The Knowhere Guide

Going Out in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire*

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire Clubs, Music Venues, Cinemas

Clubs (Dance Music) and Music Bars

• asda 24 hourse and has more food, alcohol and attractive women than any cambridge club
• portland arms
• Just to let you about this unique new club night for Cambridge which is already generating a lot of interest SALON ROUGE Saturday 29th October 8pm - Midnight, at NUSHA, Cambridge Leisure Park, Cambridge CB1 7DY (opposite The Junction) Saturday 29th October sees the opening of a unique new club night in Cambridge, when NUSHA will be transformed into the sensuous Salon Rouge. Taking its inspiration from the costumes of Moulin Rouge and the burgeoning burlesque scene, Salon Rouge will feature an eclectic mix of music rarely heard in traditional clubs, whilst high camp, masquerading characters mingle and cocktails are served. All are welcome, though invited to dress to a high standard of sartorial elegance to reflect their salubrious surroundings; can-can girls, ringmasters, saloon girls, suited and elegantly wasted gentlemen are all welcome! Tickets: £3 (including £3 discount off entry to Dot Cotton at The Junction the same night). Available from NUSHA (Tel 01223 247777). Tickets also available on door. www.salonrouge.org.uk email salonrouge@salonrouge.org.uk
• Soul Tree is a brand new live music venue, Nightclub and Soul Kitchen. Its an amazing 720 capacity venue with four floors including a dance floor, purpose built stage for live performances, balcony bar, penthouse and Soul Kitchen serving food until 2am. check out www.soultree.co.uk
• Boomslang - Once a month at The Junction is a fantastic new breaks night by Streetwise. Great crowd and atmosphere.
• Junction is refurbished, and is a wicked night out - the only place to go - shame the uni suns it!
• Alternation at Kambar
• cocos
• When we were at Uni is was always 5th Avenue, especially their Foam Parties and 60's/70's/80's Nights.
• COCOs
• Rawganics at the Junction for some Hip Hop. Good UK acts Monthly. Rest of Clubs are wack. Not much breakbeat, and Warning is full of twats. Devonshire has some cool nights off Mill road, good for reggea an all that ting.
• JUNCTION - Get mashed up to hardhouse at Whippy always a cracking night, get in fights down Warning listening to D&B with da wide boys another classic night, Boogie Wonderland on Fridays is full of students being cool but worth the occaisional trip, Good Times is another good mash-up with funky/progressive house etc. FIFTH - Would rather stay in and watch eurotrash. LIFE - Good mix of music attracts all ages, students, a few pikeys and occaisonally my mum. FEZ - Is OK but is often 1 in 1 out so you can find yourself queing for ages.
• Got to admit, I miss hustle on a monday night, havent been up there recently, but sure it aint as good as it used to be!!
• The cow, pretty cool place
• 5th Avenue - Big and Crap, Toxic - OK, man to woman ratio is not good if you're a bloke, Life and Sophbeck are probably the best of a bad bunch when it comes to clubs.
• Face it the nightlife in Cambridge renowed for being crap. The largest capacity being the Junction of around 1000 people suggests how small the venues are for starters. Fifth is crap fullstop. Expect to pay £3 for any drink even a bottle of water! The music is cheese, everynight...lets get ready to rumble on a friday night says it all to be honest. Who would have thought Ant and Dec lives on!! Not to mention that if you get in the wrong end of the bouncers they will throw you down the flight of brick steps. I knew of a person who broke both his legs and several ribs, so be careful! But there are plenty of slags....well cambridge is full of posh slags to be perefectly honest. For fights i would recommend the Junction, you can call it fightclub. Invested with drugs and bad attitude, problems always spill over into the car park where most things are 'settled'. However, the Junction does play different music, such as 'Warning' pure Drum and Bass. Rarely found anywhere else. Though its location leaves a lot to be desired, situated on Hills Road 35 minute walk away from the town centre.
