The Knowhere Guide

The Local Music Scene in Canterbury, Kent*

Canterbury, Kent Record Shops and Venues

Record Shops

• New Record shop in Canterbury! I discovered Stacks Of Wax on Dover Street (behind the cinema), they sell Hip Hop and Dance music vinyl on the internet (www.stacksofwax.co.uk) but do really good deals for Canterbury folk coz they're local.
• Richards records down the high street. Its practicaly criminal its closing
• Richard's records and canterbury rock are awsome i get most of my stuff from ricjards records
• Richard Records will always find you your record, whereas Canterbury Rock won't
• Richard's Records is cool, loads of different types of music
• local heroes
• Richards Records. Sometimes overpriced, but where else are you gonna find those early Dischord records?
• richards records sells decent music but is miserably small and the staff smell and are more arrogant than most.
• hmv has to be the best its royal and has everything.
• Richards records at the westgate end of town
• Richards Records near Subway resteraunt, HMV, Virgin.
• HMV is the best place to get any type of music, its opposite the citys fish and chip shop.
• Richard records is nice and independent
• there all crap! i'll stick with woolies and hmv if that ok with you
• HMV in Canterbury is well-stocked with the most popular stuff in every genre: pop through to classical.
• Richard's Records or HMV
• Indoor market is the place for cheap vinyls. Dave is a great guy. There is a number of 7", 12", CD's and picture discs available here.
• By far the best place for records is Dave in the indoor market, near the westgate towers end of the high street.
• Richards Records is very good down the bottom of the high street. So is DecaDance on the back streets. Plus there is a resonable CD fair one or twice a month.
• HMV is overpriced- £18.99 for chicken run on video for fuck sake! I advise that if its in WH Smiths, get it.
• RICHARD'S RECORDS in the High St. Go there and support them against HMV and Our Price.
• Gatefield Sounds, well established record shop.
• richard's records because Chris from DeadLifePortrait works there
• Kerry in richards records excellent chap very knowledgeable on dance music. the biggest calves youve ever seen! sad farewell to parrot records. lots of complaints about the owner but he was a nice old boy that was very misunderstood. if anyone knows who it was who gave him a kicking then you should return the favour!
• If you cant get one of our local singing groups [The Grants] records in a Canterbury shop click on www.grant-and-forsyth.com
• There used to be a pretty good record store near Westgate (opposite The Three Cs pub)- don't know if it is still there, but apart from that it's Our Price or nothing!
• The Indoor market sells really good, cheap records and if you tell the owner, Dave that you helped look for his lost cat (its now been found), he may give you a discount.
• Richards rechords is the place for alternative punk and metal although it can be a little overpriced
• At the top of town there's Parrot Records, which is pretty big (far bigger than the one in Cambridge), and the worlds grumpiest manager - never ask him anything - you're sure to get a rude reply
• pirate records near the bus station has some bargains. The long player opposite (ish) richards records has loads of second hand stuff and the bloke knowsw his stock. it's an indoor market type place.
• Third Eye at bottom of Canterbury High Street if you want rave or fliers. Richard Records about ten doors away, good for white labels, but not always. Take a chance.

