The Garage

Two weeks ago I went to a concert at The Garage. Apart from being slightly put off by only getting 'online tickets' from HMV (is that normal these days?) and paying quite high booking and delivery fees (for online delivery - yeah right!) I was really looking forward to this.
 
The Garage is located right opposite Highbury & Islington tube station. You can get the Victoria line and the Overground from here. The ticket said 6pm which confused me but hey, they would start early I assumed. Guess what, the doors opened at 6pm with already about 300 people waiting outside to get in. Security staff was not prepared for this.
 
After about 30 minutes, the security staff managed to start entry and everyone was searched after the tickets had been scanned.
 
Inside the venue is smaller than expected. It holds maybe 500 people in total. In the back you can find a bar. The venue also holds several club nights - I have to admit I am quite intrigued by the 90s party that seems to happen every month. One unexpectedly positive part were the toilets. Something I would not have necessarily expected from the rest of the venue. Overall a good, yet small concert venue.

The garage in islington, situated at the bottom of the Holloway road is in a great location for a north London night out. The drinks are reasonably priced and come with great service. The last time I went there it was the launch party for ENK on a friday night. The music was fantastic and i would recommend attending the next night.!!!

AVOID, AVOID, AVOID!!! This is the worst club I have ever been to. The venue looks like a town hall, the music is bad and the people are chavy and nasty. No one there is older than about 18. There is a queue for the smoking area (!) and you are not allowed outside unless you are smoking (no going outside to cool down or get fresh air)…and when you can go outside there is 5 minute rule and you can only whisper. The bouncers are the most unpleasant I have ever come across and are totally unnecessarily aggressive – I even saw one particularly awful female bouncer forcefully eject one girl from the club because she had had too much to drink and push her to the where she fell and hurt her leg. A promotor we spoke to beforehand said that he would rate it 6.5 out of ten…and he is paid to say good things about it. The other promotor we asked refused to tell us his rating but said that he would never volunterily go there. It is a -6.5 out of ten. Do not waste your time.

Lovely venue!

I went to see the World Burlesque Games 2012 Fundraiser here and although we had standing rather than seated tickets (as these had sold out) we could see across the venue to the stage very easily.

The main room is lovely with an arched roof that make it’s feel homely and warm. It was clean and also seemed like a well maintained venue.

The bar is well stocked and not unreasonably priced and the staff seem to know their stuff.

We also went into the smaller front bar, which we found to be cosy and well laid out with lots of seating.

The sound quality in both rooms was of a good quality and because of this and the event itself we had an unforgettably good experience here.

Recently renovated this venue is well situated near highbury tube station. A pretty cool venue-great sound and clean loos! Downside is the bar is invariably understaffed and a nightmare to get a drink.

Highly disappointing.
Saw two electronica bands here - both had quite heavy bass. This made a bar strung across the roof holding up some sort of room divider vibrate like crazy. Sound engineers seemed unable to stop it happening, so sound was absolutely dreadful for both bands.
The main hall and bar were reasonably well filled, but it was not packed. Yet the whole place stank, as did the toilets.
My first time here, I frequent venues in Camden and hoxton/shoreditch and have not yet found one I would refuse to return to - this place is a no-no for me from now on.
Bar staff were fine, service reasonably quick. Door and cloakroom staff were all perfectly nice too.
Here's looking forward to the next refurbishment!

This place has always been a little overpriced in my opinion and its absolutely over run with people dealing narcotics BUT when you take that aside its a wicked club with a wicked party atmosphere

I would definitely recommend!

This is a pretty good night out if you like live music. Drinks are average but be warned, get there early as it can get very packed if theres a good band on.

The Garage, now called the Relentless Garage, is a great little venue with a line-up of up-and-coming and fairly big name bands, or so it would seem for 2010 so far! It's part of the MAMA group of venues which includes The Borderline, HMV Hammersmith Apollo and Barfly in Camden. It's got a great location as well, practically opposite Highbury & Islington tube.

The venue seems to be just about the right size and is nicely arranged with the bar and seating area at the back of the main hall being at a raised level, enabling short people like myself to stand there and still see the band.

Maybe it was because of how tired I was that night, but I felt other venues, such as the Scala and Barfly, felt more intimate when I went to those. And just so you know how tired I was, I drifted off to sleep a couple of times while waiting for the main act to come on. Standing up! Ah, the perils of going to concerts on my own.

Outside of concerts, The Relentless Garage also has club nights, with a particularly intriguing one called Punk Rock Karaoke on March 6th!

The Garage is an amazing venue to see up and coming musical acts.

I’ve a fondness for the Garage since it was one of the first venues I frequented in London when i was a mere teen. The venue is just big enough to get a good crowd in, but not so much that you’re distanced from the band as in bigger venues in town.

Many acts both local and international have played at The Garage and hopefully it will continue to supply a high calibre of music to the masses for years to come.

There’s also a smaller venue upstairs via a different entrance, but the real action is in the main downstairs stage. A great all rounder with easy access from Highbury tube just over the road.

Although it is currently closed for refurbishment, The Garage is one of the smallest venues with the abilities to attract the biggest names. The size increases the intimacy of the audience and the band playing on the tiny stage. The only problem is as it is a small venue it has difficulty supporting the demands of bigger bands. When I saw Therion play there the power cut due to the multitude of instruments on stage. Hopefully once refurbishment is finished it will handle the demands on bigger bands while keeping its intimate atmosphere.