• hustle at Filth on Monday night, absolute Dive.
• 'Trackside' the rap/b-boying night at Kambar is no longer running.
• One thing to say... "CLUELESS SYSTEM!!" It was so awesome. I was there at nearly all of them, they also did some amazing free parties by the river in the meadows, 12am -12pm usually. Crazy. Seeing the sun come up over the river with mist and swans lazing around while dancing to acid house was summat else. DEEP INSIDE YOUR BRAIIIIN!!! (Their MC was slightly tapped) I think other crews are still at it, so ask around.
• Why not golf clubs? ;) honestly though, the Q.
• Boogie is hilarious for a girly night out- not the ideal place to pull though. Warning at junction is high! and at the fez..andy c was there last week-its got to be good, especially when you are with charlie!
• footlights, suave and very cool.
• Q Club (Hills Road, Station Road corner) plays some good alternative music on Mondays (Panic, Wake Up Screaming) and on Tuuesdays alternately has Goth Night (The Calling) and Metal Night. These nights they do doubles and mixer for £2, but they can be very quiet some weeks. Alternation is on at the Cambar (near the market) usually every month on a Saturady night, very expensive drinks, I find out the dates by word-of-mouth, but maybe there is a more reliable way.
• Two new clubs have opened up in Cambridge. One is Toxic 8, small dance floors, and lots of very young Kevin and Perrys running around with Glow Sticks!!!. The other is definitely worth a visit, not technically new just a re-fit and a new name - LIFE, the old Chicagos. Slightly cheesy music, but a definitely over 18/21 crowd. Excellent for a girls night out on the town, blaring dance music, and popular chart boppers, reasonably priced drinks and a bit of a laugh!!!
• Mission - Best! - NEW!
• Kambar (used to be Route 66) is about two buildings on the right of the Corn Exchange, just next to some yellow telephone building. Once a month it does one of the best rap nights outside London. B-boyin', open-mic sessions, it's all done there. The night used to be called 'The Bridge', now it's called 'Trackside'.
• Fifth Avenue - Just don't bother Toxic8 - A four floor version of Fifth Avenue Fez - Good if you're up your own arse KamBar - Some nights can be good Q - Do not miss Mr. Whippy every month - best night in Cambridge for Nu NRG and Hard House Junction - Good Times, Mr Whippy (every Christmas), but why oh why is "Boogie Wonderland" on every friday? Man on the Moon - Check out the DNA night if you can CC's - Not very popular yet but they've got some wicked nights!
• Poo Na Na - great Salsa nights
• Q Club, Station Road - Good sound, nice and cosy. Mondays - Indie/Punk/Grunge/Pop etc... Tuesdays - alternates between Rock & Goth. Rest of the week is yer usual mixture of dance stuff.
• Fez Club is worth a visit, (but not on student night, the DJ is a tosser). Steer clear of 5th Avenue (known as Filth by us locals, for obvious reasons!)
• There's supposed to be a new, bigger one on 4 floors opening in May or June. It's about time there was some decent nightlife in this place
• We have a few, usually constantly changing. "Cindies" although it has been officially called 5th Avenue for several years now, is the biggest and most long standing, above the Lion Yard. Definitely a student club. The Fez Club and Po-Na-Na's are run by the same people. Po-na-na's in underneath 7A Jesus Lane, and kicks out at 12. The Fez Club is round where the arts cinema is, and currently the haagen dazs cafe, and is open later. The Junction, over near the railway station, has some club nights, but is mostly a concert venue.
• Club Fez is pretty cool for both its excellent location and pretty damn bizarre interior.
• Clueless at the Junction has finished. It was amazing, attracting clubbers from all over the place. But it had died a death. If anyone from the Junction is listening - why, why? bring back Clueless.
• The Junction in Clifton Road is the best place to hang out in Cambridge, it has some great clubs, (Supersonic, Clueless, and Good times being the best clubs).

