[shepards bush empire]

It's actually my favourite venue (out of the ones that sort of size anyway) in London.. Much nicer than the Astoria or the Forum, and there's usually a great atmosphere there as well. The security staff can be a bit annoying, but they're still not as bad as the ones at the Astoria.

[The Barfly]

150 sounds about right.. It's basically just the upstairs room of the pub, with a proper stage (and no tables or chairs)

[Earls Court]

Never been to Wembley Arena then, Tony? Shithole. Granted, Earls Court is too big for a decent atmosphere, but it has just a tiny bit more 'character' than Wembley. What a dump

←

and EC also has far, far, far better acoustics than Wembley Arena (you don't get that horrible constant echo for a start).

In all honesty, I'd say that EC does comapre fairly well to other venues of similar capacity. The problem is more that theres not too many bands who can carry a show in a large arena.

[London Arena]

It closed down in the middle of 2003.. The site was sold for housing, so there won't be any more concerts.

Anschutz (AEG - former owners of the arena) are planning to turn the dome into a 22,000 seat replacement arena for sports + music.

[Surrey]

The Civic Hall in Guildford has closed down. They're allegedly going to rebuild it, but I've no idea when. The Electric Theatre sometimes has concerts, but they're usually Jazz\Swing\Blues\Classical type things.

To the best of my knowledge, there's no major (say 500+) venues holding gigs left in surrey.. The best you'll find is various pubs that will let local bands play.. I always found it best to just go up to london..