!! Only to be attmepted by the very drunk or highly desperate. Level of talent for both sexes low indeed !
• Martines!!! A.K.A. Slarrers 'R' us - Shame the renovation of the bottom of the town couldn't have been moved a few more yards up and get rid of this place once and for all.
• Ziggys is a fine place for the youth of Basingstoke to pass quality time
• The Ice rink on 16th of April will be as good as any club , because the Djs are Class In A Glass Mate!
• None unless you are truely masochistic and want to inflict a 'Ritzy'-type evening of dire music on yourself
• Ha!!!..clubs schmubbs...Tini's And Ziggis..all good if ya fancy getting loaded and standing around outside for the accepted 45 mins-1 hour freezing ya l'il boobies off watching as drunken men puff out their chests in an effort to prove their manhood and drooling drunken birdz scream at pitches only slighlty lower than that exclusively heard by dogs tugging at complete strangers hair....Nice!!
• Bring back 'Novelty Island' at Ziggy's on Thursday nights. Don't inflict Choppin and his bloody Shakermaker on the next generation of QMC students.
• Martines. Ha ha. Built into the concrete foundations of the NCP carpark. How incredibly Basingstoke. Newcomers would think the entrance was a service access door to Basingstoke's sewer system.............they'd be right.
• Chicago Rock Cafe is a great place to visit. Its music policy is from 1956-1987. The food is well cooked and well priced and features a great bar. They call it EATertainment and thats what it is. It's a fun bar with a difference - it really is FUN! They also have a new area which is called DOWN AT THE ROCK which has pool tables - up-to-the-minute tunes and a sophisticated state of the art video replay system - great fun.
• None worth mentioning, so pubbing in town is the best option. Ziggys and Martines treat you like cattle, and you get the impression that the only reason that they are not going to throw you out is because they want you to buy more beer, (which is probably watered down anyway).
• Martines and Ziggys, but really not worth the mention. If you're into metal: Premiers, but it changed its name to Cozys, and it's shut down (11.95)

Live Music Venues

• Silks up the top of town sometimes have live bands playing
• Chicago rock cafe has closed its band night, no dj ither, the place is EMPTY all week, venue is ten years old now and is so run down, smelly and discusting, give it a total miss! The only thing worth going their for was the old weekend dj's who have long gone sadly (cant say I blame them)leaving the worst dj's ever who seem to change each week. Now have stopped going, it is now the worst venue in Hampshire. Someone please take their licence away so someone new can buy the place.
• Anvil is ok i suppose, nice coffee shop
• Winchester railway inn. Great underground scene.
• Qs pub/bar is a great place to watch good local bands. only thing is its not in the town so loses alot of customers. this sometimes is a good thing though gives you a chance to sit down in the tastefully decorated place have a pint and listen to a band without aload youngsters spilling beer over your only clean shirt.
• 'The Bounty' pub has an acoustic 'open-mike' session every other thurs. Good night! There's the Basingstoke Blues Club in the Moose Hall (opposite the Anvil) every 1st Sat of the month.
• none whatsoever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh yeah the anvil i spose ( if you like pj& duncan!!!)
• Chicago rock is ok on Wednesdays for mlive music, dj is cool too.
• These do not exist in basingstoke and never will do. Oh i'm sorry i almost for got the drunks who wander round basingstoke at round 3 in the moring, entertaining yet a little scary.
• Jazz in the Winten, covers in Chicagos and shite in the White Hart. Fresh faced crowd in the Navy club on Metaal night once a month.
• I write the 'in the scene' page in Basingstoke Observer covering live music in the area. Someone mentioned that Baz Gaz have dropped their live page. Let me tell you that the Buzz section in the back of Bas,Obs. is the 'in' place to be looking to see whats on in the town and surround at the moment. The New Inn and The Royal Oak have to be commended for continuing to support local un-signed bands. Bang Bar are starting to feature live music again and the Rhu Bar have live music on a Sunday evening. Drakes are also planning to feature live bands on a Sunday night so keep checking Bas.Obs to find out more. The band BASH you mention are no longer together and haven't been for two years or so. They have seperated into two bands called STUPID and PHUNK JUNKIE. Good local bands to look out for are KALIMOTO, FUNKY PIE, LUBE, MISSISSIPPI BULL FROGS, and DR BROWNLOVE. What was said abou the lack of venues for live bands is correct, there just aren't any good ones, it seems that bands struggle to fill Central Studios at QMC but the New Inn is packed nearly every Friday, whoever the band might be. Is marketing the answer? Or simply location? It's not lack of interest that's for sure. Maybe the Central Studio isn't as central as people would like. Viceversa are a good bunch to look out for if you like UK Garage, funky break beats, drum and bass. These two DJs market themselves very well so you are more than likely to spot their posters around the town just before they next put on a do. Alternatively look at BUZZ in BASINGSTOKE OBSERVER!!!!!
• Don't make me laugh! Go to London instead.
• Check the Gazette - There are always gigs around
• QMC (Queen Marys College) regularly holds Band nights were all sorts can be heard, generally good quality music. Heard a band called M.O.N.K there and they were pretty rad.
• For live bands, well not much really. Gone are the days when you could gig at Blades, Bodias, Magnums etc. Live music doesn't seem to be too popular in Basingstoke, but maybe that's because it's not a student/University town. Most towngoers seem to be into dance or bubblegum pop.
• If you listen to Kestrel on Saturday with Christos and Stel then you will of heard of the multi - talented Jnr Rossi who does the " in the mix " section. If you want to check out the guy in the flesh then come down to the ice rink on Friday and Saturday night skates. And also new to the Rink is the specially organised under 18s night which includes some of the top DJs in the area (including Mr Rossi!)for info on them contact the rink on 01256 355266 The next one is Friday the 16th April. Be there!
• Rivermead in Reading, is the closest music venue to Basingstoke.
• Why does Tim, Landlord of the New Inn constantly make bands turn down when they are playing virtually accoustically anyway, sad sad bloke or what?! Why have the Gazette (Local Newspaper) dropped the Live PaGE ON Mondays for a load of crap called THH aimed at children who cannot afford out of their pocket money to buy the Monday edition. Basingstoke has so much to offer musically, yet is ignored by the local paper the wealth of talent including the likes of TINETA TIKARAM (ho ho) but really check out BASH and CHARLIES MUSHROOMS. Basingstoke rock n roll centre of the UNIVERSE!!! Yo
• Anvil (occasionally) also Haymarket Theatre has started to put some music stuff on.

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Last updated: 2007-06-14