Clubs (Dance Music) and Music Bars

• Canterbury has no real dance clubs. We should revolt against the overtly right wing council. Who's with me? KIAD (UCCA) student bar is good on weekends (check Waysafe) also Tonic Bar is getting better by the week. May be a real venue before long? Avoid Chicargo #ock, Bizz etc, HaaHaa(ha?) and that posh place opposite Alberry's (unless your 18ish - 19 years old and have rich parents).
• The beercart does a good rock night, and studio 41 or chicagos periodicly host rocket science, a rock/indie/punk night (not much indie or punk though, mostly metal)
• Can anyone give me a review of the "new" Bridge Country Club restaurant?. Is the classic nightspot really gone?.
• Simple Simons have a lot of live music on... very good jazzbands on a Friday night
• churchills is shit, baa bars generally has a more pleasant atmosphere...
• Alberrys - claustrophobic and unfriendly, Chicago Rock - only bearable on Karaoke night (if you like that sort of thing), Baa Baas - best of a bad bunch
• GAY Studio 41 opposite safeways in new dover road has monthly gay nights that are mixed and freindly (lots of str8 guys and girls and students to water down the locals). they do bus in a few homos from surrounding towns, a good chance to observe your favorite little britain characters for real. competent Djs play dance music.
• bar baas. get groped by millions thats my idea of fun. i think ot wankers.
• the biz/the works/ha-ha's... no matter how many names you give it or how many sections you create with partitions, its still a shit club with shit people (40 year old violent drunks and 'REMARKABLY young looking' girls). there was a half decent club inside the planet lazer (seriously) but it hink thats owned by the same people who own the works now. apparently the clubs are owned by this guy whose mum is on the city council. funny how licences are never given to potential clubs in canterbury. theres a students only club called the venue. its quite good, but they wont let anyone in without an nus card. bastards.
• best places for clubbing in cant have to be bars bars and churchills. if your out at night watch out for pikeys.
• The bizz is crap if your sobre but can be quite funny if wasted. For all other times go to Alberrys.
• No gay clubs unfortunately. Only one gay bar (WestBar on St. Peter's Street), and one gay-friendly bar (Bar11 on Burgate)- which generally is full but usually with good-looking liberal broadminded straight guys and gals rather than gay guys and gay gals!) If you want a thrill hang around outside Bar11 and listen to some of the brainless meathead straight guys heading past for Wetherspoons on a Friday or Saturday night: they really get off on telling each other that Bar11 "is a GAY bar! FULL of gays!" Then you hear their girlfriends saying, "Are you sure. I can see women in there, with guys!" "Nah, it's a GAY bar, I tell ya, it's a GAY bar!" It obviously gives them a real thrill!
• West Bar! Friendly atmosphere, friendly staff, I dont recommend irritating the bar maid though!
• There are only 4 places in Canterbury to extend your drinking into the early hours of the morning. Chicago Rock Cafe which is generally like every other chicago rock in the country, Alberries which holds about 100 people on a good night and if you're claustrophobis DEFINATELY don't go there, Studio 41 (formally known as Airlock) is a good laugh on a sat nite with a cool nite called the Lounge and finally the Biz (also known as The club, The scrub and The rub a dub dub) which is full of townies and arrogant door men
• they are sooooooo shite!!! do not visit canterbury and if u are already here (u poor souls) escape as fast as u can or u will die from boredommmmmmmmmmmm and resort to writing comments on the net because you have nothing better to do.
• Only the bizz.But it's shit.I mean REALLY shit.Take my word for it.Don't try and go there.
• the venue is great (ha) if you like cheese pretty much every single night!! noooo...
• There is Baa Baars which has 3 floors of music. seeminlgy pop on ground floor, r'n'b & garage on second and house and trance on third. it has got better but still ain't exactly a place i would recommend. Chicago Rock (churchills) ain't changed in years. was ok on thursdays. ain't been for a while. There is also Studio 41 next door which aint bad. Bit of a dive though. Plus The Venue up at UKC (must be a uni student though to go). Thats the best place. Thats sadly it. Wish the rather pathetic council would let more clubs to be built!
• Baabars dominates Canterbury and has ways of making sure nobody else can even dream of opening up another club within a 5 mile radius. The people are rude and so are the door men. They remind me of watching the monkeys at Howlettes zoo. A bunch of over weight balding middle age men who think that they are gods gift. Oh, girls don't get into any trouble there because there are no female bouncers.
• I was in the famous Bizz also none by the locals as the rub or scrub when a rather nice young fitten came up to me and offered to buy me a drink. As i was on the rebound from brakin up from my boyfriend of 2 years ( nice one Roy) I accepted. Luckley I didn't go any further as the next day when I was on the way to work on the bus I saw him standing at the bus stop in his Langton boys uniform! Outraged I was to find a boy of 13 had been let into the club which could have got me in a noncing position!
• Planets, the only "club" that Canterbury City Council allow Herne Bay, watch out for the married women in their 30's looking to add spice in their sad lives, chart music "mixed" by unknown DJ, friendly doorstaff. Good for a late drink and a giggle if nothing else.
• The Venue at UKC and Airlock are worth checking out. The Biz/The Works are hell on earth.
• The Bizz is the biggest pile of sh*t I've ever seen, its full of puffer jackets and gold earings.
• Nestling in the countryside some 5 miles down the A2 from Canterbury lies(no pun) the wonderfully depraved Bridge Country Club, Bridge,Kent. Marvel at the best freak show on earth, as a heady mixture of menopasual women in mini skirts and old school psychos jostle for promenence at the sixties style bar and dance floor. This is a crazy, surreal place and well worth a visit if only to escape the cacophony of the Canterbury "club" scene. Its billed as a 30+ experience, but the staff seem desperate for young blood so entry shouldn't be a problem. If your lucky, C or D might make an appearance. These two fifty something ladies are the club mascots and follow the Marianne Faithfull school of permissiveness. Avoid at all costs!.
• The Venue - UKC`s superb 1000 capacity niteclub open every night, superb talent and famous names
• You're having a laugh aren't you? Plans were there in 97 to convert a huge building opposite the "other" station (Canterbury West)into a brand spanking new nightclub.... as far as I know it still hasn't materialised!
• The best Club opened October 98 and is located on the university campus. You need student ID or a stundent to sign in though as drinks are CHEAP.
• Churchills located next to the cinema is a brilliant venue. With comedy nights on Wednesday and a late license for Thursday, Friday and Saturday going on until 2 in the morning.
• The Works / Bizz - worth while for a bop on Monday night student nights & Phil, Jules, & Paul spin commercial dance... same music on a Thursday, the townie night. Avoid on Fridays and Saturdays - rough isn't the word!

