Be Charlotte's Favourite Gig Venues
Be Charlotte picks out her favourite live music venues across Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh
Moving to a new city can be exciting for many reasons: new people to befriend, a different landscape to get lost in, fresh dancefloors to tear up. But perhaps above all else are the endless opportunites that you get from having a brand new music scene to dig right into. You've got a whole swathe of rising acts to discover and an entirely new set of places to try out.
That said, it can be a minefield out there knowing where's good to go, so we asked innovative young music maker, rapper, beatboxer and all-round badass Charlotte Brimner – aka Be Charlotte – about her favourite gig venues across the country, from intimate dive bars with great sound systems and well-loved, historic buildings right through to the regular haunts of her fellow musicians.
Gig venues in Dundee
Clarks
North Linsday St
"The best place to hear live music in Dundee is Clarks. It's run by Kit, who is a great musician himself, and it's where all the best songwriters hang out. I love the atmosphere there."
Reading Rooms
Blackscroft
"When touring acts come to Dundee this is usually where they play. I've seen some amazing shows in there over the years, and I'm really excited to do my first ever home town headline show there in October!"
Caird Hall
City Square
"This is a beautiful and historic venue. It's not used for contemporary music as much as it should be, but I do know that people are working really hard to make Dundee a vibrant music city once again and this venue will be key to it. I think the launch of Carnival 56 Festival and the V&A are going to put the city back on the musical map, and hopefully we will see more high profile gigs in this great venue."
Gig venues in Glasgow
The Art School
Scott St
"This is easily my favourite venue to watch live music! It's around 500 capacity and has a great sized stage and brilliant sound system. I had the pleasure of playing here at The Tenement Trail festival last year and it was the best!"
King Tut's Wah Wah Hut
St Vincent St
"You only need to look at the list of bands named in the steps to see how important this venue is. The staff are the friendliest you could ever meet, and I'm looking forward to playing my own show there in October. All my favourite artists started out with shows there. At the moment I'm loving Jake Isaac's album, and he plays Tut's soon, too!"
The Barrowlands
Gallowgate
"I had the pleasure of supporting Frightened Rabbit there! It is such an iconic venue and it's no wonder that bands from all over the world want to come and play in the East End of Glasgow. It's one of the best venues in the entire world."
Gig venues in Edinburgh
The Mash House
Hastie's Close, Guthrie St
"The Mash House is the best small venue. Similar to King Tuts, it's the go-to venue for all the cool up-and-coming touring acts."
Sneaky Pete's
Cowgate
"This is a tiny wee venue with big personality. It only holds less than 100 but is brilliant for seeing intimate shows. It has a great blend of live music events between 7-10pm, and then becomes a regular club venue between 11 and 3am. There are some amazing DJs and bands passing through on the way up!"
Three gigs to look out for...
Dead Pretties with Pink Kink + Lucia
Sun 1 Oct, 7pm, Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh
London's rising alt-punk trio are joined by Liverpool's formidable art-pop group Pink Kink and Glaswegian garage-pop artist Lucia at Sneaky's.
Hunter and the Bear
Thu 23 Nov, 7.30pm, Clarks, Dundee
Melody rock-driven four-piece who have supported various big names, most notably Eric Clapton on his 2014 UK arena tour.
Pumarosa
2 Dec, 8.30pm, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow
The mesmeric London five-piece hit up Glasgow following the release of debut album The Witch earlier this year.