Live Music Venues

• Junction (big venue, all sorts of music, check listings) Fez Club (cheesy rubbish, can sometimes be quite fun on a monday if your pissed) Bellares (cheesy rubbish) Life (chesy rubbish) Soul Tree (generally crap bt sometimes has good nights, look out for SMB nights which have good live hip hop, reggae, dub step, ragga jungle) Man on the Moon (Local bands, sometimes reggae/jungle, bit of everything) Portland arms(generally bands, sometimes some really good electronic stuff, venetian snares, bogdan raczynski etc.) Granchester Meadows (illegal raves a gwan in the summer months, Life 4 land, Deeper Understanding, some house crews. All night parties kicking off at about 2am on saturday nights every now and then)
• Portland Arms have regular live music, Soul Tree, The Junction,Cellar Bar8 & Corn Exchange of course. Red Pages are helpful to look up what bands playing where too.
• clowns acoustic night
• haymakers, portland arms, man on the moon
• Soul Tree has live bands upto 3 times a week, including Arctic Monkeys, Yeti,Metis, Quantic Soul orchestra, Fat freddys drop, Jocelyn Brown!! La Raza has Live music Mon-Wed Mondays The J.T. live Collective with vocals from Sara Mitra (Moody Nu-Jazz, Funk, R&B & Soul) Tuesdays Booga's Electric Sauce - Live Jaming Funk Wednesdays The Rhythmatisim Jam - Live Jazz,
• Wheatsheaf, Eaton Socon
• Junction
• Man on the Moon is worth visiting any time but especially when Dude on a Mission are playing. BTW, the answer to, 'Who do we love?' is 'Alex's dad!'
• Corn Exchange, Junction, Man on the Moon, Portland Arms, Boat Race used to.
• the boatrace has closed methinks
• 'The Junction' was great for live bands. Remember seeing Space just before they became famous with everyone going mad to 'Me and You Vs The World!!' Also the Cambridge Corn Exchange where some great bands played including Blur, The Levellers and The Pogues!
• BOAT RACE
• Life 4 Land All Night Raves
• Boat race has some good electronica now and again. Kid 606b played other night 24/6/03.
• Portland Arms is a good little venue, and you get some good up-and-coming bands at the boat race, and even rarely at the man on the moon
• the junction usaully captures the bands that are on their way to being famous-u can say u knew them B4 they were famous!has had the vines recently, the corn exchange theatre for the already famous-has featured craig david and atomic kitten-soon to feature Sophie ellis-bexter-woowoo!!!
• corn exchange, the junction
• Man on the moon pub - live bands, v.kool
• The Portland Arms has recently installed an awesome new soundsytem. Top place to see the best local bands, and a few national ones...
• Portland Arms (Mitcham's corner) and the Man on the Moon (Norfolk street) pubs both do some good local gigs, including Trip Hazard, The Positives, etc
• Man on Moon has good venue, tho security started being crappy. Portland usually full of boring old farts, but the occasional gig gets people moving - look out for the Positives and Fell Thru. Aparrently the boat race is good too.. Junctin is great but overpriced
• Junction if you're under 10 years old, otherwise there's Portland Arms, Corn Exchange, loads of pubs
• Portland Arms, Mitchams Corner - Tiny shoebox of a venue, but the only place even vaguely worth playing or going to see decent underground bands. Fresher & Firkin, Mitchams Corner - Started doing gigs again. Great sound, good room, indie/goth/punk DJs or bands every friday night.
• The Junction and The Corn Exchange occassionally have decent bands.
• The Junction (also a club) over near the railway station and Cambridge Corn Exchange (also a theatre) have the big name popular groups. The Boat Race has live music (and some to-be-famous groups) every night too.
• A few music venues, the top being The Corn Exchange. The Junction is okay, but really heaving. The Portland Arms hosts wacky little bands in the back room. The Fleur De Lys (sp?) has an Elvis impersonator regularly. BTW, if you like live rock music - you're bang out of luck in Cambridge.
• Boat Race, Burleigh Street
• The Boat Race is great. Its even free on Sunday afternoon, with free food and everything. And ANYONE can get up and play. TBR has even got it's own set of Sunday classics, like 'Walking the Dog'.
• The Arena Tavern showcases some pretty coll local bands, but other than that, not much else around.
• The Cambridge Folk Festival ( end of July, 3 days, ~45 quid ) and Strawberry Fair ( start of June, 1 day, free ) are both very good.
• The junction also hosts cambridge underground every 2 months or so as well for anybody who likes mellow USA type soul,and jazz funk. they have name dj's flown in from the states.nice!
• The Corn exchange is the only sizeable option, apart from the Junction. Faith No More, Pulp, PJ Harvey have I seen there, and very fine they were too.
• The Corn Exchange and The Junction may be on the national gig circuit, but so's the Boat Race: smaller scale but one of the best thigs to happen to the gig circuit in England over the last few years. Seven nights a week, really good sound, run as a co-operative, not 'arf bad, even if the people who run it take everything so seriously that they're all a bit sad, the end result is a good venue. The Junction has shit sound - really shit, even your tone deaf mates would notice, but for most gigs (not clubs) you can get in for a quid with a dole card if they've not sold out.
• The Corn Exchange and the Junction are both on National Circuits so you can get pretty good names up (PJ Harvey, Elastica etc recently) which isn't bad for a relatively small place.
• The Junction, Clifton Road. (01223 412600)