Live Music Venues

• Beercart (HipHop thursdays are good) Tonic (All sorts of crazy dance music, and Mums Old Vinyl is quality)) Roundhouse (Ancing and Rugs) Penny Theatre(sorry 'Scream') whywhywhy!!?? such a good music venue turned into trashy student hell hole ..sob
• Forget about the Beer Cart Arms - appear to have 'lost' their music license....
• Beercart had the duke spirit pretty recently and a few months ago KIAD bar had the paddingtons
• Beer Cart Arms.
• local hero records all the way. absolutly, no doubt about it. they hold events on thurs, fridays and sat, HOWEVER, you do have to be a member to go, only costs £4 but you do have to be 18. saying that, they do have free events the first sunday of every month, if my memory serves me correctly. check out www.localherorecords.co.uk for info. the students union has a lot of really good bands, as do some pubs (seven stars have student nights on thurs and tues). for other useful info, go to http://www.kentgigs.com/ we do really need some more live venues though, canterbury's depressingly short.
• Rutherford College Bar, K-bar- on UKC campus
• When the Penny Theatre became a Scream pub a few years ago there went the best live music. However, the Millers has good jazz once a month
• Studio 41 is the biggest dive ever. Now Girls and boys ever other saturday is a gay night. Amusement arcade turn nightclub. need i say more.
• Local Heroes in orange street, any local band can play there and they sell local bands' merchandise as well!
• thank u simple simons
• The Beercart Arms has some good rock/metal type stuff, but it's pretty hard to get in if you're under 18.
• some pubs have duos performing. but not regularly enough to warrant mentioning.
• Head down to the beer cart arms on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for live punk tues and metal wednesdays. One of the few places actually supporting live music locally (especially since the Cap got turned into a rather spinky posh bar, and the Penny sold its soul).
• Should be under what's on, but the annual Canterbury Fayre is a good contender for August bank holiday. 2003 pulled in 10000 people, plus the likes of the Buzzcocks, Dreadzone, Robert Plant, Authur Lee, and a load of up and coming bands. Not a policeman in sight all weekend. Peace and love.
• a good place to go in cant for live bands is the beer cart its a bar/grunge pub just off on of castle streets side streets
• The Dane John sometimes has a trumpet band playing, is you interested in that music. Oh yer, sometimes if you are lucky, if you are walking through the high street, their is this old man with a funny hat on sitting down on his chair, whacking his piano away on his lap. He is got to be the coolest guy i ever known.
• A lot of big bands play at the Uni, but The Beer Cart Arms is the best local venue.
• Can you believe Reef used to play at the Penny Theatre but they had tpo close it down and reopen it to cater for more townies under the name It's a Scream!!!!
• Very few.Allberry's has a rock and punk night from 9.30 till 2 every other tuesday now.
• Roundhouse is supposed to be the next venue after the demise of Cardinals Cap and Penny Theatre. Caseys has some music on sometime.
• Best place for live bands used to be the Dolphin Hotel, sadly closed now. The Cue Club for live bands and DJs, beware of a few wallet/purse thieving birds that were thankfully banned from Planets. Queen Vic is lively pub with a late licence and weekend chart music DJ's.
• airlock, nice.
• Try the Marlow some good venues on there..
• the Cardinal's Cap is a skater/goth type pub and they have bands every friday/saturday (king prawn, monkey boy etc). bluddy hard to get served there tho...
• The Cardinals Cap offers live music with some balls. Small space, normally packed on a band night. Invariably too loud, and the legend is true, the walls do sweat! A place for all those who would rather be castrared than visit the Bizz, and a catalogue of stupid hairstyles. PS. Wear your trousers really low!
• The Penny Theatre has now changed hands and is now a pub (one of the It's a scream! ones) Been done up quite nicely too.
• I just wanted to say that the Penny Theatre is (very sadly) no longer a music venue, but an abysmal "student" pub. Don't go there. Also (contrary to what someone seemed to be saying) the Venue on campus is a nightclub, and definitely NOT a live music venue. For live music in Canterbury, we're now limited to Simple Simon's - possibly the best pub in the world!
• look around the pubs in town... normally the Irish pubs have good bands on, otherwise it's the "lovely" Marlowe theatre, or the Uni.
• The penny is great and the student's union will have its own venue for a 1000 soon.
• Penny Theatre

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Last updated: 2007-08-14