The Telewest Arena? The Metro Arena? The Arena.
I went to the arena when it first opened to see Pulp (yup, that long ago) and it was so bad I walked out half way through their show only to find that the sound comming through the speakers in the foyer was perfect in every way. Needless to say this pissed me off a bit and I never went back.

Over the years I have heard conflicting reports, some say the sound is sorted now and others say that like my experience, depending on where you are sitting (sitting!) depends on the sound quality.

Personally I kinda resent the arena, it is big & its shiney yes, it is also empty and hollow. It is too big, or too small, depending on your point of view, it has seats, guarenteed to keep the atmosphere down in my experience and it sitsd there lookking smug or perhaps brooding every time you go past it.

The Damned are playing in The Foyer of the venue next month. The expected ticket price has gone from £10-00 for a usual Damned gig to £17-50, well it is the arena?! and so I am drawn back.

Will my experience be improved upon? I hope so. I hope to come back in here and tell how good a venue The Arena is now, how they have improved , how they have solved all their lil problems and how welcoming it is and how luck we are to have it over and above all the ones we used to have. Or at least some of the above.

What are your experiences of The Arena?

I went to see the Foo Fighters there in November 2002. I've been to a few more as well a good few years before that, Oasis,James and Ocean Colour Scene to name a couple,but I can't really remember the details of those!
Everything was great to be honest, it was a full house, great atmosphere and above all the sound was as good as could be expected.
So no complaints!

Nice one...I can look forward to going without so much trepidation now *grins*

Well I went and it works, the foyer is partially blacked out and a couple of lead up walls painted black and so a nice little rock venue is made within the main building, which no longer broods and isnt quite as shiney as it once was, infact it looked positively tired.

Perhaps being opposite the newly built slug (the sage) is taking its toll.

i was at the arena on feb 8th to see greenday....i can't say the sound was bad at all...amazing in fact but then again i was at the front...i thought it was a brilliant place considering i was a virgin visitor. a* in my view.

yeah green-day were amazing at the arena, i wasnt a virgin meself saw sclub7 in my pop days lol hehe