• Corn Exchange
• The Boatrace

Cinemas

• ARTS PICTURE HOUSE. End of story.
• Cineworld have fairly comfier seats than Vue. Arts Picturehouse is cool. Usual new films as well as documentaries, interesting indie films etc.
• Arts Picturehouse
• The only cinema within hiking distance is the arts picturehouse (it's almost five whole minutes away). The 'view' cinema is an absolute mish away. However, my home entertainment system in my study-bedrum offers me the full compliment of films without having to leave my precious college.
• Modern. Kile all of them
• Arts picturehouse is the best cinema in the country.
• Warner village, big dull multiplex with rip off food. It'll do. Regal -pub combined. New big multiplex being built Hills Road/Cherry Hinton Road
• If you go see a blockbuster movie at the grafton - now called Vue cinema - make sure its on screens 7 or 8 (they are the only 2 big ones and have great sound)
• Pretty good Cinema in The Grafton Centre
• WARNER BROS
• Warner Village - salright
• Warner Village, fairly big cinema type place with all the new films out, watch out for the moody bald man who sells tickets though. Also there is Lazer Quest near Argos on the Lion Yard side of Cambrige, not very big but still something cool to do when your bored
• The Picture house is cool, nice bar attached as well.
• Cineworld in Huntingdon is brilliant 'cause they show a huge range of movies1
• I remember the good old days when I was a sixth former and we would sometimes frequent laser quest. The place is a building of fun fun fun... the fact they always play the matrix album when inside the arena creates a surreal atmosphere as you attempt to destroy your opponents with demon red lasers. Trick, bring in a mobile and ring your mate when inside to locate the bugger! And do take note that it gets awfully sweaty so bare that in mind before you infiltrate back into the street smelling of crap.
• Warner Brothers in Grafton centre, absolute rip off. go to the Regal and reminice of times gone by sitting in the old MGM with your mates, pushing in the queue down in the alley way by the army clothes shop for Jurassic Park in 1993...etc
• warner bro's in the grafton centre...
• The Arts Picturehouse is fantastic, I would rather stick pins in my eye than go to the Warner Bros. in the oh so ugly Grafton centre..
• don't travel miles to come to the cinema... its well over priced... thank you warner brothers :-) Theres a cinema above the regal which shows more obscure random films ..
• definitely the posh but affordable Arts Picture House they have recent films as well as arty ones and it is alot cleaner and more respectable then the Warner cinema which all the kids go to.
• laser quest and warner bros.....and peterborough skatepark. bar hill skate park which is free.......free i tell u!!!!
• The Arts Cinema is brilliant, and has a great coffee shop.
• warner brothers in the grafton or the one above the regal down st andrews!
• Warners is very cold - pleaes turn down the air con. If you interested in seeing an old cinema go to teh bingo at the Central (Hobsons St behind Lloyds TSB in Sidney Street) on Saturdays and also the Regal - biggest Weatherspoons pub in UK
• To expensive
• Arts Picturehouse - Great place. Good bar that often has a beer for £1 a pint, fantastic sound in screens, gets some good old films (eg Marx Brothers)and new ones. Its above the Regal, but don't let that put you off. Comfy Sofas in the members bar, like being on Friends.
• The recent opening of the Picture House (above the Regal pub on Regent Street) will hopefully give the multiplex a run for its money, by showing more diverse films, with cheaper prices and nicer screens.
• The Arts Cinema has shut, but a new one has opened with the new Wetherspoons (The Regal), the biggest pub in the UK.
• WE have the big old 8-screen Warner Village in the Grafton Centre, which is pretty decent. For not-so mailine stuff there's Cambridge Arts Cinema, which shows so wacko stuff. In term-time a lot of colleges have student film societies, adn ex-students can usually still get in to those. The nearest bowling alley is Ely (which is a good but not big enough one) or Newmarket (6 lanes, old, but Cheap). We have a laserquest too, but it's not in very good nick, and has to be the worst kept one i've ever been to, sadly.
• The only mainstream cinema remaining in Cambridge is the Warner Brothers complex at the Grafton Centre. It's not very good; very expensive and only two of three of the eight (?) screens are half-decent. The Arts Cinema is often overlooked, but excellent. They show the smaller and foreign films that don't make it to the big cinemas.
• The Warner Brothers cinema is great - if you like to pay to queue to get a ticket, queue to get a coke, queue to see the film, queue to sit down and THEN queue to get out!!!!! The best cinema is the Arts...
• Big Warner Brothers cinema in the Grafton centre, probably the best cinema for miles around. I know someone who drives from Norfolk to use it.
• There is one cinema in the whole of fucking Cambridge, and its £5.20 if the film starts after 6pm!
• I love the Arts Cinema. Great programming, also cool special events - previews, directors speaker meetings etc. Chance to catch relatively new films after they've left the multiplexes. (and also before they get to the multiplexes) as well as wicked mix of arty stuff and mad foreign stuff. And it boasts Clowns 2, more of which below. ssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh. The ABC/MGM used to be the alternative, £2 for students, can't lose. but then they buillt the Warners.......... which is admittedly a great multiplex. comfy seats, yummy popcorn, big big big screens. but it caused the MGM to close which is a bad thing. college cinemas - don't know if you can get in if you aren't a student (worth a try, they probably don't check) but if you are, don't miss out. they're cheap they're cool and you can see pretty much anything that's been around in the last year or so as well as random selection of arty flicks if you keep your eyes open. look out for Peterhouse, Queens, Clare, Johns, Christs. (sorry if i've missed anyone....)

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Last updated: 2008-05-09